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Post Group: Elite Member
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The system "church" as we know it, is guaranteed to conform you, shape you, program your thinking, and keep you boxed in to someone else's religious works.
Their words and programs become your words and programs. And if they have departed from scripture, it is as Jesus said to the church in His day: "If the blind be leaders of the blind, they
shall BOTH fall into the ditch".
You will sit in a pew and follow the programs, classes and positions, or maybe even become a credentialed minister, all of which will never bring you into the mature image
of Jesus Christ.
Read the gospels and especially the Book of Acts and see if your church does what you read in scripture. Are you seeing healing? Devils cast out? The Word confirmed with signs and wonders (like the ones in scripture, not the Lakeland-Toronto-Brownsvillel kind).
Like most of us,you will be conformed to the image of church rather than be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
For years we wrestled with finding our place and calling in the church
system.
Being the loyal, obedient followers that we were, we did
the programs, door knocking, Bus ministry, Friendship House, G-12 School of
Leaders, and many other wasted church growth programs!!!!!
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We invited family and friends to children’s plays and children's church music
recitals.
-
We invited them to Mother's Day breakfasts, church banquets, Easter programs, Christmas Programs, Harvest Parties, church Plays, featured speaker events, and "Special" services, all done in our efforts to “hook ‘em” into regular attendance.
Those attendance gimmicks were referred to as “bait”, and it kept us
busy. We thought they were an effort to "GROW THE KINGDOM" (of our
assembly), -without exception, every one of these programs failed to deliver.
We had friends in other churches doing similar things in their church, -good, sincere
Christians who wanted to please the Lord
How long will you endure? How many circles will you run around?
If you stay in the church system, it will never end...... And you will not walk in the power, authority, holiness, Christ-likeness, or come to the knowledge of the
Truth as long as you are a member of the body of the church
system.
Stories abound locally of the “church hoppers”; those who flit from church to church
just like butterflies, all in a search for the right pastor, right group of Christians, or correct church government.
We did "visitation", sold peanut brittle for fund raisers, raffles, bake auctions, fireworks sales, church yard sales and bar-b-cues, car washes, and countless other works to support "our" church.
Note the prophecy of Ezekiel:
Ez. 34:
5-6 “And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the beasts of the field, and were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill:
(church to church, denomination to denomination) yea, my sheep were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and there was none that did search or seek after
them.
–Certainly not the hirelings…
Five years after leaving "church", with Christ as our Head and The Lord as
our Teacher, the search is over.
It is astounding and truly miraculous how many people a disciple of Christ can effectively minister to once they are outside the box of "church". We are continually amazed at the folks from around the world who contact us and share their similar testimonies of the blessing of leaving "church."
No longer are many of the "called out" ones sitting on a pew, working on a
building, keeping a 10-11am Sunday tradition, or thinking by inviting them to "church" they are effectively witnessing.
Christ is bringing us into Ephesians 4:13, “Till we all come in the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:”
-Something which will never happen in the fragmented, competitive, divided church world.
only by:
1. leaving The Apostate Church System (after recognizing IT for what IT is)
2. getting the system purged and cleansed out of our hearts ( a Work of the Holy
Spirit leading and guiding into all truth -John 14:26), and
3. growing in faith, holiness, and the knowledge of the truth as you walk out your
salvation and return to the scriptures.
Leaving "church" is never an excuse to indulge the flesh, retain malice toward those you leave behind, or become spiritually lazy.
Once before, in the “last days” of natural Israel, Jesus was sent "to the lost sheep of the House of Israel". Now, the Lord is calling to the “lost sheep” of SPIRITUAL Israel.
Ezekiel 34:11 For thus saith the Lord: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.
12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day (the dark day when the WORD of God is obscured).
The coming days will usher in great opportunity for Christ's ministry through His people apart from the church kingdoms. The signs of a believer Jesus gave us in Mark 16:16-20 will be fully restored to His bride who is "without spot or wrinkle" as we return to "the faith once delivered to the saints".
Edited by tntman : June 5, 2010, 12:43 pm
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