Paul,
I love you dude. Seriously. I know your heart is to do right. You wouldn't keep to the standards you believe in otherwise. I am admonishing you as a brother in Christ. You are doing the same to me. Whether we come to consensus in this life, who can tell?
I am not mad at you.
I am FURIOUS at the state of Christianity today.
It is OFF THE MARK. Way off.
And my anger is fueled because I feel God's heart about this. And as I have revealed previously. Very bad things are coming. God told me Himself, that the next 3 years will be very bad, with each year getting progressively worse than the one before.
I know what my own ideas are. And I know when God speaks to me. I have had decades at this, to know the difference.
Knowing what I know, I am very upset. The churches claiming Christ as their head, should be UNITED to face the crisis that is coming. Christ wanted His believers to be one.
All I can tell you, is that Christian churches today are making THE VERY SAME MISTAKE as the Jews did 2000 years ago. They are entrenched, cultures have built up around their denominations. They are more in love with their traditions and rituals, than the supposed purpose of the rituals. Namely, following Christ, and witnessing to the world, that God loves them so much, that He willingly humbled Himself by assuming a flesh nature, and ALLOWED... ALLOWED... the RELIGIONISTS he had come to lead, to instead shout for his demise at the hands of the Romans. I'm gonna cry right now, because that kind of love is a love NO ONE CAN EVER FULLY KNOW but God Himself. Yes, we can willingly give our lives as a sacrifice for another too, but NONE of us, NOT ONE OF US, knows what it is like to have invested yourself completely in a magnificent Creation, billions of galaxies to be astonished by, all out of love, and a beautiful and magnificent place for his children to dwell and grow, and then to have those very children, the ones He loves so dearly, to be murdered by them, in spite and hate and improper judgement, and HE TAKES IT. HE WILLINGLY TAKES THIS... and yet has the power of Creation, the power of the Cosmos at His disposal to stop it... and He doesn't. He lets judgemental and inferior beings KILL HIM, because His love is bigger than their hate... His love is bigger than ego... His love is somehow, bigger than His own position as Lord and Creator.
THIS IS THE LOVE that Christians should be WITNESSING TO, by expressing it in their own lives, and in the churches that claim to represent the God of Love. But instead we fight to MAINTAIN our little positions and our little lives, and our air conditioned churches, whether or not the government will allow the 10 Commandments in court rooms or not, and whether or not "In God we trust" is on a One Dollar Bill or not, and whether or not homosexuals are afforded equal rights or not, and I'm sorry, but whether or not too, we use musical instruments... musical instruments? To praise God with, as His people, the Jews, did for CENTURIES before the poverty stricken Christian church came along.
How is it that God, the Creator, can HUMBLE HIMSELF to take on a form that allowed us to KILL HIM. And he allows it, out of an undying and unending love, to reach out to us, to BEG US, to take his love inside our hearts, and be one with Him. He allows this, in order to save us.
How is it that a being with ALL POWER at His disposal can humble Himself like that, for the sake of love, and WE CANNOT EVEN ALLOW people with long hair in some of our churches and seminaries, and feel superior to those who want to praise their Father with musical instruments.
WHAT IN THE HELL gives us the right to DIVIDE the church Christ paid for in BLOOD, because we THINK we please God better by creating and following more rules than the other denominations do?
I will never step foot in a church again, if it remains so.
Give me the love of an ALL POWERFUL Creator, so loving, so amazingly loving, that he lowers Himself to MY LEVEL and risks being murdered, because he wants and desires MY LOVE in return.
I will give my life to that being, over and over and over and over and over, and over, and I ONLY WISH I COULD DIE A THOUSAND TIMES rather than only once, to show HIM, HOW GRATEFUL I AM for WHO HE IS!!!
Wake up brothers and sisters. Stop worshipping rules and books, even inspired books. The book is only there to record the truth, to help REVEAL the real treasure.... GOD'S LOVE!!!
You have the greatest treasure anyone could ever imagine. You can share it with miserable and depressed and lonely people, and CHANGE THEM FOREVER, and help them find what we all really want... TO BE LOVED! Here is the SOURCE of ALL LOVE, ready to give it freely!!! And you praise a book? You fight over words in a book? You divide over trivial issues?
Just remember. Please remember.
The Father you have in Heaven, while you worry about trivial customs and traditions, LOWERED HIMSELF to be one of us. He sacrificed his power, the BILLIONS OF ANGELS who worshipped Him daily. He made Himself into a nothing, in this world, FOR YOU. FOR ME. FOR ALL MANKIND!
How can you be proud for upholding a TRADITION?
Your God, sacrificed all pride, and was spit upon, and beaten, and marred MORE THAN ANY MAN, He left His throne, and place of priveledge and royalty, and became NOTHING, all for love. ALL FOR LOVE!!!
FORGET MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
FORGET TRIVIAL TRADITIONS.
FORGET DANCING OR REMAINING SEATED!
WITNESS THAT LOVE!!! BE A WITNESS TO THAT LOVE!!!
THERE IS NOTHING ELSE! NOTHING ELSE!!!
Don't you understand?
.
