On A Personal Note
On A Personal Note
"forsake not the assembling of yourselves" Hebrews 10:25
John 21
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
"Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
16 Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all
things; you know that I love you."
18 Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.
PERSONAL NOTE FROM THE HOST
I love all churches because any effort to build people's faith is a worthy cause. I don't want to imply that any particular church is being singled out here as I have found similarities to these needs to be prevalent in nearly every belief system, a multitude of churches and every denomination I have experienced. Personally, I can not regularly attend a church that does not recognize and respect the endurance of love when I have spent years in witnessing to people who eventually accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. When a commitment of witnessing to someone, who “voluntarily” visits any church, culminates in the church expressing rejection, especially collectively, of their young but very sincere faith in God, it is a violation of everything Jesus taught. (Matthew 25:40 …Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me.)
The joy of the Lord is the believers’ strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and such insensitivity by being a stumbling block to a new believer’s faith is not scriptural. To imply or tell someone that they are not acceptable to God or can not be saved with their current understanding, if it causes them to believe they are not and can not be saved, is to condemn them and places the condemners in danger of judgment themselves. (Matthew 18:6 But whoever offends one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for them that a millstone would be hung around their neck, and they would be drowned in the deepest part of the sea.)
I have heard several church leaders say that they want the congregation to witness and bring newcomers in. They speak of how God is leading them to reach out to people who are not like themselves. It is a message obviously directed from the Spirit of God because I testify in earnest that I have personally witnessed it’s consistency in numerous churches nationwide and speculate that it has been expressed in a high percentage of churches that I have not been witness to.
TO NOT BE LIKE TRADITIONAL CHURCHGOERS IS:
To be unfamiliar with church and therefore not be use to implications of compulsory participation
To feel betrayed if they are told God loves them more than we can love ourselves; then feel rejected when told they are not acceptable to God
To be lead to believe that salvation, church attendance, and participation are free then told that God requires more from them than to desire to grow in faith or that their faith does not measure up to God’s expectations
To be enthused about gaining new hope of great faith in God, likely for the first and only time in their life, then being judged for their new and naturally delicate faith
Recently, I visited all services of a local church for several weeks. Not unlike a few times before, I was searching for a local church of open and honest people of faith. I found open arms and honest faith. But, as the weeks progressed I found the faith to be very limited.
To say the least, it is deeply difficult to point out failures of any church; especially this one, where I’ve felt very close to many regular attendees since childhood. It touches the core of everything I believe about Jesus Christ.
I love the Pastor and everybody in the church dearly and wouldn’t want to offend anyone or cause strife. In fact, it even hurts to think that for me to not continue attending might cause someone any personal struggles. But as at times before, I feel that I must not continue even though it means that there is nowhere else to go. No matter how hard I’ve tried to find a church to settle in and be a part there is one thing I can cheat myself and settle with.
But first, I must say that I was struggling with a smaller issue before the final issue surfaced. When I use to be in church leadership I made the mistake of compulsory participation. I didn’t realize for several years that I was running most new believers, and some old believers, off by pushing them feel like they had to participate in various church activities. The problem was not that people shouldn’t do things in and for church, but that I made them feel like they had to be a part; possibly even to be saved.
That realization taught me that I must use a yard-stick of measuring my beliefs and expectation up with who I am trying to reach for Christ. Jesus did not put expectations on people that they were unable to bear. So, if I can not see someone who is totally unfamiliar with church, or someone who has nothing and living on scraps in an alley somewhere, being able to follow what I’m saying or doing; then Christ would not demand such of them.
If we had to invest in order to get a return of salvation then no one would be saved. He had to do it all and anyone who feels that they have any worthiness can not be saved. If anyone thinks they could meet any expectations of God then they are fooling themselves because God’s righteousness makes our righteousness bogus and it is only He who chose to accept all of us into His Kingdom. The lowest will be first in the kingdom and anyone who uses the Word of God to appear that anything could make one person more acceptable to God than another will cause them be placed last and in judgment with those being sent away from heaven.
I apologize because I am not trying to condemn anyone. These issues test my faith more than anything because I see so many people left out of church; which Christ bought. I have witnessed to a multitude of people who have been driven away by church-goers condescending comments. Street people are very different from pretty much all past church-goers; especially those who Spirit-Filled churches refuse to witness to without condemnation and fear of uncleanness.
Acts 10
28 And Peter said unto them, You know that it is unlawful for a person who is a Jew to keep company, or visit someone from another nation; but God has showed me that I should not call anyone common or unclean.
29 So I came to you without hesitation, as soon as I was asked: so I ask why you have sent for me?
Acts 10 says to call no one unclean. Jesus hugged lepers, hung out with publicans, and told people that their faith made them whole even though nobody can comprehend the power of God. Jesus even believed in leaving the ninety and nine to care for anyone who could not feel like s/her could remain a part of the rest of the group; and would not have returned until the one could be saved.
He gave all to come into our hearts and promised that He would come in if we only open the door; not just if we had any ability to do something better, or could change to meet the expectations that are popular among His other sheep. If there is anyone who could not be saved regardless of our abilities then Christ’s efforts were in vain. At the very least there should be no such things as compulsory participation with any impression that it is required to be part of church.
