(This new book is now available on Amazon in e-book for 99 cents.)
I Cor. 14:26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
This
is what Paul tells us should happen when we gather as the church ...
but I've never seen this happen at a church, except in a Sunday school
type class.
The
main service is usually strictly planned by those persons in charge.
There is little room for the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the spirit to
operate.
I've often thought, "If Jesus Christ were here today at this church group, HE would not be permitted to speak to the church."
Yet
the one thing most of us who are born again would say is after we were
born again, we had a great desire to read the Bible and to attend
church!
The greatest desire in my heart today is to be able to attend church ... to find a church to attend.
Why is it so hard to find a church to attend, especially after we are born again?
God gave me the following dream in the 1980's:
I
went to a very large church building and found the lower seats were
already filled with people, so I went upstairs into the balcony. There
was one seat available and I sat down there to listen to the speaker.
The woman who was sitting in front of me turned to me and said, "You can't see much from that seat." (It was behind 2 pillars that were holding up the roof of the building.) I replied, "Oh ... there's never much to see at these places anyway."
***
The
leaders changed the gathering of the church from that which Paul said
we were to do when we gather as the church and by doing this change and
allowing only a few "approved" by themselves to speak to the church,
they eliminated many words from the Lord which would be spoken to the
congregation if all were free to share that which God had said to them
and that which God had done with them as the apostle Paul said to do
when we come together as the church. (I Cor. 14:26)
And
as a result of this change, many scriptures in the New Testament Bible
are kept back from the church and sin has crept in to the point you
can't see much difference from these church groups and the world as the
churches offer approval to the world today.
Pam Padgett and I have just written a book entitled, "ATTENDING CHURCH!",
where we share things both from Catholic and Protestant churches that
we have attended and have had to work through with prayer, God, the Holy
Spirit and the Bible. (Published on Amazon now in e-book and later to come in paperback.)
The following is the first chapter in that book, first presented from the eyes of a child of four years old.
π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