The Plumbline

16  Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results.  19  Dear brothers, if anyone has slipped away from God and no longer trusts the Lord and someone helps him understand the Truth again,  20  that person who brings him back to God will have saved a wandering soul from death, bringing about the forgiveness of his many sins. (James 5:16, 19-20 TLB) Our pastor spoke about authenticity recently, another in his series about being established in our walk with God. As he said many times in the sermon, we finally come to the place of experiencing God's tremendous love for us once we are courageous enough to be the 'real deal' with God and others. There was a point in the sermon where he told us how hard it was for him to develop this authenticity in his own life. Now, you might think it wouldn't be a struggle for a pastor to be 'real', but the truth of the...

  14 But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: "If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you're not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?" (Galations 2:14 The Message) Paul has spent a significant amount of time giving the run-down of his credentials for preaching the Word of God, his calling being direct and affirmed by those who had walked with Christ during his earthly ministry.  He had submitted to the leadership of the New Testament church in order to have his teachings "validated" or "affirmed".  This was not so much because of any "need" to get his ministry "blessed" by the other leaders, but because he wanted to be sure he was aligned in his teaching - accountable and committ...

19  Take your stand with God's loyal community and live,     or chase after phantoms of evil and die.  (Proverbs 11:19 The Message) This past week our Pastor presented three key components of a life that is "growing" - learning from our Life Experiences , Applying God's Word into our lives, and being involved in Authentic Community .  Today, I'd like to build upon the idea of Authentic Community.  As we think about those that we "stand" with on a daily basis, we have to examine the "value" of those relationships in comparison to the other two key components.  In other words, I think that when our associations are regularly into the Word of God and involved in applying that direction to their life experiences, they are a pretty solid group to "stand" with!  When this is not the priority, it may be like we are chasing after phantoms of evil that will result in life experiences we'd rather avoid and no real authenticity because we...

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,    before you were born I set you apart... (Jeremiah 1:5) God wants us to be authentic.  There is nothing more disappointing than to see someone trying to be something they are not.  Try as they might, when what they are trying to be is not authentic, it just is not convincing.  We are uniquely made - fashioned for a specific purpose.  We have unique talents - mine do not match yours and vice versa.  Even identical twins have a unique make-up of personality, temperament, and talents.  So, why is it that we are often struggling to be something that we are not?  It is really quite simple - we have never accepted our unique make-up! In my youth, I had the opportunity to attend a week-long seminar on learning what God intended in our creation.  One of the most important things that I grasped from all that was taught that week is the uniqueness of each human.  Not accepting that un...