This brings me to my main point. The Spirit of God was evident in the service, as has been common in this type of church services. But when such a sermon begins it does not have the same effectiveness of the power of God. Not only is the zeal in the tone of voice very much different, the body language seems to change to defensiveness for what was being said; and the attitude takes on a stubbornness that seems to lead the congregation into a rivalry “better than others” kind of hype. I’ve witnessed this type of corrosion of high spirits into stubbornness during such displays innumerable times, and it lacks faith in God’s abilities to reach and save those who don’t meet up to the standards of “the faithful”.
Am I better than anyone there or anywhere else? Far from it, Jesus called all to be humble and not portray a better idea of ourselves than anyone else. The saving power of Christ is in believers, along with the riches in glory by Christ Jesus; but that makes believers no better or more worthy than those in the worst circumstances. Because of this, the Spirit of God in me always gives definitive resistance to the message being given.
Many times it seems like such sermons are not in the heart of the preacher. It’s like the message was taught the preacher by someone who had been hurt or made fun of by those who would criticize anyone different than themselves. Or, maybe such a sermon is given to gain the congregations favor. It’s not fun to be criticized by playground bullies any more than a church. They both seem to have taken on the same roll in people’s lives and my own experience is proof of that. Such sermons are more like a criticizing session than the ministry of reconciliation every believer is called to.
We try not to put God in a box but we define marriage by government requirements instead of the Word of God. Government defines marriage as a registered corporation and retains the right to take children away from parent if the government entity, the married couple, doesn’t raise those “wards of the state” as the government sees fit. This is why a minister (or anyone) who marries people under legal certification is deemed an “agent of the state”.
Though I struggle with this issue I don’t see it as being a problem of disobedience to Christ. However, to use lacking legal marriage as a tool to imply that anyone can not be worthy of salvation is a real problem because salvation does not depend on any civic law at all. This would make citizenship more of a religion above God’s authority. If a church doesn’t believe in particular types of marriage it is fine, but I have not found any scripture to advocate compulsory taxation of all while withholding provisions and benefits to many.
This isn’t a question of being a Christian nation, this is a documented humanist nation and has been for decades, it is a question of stealing from citizens pay to supply other citizens with the lifestyle they desire with or without faith. Sounds sort of like the Israelites treatment in Egypt to me. Jesus didn’t care who was right or wrong; He only faulted those who have for withholding from those who have not. When He advised those who have not, those who ridiculed them did not get the satisfaction of being validated because Jesus loved them all, accepted all, and did not encourage any dissention; in fact Jesus did not stop any of them from believing in His provision of salvation at all.
Many times, like viscous Chewawahs, small churches are more likely to present condescending popular opinions than larger, more adjusted churches; especially Charismatic churches. Yes, some large churches are more condemning than loving; but without knowing the numbers, there’s most likely only one large Spirit-Filled church for every thousand with less than three hundred attending. Churches in the United States are not having revival like other countries. It’s not because the others are Christian nations; no country where revival is flourishing started out as a Christian nation and most still aren’t. The problem is that US believers are making the same mistake as God’s people in Ezekiel 16 made. God blessed His people so that they could bless others and were expected to do so; heathens, street people, and all. They had all sorts of wealth and ease but saw themselves as better, or more worthy than those who didn’t have a meal to eat.
God’s people loved living with ease, just as most who claim to have great faith try to do now. God’s people were so enveloped in their blessing that their error made Sodom look good. Even Sodom’s people didn’t do anything God identified anywhere near as bad as the chosen people did in Ezekiel 16. It’s more than obvious in this scripture that God was putting His people to shame over their lack of consideration for putting anyone down whether they were the chosen people or not.
When are churches going to learn that weeds must grow with the crops because only God can possibly know the difference in people’s heart? I have come to strongly believe that as the churches become more and more unable to reach the lost by focusing on reconciliation rather than condemnation the closer the end becomes. If it weren’t for other countries being in revival the end would have come already.
They aren’t bringing people in by checking people’s lifestyles at the door.
They aren’t bringing them in by listing God’s requirements for their abilities to change.
They are binging people in by sharing a sincere spirit of faith then leaving the rest up to God.
It’s way to easy to think that we can decide who will go to heaven, this is why it is so popular and hard to stop trying to think that we can.
I don’t mean to sound negative or condemning; I apologize with everything in me if I do. I just know without any doubt that God has miraculously lead me to bring a multitude of people to Christ that can not go to traditional churches. They can not meet traditional Spirit-Filled churches expectations and many of them go to non-charismatic churches just because they can without being ganged up on by popular criticism and doubt of their salvation. If I didn’t witness the miracle of salvation in them and know how deep, heartfelt, and true Christ is in their life then I wouldn’t struggle with these things in churches that I love so much.
Regardless, I love all churches and pray for more of God’s blessings in them. I don’t attend a church for any period of time just to test the water for likes and dislikes; there will always be both. But I simply have and look for a secure conviction for God and the World that only God knows people’s heart; and knowing that supporting adding to or taking any part form the totally free and simple gift of salvation would get my name erased from the Book of Life once we all get to heaven (Revelation 22:17-19).
Traditional churches have been so busy counting sheep that they were sleeping
when the majority escaped from the church box.
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Don’t put God in a box because when you really want to be with God
you may never get out of it and God is not there.
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This page was last updated on: September 16, 2007
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