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After I left the Church System (not True Church)

After I left the Church System

(not True Church)

Out of the Church System

Being new to California, most all my friends and social life was wrapped up in the church we were attending – besides people I interacted with at work. My husband and I had met some nice people and were very plugged in to the church life. Leaving wasn’t easy but we knew what God was leading us to do. The more we read and sought in the Word, the clearer it became to us what would become of the church system (not true church) and we started to see it happening around us. It wasn’t our reasons but God’s leading through His Word. On the flip side, He was drawing us deeper into His Word. In brief this is some of what we read and saw, the church system as a whole is leading people to depend on the system not God, to cultivate and nurture a relationship with the system not God, to trust in the system for spiritual nourishment not God. The church often tries to play the role the Spirit should be playing in people’s lives.

Once I started to see what was happening in the church and how blinded I had been to it all, I had to follow God’s lead to another fellowship. As an old church goer, but fairly new true follower of Christ, I needed to establish God as my foundation, something the church always had been. I had trusted the church for my spiritual growth, to “feed” me, my source of truth, and so on. I thought God was my source, but honestly my relation to Him was through the Church. But now a shift was occurring in my life. I had been greatly influenced by others, but now my influence was God’s Word. I was new at cultivating a relationship with God, but I was on the path to building a foundation in Him, something I desperately needed, we all need.

After we left, there was one woman who beside my husband and family was my “fellowship”. It was that way for several years. I prayed about being in the fellowship God desired for me, but nothing manifested. I resolved to trust God that He was able to lead me where He wanted me. During those years, God and I developed a tremendous relationship. He truly became my Rock, my Teacher, comfort and counselor. I needed those “alone” years so that He truly became my foundation, not someone or something else. Over time, my beliefs shifted from being grounded in human teachers words to God’s Word – and that changed everything.

Once that foundation was established, then God started to bring into my life other godly women for me to “fellowship” with. It wasn’t the formal gathering of being inside a church, but souls hungry and desirous coming together real, open and honest. We talked about the tough issues, scripture, what God was teaching us. In that environment encouragement, prayer, exhortation, praise, and worship from the heart came alive. I began to understand what true fellowship was about. I think we get too locked in to how we think fellowship should be and we don’t trust God to truly lead us to what is best for us and those around us – and that various for each one of us.

Many of us have been so ingrained about what fellowship is that we are blinded to other true fellowship that God has in store for us. We get wrapped up in being in the “right” one because of what others have said that if we aren’t in the church system we’ll fall away. We don’t trust God to protect and provide. We push, seek and all the while neglect to trust God and develop a relationship with Him. People are often more concerned about being in the right fellowship than cultivating a real relationship with God grounded in truth – crazy how backwards everything is.

Our life is one of faith and faith is all about trust. The question is who is our faith in really? Those years alone with God put all that to the test as well as refined it. God knows what we need. But we need to follow His lead not man’s “should dos” . We need to abide in His Word. We need to trust that He can provide and protect us no matter where we are – and that level of trust comes from taking time to develop a relationship with Him.

This is a bit of side note, but relevant. I’m having an emotional morning . . . last night I had a horrible dream. It was weird and futuristic, but the basis is there was an earthquake and I was separated from my two cats. It was days before I could get to the place where they were. My heart felt like it was torn in a million pieces. I went searching for them among all the madness as everyone was trying to take care of their own. I finally found Malcolm curled up sleeping in a corner. I hardly recognized him. Dirt covered his white fur. I picked him up. He was much smaller because he hadn’t eaten or had water for days. He was weak and limp in my arms. I was trying to find him some water, but couldn’t find any and at the same time find Sophie, his sister. She is the more frightened one. I looked everywhere. I found a cat I thought was her, but wasn’t. I carried Malcolm around running looking frantically for her and I woke never finding her.

My heart is still aching in my chest. Its amazing how dreams create real emotions in you. But the thought of them so helpless, dependent, defenseless, and needing me to care for them and not being able to was overwhelming. Even telling my husband about my dream this morning tears started to fill my eyes. I love those little guys.

