"REAL PEOPLE
One of the most unbelievable things about our time is that to be normal is to be abnormal. If you're a bit weird, you're with it; to be sane or sensible is to be somewhat strange. When did our society begin to adopt the philosophy that anything goes? I think it started when [we] began to reject traditions and deny certain absolutes. The ignorance of denying all the absolutes is that, in doing so, we actually establish an absolute.
We're certainly not the most traditional congregation in the world, and yet there are oodles and oodles of Biblical traditions that we serve. (Jeremiah 6:16 - 'Thus saith the Lord, "Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls..."'). For example, the tradition that: God is soverign and very real; that the Word of God is truth; the virgin birth of our Lord; the essential truth of the cross; the value of worship; the fullness of the Holy Spirit; the imminent return of our Lord; and the list goes on and on.
We remain absolutely serious and certain about all of them. Take worship, for example. We're serious enough to find out what is God's pattern for our lives regarding worship, and then begin to pursue that way of simple, honest, forthright praise to Him.
Anything that has a future is established on a sound foundation. People who reject tradition and deny absolutes only prophecy their destiny. The powerful, Spirit-breathed work of God today is birthing a people who are real. They have flexibility without compromise, and liberty without looseness. The answer to reality and normality is found in a person - His name is Jesus. He's very real and has a deep desire to make us that way.
That God could take abnormal, unreal people like us and develop a solid, sane, balanced people... to me, that borders on the miraculous. In fact, it is miraculous.
No matter what real looks like today, Jesus is still the only measuring device by which reality can be measured.
Becoming normal and real,
Ron Mehl"