Victory Can Be Yours!
Article #29 –“Churches Today”
Why can’t the church of today be as the first century
church? Because we do not follow the
example laid out for us. We do not
continually devote ourselves to; study, prayer, fellowship, and the breaking of
bread together. Instead, the churches of
today, in most quarters, find the leadership figuring how to entertain and fill
the pews and the collection plates.
While the leadership is doing that, those attending church are coming to
be entertained, glad someone else is doing it so they do not have to be
involved, with little concern about the accuracy of what is being taught.
Those attending church need to be as the Apostle Paul
found the people in Berea, “Now these
were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word
with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these
things were so.” (Acts 17:11) We, in
our churches today also must be studying our Bibles daily in order to test what
we are being taught from our pulpits.
You do not have to have a degree from a seminary to understand the
Bible. God did not inspire His word for
the highly intellectuals only. His word
is written so that anyone can pick it up and allow the Holy Spirit to teach him
from it. We must study and allow the
Holy Spirit to reveal God’s truth to us as we read and pray. Prayer brings us into a closer fellowship
with the Lord so we are more open to His truths. If we just listen to the teaching of others
and take for granted they are right, we can easily be led astray. The apostle Paul was continually confronted
with the problem of false teachers. Many
of his epistles were written to ward off false teachings threatening the
foundation of the church. These false teachers were teaching against such
things as; the deity of Jesus, against the resurrection, against the virgin
birth, against the humanity of Jesus.
All of these false teachings were attempts to undermine the church’s
foundation, Jesus Christ. If we are not
continually in prayer, study and fellowship; we cannot ward off such false
doctrines. “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by
waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by
craftiness in deceitful scheming.” (Eph. 4:14)
Another reason we are not like the first century church
is because we do not have oneness of mind, or like-minded and sincerity of
heart. That is because we do not all
properly interpret the bible. Can you
imagine what the church would look like if we all diligently studied our Bible
with the purpose of understanding God’s whole truth and not compromising God’s
truth to justify society’s actions? “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among
you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
(1 Cor. 1:10) Oneness of mind comes from
using the word of God as He intended it to be used. God is not an author of confusion, but we
have caused confusion by abusing His word.
The Bible is often interpreted to serve our own needs, egos, or our own
selfish interests.
You, too, can have victory in Jesus! More to follow.
Lowell Parrish
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