Standard of Sacrifice

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

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[MarthaH]

I listened to a message from FW West entitled, "The Disciple and their Sacrifice".

This is a teaching which I feel encapsulates GCx theology. Their measuring rod of knowing God is the level of sacrifice and suffering.

Now I truly believe that sacrifice and suffering are part of the Christian life and we will sacrifice as need be when we are moved by the Spirit to place others needs in front of our own. What is so very dangerous is when you move in these directions apart from the Holy Spirit. This is so often an afterthought in GCx philosophy. As implied in this message, if you wait to be moved by the Spirit, you will never sacrifice anything.

Having these messages can be confusing because they put the cart before the horse. I believe they are reverting to the old covenant standards. The speaker means well, and there are some good principles, but his application points are to get people to give up things - not know Christ deeper. As I step back and compare the GCx philosophy to Scripture, I see a consistent disconnect which I think is related to pursuing behavior change rather than true intimacy with Christ.

The GCx philosophy for discipleship is, "If you are going to be a disciple, you need to give up everything you have. If you love Jesus, you will obey His commandments; so obey Him if you love Him. If you want to see the kingdom move forward, you have to do your part to evangelize". If we read these passages of Scripture through an old covenant lens, then these passages of doing which are so often spoken of will be applied in this manner.

If you look at the passages through the lens of a God who is in control and calls us into intimacy, the application looks like this:

• As I know Him deeper, I see opportunity to bless others more and I consider everything loss compared to knowing Him. When the events of my life lead to loss, my life displays that I have greater treasure than the things of this world.

• As I grow in my relationship with my God, I obey Him more. The reason is because as I come to know Him more, I see His beauty and His goodness and His mercy towards me. I am amazed by His love for me and I begin to love Him in return. I love Him because He first loved me and as a result, I trust Him more and I begin to obey Him more.

• As I move forward in life, walking with Him, I see every aspect of my life being testimony of my life for my Lord. I see more opportunities to share Him with others and I give testimony of Him more often and with greater variety.

These are things that I realized fully only after I was away from GCx. I feel compassion towards the leaders there because they do not trust the testimony of those who live and are moved by the Spirit. It is because they have a human philosophy at the heart. My feeling was that the thinking of so many leaders was that if you wait for the Spirit to move you, nothing will get done. It is better to move and ask the Spirit to join you.

Application of this message again was that we are not doing enough or sacrificing enough (and of course, there was an example of people playing video games and another of taking a pay cut). Minute 50 of the message brought out the "we" (human responsibility) aspects again. You leave this message feeling like you haven't done enough and make no doubt about it, that was the intention of the speaker. The person who takes this message to heart will move because they feel guilty and as if they are not doing enough!

[Grace Abounding]

I read this in My Utmost for His Highest and I was reminded of your post:

Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God. Service becomes a natural part of my life. God brings me into the proper relationship with Himself so that I can understand His call, and then I serve Him on my own out of a motivation of absolute love. Service to God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is an expression of my nature, and God’s call is an expression of His nature. Therefore, when I receive His nature and hear His call, His divine voice resounds throughout His nature and mine and the two become one in service. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and out of devotion to Him service becomes my everyday way of life.