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 I Hate your Feast Days

“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” – Amos 5:21-24

Sunday after Sunday, across the land of this backslidden nation of America, multitudes of professing Christians gather to worship the Lord together. Most believe they are truly saved, and that the Lord is pleased with their church attendance. They see going to church as a special favor for the Lord that somehow satisfies Him and makes Him happy. If you are a genuine Christian, a fully devoted and recklessly abandoned disciple of Jesus who has forsaken all to follow Him, and you do not attend a “building” where you worship God with other “Christians”, then you are seen as a weak Christian or even as unsaved and heretical. Most professing Christians completely look down upon and shun those who do not attend a building with others where they worship God together. The immediate thought someone thinks when they hear that a person does not attend a building and submit to a “shepherd” is that they are either in rebellion or they are a weak Christian (if at all saved).

However, the Lord is so terribly grieved with the present state of the church in America that He hates, no He despises, the shameful things that go on at these “feast days” and “solemn assemblies”. As multitudes gather together and sing their songs, clap their hands, dance and leap for joy, and offer the “sacrifice of praise” to the Lord, His anger and wrath is kindled more and more. This is because most of the people who honor Him with their lips have hearts that are far from Him. They lift up their hands to the Lord, but their hands are filthy with the rotten stain of sin. In lifting up their hands to the Lord, calling on His name, they are flaunting the filth of their sin right in His face. They do not have clean hands and pure hearts, instead, their hands are defiled with sin and their hearts are full of all manner of filthiness. Instead of lifting up “holy hands” in the sight of the Lord in worship and adoration, they are lifting up “unholy hands” that are defiled with sin in their self-deception, provoking His anger.

The “sacrifice of praise” in the solemn assemblies of our churches across this nation is absolutely defiled with all sorts of sin. As the offering of praises rise up before the Throne of the Holy One like the smoke of a burnt offering, the Lord takes a sniff and is utterly sickened by the detestable stench. He doesn’t smell purity, righteousness, holiness, love, and obedience to His Son. Instead, He smells adultery, fornication, divorce & remarriage, lying, cheating, covetousness, idolatry, pride, worldliness, and all manner of other evil things. The Lord hates and despises our feast days when we gather together to worship Him hypocritically as we feast on the words of ear-tickling speeches that comfort us in our sins. He utterly refuses to smell in our solemn assemblies because the fragrance of our praise that is ascending before Him is no fragrance at all: it is an abomination! It is a stench to His nostrils and He will not smell because of the blatant and hidden sin! Sin is detestable in His sight, and the smell of defiled praises from lukewarm and sinful “Christians” isn’t a pleasing aroma, it’s a rotten stench that smells more like burning flesh than like the prayers of holy saints.

Under the old Covenant, a lamb that was sacrificed had to be as absolutely perfect as possible. It had to be the best of the flock. It could not have any spots or blemishes whatsoever or it would not be accepted. In fact, if it did have spots or blemishes, it did not please the Lord…it actually made Him angry! Likewise, the sacrifice of our praises that are spotted and blemished with the stains of sin do not please God…they make His wrath burn as He weeps in brokenhearted anguish over the churches that are no longer delivering people from the bondage of their sins by pronouncing the power of Christ to redeem and set free; instead, these same churches have become holding pens for multitudes of deceived sheep heading straight for the day of slaughter: totally unaware! And the hireling shepherds (pastors) are leading their own sheep straight to the butcher (Satan), rather than to the Chief Shepherd (Jesus) who gave His life for His sheep to set them completely free from the dominion, control and power of sin!!!

Though multitudes offer Him sacrifices of “burnt offerings”, “meat offerings”, and “peace offerings”; offerings of tithes and money, of energy, and attention, and of setting aside a time each Sunday morning to sacrifice the morning to Him each week, this all means nothing to Him. It is not what He wants. He will not accept such sacrifices, especially since they are defiled with spots and blemishes. I know of men who religiously devote their time and service into the maintenance and upkeep of the church building in which they attend. They sacrifice their money, time, energy, abilities, and everything they can to upkeep the religious system and “sacrifice unto the Lord” of their labors. However, rather than being pleasing to the Lord, they are only up-keeping an unbiblical system that continues to hold people in bondage and continues to offer up defiled sacrifices before the Lord as they lift up their defiled hands to flaunt their sin in His face. The Lord will not accept such sacrifices, for this is not what He desires.

