Are You in a Court or a Church?
My eyes were high but heart low as I sat under a most troubling 'Christian' heresy,
An academic luminary who is far from the New Testament's measure common and un-schooled men boldly (blindly?) taught me and the other fifty gathered before him, that church attendance was a result of my debt to Jesus ... NOT! (Gee ~ was I un-encouraged!!!)
He taught that again church attendance is rule keeping; law still smothered love.
No mention of the desire to worship, no thought of the joy of fellowship, no reflection upon encouragement.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Where the spirit of the Lord is - there is freedom. BUT - where there spirit of the Lord isn't - there is bondage.
'Empty rituals ... guilt provoking messages ... demanding performance, misplaced priorities, authoritarian leadership ...' (Wayne Jacobsen) are all symptoms of a church in chains.
NOTE: Ritual is the spiritual retreat of the religiously comfortable.
Look for the bondage - religion claims every moment of every day; controlling, shaming and manipulating. Such a church is a void to the counselling Holy Spirit of Jesus. The unholy spirit of the Pharisee is present.
Church attendance is to worship, to build each other up, not to remove debts or disassemble them.
If your church shows you law while your heart screams for love, you are in a court not a church.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)
Today's Soul Snippet:
Jesus only ever desired a relationship of grace, for guilt never invites a relationship.
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