Frustration & Spirituality

Church in these times

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Isolation, Frustration and The Spirituality that God offers

About feeling isolated, the more you seek truth  - these days, the more you will feel isolated. That is not a mistake. That is simply a sign of the times that we are in. It should not be that way, but it is. And many churches are filled with people who are Not Serious about Christianity or their own walk with God. They simply want to put in their “5 minutes for Jesus”. They do not read the Bible much, they do not study it, they do not memorize it, and they have almost no prayer life.

The result is that we have extremely weak "good churches" (if that can be said), and stronger and more emotionally passionate churches that are preaching false teachings and False doctrines.

Either choice is not good. The reason that we have weak "good churches", is because they have sound doctrinal positions- in theory. But the problem is that “sound doctrinal positions” or sound teachings – only work if the Entire Church : knows these teachings, are familiar with these teachings, and can defend a) the right teachings and b) the reasons for the right teachings.  Many pastors these days can barely do that. Most laymen cannot do this at all.  

When we say that the Entire Church must know sound doctrine, What do we mean ? Do we mean that if a church knows the list of Do's and Don'ts - that this is sufficient to help people ? 

No, we don't mean that at all. We mean that the Church members understand what the Christians life is SUPPOSED to be. It is not that they should all have experienced it, but they should all understand what the Christian life is about and what it means to have your life transformed by Christ. 

Any Church - is only as strong as the individual members that make up the church. If the individual members of a church each have a strong and deeply developed relationship with God - on a personal and connected basis - then that Church - as a rule - will reflect that. But if a church is made up of individual church-goers who have no understanding of :

Who God is

How God operates in the life of Christians

How to find the personal & individual will of God

How to find spiritual strength by reading the Bible

How to have a strong prayer life

What the individual purpose of those Christians is - in their own Church

How to study the Bible in depth for knowledge

How to study the Bible in depth to find the DEEPER teachings that God wants to share with Each Christian believer

Then this lack of knowledge - about God, about the Christian life, and about how to have a strong relationship with God, will be reflected, (or will become "obvious") to those who are seeking to find the answer to those questions about a deeper spiritual life - who will be able to tell whether or not the individual members in that particular church, really know God on a personal level or not. This is the difference between a theoretical understanding of Christianity, and a Real, True, Authentic and Connected understanding of Christianity and what it means to have a growing, developing and deep relationship with the God of the Universe - on a personal level.  

In an ideal world, it is the Pastor who is supposed to educate a God-seeking congregation about the things of God. But many pastors do not have this information these days. 

In other words, the congregations do poorly because they settle and accept to be badly educated, without attempting to change and reverse this. But congregations also have a non-existent spiritual life because they have bad leadership from Very weak Pastors. 

A church leader may be warm. He may have a charismatic personality. He may be a good "worship" leader or a good speaker. But if he is not actively teaching his church members how they can learn to be actively grounded in the Bible through in-depth personal study of the Bible on a frequent basis, then that pastor is forsaking his calling of teaching truth.

Teaching truth does not consist of ONLY teaching people the right conclusions. Teaching truth Must also consist of teaching the reasons WHY the right teachings Are the right teachings. You may find that your own personal desire for spiritual growth – may transcend your church or your church leader’s desire to lead you in that direction. That may be sad or unfortunate, but if this is true, it is worth thinking about this point.

Leaders – especially Christian ones – are called to Lead. They are not called to be popular, they are not called to be liked. They are called to proclaim God’s Truth to a lost world for the sake of having an eternal impact, and ministering to the soul and the spirit of those who sit under their ministry. Many pastors direct their church like a social club, where they substitute temporary warmth for truth. Pastors should be able to be warm as well as being able to convey the deep truths of God. There is something wrong if they cannot do both.

A Pastor/Minister is only as effective as he is – to the degree that he can help reconcile the congregation (as individuals) to the truth of God, and learn how to connect directly to Him, not through a feeling, but through the proper and appropriate familiarization that comes from learning about the Bible, and what is in the Bible, Why those teachings are in the Bible, and how those teachings are designed to help us all learn to find the peace of God and the truth and comfort that he brings to our lives, on a very real and personal level.

The reason that many of these pastors cannot convey the deep truths of God is because they do not know them on a personal and experiential level. They do not have much personal experience trusting God. It is much easier for many of them to trust in their paycheck, and because many of them do this, to that extent – they make the decision to not “offend” anyone, lest it should have an impact on their offerings or collections. With the wrong motive, they have the wrong result. And the result is that the depth of knowing God is something which many pastors would have trouble even learning how to seek this.

Pastors cannot acquaint you, with what they are not familiar with – for themselves first. If they do not know something, it is obvious that they cannot teach it. They cannot teach what they do not know. 