The love I feel is a nit compared to the love that God feels for us, and this is where this is relevant to this topic. We are just as helpless, dependent, defenseless, and needing His to care constantly. God loves us so incredibly much. But so often we doubt His love and don’t trust it. We trust man and those around us more. We don’t trust that He will really care and protect us. So, in our beliefs, we never fully step into that place under His wing. It was a hard dream, but reminded me about the depth of His love for His children.

I know many are struggling with this whole church situation. God loves you so much. We can trust His lead and that wherever we are He will guard and protect if we seek and abide in Him and His Word. The end is upon us. These days are tough. Things are changing just as Christ warned us. But God promised to always be there and protect and provide and He will not let His promises fail to His children who He loves beyond words. The journey God has lead me on has been exactly what I needed. It has been incredible. But I needed to trust Him and I was able as I understood His love for me, which came from abiding in His Word and cultivating a real relationship with Him.

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Of Law or Of Grace

Of Law or Of Grace

 

I read a post several weeks ago. The woman said she felt such a strong disconnect with mainstream Christianity that she wished to be called something other than Christian to denote the separation.  I resonated with her comment and as I thought about it, I see a clear separation in one underlining belief that affects everything.

Though called by the same name, there are two different groups of Christians who couldn’t be further apart; those who are under the law and those who are under grace.

Those under the law go to church, tithe, try to act like a good person, participate in ministries, and go to Bible Studies because that is what they should do as Christians. If they don’t then they feel guilt however subtle. If they do they feel good about themselves.  Their faith has become a religion of works earning their place in heaven or in God’s heart. Their obedience is out of fear of God pulling away and withdrawing His blessings. In essence their actions are bribes to receive His good favor. Deuteronomy 10:17

Plain Truth Magazine put out an interesting article this month on churchaholics, which describes this group. The article is worth the read a couple of times.

In contrast, the other group lives solely by grace. They focus on abiding in God’s truth, nurturing their relationship and whatever good comes out is the fruit of His spirit within them and not by their power of will or efforts.  Because it is His work and not theirs, there is no guilt in doing or not doing.  What they do is about desire not raw obedience. Obedience pertains not to bribing God to bless them or be good to them; it has to do with how close they are to God. They experience blessings because God is in their lives. The closer they are to Him the more they experience all He is. He is their reward; their everything.

Which group is correct?

The covenant we have with God is established on grace. In Christ there is nothing we can add to our salvation or sanctification. Exodus 31:13 It is the second part where the do-gooders go sideways off the path of life. We enter God’s kingdom by grace, we grow in it by grace and we become great by grace. We do nothing. Matthew 18:3-4 Everything comes from God’s spirit working in and through us. We don’t work for God, He works through us. Nothing is forced, earned or contrived.

When we start to add anything to the covenant of grace then we are trespassers to His covenant, and are no longer abiding in it. Matthew 25:29 If we aren’t living, breathing and acting from grace, then we aren’t living.

The doctrine of grace is not easy to accept and follow in a world where our value and acceptance is based on what we do. Under grace it is disobedient to try to work, earn, and prove. Hebrews 4:11 We all fall at times into the trap of works, but what are we striving for grace or works? Every other religion is based on works and many Christians have joined them. Therefore they have a different religion with a different god.  2 Corinthians 11:4 That’s the separation.

And the tricky part is the majority of those who say they are under grace are actually under the law. The masses think they are under grace because leaders tell them they are, but if they examine their deep-seeded motives they would see they aren’t. The two groups talk the same lingo, but the foundation of their motivations, actions, and judgments denote a huge separation.

How could they be so misled? The legalism is disguised, subtle and in what people praise, not necessarily say. It is couched in friendly, loving words, sweet smiles and jovial countenances, but it is law all the same. You should be in church.  Do whatever you do, but make sure you come to church. (smiles)

They are like your sweet but over controlling mother, playing the guilt trip card. If you were a good Christian then you would be in church. Guilt is a very powerful motivator.  We do whatever we can to remove its presence in our lives. And most churches are employing this tactic to maintain their costly lifestyle and doing so they are breaking their covenant of grace with God and bringing many down with them.

