Teaching Faith has Life Rafts · The Disciple Machine

Teaching Faith has Life Rafts

Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves

Thirty-two years ago, something in me began to feel wrong.

I was heavily involved in church. I loved serving and wanted to help the work of God move forward. But little by little, I started noticing things that troubled me.

At first, it was the teaching. I was hungry for Scripture, but the pastor seemed to be recycling outlines instead of digging into the Word. Paul told Timothy:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God… rightly dividing the word of truth.”

— 2 Timothy 2:15, KJV

Then came the issue of giving.

The pastor began saying we needed to push people to tithe ten percent to help the budget. At the time, I was chairman of International Ministries, and the church had a missions fund. So I asked a simple question: if we were going to ask the people to tithe, why shouldn’t the church tithe from its main fund into missions?

That suggestion went over like a lead balloon.

That is when my concern deepened. It was not just about money. It was about inconsistency. It felt like pressure was being placed on the people that leadership would not place on itself.

Jesus warned about religious leaders who:

“bind heavy burdens… and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”

— Matthew 23:4, KJV

The more I looked, the more troubled I became. My passion began dissolving. Sundays no longer felt like worship. They felt like sitting among modern-day Pharisees and Sadducees.

They called themselves a grace church, but much of what I experienced felt like works.

Not always from the pulpit. Sometimes it came through the groups — accountability groups, marriage groups, home fellowships. The message underneath seemed to be:

Do better.

Try harder.

Be a better Christian.

But I was not growing. I was sinking.

Paul asked the Galatians:

“Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

— Galatians 3:3, KJV

That was the question I wish someone had asked us.

I felt like a drowning man being told to swim harder, but no one was throwing me a life raft.

When I was a kid, I was once chased by a bull. People yelled, “Stop running and he’ll stop chasing you.” So I stopped running.

The bull did not stop chasing me.

That is what shallow religious advice can feel like. It may sound spiritual, but it does not rescue anyone. It gives commands without grace, pressure without power, and correction without Christ.

And when people are handed religion without rescue, anger can grow.

Jesus said:

“Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

— Matthew 10:16, KJV

For years, I thought being a good Christian meant ignoring what I saw. But Jesus never called His people to be naïve. He called us to be wise.

There is a kind of church culture that talks about grace but trains people through shame. It talks about discipleship but often means performance. It talks about accountability but sometimes uses accountability as a religious leash.

Paul warned:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

— Galatians 5:1, KJV

But here is where I have to be honest.

I saw real problems, but I did not always know how to carry them without letting them poison me. My concern was legitimate, but my anger was becoming dangerous.

Scripture says:

“Be ye angry, and sin not…”

— Ephesians 4:26, KJV

And James adds:

“For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”

— James 1:20, KJV

That verse cuts me.

Because even when my concern is right, my anger still has to be surrendered to God.

Discernment is necessary. Bitterness is deadly.

The answer is not to become naïve again. The answer is not to ignore hypocrisy, shallow teaching, or works-based religion. The answer is to become wise without becoming bitter.

Wise as a serpent.

Harmless as a dove.

See clearly.

Speak truthfully.

Reject bondage.

But do not let anger become your identity.

A drowning man does not need someone on the shore yelling, “Swim better.”

He needs rescue.

And that is what grace is.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith… not of works, lest any man should boast.”

— Ephesians 2:8–9, KJV

Grace does not merely tell us to change. Grace brings us to the One who changes us.

The church should never be a place where drowning people are scolded for not swimming better. It should be the place where Christ is held out as the life raft.

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