Sin is so rampant among the people who call themselves Christians in America that the name of Jesus is being blasphemed repeatedly among those that are “in the world” and have no desire to become Christians because of such blatant hypocrisy. Millions upon millions upon millions of souls across America who gather together in their solemn assemblies to worship God have sin in their lives! This is more common than not. Those who do not live in willful sin are very few and far between, which is clearly a practical explanation of the testimony of Jesus Himself when He said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. “ (Mat 7:13-14). In fact, Jesus also said, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luk 13:24). MANY will SEEK to ENTER IN, but SHALL NOT BE ABLE. What a solemn warning!

Those who continue in willful sin and profess the name of Jesus at the same time fall under the judgment of Hebrews 10:26-31: “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But aertain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Such people who have willful sin in their lives (sin that they know is wrong and keep doing it anyway), and claim to be Christians, not only do not have forgiveness for their sins, but they are, according to this Scripture in Hebrews:

1. Under the fearsome judgment and fiery indignation –WRATH-- of God which will devour His enemies (and logically are counted as enemies of God Himself despite their lip service and hypocritical shows of religious pretense and hype).

2. Thought worthy in the sight of God of receiving much more terrible judgment than those who died without mercy under the death penalty of the Law of Moses.

3. Guilty of trampling Jesus Christ, the Son of God, under foot.

4. Guilty of counting the blood of Christ as some common, unholy thing (and of having a form of godliness without the power by acknowledging the power of the blood intellectually but denying the power of the blood experientially in its’ ability to deliver and set FREE from all sin.)

5. Guilty of taking advantage of the Holy Spirit and of taking advantage of the very grace that was supposed to forgive and transform them into new creatures in Christ.

6. Going to fearfully fall into the hands of the Living God who promises to take vengeance and judge His people.

7. (Obviously) Commanded to repent immediately and stop willfully sinning against the Lord.

As these multitudes of deceived “Christians” gather together in their church buildings, the clock hits it’s programmed mark and the singing begins. The songs start playing and the people start singing lies. Their excitement and expectancy is built up and they totally cast aside all sense of godly discernment as they embrace spirits of sensuality and soulishness in the name of entertainment and “blessing”. The Lord says in the opening Scripture in Amos, “Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs”. It couldn’t be clearer.

In our day of cookie cutter “Christianity”, where we cut out an institutional mold that we derived from the world and try to shove God in it, we have completely missed the mark and gone astray. Rather than pleasing God by offering ourselves up as living sacrifices and walking in purity, holiness, and righteousness in His sight, we have taken God and tried to mold Him into something that we want Him to be. The mold we created that we try to jam Him into is a mold of prosperity, blessing, lukewarm-ness and compromise. In doing so however, since the One True God refuses to become a pawn in the hands of selfish and sinful men, or of anyone for that matter, we have created a false god that loves the things we love and that is all about “US” and our benefit always. However, this has led to blatant idolatry in the church and is a grievous abomination that cries out for the Lord’s judgment.

How long shall He bear the burden of our iniquities?

The Lord will not listen to the noise of hypocritical songs. He hates the stench of sacrifices and offerings that are stained with the spot of sin. He will not smell in our solemn assemblies so long as they continue like this. This is never what He wanted and history, coupled with clear Scripture, prove this un-excusably. Instead, He only asks for one thing: That we, “…let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” The True God desires the righteous judgment of wholehearted love & affection, and righteousness that flows like Niagara Falls. He doesn’t want fancy shows with large choirs, hip songs, smiling preachers and lukewarm pew-sitters. He just wants, no, He jealously longs for the undivided affection and love of His people who forsake all that is in the world to follow Him in obedience because they desire to please Him. That is all.

If you are among those that lift up their sins in the face of God with unholy hands, and you partake of the evil deeds of hypocrites by supporting their foolish facades, I beseech you to “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing” (2 Cor 6:17). Be separate from them, and be holy, for holy is the Lord God who calls out to you. Now is the time to repent. He would rather you be hot, on fire for Him, and burning with zeal, or to be cold, chilled, and full of hate than to be lukewarm, tepid and indifferent with blatant hypocrisy. Don’t partake of those who are lukewarm and thereby share in their sins, for those who trample Christ underfoot by living in willful sin and trying to praise Him anyway shall receive the greater damnation. Instead, wax on fire for God in genuine and heartfelt repentance and let the light of Christ shine through you in blazing holiness by the power of the HOLY Spirit. Let judgment run down as rushing waters, and let righteousness come down as a mighty stream.


“For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.” – Jeremiah 23:18-20

-Josef Urban

 2007/7/12 15:55









 Re: I Hate your Feast Days

You attend a grocery store, does this mean you agree with everything they sell. To be a part of church is vital. What can you add to your church??? If churches lack so, should you not try to be their gain. To moan and cry and intercede for it. No church has everything 100%. And we all are sinners. And the father's love burns far more than his anger. Lukewarm living is a problem, this is why those who are not lukewarm need to be the loving light, not the judging light.

