Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, ​filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’

Jeremiah 23:16-17 (ESV).

Wow. How often do our preachers today fill us with vain hopes? How many preachers decide for themselves what they want to talk about this Sunday, then shackle a related verse of Scripture to the “visions of their own mind,” rather than consistently exploring the word of the Lord?  How many times do we hear “God bless America,” despite America’s general ignorance of the Bible and rejection of righteousness?

(via ptbruiser)

How many times?  Try… all the time. Every single preacher “decide[s] for themselves what they want to talk about.”

Whether you’re a fan Osteen or Dobson, your man can prove his point using the Word Of God.  And when you speak for God, everyone else is wrong.  This is the problem, not whether the gospel of prosperity is having an undue influence on suburban families.

(via danielholter)

Are the excesses in evangelicalism? Yes. Do people abuse Scripture for their own ends? Yes. But that doesn’t negate the fact that there is a correct and true interpretation.

Daniel, you treat exegesis and hermeneutics as if they are unreasoned, undisciplined, and un-scholarly. If that were the case, the Church would not have held together its core doctrines for so many centuries. Most of the disparity in views is around non-essential matters.

Christians should be relentless in their search yet humble in their presentation.

Just yesterday I ran across a blog post on certainty and openness:

When a question cannot be addressed by a clear appeal to the Bible, our conclusions should be all the more modest.

The gospel requires us to have high expectations of one another on biblically central doctrines and strategies, and it cautions us to be more relaxed with one another the further we have to move out from the center.