Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

“The main trouble in the church today is that people are not interested in the truth. They are only interested in experiences.” ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones

You can’t deny that she has a way with words. She grabbed you and drew you in less than a full sentence. As you read her post, you almost forgot where you were. It read so well you began to see yourself sitting with her, and no longer were you reading, but you were in her home, sitting at the table over coffee and fresh baked bread, an aroma so strong you could almost smell it. She was now talking to you. She was speaking right to your broken places. She was ministering to the depths of your soul, and her words felt like she understood you in a way that you hadn’t felt seen or understood in a long time.

Compare this dear sister with the woman who has felt unseen by her husband, and another man comes along and he knows exactly what to say. She never imagined she could be someone who would commit adultery. She despised the very thought of it. But she never saw it coming. He may not have even come to her with such evil intentions, but in a short time she lifted her head ashamed and realized that she had been swayed by his charm—his words that seemed to minister to the broken and lonely places in her soul.

We may more readily guard ourselves against the second illustration, recognizing our sinful hearts and God’s warnings against such temptations. But we are so quick to drop our guard against the first. We are swayed by words that speak to our hearts. We read her words and sit at her table. We satisfy our soul drinking deeply from what promises to quench our thirst.

We test her words by how they make us feel. We meditate on her words, certain that there’s just no way she could have known exactly what we needed. We foolishly convince ourselves that our circumstances, problems, and personal feelings that we struggle with are so incredibly unique that if someone speaks to those places, then it must be from God, and it must be for us, and they must be truly from God.

As much as this may sound unloving, it’s said with genuine love: your situation, hardship, loss, struggle, personal struggles are not unique. If you fail to see that, then you are easy prey for those with bad theology and those with bad intentions. The truth is, we all struggle, and we can comfort one another, but it must be in the truth. Just because she shares Scripture and “gets you” doesn’t mean her words are true. Before you sit at her table, test the food.

Be careful in our weakness. Be daily in God’s Word, learning the truth so when we are weak, we remember the truth and when those who come to minister to us in our weakness with false words, we may not fall prey to them but stand firm in the truth.

There’s a lot of well-written false theology in your newsfeed—many who write about how great you are, how unique your testimony is, and how you are special. They pull you up out of your pit, but they do so by appealing to your sinful heart that wants to hear how great you are, how special you are, and how you are going to do big things, and how the world needs your testimony.

Dear friend, their message is not Good News! It is contrary to it. It makes you the hero. You don’t need to be your own hero. We make terrible gods. We need to hear the Gospel. We need to hear Scripture opened and exposited from faithful expositors of God’s Word. We need to pray and ask God to help us in our weakness. We need the truth. And we need to hear that Christ is enough, Scripture is enough, the Gospel is enough. We don’t need another “you are enough” false gospel.

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria

April J. Buchanan