 2007/7/12 19:36









 Re:

Quote:
You attend a grocery store, does this mean you agree with everything they sell.



Your analogy sounds good but I will stick with the Apostle Paul...

2 Corinthians 6
14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
17"Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you."
18"I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

Quote:
Lukewarm living is a problem, this is why those who are not lukewarm need to be the loving light, not the judging light.



Again...

1 Corinthians 5:
9I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

In Christ - Jim

 2007/7/13 8:34
enid
Member



Joined: 2006/5/22
Posts: 2680
Nottingham, England

 Re: I Hate your Feast Days

Jim,
Some will agree that the church is apostate from God right now. Some won't.

There are those who attend church buildings, does that mean that everyone who attends a church building is lost? No.

Some of the speakers on this website have churches, they are pastors and leaders, does that mean they are lost? Are they compromising?

However, Christianity in the west is abysmal, even satanic.

Isaiah 1v15 says, 'When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you, even though you make many prayers I will not hear, your hands are full of blood'.

Maybe our hands are not full of literal blood, but the blood of those whom we cannot win to Christ because of our indifference to the fact that they will spend eternity in the lake of fire.

It is not our problem, it's their's.

But God is watching and recording every thought, word and deed that is taking place in our lives, whether saved or lost.

2 Cor 5v10, 'For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad'.

Verse 11 says, 'Knowing therfore the terror of the Lord...

God's judgment is terrifying, and if we are not fearful for peoples eternity, we had better question our salvation.

Also, as we know, judgment begins at the house of God, 1 Peter 4v17.

Would that mean those who attend a church building or those in a house church, or those who meet in a building that is not a church building, or meet in a garden, or by a river etc.

So where would judgment begin?

All I know is, that from scripture, judgment will begin.

Not if, when.

Thanks for the article, thought provoking.

God bless.

 2007/7/13 10:10Profile









 Re: lets tell Josef......put on love and mercy as a garment

Jim,
I competely understand the heartcry and the message of what Josef writes, but there's something off about it, and I do not write this in diviseness, or rancor. let me just excise a few of his quotes, that have a "hate" filled edge to them, rather than a Gospel sweet, "faith...love....and hope" cant to them.

(when I say that I refer to Paul's opening in First Thessalonians....."We continually remember before our God and Father your work [i][b]produced by faith[/b][/i] your labor [i][b]prompted by love[/b][/i] and your endurance [i][b]inspired by hope[/b][/i] in our Lord Jesus Christ". 1Thess 1:3)

Quote:
If you are a genuine Christian, a fully devoted and recklessly abandoned disciple of Jesus who has forsaken all to follow Him, and you do not attend a “building” where you worship God with other “Christians”,



really? okay, if Josef says so....but thats rather a blanket statement.

Quote:
then you are seen as a weak Christian or even as unsaved and heretical. Most professing Christians completely look down upon and shun those who do not attend a building with others where they worship God together. The immediate thought someone thinks when they hear that a person does not attend a building and submit to a “shepherd” is that they are either in rebellion or they are a weak Christian



why would any follower of Jesus care one whit about what man thinks of his walk? The pursuit of God is between you and Him.

Mind you brother, I'm not posting this response to defend "churchianity", but the young brother should find a metaphorical cloth, dip it in the Living Water that Christ brings, lay it across his forehead, lay down for a while and chill.

Quote:
This is because most of the people who honor Him with their lips have hearts that are far from Him. They lift up their hands to the Lord, but their hands are filthy with the rotten stain of sin.



join the club, that's why it's called Grace. What do we have here?....a "super apostle" high and above the rank masses of the "backslidden"?
Thats the problem with these well meaning, albeit young zealots on the internet and the street corners.

I'd tell him, get off the street corner, get off the computer, go out in the desert for a week with a jug of water, a sleeping bag and a Bible, make it two weeks, beg the Lord for some insight, beg the Lord to set a cresoate bush on Fire, and speak to him from within it. Pray that he'll get the 39 lashes, or dumped in an old well for a spell, THEN he can come out a prophet....maybe, if God graces him with this heavy calling....maybe.

Quote:
In our day of cookie cutter “Christianity”, where we cut out an institutional mold that we derived from the world and try to shove God in it, we have completely missed the mark and gone astray. Rather than pleasing God by offering ourselves up as living sacrifices and walking in purity, holiness, and righteousness in His sight, we have taken God and tried to mold Him into something that we want Him to be. The mold we created that we try to jam Him into is a mold of prosperity, blessing, lukewarm-ness and compromise.



amen I say, I agree TOTALLY. But what are YOUR TWO HANDS doing? Because those NOW are not your hands, you are dead, they are HIS HANDS, so what are you doing with HIS HANDS?

