Tuesday, July 2, 2013

An Unholy Mix

     Whatever is your master you become it's slave.  Beware then if church is your master.  There is such a thing as spiritual abuse and it can come sometimes wrapped in a subtle package.
     Jesus came to set people free and if you are now yoked with things that tend to weigh you down even if it is in the name of doing good, then perhaps you're doing needs to be re-evaluated.
      I have thought much over the last 30 years of just what it is that Jesus wanted from me/us.  For most of those 20 years I spent attached to a community of believers with one man more or less directing 100-200 people in things that were at best questionable and I never in that time challenged it.  Why? Because I believe there was an unholy mix of spiritualism mixed with men's manipulation of what they thought God wanted.  In the midst of teachings on biblical principles there arose a tendency to start to manipulate people's lives in the micro managing aspect.  This caused major problems only seen "down the road" or with 20/20 hindsight.  People married the wrong spouse, took the wrong jobs, were counseled to leave jobs of security only to face disaster months later and others were counseled to" Wait on the Lord to  (mature) some-times years for their spouse...(that was me) and in so doing started to ruin the natural love and affections that were already in place long before "counseling."  There were divorces, deaths, severe injuries, miscarriages, and poverty.  This does not sound like a healthy church.  But yet there was great music, great worship, great fellowship yet there was so much trouble along with it and it never made sense.  Yes I knew the devil opposes us yet this seemed even more insidious.  Hidden and unexplained happenings that took it's toll on people years later.  This was the "other gospel being preached" that Paul warned about in Galations.  I wondered if God fought against us in the midst of this to break the yoke that was being laid on us in our ignorance.
     This type of "shepherding" was on a national scale in the late seventies and eighties.  Those who started this movement have long since repented of the damage it had wreaked in many non-denominational communities  and hopefully disbanded this type of eldership in the body of Christ.
    What Christ actually wanted was a people free of all the trappings of legalisms and all the bondage that came along with it.  In an effort to serve Christ many became slaves to performing for those above them in the name of supporting the ministry.  Paul warned the Christians in his Churches not to Lord over those who they had charge over.  A clear and distinct warning, because men tend to turn the gospel upside down and invert the true nature of it.  Programs, methods, prosperity doctrines and the like do not set people free, they are only additives that begin to take the place of a simple gospel.  (But a gospel infused with great power.)
     In order to follow Christ, pray, seek his peace, get humble, and find a Church that is gospel centered rather than man centered and you will begin to feel free.  Serve those you may not like, walk that extra mile, give freely if you can, and do not let pressure tactics be your motivation under any circumstances, even in the church.  Most of all spend time in the Word of God and it will re-orient you to the things that God thinks are important.
   Christ placed a warning in the book of Revelations: "Not to add or take away anything in the scroll to the churches.  He always knew men's hearts and it was a warning to us not to manipulate the word of God and thereby manipulate those under and in the house of God.
 16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
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