Praise

Reading in the Gospel of John these days.  This morning I came across the following laser sharp words that Jesus directed at the religious establishment of his day:

...you accept praise from one another, 

yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

When I consider the different groups of people that Jesus engaged and I try to figure out which group I would fit into, I'd really like to hope that I'd fit into the 'disciple' group, but I have a fear that drives me to conviction and watchfulness that I'm on the edge of falling into the 'religious establishment' group.  Two thousand years ago, Jesus spoke those brutally loving words to the guys who had the most to lose.... and I can easily imagine him speaking them to those of us entrenched in organized Christianity today.

We commend each other heartily and are delighted when our peers think we're cutting edge, latest-thinking, missional people of ministry.  But how often do we actually set policy, shape vision and apply resources with the specific goal of hearing God say "well done!" ?

Guilty as charged.  And again grateful for the powerful, penetrating, life-changing Word.