I don't say this because I hate the Church. In fact I love it too much not to call it what it is. Lost and sinful. God will have a Church without spot or wrinkle at the end. It won't look much like the Church of today. I lifted this from a source I am using next Saturday. I'll not give attribution right yet.
Nations around have no reason to be attracted to the God of Israel because they see the constant hypocrisy of His people.
God's charge is that the people are busy pursuing their own pleasures and pursuing their own business as first priority. It was each man for himself. "It is OK for me to be a believer as long as God doesn't interfere with my plans and the way I want to live my life." "God helps those who help themselves, I'm only looking out for Number One."
This attitude in the Church produces FALSE WORSHIP
False Worship
* Religion that is impersonal, formal turned-inward, purely liturgical, program centered.
* Comes into place by habit and tradition. "This is the way we have always done things here." Seems logical, reasonable.
* Self-serving (what can God do for us?)
* Isolationist, Escapist (God will save us out of this awful evil world). Country-club Christianity
* Predictable, comfortable, controlled, orchestrated, no surprises, runs on autopilot
* Passive involvement by most of the members, (ignoring the reality that God is a deeply personal Being)
"...a religion which assumes a relationship with God while discounting a relationships with the people."
J Vernon McGee calls this "playing church."
"Religion that it pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (James)
Ray Stedman says "the ultimate test of faith has always been: does it lead you to serve, to help somebody in need? Do you feel motivated to act? If you do, your faith is real. Otherwise, as James says, it is a "dead faith." The acid test is not, "What does my religion do for me?" but, "What does it make me do for others?"
A selfish life brings inevitable clashes with friends and family alike. We can not do things our way without violating the rights and boundaries of others. In the New Testament, James says that wars and violence are a direct consequence of a life lived hedonistically for one's own pleasures and goals. A self-centered life takes advantage of others--pressing onward and upward oblivious to the needs of others around us who are less fortunate than ourselves. But, a self-centered life brings frustration--it runs contrary to the way things were created. When we reach our goals we find them hollow and empty. The resulting frustration leaves us angry, resentful, and even murderous in our hearts. "I want 'my rights,'" "I deserve a good life, I earned it."
2 comments:
Gene, I agree with you, it's important though to encourage the better behavior when dealing with immaturity, as a parent to a child so is a spiritual father to a spiritual son- ignore the bad behavior, challenge to and reward the good behavior, the immature is self seeking, and even guilt is an emotion that the flesh (in the greek "sukke" i think) can feed on. what I mean to say is "whoa horsey!" remember that the most holy place is called the 'mercy seat'. A lot of the church walks away from the mirror not knowing who they are because even when they look into it they don't recognize the image before them. We can see into a glass darkly, we come to know things in part, but only with maturity do we see clearly, or comprehend the fullness of God, "re-member" - be transformed by the renewing of your mind - renew"-ing"- a process, an ongoing endeavor, encourage maturity. Of course people pursue their own pleasures, because they don't understand consequence, they have no dream, no vision, no purpose to do anything else, they don't understand anything but "sinner saved by grace" - instead of righteousness of God, or Christ on the earth, there's another term for false worship - dove dung! - (2 Kings 6.25) - and since when did the Kingdom Message become anything but Good News!!? I'm trying to fit a lot into a small space. God Bless You.
While I'd have to agree with karma - "need to be selfish to reproduce, need to work as a team for more efficient achievement of food and shelter" I think these two points in particular seem to contrast eachother when applied to the post - working as a team being Ideal - and a selfish ambition being selfish as an individual - the two different perspectives or additudes one of which this entry seems to encourage and the other to discourage. I would have to disagree that our beings are imperfect as well, in fact my proof for my stance on that issue is our inherent ability to recognize our imperfection, which means we have some source by which to judge our perfection, and in so doing take a position of perfection by which to judge ourselves or those around us. Our beings are perfect, our process toward greater understanding of our own perfection is our motivation for growth and ascension the final outcome.
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