Buff Scott Jr.
Junior
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2023
- Messages
- 334
- Reaction score
- 107
- Points
- 43
LET ME TELL YOU WHERE I’M
COMING FROM
COMING FROM
Liberated From The Partisan Pier!
A few decades ago, I was set free from partisan religion. The experience was invigorating! As I sought freedom from spiritual slavery, the Lord operated upon my heart to alter my self-righteous attitude and modify my course. It was a simple but serious procedure. The only prerequisites were that I cast aside my sectarian, partisan shackles and open my mind and heart. In essence, I was deprogrammed.
Closer To Jesus
Did I leave Jesus when I abandoned organized religion or the religious establishment? Goodness, no! He and I are closer now than ever before. As a result of my surrendering institutional religion in favor of freedom in Jesus, I am now a “believer at large,” a free-thinker, and one of God’s instruments for reform. No human being and no partisan group or church does my thinking for me any longer. I arrive at conclusions after careful evaluation, study, and prayer. Simply stated, I have cast aside the chains of religious orthodoxy and deserted the Establishment’s status quo. God has blessed my ministry of reformation abundantly.
Diversity
We’re not all colored with the same paint or dyed in the same tub. We each have our unique personalities and ministries. We must grow and produce where the Lord has planted us. If your ministry’s methods and manners are different from mine, I must not conclude that you possess a closed mind and are coming over too rudely. Nor should you think I’m crude, harsh, and impolite because my ministry’s techniques do not bear the same trademarks as yours.
No Labels For Me
I’m not formally identified with any church or religious party. I’m a free man in Messiah Jesus. With the Spirit’s direction, I think independently and I arrive at my conclusions independently, regardless of what Calvin, Campbell, Wesley, Luther, and all the others taught. There are good teachings in each man’s history, but neither is my polar star. My Polar Star is Jesus—none other. Consequently, no one may preside over my concepts and teachings insofar as dictating my walk with the Lord.
I will gladly absorb and happily accept advice from godly men if it coincides with what I conscientiously believe is truth and understand as heaven’s grace. But I will no longer bow my knees to the “powers that be” of the religious bureaucracy. I’m a free man in Messiah Jesus. Praise His Name! I will no longer be enslaved by the institutional church or organized religion.
Organized religion? Yes, but let me explain. I believe in an organized life. I believe the believer should have his priorities organized. I believe in an organized mind and an organized schedule. Organization, of itself, is pleasant and necessary. But I have a problem with organizational structures and programs and projects within the body of believers that have supplanted the simple, informal but serious life depicted in the lives of early believers. Literally, and in this vein, we have organized ourselves out of practical existence. Overall, our programs, projects, and organizations have deflated our capacity and our enthusiasm to reach the unreached. Jesus said to get out and go, but we have come in to stay.
Wasting Our Dollars And Efforts
In essence, we have permitted our internal organizations and materialistic projects to strangle us. There’s no room, no time, and no money for the resurrection message. Our fancy edifices and polished organizations and programs are symptoms of our pride and digressions. Hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted on “materialistic evangelism” while millions of the world’s poor go hungry, not only for food but for the message of salvation. Our priorities are abused and misplaced. We have taken the simple arrangement of communicating the Good News to others and developed it into a complicated mess. [More later.]
A few decades ago, I was set free from partisan religion. The experience was invigorating! As I sought freedom from spiritual slavery, the Lord operated upon my heart to alter my self-righteous attitude and modify my course. It was a simple but serious procedure. The only prerequisites were that I cast aside my sectarian, partisan shackles and open my mind and heart. In essence, I was deprogrammed.
Closer To Jesus
Did I leave Jesus when I abandoned organized religion or the religious establishment? Goodness, no! He and I are closer now than ever before. As a result of my surrendering institutional religion in favor of freedom in Jesus, I am now a “believer at large,” a free-thinker, and one of God’s instruments for reform. No human being and no partisan group or church does my thinking for me any longer. I arrive at conclusions after careful evaluation, study, and prayer. Simply stated, I have cast aside the chains of religious orthodoxy and deserted the Establishment’s status quo. God has blessed my ministry of reformation abundantly.
Diversity
We’re not all colored with the same paint or dyed in the same tub. We each have our unique personalities and ministries. We must grow and produce where the Lord has planted us. If your ministry’s methods and manners are different from mine, I must not conclude that you possess a closed mind and are coming over too rudely. Nor should you think I’m crude, harsh, and impolite because my ministry’s techniques do not bear the same trademarks as yours.
No Labels For Me
I’m not formally identified with any church or religious party. I’m a free man in Messiah Jesus. With the Spirit’s direction, I think independently and I arrive at my conclusions independently, regardless of what Calvin, Campbell, Wesley, Luther, and all the others taught. There are good teachings in each man’s history, but neither is my polar star. My Polar Star is Jesus—none other. Consequently, no one may preside over my concepts and teachings insofar as dictating my walk with the Lord.
I will gladly absorb and happily accept advice from godly men if it coincides with what I conscientiously believe is truth and understand as heaven’s grace. But I will no longer bow my knees to the “powers that be” of the religious bureaucracy. I’m a free man in Messiah Jesus. Praise His Name! I will no longer be enslaved by the institutional church or organized religion.
Organized religion? Yes, but let me explain. I believe in an organized life. I believe the believer should have his priorities organized. I believe in an organized mind and an organized schedule. Organization, of itself, is pleasant and necessary. But I have a problem with organizational structures and programs and projects within the body of believers that have supplanted the simple, informal but serious life depicted in the lives of early believers. Literally, and in this vein, we have organized ourselves out of practical existence. Overall, our programs, projects, and organizations have deflated our capacity and our enthusiasm to reach the unreached. Jesus said to get out and go, but we have come in to stay.
Wasting Our Dollars And Efforts
In essence, we have permitted our internal organizations and materialistic projects to strangle us. There’s no room, no time, and no money for the resurrection message. Our fancy edifices and polished organizations and programs are symptoms of our pride and digressions. Hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted on “materialistic evangelism” while millions of the world’s poor go hungry, not only for food but for the message of salvation. Our priorities are abused and misplaced. We have taken the simple arrangement of communicating the Good News to others and developed it into a complicated mess. [More later.]