John 1:14

Within the many facets of ministry, it is difficult to come up with one philosophy of leadership.  But for a clear vision for Christian leadership, I've decided upon John 1:14.  It reads, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."  Here we see that Jesus is the incarnation of God in the world, he lived and dwelt among the disciples in real life, and in turn, they saw his glory as he ministered in teaching and miracles.  And all this because he proceeded from God as his only begotten Son.  Jesus was the God-man.  Even more, Jesus was filled with grace and truth.

So I believe this "grace and truth" of Christ is the best paradigm to best understand how to conduct Christian ministry.  We need both the grace and truth of Christ, not one or the other.  For it is by grace that we receive truth and it is by truth that we can understand grace.  God graciously grants the truth of the gospel to us, and he then gives us his truth to understand the true meaning of the gospel.  The two are inseparably connected all through the Scripture.  The challenge is to always keep these two in balance and in priority.  In a complicated and broken world that can be difficult at times.

The priority of truth must guide us in our grace.  And we must always be gracious as we teach and disciple the family of faith for we constantly need the grace of Christ to become Christ-like.  But John 1:14 makes it clear that we also need the truth of Christ and we must never compromise the truth in an attempt to be gracious.  We must always be true to the whole counsel of Scripture that God has given to us for the very purpose of knowing him.  We must also always be gracious to our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord as we all are recipients of grace.  But the priority of truth must guide us in our grace.  Amen, it is true.

What's Your Priority?

The "Veritas Fellowship" is all about "proclaiming the true truth of Christ."  This is an extremely important ministry in our postmodern world.  So much of our culture is wrapped up in the personal perspectives of each individual or group of people.  But we are called to know God and to live for him.

The priority therefore must always be upon the Lord who has created us and redeemed us.  The great commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  And the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself."  We are called to love God with all our being, and then to be filled with the Holy Spirit so as to serve others.  This is a theocentric priority and focus.  But the tendency is to reverse this and become man-centered.

The true-truth of Christ is that we are called to him first and foremost in all our lives.  This is what we all need, even those who are in different stations in life.  When we are God-centered, we are lifted up and we trust Christ in his teachings, and we take on new faith and character.  We reject the philosophies of the world and accept the truth of Scripture.  Our priority must be God and his Word, to discover and live out the system that redeems and restores us to him.

It was discouraging today to see a high-profile civil rights leader come to Memphis and give the same politically orientated and racially charged message that we've heard for the last fifty years.  It would be so much better to hear the truth of Scripture that describes that Christ alone can transform us and give us an upward calling.

The inner city poverty comes from a poverty of spirit and hope.  People live out what they believe.  But the message of Christ is the gospel, where we trust in Christ, then repent, and follow his teachings.  Our faith in Christ makes us new people who are eager to become like Christ and to leave the brokenness and ghettos of socialism behind.  It takes the truth of Scripture and faith in Christ to learn a new priority to live by.