We come to God with our lives one way, grace. We either live by His covenant or not at all.

I think the church was at one time an instrument of God to grow His people, much like Egypt. Deuteronomy 5:6, 26:5-6 But like Egypt it has become a house of bondage with its oppression of should to’s. God is calling His people to Him in grace and those who know the true Shepherd’s voice will follow it.


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Leaving Organized Religion: Part 1

Leaving Organized Religion

Part 1

 

This post and the next one are longer than most, but I wanted to share with you part of my journey that got me where I am today.

Several years ago, something in my husband’s spirit and mine wasn’t resonating with the church we were attending. After volleying back and forth about what we were feeling, we decided to take break. We needed to see clearly. We resolved to dwell in God’s pure truth away from the doctrines of man, his opinions, philosophies and cares and explore what we were sensing.

In the quiet away from the opinions of man we probed God’s heart . . .what is going on? Why are we feeling this way? We had been deeply integrated into the church; participating in Bible studies, home groups, and helping out at the church. We had built friendships and had become a part of their lives as they had ours. Over the next couple of months, God moved things more into focus. After we were gone for a couple of months, we decided to return to see if the Spirit would confirm once more what we felt. How patient He is with us. It was clear, leave. The break ended up being an exodus from the church system.

In the following months, the questioning looks and tone of disapproval from my previous pew pals revealed what was in their thoughts, I had fallen to the wayside. And rightly so, many who leave the church leave God too. They think the two are one, which is a grave travesty. It was difficult knowing the opposite was true. It felt strange to be the odd man out, but I knew I was doing what God wanted and that is what mattered most.

With no one else to depend on, the Spirit became my trusted teacher. With the Bible and a piece of paper, I poured out my heart and began to listen for the first time. I wrote down my thoughts, fears, prayers, and questions. I read, sought, asked, and waited on the answers. God started to unfold the truth before my eyes. My trust in Him was tested, refined and strengthen and in time my relationship with Him grew into something I had never imagined, something wonderful, real, powerful and amazing. He taught me percept upon percept and started to put together His truths into a perfect puzzle of understanding. It was like someone had lifted the veil from His Word and the truth started pouring out.

As for the church, I continued to seek for understanding to why God didn’t want me in the church. When I say church I am speaking of the Institutional church, the church system, not the true body of believers who hold the spirit of God. They are two different things. Churches are full of believers and not. I wondered if other believers where experiencing a similar thing.  After some searching around, I found other believers were feeling a similar thing. One in particular that resonated with how I felt was Len Hjalmarson. Then I thought something is going on and I dug deeper.

At dubious moments, I wondered if I had heard God correctly. Is the church that far off that I shouldn’t be there? The church has always had major flaws, it is made up of humans after all. And I haven’t met a perfect one yet. Those flaws are what kept Paul so busy as he tried to keep things straight. So what is the difference now? But every time I asked, the answer was the same. Piece by piece the answers started to come and He is still putting the pieces together.

To get a better perspective of any situation you have to pull back to get a bird’s eye view. Having been out of the system for about four years now, I see a change happening. In general, the church is moving further away from its original purpose, it has become corrupt and overgrown with weeds of lies. Lies that steal life instead of give it. What is good has become profane, a cherished relationship has become a set of rules for moral living, and freedom is traded for bondage.

As a result of what is occurring in the church, a shift is happening. God is moving and becoming our sanctuary, not a system corrupted by man’s doctrine. Just as He said He would in Ezekiel. (Chapter 34) The church is no longer the one to feed, nourish, provide and protect His people. He is calling His people to Himself to be their Rock. With the wide spread availability of the Word and the Spirit residing in the souls of His people, God has moved in as the Good Shepherd, Teacher, Provider, and Protector. He is opening up the scriptures to laymen, like me, and is revealing Himself in mighty ways, outside of the church system.

To be continued . . .