"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.

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Live True to Your...Self? Self-Esteem Anyone? $2.00 each.

o I've been pondering all day what I should write about in today's Monday - Humble Orthodoxy post. Since I've been thinking for a wee-long while now without being able to come up with something substantial, I've decided to just write away.

While I was reading some articles over at Pyromaniacs, a particular phrase caught my attention - a phrase that I too wrote at last week's and this morning's article. In essence it is this: "Humble orthodoxy in a life of a believer essentially means to primarily live true to God."

I thought that it's something worth writing about.

What does it mean to live true to God? Some might get the impression of a pious chap who would do all the right things and say all the right stuff. A kind of person that prays 'till the rooster crows and reads his Bible 99% of the time. As much as that is a wonderful picture of a Christian, that is not what I am necesarrily talking about in living true to God.

KJV Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

It is very possible to say and do things in the name of God, but still have such works be dead deeds in the eyes of the Lord.

To be true to God essentially means that for a Christian, as compelled by the Spirit of God, he must have such a view of his Creator, having grasped a knowledge of who God is, he would be able to live accordingly to Him he professes to be a servant of.

It isn't by living a life that doesn't fail to live in perfect exactitude to the commands of Scripture. But the state in which the reality of the living God has come upon the believer.

Why do you think God said in 1 Peter 5:5 and James 4:6 that He "opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble"?

Why? Why would God give grace to the humble? Ah, but it is in the state of humility that pleases God to shed forth His grace.

Imagine a man, the most rebellious of all sinners, utterly God hating and filled with moral anarchy. Imagine that man being drawn to God Himself, causing the man to have his eyes open to the reality of his rebellion against God and his wickedness against Deity. Imagine that man finally truly grasping the reality of the immeasurable depths of the Holiness of God and the unattainable heights of the requirements of His Justice and Truth. Imagine that man, awakened in the reality of his just condemnation against God.

Now imagine you in his place, when you finally understood what it meant when someone said:

"Intense the agony--
When the ear begins to hear, and the eye begins to see;
When the pulse begins to throb, the brain to think again;
The soul to feel the flesh, and the flesh to feel the chain."

A realization of the completeness of the nature and attributes of God, the deadness of your sin, the magnitude of the abomination of your works and soul against the Master of the universe - and you say, as an old man once said in the Lewis Revival, "I believe Hell is too good for me!"

Such a person dear loved one is one that pleases God to give grace to. Such a person in essence has his heart reduced to powder, without out hope, without God. It is he that God gives grace to. It is he after being given grace would live, not by obligation nor by persuasion, a Chrisian life. But he would live so because he is so indebted to the God who has saved Him.

And the man says: "I can do nothing of my life. I can say nothing of myself. I cannot help but live true to my God - to live true to my Savior."

A pious chap who would do all the right things and say all the right stuff. A kind of person that prays 'till the rooster crows and reads his Bible 99% of the time? Ah, a chap that doesn't realize that he does these things, exaggeration aside, but is singularly compelled by a grave understanding in tears and trembling of the immensity of the love of God given to such a sinner as he.

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"The Rising Tide of Infidelity."

Here we have a brief excerpt of how important doctrine is, an orthodox belief, proper Biblical belief and teaching is in the Christian life. What arrogance is there for the pursuit of truth? Ah, indeed true Orthodoxy, one that is centered in God and the Cross is one that is truly humble.

A.W. Pink

It is ignorance of doctrine that has rendered the professing church helpless to cope with the rising tide of infidelity. It is ignorance of doctrine which is mainly responsible for thousands of professing Christians being captivated by the numerous fallacies of the day. It is because the time has now arrived when the bulk of our churches "will not endure sound doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:3) that they so readily receive false doctrines. Of course it is true that doctrine, like anything else in Scripture, may be studied from a merely cold intellectual viewpoint, and thus approached, doctrinal teaching and doctrinal study will leave the heart untouched, and will naturally be "dry" and profitless. But, doctrine properly received, doctrine studied with an exercised heart, will ever lead into a deeper knowledge of God and of the unsearchable riches of Christ.

