Fit For The Burn Pile

If I am not encouraging people to go deeper with Jesus Christ, to seek Him in His fullness, then everything I’ve ever written or done in Jesus’ Name is useless and vain. It is trash which is only fit for the burn pile.

We serve Christ to the utmost when He uses us to ignite a hunger for Him within others—when what we say or do for God awakens people to their lack, rather than satisfies them with the illusion of their own fullness. We must never teach God’s word in such a way that gives people the notion that they are made right with God because of their adherence to a certain teaching. Our teaching must only draw people’s minds to a deeper understanding of their salvation and their Savior. The Gospel of Jesus Christ emphatically teaches that we are made right with God because of what Christ did on the cross and that we are made acceptable to God because of our faith in Jesus Christ, plus nothing else (Rom 3:22-26; 5:1,2). And our subsequent, necessary obedience to the laws of God is only and ever because of Christ being formed in us, and our ever-lessening acquiescence to “self”—all due to the power of God Who works mightily within us (Col 1:28,29).

All doctrine and theology must pass through the lens of Jesus Christ, as the Head of His Church—He is Master, Shepherd and ultimate Teacher (Col 1:17,18). Teaching His word without His heart only serves to harm the sheep and confuse them as to the true voice of the One Who calls them (John 10:3,4). Our job as servants of the Lord is to be used by Him to draw people to Him, not to provoke division in the Body. Jesus is the One Who divides the sheep from the goats (Matt 25:32), His angels are the ones who divide the wheat from the tares (Matt 13:39), but we preach Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Cor 4:4-6).

The Body is not unified because we teach Scripture or preach righteousness. The Body is unified because we preach Jesus Christ. The Body reaches unity in the faith through knowledge of the Son of God; the fullness of His Body is reached when we attain to the “full measure of the stature of Christ” (Eph 4:13). Do you understand brothers and sisters? Our ordained commission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, teaching them all He commanded (Matt 28:19). And first and foremost, He commanded that we believe upon Him (John 3:18; 5:24; 6:47; 12:44; 20:31), and that He must be lifted up to draw all men to Himself (John 12:32). Thus, it is the preeminence of Jesus Christ in our minds and lives which will unify His Body.

I do not know exactly what the days ahead hold for us, but we are in a “shaking and a tearing-asunder” of all things not of God and His Christ. Only that which glorifies His Son will stand. Beloved, this is what we must understand in this time: God hates both our religion and our sin and the only way we can be delivered from both is utter devotion to His Son, Jesus Christ. He, and He alone, is the Chief Cornerstone upon which what is built will be acceptable to God. Everything else will be tossed into the burn pile.

(Col 1:28,29) We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I also labor, striving with all His energy working powerfully within me.

(Eph 4:13,14) …until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

(Matt 13:29,30) “No,” he said, “if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

(1 Peter 2:6,7) For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”…

(Posted on Facebook 12/19/2020 Talitha Koum)