Sunday, October 5, 2008

Doctrine, or not to Doctrine (Part III)

I actually took a day off from this for you and for me. Now your e-mail is not clogged and I got some downtime with the family. Plus, I was sulking (lazy) over the agregious loss that Auburn took against Vanderbilt. Now we continue........

We left off talking about the reason God created us "in His own image." Now we will talk about our mission in reference to doctrine. Just like any great warrior, we as Christ warriors have a mission. Like we said before, doctrine has a place, but it must not supplant the mission that God has for us here on earth. When we rap ourselves in a doctrine, we put ourselves on a pedestal and we judge other people based upon that doctrine. If they don't believe as we do, then they are wrong. Well, when we think like this, we are wrong. Now there are some fundamental doctrinal truths that must be the foundation for a relationship with Jesus Christ. These truths are for another post.

We all have a mission from God, though, and He stated this before He left earth to be with the Father. Jesus, after rising from the dead, gathered with the 11 disciples on a mountain outside of Galilee and had this to say to them, and us: (Matthew 28:19-20) "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." We know this as the Great Commission. In plain words that all of us could understand, Jesus laid our our mission.

We have to put aside all of our petty differences as Christ followers and set our sights on the things of God: reaching those who do not know Him with the Good News of His saving grace. It's not our mission to save people: we do not have that power. We must reach out to them though, and plant the seeds of truth. Any other distractions are just the work of another trying to refocus us on his desires.

Longwinded as usual,
Jesus Freak Out!

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