Conditional Worship.

As I try to process the events that have transpired over the past 24 hours of my life, it leads me to consider the act of conditional worship. This is when a fellowship, be it christian, Jewish, Muslim or any religion enforces a set of rules that you must obey in order to be a part of their congregation. In Christianity this is called legalism. In other fellowships this is called occultic practises, sacraments and rituals. Jesus issued strong warning against those who practise their faith as a ritualistic form and warned others not to do as they do as many fell under the leadership of these false teachers. The reason why Jesus warned his followers of this Hippocratic way of living your life was because he believed that those who wanted their religion were in fact rejecting Christ and consequently the One true God who could save their souls from the consequences of their sins, which is hell.

God gave these religious leaders up to their own error because instead of doing things His way, they hardened their hearts and eventually committed the unpardonable sin which is not just a rejection of Christ, but a rejection of God himself. "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." When we reject the gospel we reject Christ the only one who can save us from our sin: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

The Pharisees not only rejected God, but they rejected the cross. You can have a form of religion but not be saved,"having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them." There are many so called professing christian churches out there that fall into this category, having a form of godliness and we are warned to flee from such people. If you are looking to your denomination to save you or your good works, flee from that. Only Jesus Christ can save you and he does it through the cross and his blood. Any church that denies this reality is not a church and is quite possibly a cult, or just a religious institution which in my opinion is even worse. You may as well be a Buddhist or some other isms when your church abandons the cross and the only person who can save their soul from God's judgement.

This is Mike.

Comments

Age of Brokenness.

We are living in an age of brokenness, no matter what age you are, you probably have been touched with relationships falling apart, which causes more and more people to live in isolation. In this generation there is less of an incentive to heal and reconcile relationships, but that doesn’t excuse the amount of people who are broken. Why people don’t seem to be motivated to heal relationships is because our beliefs about faith and God have changed, really giving us less of an incentive to do what our religion says. If I act from my personal beliefs, but the person that I am responding to has abandoned religious beliefs, than the response to my wanting things to be better can be misinterpreted and rejected then by someone else. Generally when a society has expectations about broken relationships, loneliness and isolation, and the beliefs are generally accepted, society becomes a more compassionate society, because all value the same things. When religious values are undermined and ...

The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

Matthew 25:1-13 I have discovered a remarkable interpretation of this parable that I would like to share with you. The story in the Bible goes like this: “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy som...

The Existence of God

Since the beginning of time, man has learned about the existence of God. It began in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve walked and talked with God, however when they sinned, they died spiritually and their closeness with God was severed. In Genesis 4:26 it reads “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.” Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, so it’s fair to say that not too long after mankind fell, we also called upon the Lord. From that time until now, mankind was closer to God then, but it’s a modern shift that the world is in the state it is in now, mainly unbelief, because even 30 years ago from now, mankind was closer to God. It is also true that in ancient Israel’s history, there have been generations that fell away and forgot God, but in the time of the prophets Israel was never left without a word from the Lord. Many generations have come and gone, but there have been remarkable generations all thr...

The Super Blogosphere of a parallel word.

Search This Blog