Blessed are those Who Mourn

I was 63 years old when my first parent died, just two weeks ago,  and I am experiencing grief in a way that is new, and more immediate, to me.

There's nothing profound that I have to say about the grieving process itself...

...but, I have been thinking over the connection between spiritual grief and salvation...and a vital relationship that a human being can have with the Lord.

The Word makes it clear that grieving, mourning is essential to a human being's intimate connection with God.

You know, from the teachings of Jesus, the blessings for those who are poor in spirit, who MOURN, and are meek.

You know, if you read here, Paul's formula: Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation.

James says that if you grieve, mourn and wail...God will lift you up (4:9-10).

And, it is at this point that shepherd dominated, uh, leadership fails the body.

Shepherds comfort and nurture as a result of their spiritual giftedness.

They, when they don't live in mutual submission to other giftings, and when they demand that their way be THE way, thwart the Holy Spirit when He moves to break us when we sin.

They, when they don't live in mutual submission with other gifts, stand against the strivings of apostles and prophets and evangelists when they, following their own spiritual giftedness, attempt to lead people into the godly grief that produces the repentance that leads to salvation.

They, when they demand that their way be THE way, confound the Spirit and the remainder of the body...

...attempting to create a, tepid, repentance-less walk with Christ, one that is phony.

They attempt to bring people into a relationship with Christ that ignores the reality that only Christ can lift up a sinner and He will do that only after the sinner has fallen down before Him, wanting nothing more than His mercy.

And, so, the church has become lukewarm and, ultimately, institutional. It has no fire.

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Bringing this thought to my ERC home: The shepherd leaders of the Conference believe, and want us all to believe, that the answer to our decline and decay is for us to allow them to create a plan.

They want to convince us that if we link a few new programs together and call them a strategic plan, our fortunes will change.

Please don't fall for that old line.

It is an old line.

They laid it on us twice before...and we bought it...and the plan failed.

The rate of our decay increases under those plans.

Our problems are not strategic; they are not solvable with better programs.

Our problem is spiritual.

We need to mourn, to grieve...

...as James says it, we need to grieve and mourn to the point that we wail.

We don't need a new plan.

We need to fall flat on our faces...to put ourselves in the position...

...to be lifted up

...by Him.

We must repent.