Today, I’m simply here to just write.
Vent, I guess you could say…
…gracefully vent.
*Sigh*
I’m going through something right now. Actually, my husband and I are both going through something right now.
Little by little, we have been placed in situations of surrender and letting go of things we were holding onto for security and comfort and learning how to fully trust God alone.
The house.
The furniture.
The freedom of being a stay-at-home mom to then take on a side job to help out some friends.
And now our place of Sunday worship.
Over the last several months, everything that has been the foundation of our faith has been challenged, and we are left unlearning a lot of things once again. We are searching out the scriptures to discover why we believe what we believe. And what we have discovered is that we don’t believe, or agree with, much of what we have been taught.
Needless to say, it’s been challenging…
…especially for my husband, Paul, since he sat under the same teaching for 20 plus years of his life (almost 25), and after we left the church he grew up at in 2010, we were led to a church whose pastor also sat under that very same teaching for years.
When you hear the same teaching for 20 plus years of your life and you trust your pastor more than God, you embrace what you are being told as truth.
And sometimes as the only truth.
But there’s a problem with that- we need to find truth in the Word of God alone and not necessarily an interpretation of what you are being told is truth. It becomes a danger because we never line up what is being said from the pulpit with what the Word of God really says. We should trust the Holy Spirit to be our teacher. We cannot just embrace everything that proceeds out of the pastor’s mouth because, honestly, he should know more than us, right?
Sadly, this happens more often than not in the churches of America. Many people do not read their Bible, and we put all the responsibility on the pastor to feed us, teach us, guide us. His job is to definitely help us learn, but most importantly, encourage us and equip us to go home and study out what we just heard. He was never supposed to walk out our walk with God for us.
A scripture taken out of context and twisted to fit our methods, principles, main points, and often, our fleshly desires, has been genetically modified, my friends. #SayNoToGMO
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We can’t just embrace everything we hear from people. It must line up with the totality of God’s Word, what is called the whole counsel of God. Not just one scripture…the WHOLE THING! Much of what is heard on a Sunday morning is out of context. We have experienced this first hand, and the Lord had to reveal it to us the more we studied out His Word for ourselves!
I don’t write all of this as a jab at any pastor or man/woman of God in particular, I’m just simply expressing where we are in our walk. We have been disappointed countless times by numerous teachers of God’s Word, whether those we have sat under, or those we have listened to through the information super-highway.
We aren’t giving up on the Church. Although we are disappointed, we aren’t surprised. The Word of God explains to us that this is going to happen in the Last Days. And clearly, we are in the Last Days!
My husband is responsible for our family. I am responsible for my own heart and what my son hears and has sown into his heart until he is old enough to guard his own heart.
Above all, we must always judge what we are hearing, even if it is coming from the pulpit.
Don’t allow people to tell you that you are not supposed to judge…
…that’s a real popular topic among believers and non-believers alike.
Jesus tells us:
“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
John 7:24, NKJV
What is “righteous judgment?”
“Judgment” in Greek in this particular verse means “the concept of determining the correctness of a matter.”
Use the word of God to discern what is false and what is unrighteous (Hebrews 4:12).
“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”
1 Timothy 6:3-5, ESV
Let the Word of God light your way, every single step. The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth and peace.
I’m holding onto the Word, who is also Jesus, the Word made flesh! He’s our only hope in these times of testing and times of deception we all face!