Are you sure?

This is taken from the sixth session of the Council of Trent on January 13, 1547.

I have found that several of those that hold to the Calvinistic understanding of predestination have created this “I am in; you are out” mentality to the kingdom of God.

It is interesting to read what is written in Canons Concerning Justification;

Canon.15: If anyone says that a man who is born again and justified is bound ex fide to believe that he is certainly in the number of the predestined, let him be anathema.

Not that I adhere to Catholic doctrine, but this adds food for thought to those who are sure they know who is in and who is out.

Babble before going to Babylon: Reflection on Jeremiah 7.1-8

Jeremiah 7.1-8

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message:
“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. 3 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. (NIV, emphasis added)

The thing about this passage is what the people were saying is true. It was the temple of the Lord that they were standing before. Judah believed that they were safe because they had the temple and because of the temple the Lord would not let destruction come upon them. What mattered to God was not whether they acknowledged the temple, but if they lived in obedience to their covenant with God.

Sometimes I feel the conservative protestant Church does the same thing as Israel did here in this passage. It seems as if people are calling out, “This is the word of God, the word of God, the word of God.” Well, yes it is the word of God, but are you practicing the word of God as described in verses 5 and 6. Are you practicing the word of God in the manner that Jesus did.

As far as I am concerned, worship is a lifestyle that is why it must be experienced by living out the life that Christ did. That is true worship.