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CENTRAL THINGS - This is an outline, really, of a teaching I did last week in our meeting, on May 10th. I hope it helps you in some way. + Alan Hebrews 13:9 – "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching. It is good to have our hearts strengthened by grace and not by foods which do not benefit those who live by them." "Do not be swept off your course by all sorts of outlandish teachings. It is good that we should gain inner strength from the grace of God and not from rules about food which have never benefited those who observed them." Ephesians 4:14 – "...so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching..." "We are no longer to be children, tossed about by the waves and whirled around by every fresh gust of teaching." "We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine..." STABILITY
We cannot afford to lose our central focus. It doesn't say necessarily that we should only beware of "false" teaching. That's not the point. The point is that we should constantly focus on what is central and should not allow ourselves to be torn off-center by teachings of any kind – even if they are true. "True" is not necessarily "Central." John 15:5 – "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing." This is a good scriptural analogy for "central things." The Vine is central - the life of the branches flows out of the Vine. As I see it, there are basically 3 central things on which we must keep our constant focus: 1) Life in Christ – Grace, Righteousness, Christian Identity – We have a new life in Christ. Our old self has died - now all things are new. We are a part of the new creation. 2) Love & living the nature of God – Life Transformation – The nature of God is Love. Love is THE fruit of the Holy Spirit. The life of God, the Holy Spirit, is what changes us. We not only "learn" to love, we become loving people! 3) Working these things out in human relationships – This is a holistic salvation. It is not only about our relationship to God. It is about other people. Love – even God's Love – can't be lived out in a vacuum. These things are central, as well as the things that flow out of them. We can talk and get caught up in these all we want. They are the constant and eternal truths out of which all else flows. There are many "subjects" that spring out of these central things. We do well to keep our focus on these things. Why? Because these are the life transformers! This is the core of life as it was meant to be. If we don't get that straight, nothing else will be straight either. crooked vine = crooked branches We must constantly be tapping into the pure central life of the Vine so that we, as branches, may bear the fruit that the Vine intends – so that we will be pure branches as branches ought to be. We cannot allow ourselves to look ar our own leaves or our own fruit as some kind of source of life. It can be easy to do because they look good, and they are good, but good why? Because they come out of the life of the Vine. central produces peripheral I looked at this great Oak tree in the yard of the Seminary one day. I stood there looking at it, leaved out in its full glory, 40 ft. tall, 100 years old. And I felt God saying to me "You see what you're looking at – the leaves and the very ends of the branches." We ought not focus on that. "The life of the tree is in the trunk and the root system, which is partly underground." Now that can seem boring. A tree trunk; roots; dirt; minerals; ground water; sap that you hardly ever see... But this is the life! This is our life in God. It's OK to recognize the beauty of the leaves and the fruit, but appreciate and understand them in the context of the whole tree - the whole life. |
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