Establishing Founations-3

Recall, we ended last week’s fare at the Training Table on REFORMATION: “Feast of the Heart is, first and foremost, devoted to offering scrumptious fare of True Truth, Pure Doctrine—served up by a highly fallible human being. Please, pull up a chair and join us SO THAT we will be assured of the fruit we will speak to next time: Christians living in word and in deed.

It’s so good to know that the entirety of the Bible was written with two goals and/or audiences in mind: a) the goal to remind God’s people of the True Truth, or “pure doctrine”, and b) the assumption that God’s people already knew the True Truth, or pure doctrine… and were being called to live it! The commonality? Conformation to True Truth on the journey towards holiness, Christ-likeness, and Kingdom service to others.

It’s reminiscent of the apparent GAP between Paul’s letter (of “faith) to the Christians in Rome and James’ letter (of “works”) to Christians:

There is, of course, overlap, but Romans is the God-given key to understanding the pure doctrines of sin, law, judgment, human destiny, faith, works, grace, justification, sanctification, election, the plan of salvation, the work of Christ and the spirit, the Christian hope, the nature and life of the Church, the place of the Jew and non-Jew in the purposes of God, the philosophy of the church and world history, the meaning and message of the Old Testament, the duties of Christian citizenship, and the principles of personal godliness and morality.

The Book of James? The call of living out all of the above True Truth, pure doctrine, orthodoxy… That is, discipleship: “the glad surrender” (Elisabeth Elliot) of conforming each one of us into the likeness of Jesus Christ!

The Fruit of the “Romans-James, One-Two Punch”?
REVIVAL: “…when the church has returned to a pure doctrine and the lives of Christians in the church have known (and lived out) the power of the Holy Spirit” (Francis Schaeffer—parenthesis added).

As previously stated, then, Feast of the Heart’s second step after “Reformation” is, “Revival… we seek to model biblical Christians living in word and deed”.

Our men’s Bible Study Group is just beginning The Book of Hebrews. There are few Bible books more apt for Christians in our day: A Pastoral Letter to Christians who were suffering, confused, and tempted towards worldliness and abandoning the faith. How does Hebrews achieve its goal? It re-establishes the foundations of the faith!

Spiritually-speaking too: we are what we eat! Feasting on Pure Doctrine, True Truth, and within a community of faith, SO THAT God’s chosen people will be enabled to carry out His plan of redemption within the mysterious partnership of Sovereignty, and the Saved-and-Sent in Christ Jesus: you, me, and the family of God.

AMEN.