Sometimes, when I stud Scripture, strange thoughts come to my mind. This morning, I was thinking about this: what was the order of worship at the synagogue Abraham attended? Why did God reject sacrifices He ordained? What was the font used in the bulletins at the churches in Ephesus? What was the order of service in the Church at Rome? Most of these are facetious and sarcastic (save the one about God rejecting the sacrifice), but I see people sincerely reject scripture and argue against it with scriptures (usually out of context) to defend positions they hold because their traditions, church services they’ve attended, or attitudes are built more on what they’re comfortable with than what the Scriptures actually say. Many of these brothers and sisters know the Bible backward and forward, but they tend to, and again, I believe, sincerely refute and argue changes that make them uncomfortable because they tend to lean on their own understanding.
There were no (to our knowledge) bulletins at Ephesus. Abraham did not attend synagogue, there are no records of ANY early church order of service, and God rejected sacrifices He ordained because a) they were not intended to replace the people’s love of Him, and b) they were being used to acquit someone of behaviors God rejected that were never really changed by the Sacrifice itself. The heart of the matter is always the heart of the believer. Just because we go to church, and things are in the order we desire, doesn’t mean God is pleased with our worship of Him. True worshippers of God do so anywhere and everywhere in Spirit and in Truth.
I’m by no means saying that God isn’t there when people gather together in a church house. I’ve seen and witnessed His presence with 5 or 5,000 in attendance (I don’t think I’ve been to a gathering much larger than that, but I am sure He’s been at those too!). What I am saying is we need to stop arguing over matters of opinion and taste, and get back to winning souls for the Kingdom, and gathering together for the act of honoring and worshipping Jesus. We need to get back to making Disciples, and teaching them to make Disciples. We must teach people to be in and honor God’s word through prayer and service to God and others. We must STOP building something we’re proud of, and teaching people to worship it, while deceiving ourselves in to thinking God is pleased because we are comfortable with what we’ve built. Let us get back to the Bible, and build hearts and communities in Christ that, as closely as we are able, resemble the Biblical church God created through His Son Jesus Christ.
James 1:19-27
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
2 Peter 1:16-21
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
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