Here is what we wrote at the beginning of this article:

The reason that we have weak " good churches", is because they have sound doctrinal positions- in theory. But the problem is that “sound doctrinal positions” or sound teachings – only work if the Entire Church : knows these teachings, are familiar with these teachings

What we mean is that a strong church - one which is truly spiritually ALIVE and Spiritually strong...is a church that not only has the right teachings, but has also Connected to those right teachings...(and the purpose of those right teachings) - through their own individual personal experiences & connectedness with the True God of the Universe, who cares about them in a meaningful and personal way. This is not something that happens WHEN they come through the Church Doors. This is something that occurs in their life, and in their heart, when they are alone, between themselves as individuals and God, outside of the Church, during the week, in their own time that they have Set Aside for their own Spiritual Growth and Connection to God. 

Churches that have congregations which depend on Sundays for their Only Spiritual growth or sustenance usually fall flat on their face very soon...even though the church may continue to exist in a state of "near death" - for decades.

What sometimes happens is that Churches learn the right answers, but they do Not pursue God, they do not develop a relationship with Him, and they do not know how to grow spiritually individually. When this state of events happens, a church can easily turn to legalism. This occurs when a church begins to attempt to Prioritize the "rules" at the expense of --- a person's relationship to God. Churches that do not correct this trend...go astray very quickly, because the "correct rules" without the Connectedness and Wisdom that God provides, lead to a very Hollow and Empty spiritual existence very quickly. 

We are not convinced that Christians today belong within walls of a church building. We are convinced that they should be meeting and fellowshipping with other Christians, if that can be found. Finding people to “call” themselves Christian is easy. Finding deeply committed strong Christians is rather difficult these days, one reason being that there are not enough of them, especially in the Western world.

But we - as christians - are not obligated to find other Christians in order for us to grow spiritually. We are obligated to follow the teachings of the Bible, and to learn and know what those teachings actually are...by reading the Bible personally and for ourselves. We do not Need other Christians in order to grow spiritually (even if that might be nice to have). What we truly need is a personal relationship with God, and as Christians - if we are truly saved - we Already have that.  We now need to learn How to grow spiritually. 

The premise that our faith can be strengthened ONLY if we can meet up with other christians, is not true. One of the reasons why Christians from centuries past – have left biographies and books about God and His impact on their lives...is in order to encourage those Christians who would come after them, such as us now - for the times that we are now in.   

It may be the right time to begin to ask ourselves if we do need to re-evaluate our theology and worldview, and actually take some real time over the course of the next few months, in order to read ...so that we can grow.

The first thing we should do – if we want spirituality with depth – is find out How this was achieved - from those who have already achieved this.

We could spend many years looking for those giants of the faith trying to meet them face-to-face, or we could find an alternative in the meantime...simply pick up some books and start reading the stories of those who were Already spiritually strong, asking God to help us understand their books and to make those stories directly meaningful and relevant to our lives.

Isolation and Frustration may be the place where we are at, but that does NOT mean that we have to stay there. IF we want to make the effort enough to take God seriously, He will make the effort to take us seriously also. We need to remember that it is up to us to choose Who leads us. We do not have to stay in a church which shows evidence of being spiritually dead, and where the church members have no interest in God or in knowing Him better. There are much better ways to have and experience the Christian journey. 

Following God does not mean having to accept Spiritual leadership which has no personal experience with God, or who is not truly desiring to teach us HOW to find God. It is not an issue that is "complicated". It is an issue that requires personal obedience to God. 

God Teaches Pastors that they are supposed to educate the laymen and the congregation How to know God. Those who cannot do this, do not deserve to be Pastors. Christians need to decide to follow God first, and pastors come Way Down on the list of whom to follow. It is their SPIRITUAL AUTHENTICITY which is the basis for accepting their leadership, and NOT their title, their position, their robes, or their knowledge of rituals. 

The premise that a Pastor is a "Man of God" simply because He is a pastor, is something which is not true.  A true Pastor does know God and will be taking direct and active steps to help his congregation ACTIVELY know God, through the study of the Bible and Prayer. 

Many pastors are just as remote from God as they are from their own congregations. When we become aware that our Pastor is not teaching us how to become truly knowledgeable about how to know God better and how to grow spiritually, it is time to find other ways to grow spiritually.   

Coming Soon: The Spirituality that God offers

The Best way to help us is by praying for our ministry: Lord thank you that I am able to learn more about you. Thank you for saving me and continue to help me to not take that for granted. I pray that you would help the team of people who established this website, and who are trying to help others to understand your love and kindness. I pray that you would protect them spiritually and continue to meet their needs and concerns, so that they would be able to continue to help others. Give them the knowledge, the information, the resources and the wisdom and discernment which they need.  Please bless their work and encourage them spiritually and help them to continue to be strong and to Want to follow you. I thank you for your goodness and ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Thank you for praying for us. We greatly appreciate it. ....We will be posting this in quite a few places on our website...we can sure use more people praying for us and this work, which is constantly a challenge. The more people pray for us, the more that we can do to help others.

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