The Great Divide Video
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The Morning Mike Check
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Mike, proof is in the pudding. Matthew 11:16-19 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, 17 and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
Your earnestness to dump the “ways” of your “heritage” – the discipleship that you came thru, because you’re disappointed in its results, does not justify returning to a period that you never lived in, and that wasn’t so hot either. Jesus declared the poverty of his generation’s religious leadership in their making up excuses for why they don’t repent. Whatever wisdom you or I have, Mike, is vindicated by our deeds, not our methods, and not the performance of our disciples. You and I are disciples of Jesus – or we’re not. The rest comes out in the wash.
Dave, in what way would you say orthodoxy and orthopraxy are related then, if it all comes out in the wash?
Fred, what a great question! But I don’t think you’re going to like my answer. If you feel compelled to bring up “ortho” anything, my guess is that you assume that these “ultimates” of “perfect doctrine” and “perfect practice” are accessible and obtainable. I think that IF such “ultimate orthos” actually exist, you and I will never know and never access or obtain them. You should feel crushed by that answer – but you brought it up! You’ll always be “off center” in both. Ohh the agony and despair! So shall we leave aside the unobtainable and just focus on “what is taught” and “how it is taught”? Every generation has its language, its understanding, its feelings expressed in words. For me to say “it’s not about what is taught or how it’s taught but instead it’s about the overflow of a relationship with Jesus” that is translated into whatever words and whatever practices, and those things are so generationally different day to day, year to year, century to century it’s impossible to keep up with what you or I think is “tuned best” to our gut instinct that The Holy Spirit witnesses to with our spirit. My words and practices would probably be “gobbledegook” to every other generation but our own – but our own generation more or less gets what I mean. And that I just exchanged those words with you means I taught you (“doxy”) something in this digitally driven way (“proxy”) – which is a very weak way to do any “doxy” or “praxy” in my own opinion. Therefore, to finish my slaughter job, the poor wordsmith that I am, I stand by my sentence: “You and I are disciples of Jesus – or we’re not. The rest comes out in the wash.” Why? There’s NO solution to capturing JESUS in a perfect doctrine or in a perfect practice – NONE at all. But we do the best we can. JESUS is Too Big for your manipulations into orthodox practice or doctrine. Mike’s notions that we left The Most Important Things behind from before 1816 is like saying that Jesus is begging us to go back to 18xx to connect with Him in The Most Important Way. I doubt Jesus is locked in by 1816 no matter how smart CS Lewis was and how truly smart Mike Metzger is. Either I’m His disciple – or I’m not. Jesus didn’t ask anyone to go back to some place or time when things weren’t screwed up – things were always screwed up – and He ain’t going to do that tonight either. Be in Christ, brother Fred, and go from there.