Glad to Be Hyper

All ministers endure criticism.  I'm grateful for the criticism I endure.

• Because I have drawn immense gospel comfort even in the midst of great grief; and, because I seek to find God Himself as the main pleasure in all my other pleasures, I've been incorrectly labeled hyper-spiritual
• Because (even though out of joy in and love for Christ) I share the Bible's intense concern for holiness, I've been incorrectly labeled a hyper-legalist
• Because I think that the second command teaches that we may only worship as God has commanded, and that John 4 teaches us that God's being Spirit and Christ having come demands a worshiping in truth whichmeans that the Scripture is the full content of our worship, I've been incorrectly labeled a hyper-biblicist
• Because I think that my part is to be obedient, faithful, zealous; and, I'm happy to leave the results of that to God, I've been incorrectly labeled a hyper-calvinist

The fact of the matter is that each of the things that have led to such incorrect labels are Scripturally true AND unusual in our churches today.  It is a little bit eerie that it is THE WORLD who should be finding:

• our gospel comfort incredible, 
• our love for God's law distasteful, 
• our Bible-commanded and Bible-saturated (and therefore Christ-preaching, Christ-mediating, Christ-ruling as our Prophet, Priest, and King) worship restrictive and uninspiring, 
• and our trust in God for results naive

Eerie as it is however.  If I am "hyper" in these things, then I am all the more grateful to God, for it is only by His grace that I ever could be.  I am much more naturally devastated by circumstances, uninterested in holiness, driven to worship according to and for fulfillment of my desires, and self-reliant for results.

In fact, were it not for the labels I get from some, a keen look into my own heart leads  me to consider myself far too tepid in each of these areas.  If hyper I seem to others, then with joy in God's grace, I'm glad to be hyper!