There are endless things to explore in this regard….   this post will reflect that and no doubt I will add to it, adjust it and come back to it fairly often..   As a result, it will very often read as a rought draft in progress.   I would love your input and verses to consider and to hear what you are experiencing in your own walk and life.

Everything about our existence hangs on the razor’s edge of precision.

The millions of miracles that happened in sequence for us to be conceived and born.  The physical laws and elements that keep us from bling flung into outer space.   Our bodies systems all function with such profound and necessary precision.   Scripture tells us that Jesus upholds all of it through the power of His Word

Hebrews 1:3 “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this.   It takes all the pressure off of me.  He does it by the power of His Word.    If I submit to Him and let His Word have His way in me, I will super-naturally walk along the impossibly narrow path that He leads me down with ease and assurance in HIM.

Hopefully someone out there got it on the first read through.   If anyone is like me you are thinking… WHOA… that sounds impossible, difficult, daunting and too hard.   I so so hear you.   This truth keeps sinking in further and further in my own heart, and the more it does, the more I can truly rest in Him, but it has taken time and meditation for my heart and mind to even begin to get this.

Thankfully, it is Christ who enables us, empowers us, does for us all the parts that are too hard, too difficult and impossible.  Praise God for His faithfulness.

Very often in our Christ follower walk, we have to walk in a place of tension between 2 extremes,  Just like a trampoline produces maximum bounce when the tension in all dirctions is just right, so can we produce the greatest fruit when our tensions have been adjusted to live and walk in godliness.

Let’s explore some common examples:

Grace/freedom versus obedience/duty

Being submitted to God as Lord and being submitted to human authorities

Knowing that there is one Truth and allowing others/trusting God to leading others to the Truth/letting Go free us from our own areas of error

Legalism/religious spirit vs liberalism/self-governed

Approaching God in reverence/fear/submission/awe/humility/holiness as Lord/Creator/Judge and Walking in the boldness and familiarity, tranparency, expectation and confidence of son/daughtership with our Father.

Some scriptures to consider

Romans and Corinthians vs about letting people live according to their convictions and not encouraging them to break their convictions

Respecting leadership and refusing to stir up contentions and strife and divisions all the while being committed in your personal life to doing all that you see in scripture. 

In our gatherings and within our community relationships, we do all to honour and respect our leadership and refusing to go into back biting , political activities of trying to curry behind the scenes support for our own convictions and causes.     All the while though, in our personal lives, letting all that we do be done in accordance to the Word as as the ultimate authority.    So when there is a conflict between the two, we need great wisdom to walk this out in a way is obedient to scripture and honouring to those we are called to submit to and/or honour.

Here is one example of how I might do this in our group study time.     There are absolutely times when my personal convictions are different than the leadership of the churches God calls me to teach in.    This is likely true for most if not all of us.   But this does not need to be a source of contention or strife AT ALL.    One approach I find helpful is to  present both doctrines and encourage people to go back to scriptures for themselves and fully act on what God shows them to do.   I can do this with no fear and no hypocrisy because I know just how many times God has already corrected my theology and doctine and how often it has happened because I was exposed to and able to hear someone else’s insights.      In other words, I am convinced enought by my own study to walk as I presently walk, but not so convinced that I am unable to hear new evidence, new perspectives that I am unwilling to change my theology radically if I can see something I missed before in scripture.

I honestly don’t know who has the right of the matter…..      So I am free from trying to convince anyone to believe what I believe and from the responsibility that I would bear before the Lord if I did so.    And I am totally content to present both sides and than leave the responsibility with each hearer to go and be “Berean” and spend time with the Lord themselves to work our their own “salvation with fear and trembling”.

If we choose to attend a certain congregation, I believe it is essential to honour the leadership and not be a source of contention and strife.    We have freedom to attend where the Lord leads us but are commaned to submit to and honour those who invest their lives in overseeing us.      Over time, you will find over and over again there is a huge blessing for being a blessing to the leadership. Trust the Holy Spirit to bring in the Truth and or to show you the wisdom He has imparted to the leadership.  You will find very often they are seeing something you did not see and that the path they choose turns out to be very wise for the church as a whole.   We are called to walk as Jesus calls us, not to tell others how they ought to interpret, lead the church, or walk out their faith.  We can certainly share what we see and how we do it in our lives, but we need to give each one the freedom to follow Jesus and come to a place of personally relying on Him, hearing Him and following His leadings without the help of other people.  Over and over again you will be amazed at the wisdom exercised through godly leadership in the church.   This never reduces our personal responsibility to walk according to our convictions in our own lives and activities.

Parable of the sower, freedom from the need to convince others and the responsibility that comes when we convince others through persuasive arguments.