- A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God

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Humble Orthodoxy

inally, we in NewDemonstration have determined to write a topical series of posts. In the past months/year, there is a topic that always had my interest. It was an article that I stumbled upon in the past year down in Pyromaniacs, an article written by Frank Turk on his regular Wednesday post. It was about Humble Orthodoxy. For those of you who aren't familiar or much exposed in the blogosphere, it is a title, correct me if I am wrong, that was coined over at NewAttitude, the original Humble Orthodoxy guys. Having read their articles, I thought to myself, "We must write something like this! People must hear/read this message!" So months came by, the blog growing older, Mike and the guys joining in, we have finally decided to write about it, our own version of humble orthodoxy. Mike has previously written one in the past week, and due to some very "undesirable circumstances" I have failed to follow up, which is what I am making up for in today's Monday Post (which will be my official post date from now on. - it is technically still monday in other timezones right?).

To start let us define what Humble Orthodoxy means. Humble, of course also forms the word humility, a sense of the absence of pride, a low sight of self. Orthodoxy on the other hand is derived from two Greek words, "ortho", meaning "right" or "correct", and "doxa", meaning "thought", "teaching", or "belief". In this case, as related to the Christian practice, orthodoxy means "correct beliefs".

In modern Christian culture today, there is very little importance given on orthodoxy. Very few Christians would consider themselves orthodox for that matter. Most of us would call ourselves "Born Again", "Jesus freak", "church guy", or whatever. To us, the word orthodox has a sort of strong connotation, an unattractive one. To most people it describes a legalistic form of belief, boring and arrogant. A "do this and don't do that" sort of mentality is imposed when orthodox comes to mind.

Keep in mind all these are merely presumptions, isn't it interesting that such orthodoxy is commanded by the very Word of God?

KJV 1 Timothy 4:6-7 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. 7 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

Why orthodoxy then? In what way is it "humble"?

Realize that orthodoxy and humility are intertwined within each other in and around the Christian faith. If one is truly humble, he is not one humbled by men. A person who is truly humble is not humble with respect to others, the environment or the situation at hand. Ah, but for a Christian, he is one who is humbled for He has caught a glimpse of the Glory of the Sovereign God! He is one who has caught a heavenly glimpse of the Awesomeness of the Almighty, Omnipotent, Holy, Sovereign and Righteous! Like the prophet Isaiah, he cannot help but to confess the utter unworthiness of his being, for he has seen the Holiness of God, the embodiment of the Lord's Glory, and in light of that He has seen the curroption of his own soul, the defiance of his nature against a Just and Holy God!

KJV Isaiah 6:1-5 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

For a Christian, I find it impossible to not love orthodoxy. I find it impossible to not strive for sound doctrine. I find it impossible to deny the desire to know God and the fullness of the accomplishments of the Atonement fulfilled by Christ as expressed in Holy Writ.

As humility would lead to orthodoxy, in the same way orthodoxy would lead to humility. For a person having caught a knowledge of the Holy, of God, His justice and the wisdom of His requirements, he cannot help but be cast down. Like Daniel, when a vision came to him:

ESV Daniel 10:7-12 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves. 8 So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. 9 Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. 10 And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 And he said to me, "O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you." And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he said to me, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.

If one has truly grasped a knowledge of who God is, His attributes, the eternal worthiness of the God of all creation, I am fully persuaded that pride nor arrogance would not come about in such an experience, but a kind if humility that comes from the Lord of Glory Himself, for when we know who God is, we will surely know how it is to tremble before Him and His glory.

How else can we face Him?

How is it that men claim to have met God, "dwelling in the anointing", "operating in the Glory", but never had an idea even of how it is to bow down in the dust in fear and trembling in the sight of the Lord? How is it that such people claims to have had visions of Angels and of Christ would immediately feel joy but never fear? Ah, how doubtful our generation is.

If one has truly grasped what it means to grab that which the Word of God teaches, sound doctrine, orthodoxy, an expression of correct beliefs, humility personified, I completely believe that such a condition would as well lead to a correct practice of one's Christian life. That it wouldn't so much be stuck as idle thinking, or simply a great idea, but it would be the very thing that compels us to live rightly before God! How else shall we live? How else shall we speak? How else shall we serve the Living God?

Humility leads to Orthodoxy as Orthodoxy leads to Humility, both lead to Orthopraxy. Orthopraxy being the expression of correct practice of one's Christian Life.

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