I’m not going to spell out my church resume to you. You can lecture me about Christian responsibilities all you want. I have a lot of experience in a plethora of church environments, so there isn’t much you can post that will enlighten me.
You want to tell me how much I am in disobedience with God, I will counter that with how our churches are in disobedience with God for their love for money, placing importance on idols and rituals, political power, negative influence over peoples’ lives, abuses, doctrine that are unbiblical, the list is pretty long. Today’s Christian leaders have institutionalized our faith to a point where I can’t distinguish it from the churches of Jesus’ day.
Matthew 23!
I asked these questions at large, not the one directed to you, because too many churches are begging for members, rather than people pursuing the church for membership. Seems kind of backwards, something so great, begging people to become part of it, when they should be beating down the door to be part of it.
If it’s a consumer based mentality, that it’s all about you, and your felt needs, that leads to a come and go, as you please mentality, and probably a lack of church discipline.
If a member of a body is not present, then the body suffers due to that absence. You can’t be there to serve someone, and vice versa they can’t serve you. If you love people then your available to them, and want to be with them.
In your circumstance, your comments left me guessing if you are someone that got hurt by a church, or someone that has a consumer mentality.
What I heard now, was a lack of responsibility for your actions(Sin) and blame shifting. If you point it at me I am going to point it to the church. (Adam: It's the woman’s fault Eve; it's the serpents fault) So what! What are you doing to make a church better? (Rhetorical question)
If your leading a gospel centered life, you’re required to forgive a fellow sinner whether it was a member or a pastor. Christ forgave you of so much, and you can’t overlook a sinner acting like a sinner?
I always get nervous when people try to justify their sin, rather than repent of it. I was an expert at it!
You owe me nothing, including the time of day, but if I hit a nerve
maybe the issue isn’t really with me?
As long as people are involved the church will always be less than perfect, but every believer is supposed to have at least one gift, you can’t pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get plugged in somewhere and use that to Gods glory?
As to your Mathew 23, another reason for the church, is to keep people in the circle of protection of the church, so as they are not decieved as to their own salvation. We are called to gently admonish one another.
I am so glad one friend of mine had the guts to call me out on a sin issue I had, which lead to my repentanace.
"Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
Be thankfull the Lord brought a circumstance into your life to speak truth to you, even if it came from another sinner.
Seriously you should thank him, and ask him to help you with that rebelious heart issue.