Quote:
Instead, wax on fire for God in genuine and heartfelt repentance and let the light of Christ shine through you in blazing holiness by the power of the HOLY Spirit.



Those are words, mere words, words of zealots. Zealots mean nothing to God, He has plenty of "zealots" all over the globe, some of this zealots strap explosives to their waists, and kill women and children all in the "name of god", others stand on street corners shrieking WORDS..... show Him what you do with your TWO HANDS....show Him what you do with the outpouring of your heart, totally yielded up to a merciful and loving God, totally yielded up to the Lamb of God, Who said of Himself that is He is "gentle and humble in heart".

Did you feed the poor? Did you heal the man by the roadside, bind his wounds, put him on a donkey, and laid him on a bed, did you clothe the naked, did you visit the prisoner?

Forgive me if it seems I'm being harsh with you, but as the Lord lives in me, He doesn't need more fire-breathing zealots, he needs more doulous, he needs more SERVANTS....servanthood...service and love WITHOUT agenda...agape love.

Brother, dear brother, keep the fire stoked, but keep it banked, or you will burn out in a fleshly rage of religious indignation.

I am nothing, heed my words, don't heed them, I have testified to what my heart speaks to you.

Love mercy and walk humbly with God, love charity, love the person in front of you right this second, and you will see Jesus. All the rest is just words.

The Lord loves you and I love you. Both you and Jim and our brother Patrick who I pray for continually. Please forgive me if my words seem harsh and judgemental, I don't mean to be as such.

In Jesus' love

 2007/7/13 10:38









 enid, then it isn't

you wrote:

Quote:
However, Christianity in the west is abysmal, even satanic.



then it isn't, it's "churchianity", it's religiousity, but answer me this:

what do we do, to turn this grievous state of affairs upside down and right side up?

(my tone is gentle, this is not a rebuke, just a question thrown "out there")

what do we do?

Do we continue to do what we do even on this very forum, which sometimes is to go back and forth, fussing over this "ism" and that "ism", this doctrine and that doctrine, "I'm right", "you're wrong"?

is that what we are called to do?

As the Lord is my guide, I believe the mystery and the map lies within the whole of Isaiah 58.

I'm going to go now myself and re-read this precious bit of Scripture.

Praise God for His Word, and may the Lord love you as I love you. Pray God that I forgive those in my life who have wronged and hurt me.

 2007/7/13 10:48
enid
Member



Joined: 2006/5/22
Posts: 2680
Nottingham, England

 Re:

worm,
Good post.

We do get frustrated and exasperated at what is going on in Christendom right now. But what that means is that is time to seek the Lord until He comes and rains righteousness on us.

Ps 119v126, 'It is time for you to act, O Lord, for they have considered your law as void'.

By contrast, 10 verses later it says,

'Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep Your law'.

Both different, but both godly reactions to men who disregard God's law.

Thanks.

God bless.

 2007/7/13 10:52Profile
enid
Member



Joined: 2006/5/22
Posts: 2680
Nottingham, England

 Re: enid, then it isn't

worm,

Think we posted about the same time, so I didn't see what you posted, since you posted a little before me.

Yes, it isn't Christianity. Only God Himself can give it a name. Maybe the name is in the book of Revelation in one of the first 3 chapters. Only God knows.

You ask, what do we do?

I believe Isaiah 58 is a good place to start, as you have said.

To keep going on about doctrine, even though it is important, without getting anywhere is futile.

God tells us in Joel 1 to sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.

Also, Daniel set his face, in Daniel 9, toward the Lord God.

For me that is awesome.

We might fast and pray, but do we set our face toward the Lord, to almost literally see Him?

Thanks for the post, because it shows a genuine concern for God's glory.

God bless.

 2007/7/13 11:03Profile









 enid-Isaiah 58

just re-read it again.

speechless.

heart brimming.

no more to say, except Lord love you.

 2007/7/13 11:13
BrokenOne
Member



Joined: 2007/6/7
Posts: 429
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 Re: I Hate your Feast Days

Jim,

I read your post and I can relate to the sense of indignation at the lack of the fear and reverence and honor of God in the place that calls itself His house.

I wonder what our corporate services would be like if we really did this…

Quote:
He jealously longs for the undivided affection and love of His people who forsake all that is in the world to follow Him in obedience because they desire to please Him.



It might be something of heaven on earth, don’t you think?

Danielle


_________________
Danielle

 2007/7/13 15:14Profile





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