"Kung-fu Known is Useless Kung-fu Unless it is Kung-fu Practiced."

love worship. I love worshiping our God. There is so much that cannot be expressed in gratitude to our God. By having a glimpse of the depths of the mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ, the heights of the Holiness of our God, and the extents of His saving grace, I believe that a whole lifetime is not enough to make known to our God how grateful we are.

Herein lies the irony. (Or is it a tragedy?)

So I attended the Sunday service yesterday. I went there with this thought in mind: "What does it mean to live true to Scripture?" I mean, yeah, I am sure the people here would profess to have met God, I'll give them that. But a critical thing to be considered as well is the validity of that profession. Do we truly live true to the living Word of God? Is our theology based on that fact? Are our belief systems surrendered to Holy Writ? Are the things we say and do conformed to what Scripture says? With these thoughts in mind, to put it in a few words, I became very afraid.

I became very fearful for the people around me.

I kept thinking in contrast with the attributes of God, and the truths of Himself revealed in Scripture:

"Do these people actually understand what they are saying in their worship?"

"Do these people actually know who their God is that they can sing and say these things so easily?"

"Why is it that all I see are smiles of comfort on the face of men and women but never a joyous sense of fear and trembling before the most Holy God?"

"Why is it that? Why??"

In Christianity today we are so unknowingly consumed by modern culture. We do things the way we do them because it's always been done that way. We believe the things we believe, as shallow as they are, because that's all we've been ever taught.

ESV 1 Timothy 4:6-7 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;

We would have ourselves and others after us live in the comforts of modern thought rather than be truly subject to the Word of God. "Discipleship Leaders" go through books, paper and modern preachers, seeking to edify their disciples. . . practically. Practically? Ah yes, the essence of the Modern Church is this: "Kung-fu known is useless kung-fu unless it is kung-fu practiced." So to increase the so called "effectivity" of the saints we send them straight to the battle field.

We obligate people to preach the Gospel who have neither heard nor seen the Glory of Almighty God presented in this great message. We tell people "this is what God has done for you" (Instead of the Biblical "what will Christ do to you?"). We tell them that Christ died for our sins (Instead of the Biblical "because of your moral anarchy and open rebellion against God you are dead and worthy of nothing short but eternal condemnation in hell). But isn't it interesting that we can say these things so easily? We think we're preaching the right message but we don't realize that all we're preaching are silly myths and old wives' tales. (Not to mention it is already "another gospel" Gal 1:6-9) Our practical message most of the time goes in the lines of: "This and that happened to me and God blessed me" or "This and that happened to me and that's why this bad thing happened 'coz I did not follow God".

To give this "rabbit trail" some direction, in the words of Jim McClarty, "Where is that in the Bible?" Where is the "pay it forward principle" in the Bible? Where is practical theology in Scripture?

Are we truly conformed to Scripture? Am I conformed to the Word of God? Is what I preach and teach truly what Scripture says?

How else can we truly worship God if we don't know who He truly is as revealed in His Word? How else can we go about our service before Him if we do not know He who we serve? Is it not a frighthening thing to go about our "Christian lives" without proper knowledge of God?

These are the questions that we must ask ourselves. Do yourself a favor and ask these things to yourselves now. And if you find out that you don't? Why not start now. . . Repent dear loved one. Repent.

That my friend brings about Humble Orthodoxy. Scriptural conformity brings humble orthodoxy. Humble orthodoxy brings about scriptural conformity.