Ironworks Pike Community Church - Pastor's Blog

As We Approach Election Day, Remember:

10/6/2020

First: God is in charge of elections. God raises some people up, and takes other people down (Psalm 75:7). The American voter is not sovereign. God made Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon the emperor, then God drove him into the wilderness, then God brought him back again. "Our God is in heaven, He does whatever He likes" (Psalm 115:3).

Second: God hears the prayers of His people. No matter who wins, Christians can still affect the course of history by praying. Elijah by praying was able to stop the rain (James 5). We are never powerless. Christians might lament an election, but we should never howl in despair because someone was elected. Christ promised that the Lord will respond quickly to the prayers of His elect, who cry out to Him day and night (Luke 18:7). We have access to a Power that dwarfs any government.

Third: There is always hope in God. Who would have thought that pagan king Nebuchadnezzar would contribute a faith-testimony to the the Bible? (Daniel 4). Who would have thought Saul could be converted? (Acts 9). Who would have thought the armies of Assyria could be turned back? (2 Kings 19). God's arm is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is His ear deafened that He cannot hear. We should trust not in princes (Psalm 146:3), but in our God.

Perfectionism -- What A Curse!

9/29/2020

Perfection doctrine is of the devil! I really believe that.

I hate sinless-perfection doctrine. It turns a Christian psychologically weird, oppressive, and deceived. It makes us judgmental towards others (because they aren't perfect enough), but excusing of ourselves (because we're doctrinally committed to the delusion that we are perfect).

I've never met a perfectionist Christian who was humble. The very idea that I no longer have a sin-nature, or that I've been purified, or that my sin-nature is totally under my control, a a huge ego-feeder. The idea, of course, is absurd. The Holy Spirit says clearly there is no righteous man on the earth who always does right and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

Perfection doctrine makes us delusional. We see sin in others where there may be none, and we refuse to see sin in ourselves. And that double-denial of reality -- the virtues of others and the mixed motives of ourselves -- is a very bad mental habit to get into.

Perfectionism puts enormous emphasis on our own moral performance, with little or no emphasis on the imputed righteousness of Christ, and that, my friend, is the poison core of true legalism. The Gospel points us outward, to Christ's substitutionary, atoning death on the cross. Perfectionism ignores this essential of the Gospel, and narrows the work of the cross down to inward moral empowerment.

Perfectionist Christians often become ridiculously ascetic. (Perfectionist Charles G Finney at his Oberlin College forbade serving ketchup in the school cafeteria because of its "stimulative" properties). I guess because pleasure becomes associated with temptation, even though the word of God says that the Lord has given us all things richly to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17), though we are to enjoy it all without losing our Godward moral awareness (Ecclesiastes 11:9), or being controlled by our bodies (1 Corinthians 9:27).

Keep the plague of perfectionism out of your heart and home!