I like people! I love watching God work among us. He is both generous as well as mighty. The church is a marvelous combination of our weaknesses and His opportunities.
There are more things I don't know than I do. That doesn't bother me. I'm still in kindergarten in learning; this doesn't discourage me. One area grieves me big. It isn't the sin of actions but the sin of unbelief.
A grievous doctrine slipped into camp decades back and the church pays the price today. Someone convinced others of us that we were the only ones who knew, served, and worshipped God correctly. An arrogance began to poorly form which said to our off-spring, Worry not that you don't know God and that you don't feed from His Word. The main thing is don't do church wrong during the Sunday morning hour. A preservation-of-the-hour evolved.
This misshaped direction continually breeds a weak and empty people. I write not from criticism; but from grief. Too many who are absolutely dear individuals have been trained without a relationship with God. These might be the ones who are as seed sown along the road. There is no understanding of the Word, yet they are devoted to sitting in buildings with the right name on them.
Michael Molinos wrote in 1675, Experience has shown that many believers, even after 50 years of external exercise, are void of God. They are also full of themselves, having nothing of the true spiritual man except the name. That observation was made 334 years ago.
I'm neither disappointed nor angered toward those who would fit this zone. Some are my very dear friends. I mourn for them for a life without God has to be miserable. However church without God causes extreme lament.
Among our efforts may we continue to teach from the Bible with emphasis on knowing the Christ of the Bible....John 5:39-42.
2 comments:
Thank you, Terry! We need a generation of cycle breakers. How about generations? Daddies, mommies, grandpas, grandmas, great-grandpas, and great-grandmas who want to be "friends of God"... Spirit walking, transformed friends of God...yes, in the churches of Christ!!! I am a member of a congregation of believers who truly want to be "friends of God". Yet, many of our number are first generation christians! They "get it"! I invite you to read about the Pitman church of Christ in the May edition of the Christian Chronicle.
well said! I am of that generation... I was taught that very lesson, and am trying very very hard to break that cycle with my girls. But decades of indoctrination are difficult to overcome.... and I continue to try. thank you, as usual for striking the nail directly on its head!
tm
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