less than scripture

From fear of going beyond Scripture, many fall short of Scripture. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones warns

The second danger, then, is that of being satisfied with something very much less than what is offered in Scripture, and the danger of interpreting Scripture by our experience and reducing its teaching to the level of what we know and experience. ... In other words, certain people by nature are afraid of the supernatural, of the unusual, of disorder. You can become so afraid of disorder ... that you become guilty of what the Scripture calls "quenching the Spirit"; and there is no question in my mind that there is a great deal of this ... People are so afraid of what they call enthusiasm, and some are so afraid of fanaticism, that in order to avoid those they go right over to the other side without facing what is offered in the New Testament ... Compare, for instance, what you read about the life of the church at Corinth with typical church life today. "Ah but," you say, "they are guilty of excess in Corinth." I quite agree. But how many churches do you know at the present time to which it is necessary to write such a letter as the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians? Do not put your emphasis entirely on the excesses. Paul corrects the excesses but see what he allows, what he expects ... Of course, it is always life that tends to lead to excess. There is no problem of discipline in a graveyard; there is no problem very much in a formal church. The problem arises when there is life.

In 1 Cor 14, Paul writes, "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you!'"

So when was the last time a sinner was among you? When was the last time "everyone" was doing anything let alone prophesying? When was the last time a sinner fell down and began to worship God? Overall, it has been too long. We need Kingdom repentance both in our individual and our cooperate lives. We need a radical change in the way we do life - which includes the way we do church.

We need to stop compartmentalizing our lives and allow God to make a radical overhaul of all that we are. Lord let your Kingdom come!

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