1 JOHN 2:15-16
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
One of my Facebook friends became very upset when his church decided to support homosexuality in the worst possible way- it endorsed same sex unions. For weeks now he has been pointing out the biblical offense this denomination is committing against YHWH. Of course, his writings are falling on deaf ears; the church had already decided to choose the pleasure of the flesh.
My friend’s church is not the only one that has gone secular. I have been a part of many churches and at some point I become restless and unable to stay. These churches do many good works and the people are very pleasant, some I still have contact with. I am in search of GOD not great songs or easily digested message.
DEUTERONOMY 4:29
But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
ISAIAH 55:6 -9
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
I know that there are no perfect people in the church or outside of the church and I admit to my own imperfections; that is not the issue. There should be some reasonable expectations of a place in which followers of Yeshua attend. Every church that represents Eloheem should promote the hearer to want to be more like Him and not them.
Let me be more specific.
First we must look closely at Deuteronomy and Isaiah. Each person must seek the Lord, not his church leader, not her denomination, not the church program. We are to seek Him while He can be found, which means there will be a time when we will not be able to find him no matter how hard we look. (Think about the story of the 10 virgins- 5 could not get in. Matthew 5:1-13) That should be reason enough to take Bible Study very seriously.
YHWH through His prophet Isaiah goes on to say: “ my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”. I believe this is where we get the difficulties from. Each church wants to share their opinions on what His ways are and the word has already informed us: our opinions are just that, our opinions. He has given us His Word and yet we have difficulty following it.
Before churches declared heaven and hell are real and you must decide where you want to go. Now the church is trying to help people cope with day to day problems. We have difficulty following His word because we are in the world and their words, the words of the world, make more sense to us. It is written: “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”. People no longer think about heaven or hell because of what is happening today. The church has evolved and fused the word of God into the ways of the world.
FOR EXAMPLE: The evolution of marriage
The church used to preach against fornication, adultery was frowned upon. Growing up in the 60’s I remember stories of adulterous church leaders; how often do you hear messages against fornication?
My first Bible lesson on homosexuality was from a homosexual man, he was in the hospital for surgery and I was working the night shift. He stayed awake all night going from the old covenant to the new covenant revealing the verses in the Bible that declared homosexuality was a sin. This gentleman’s lovers were all church leaders, some were married. That was in the late 70’s.
Over the years the church shied away from what I would consider real marriage counseling. How else would you explain the high divorce rate among Christians? No, it may not have been the gateway to same sex ‘marriages’ however it did facilitate the ability for many to redefine marriage.
Adultery is no big deal. No one is surprised when a church leader divorces his wife and marries someone else. Now, we are expected to accept a church leader being united with a person of the same gender.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (vs.9)
When I discuss the problems of large churches, the fact that a Pastor no longer has a direct relationship with the members, I am told: “That is what small groups are for.” I am told that real Bible teaching is done in small groups not on the Sabbath day in which the majority of people are present.
On the Sunday, or Saturday, when the people gather what is presented is a message that is not offensive, not controversial and not life changing. What many believers hear today is a fusion of today’s culture and something in the Bible that will not hurt the feelings of weak Christians.
Yeshua hurt people’s feelings.
Today what many see as a representation of Christianity is Fusion-Faith. There are churches that have made man’s thoughts YHWH’s thoughts and man’s ways YHWH’s ways.
2 PETER 2:1-2 NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
I do not shy away from church, I attend occasionally but I am not as active as I once was. As a small group leader I discovered it was more of a social club than a place to seek His face. The music is wonderful, the message is good but like going to a fast food restaurant, it feels you up temporarily. I no longer attend church to hear the word, I just go for fellowship.
Of recent times I have had more positive conversations sitting outside with neighbors discussing the Word. My understanding has been challenged, talking to unbelievers than it ever has in the decades of sitting in church, these conversations have forced me to study more. I am not trying to fuse my faith into a worldly life and like my friend I reject the church that is trying to force me to do so.
1 JOHN 2:16 THE VOICEwritten by Marsha L F Randolph
All the things the world can offer to you—the allure of pleasure, the passion to have things, and the pompous sense of superiority—do not come from the Father. These are the rotten fruits of this world.
NETTIE-OLOGY /NETTIE-ISM reflects the opinions of and is the soul property of the author MARSHA L F RANDOLPH. All rights reserved- do not use without permission. Disagreeing with what is written is not offensive to the author a disagreeable comment will be deleted.
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