Your Best Life Now The Evangelical Way
Posted by Whiskeyjack on August 17, 2010
It is my conviction that those who so place zeal instead of gratitude at the heart of sanctification fundamentally misunderstand the nature of worship and are in danger of falling into a gradated notion of piety and holiness within the Church. The passion overshadows the the message and finds purchase in the hearts of the people by way of charisma and an emotional connection with the addressed. Thus it is he who addresses that becomes in fact the proof for the assertion. The attempt is made by way of exciting those who are addressed(the congregation) and in doing so elevating them to levels of zeal on par with the addresser(minister) in order to provide a uniformly understood proof for the assertion of passion/zeal as the wellspring of a godly life.
One might say that the pursuit of passion as the foundation of the productive(see victorious) Christian life is also a backhanded attempt at relevance and a quasi social Gospel. What I mean is that when passion is laid as the foundation of the victorious Christian life, it is simply a backdoor into getting your best life now. This may seem a stretch but I think that it is accurate. For if the fulfilled Christian life is located in the midst of a passion/zeal- which must ultimately be maintained internally- it becomes what we do in service to God which grants us a fulfilled or “best life now.” Zeal, in effect becomes a stairway to a plane on which sanctification becomes attainable.
