I decide to take a break from my overbearing homework, and while I was returning from the grocery store, I was pondering on churches. I have been so busy with my homework and other chores that I haven't had time, but wondered how it came up all of a sudden.
Western churches have some good points but it seems to be slipping fast from the foundation that it once claimed years ago. Messages and lifestyles have faded from the fear of God and demands to rest solely on its interpretation of the love of God. It avoids power, repentance and holiness and focuses so much that what it is taught and learned drifts further from the truth each passing time. It demands sinners sit in the pews without knowledge of sin. It has them forgiving sin that they don't even know what it is. We have congregations loving grace but not knowing where its power truly comes from. Pastors skate their way around the block doing what they can to avoid offending their congregation and those who provide their paycheck. Problem is are they are really building their kingdom with kingdom material...
Even with the issues I have battled in the last few years, I contemplate the time in Texas where the Holy Spirit showed up for a month, ministering to people and literally shutting down the pulpit while the pastor watched Him work. Even with the attitude I had around that time it was hard to avoid the Holy Spirit seeing Him minister. Men from halfway houses were being saved, even a Jewish woman ran down to the altar in mid-service demanding to know Jesus right then.
I am not looking for a perfect church, there is none. Some things have changed so much that it is close to being unrecognizable from fifty years ago. Sin is a dirty word, repentance is a word that seems unpronounceable from the pulpit, holiness standards have been lowered so much that it no longer resembles God's requirements but man's hope it will be enough.
Today's message of grace and love will not get us to the level God wants us to walk, but we don't care. We want mercy, but not willing to give it to others when they wrong us. It is sad we are wondering the desert believing we have already crossed the Jordan. Some haven't left Egypt yet.
Have more later, just a little bit to get off my chest and think where we are actually going instead of wondering how to get back on the path.
Jeremiah 6:16
Michael
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