Tomorrow is Sunday, what to do, what to do? So many choices.

1. Sleep in, relax, enjoy the beautiful Spring day in Oregon.
2. Get up, hang out, read my Bible, and feel guilty that I didn't go to church.
3. Get up, get ready, go to church, and feel guilty because I don't like it.
3. Remember that Sabbath is a state of being. A place in our heart and spirit where we are continually worshiping God in all that we say, think, do and act. It is a place where Holy Spirit dwells in us. His sanctuary. That place we go in our spirit to commune with and worship God and talk with Jesus.

It is that quiet place. It is that secret place where we are seen and heard in secret (Matthew 6:6). Not that place where there is so much busy-ness, noise and confusion that no one could worship.

How are we to worship with the "band" playing so loud no one can hear themselves think, let alone pray and worship. Yes, it gets quiet, in those few minutes we are alloted to quiet our spirit, clear our heads from the head-pounding music, clear the blur that is indelibly stamped on our eyeballs from the big screen....just in time to hear, "Amen". WHEW!

For those who you are going to church to worship, please read this.

http://www.christineboudreau.ca/newbold/or/harlot/harlottoc.html

Unless your a speed-reader, you probably won't be able to read it before you go to church. But PLEASE, do yourself a favor. PLEASE READ IT. When you come home from church tomorrow would be a good time, while the experience is still fresh....or still ringing in your ears.

If you are going to church week after week, and keep telling yourself you are going to find another church because..... please read this.

If you want to find another church because your mad at the pastor or someone else in your church, are fighting over something, or because someone hurt your feelings, etc, please do not read this. It is not going to tell you how to get even for something someone did that you didn't like or agree with.

If you are looking to find a different church because you know something is missing, but you can't put your finger on it, please read this. Not to tell you where to find a different church, because there ARE NOT ANY "DIFFERENT" CHURCHES.

If you read the link above and think it is not true but "still" know something is wrong in your church you just can't put your finger on, then may I suggest that you re-read it, asking Spirit to show you something different the second time around?

While your there reading, I highly recommend your also read the following to answer "why" you may be feeling the way your do about "church":

http://www.christineboudreau.ca/newbold/or/crucified/crucifiedtoc.html

If you are going to a great church and you feel loved and accepted, you are blessed in deed. So, PLEASE, this is not a debate! Neither is this a Forum to tell me why it is "I" don't like "church".

if you would like to debate the author, his email address is on his website. Please don't shoot the messenger!

Yes, I long for fellowship. Yes, I long for like-spirited believers to share the Kingdom with. Yes, I long for a place where I am accepted just the way God made me, with all my worts and scars. But, there ARE NOT many today who would agree that "church" is where to find it......which there in-lies the problem...which you will discover why when you read.

Please know that these words are written in the spirit of
tenerheartedness and love, and in no way are they to condemn anyone for where you are in your Walk.

with the love of God and the mercies of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus,

Michael

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Michael Bigley

Thanks for sharing, Biggs. I believe that I had been lead to these writings before, but it was definitely a blessing to come across them again. Blessings and hugs to you and yours.

Thanks Michael. Now I know what has been happening. It is finally out of me. It took two years. The Spirit led me out and I felt guilty and tried to go back in.

God Bless You.

Linda

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Linda

will check this out..sounds like something I need to read...

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Kathleen

OK so I read this

http://www.christineboudreau.ca/newbold/or/harlot/harlottoc.html

and although I agree with him on the condition of the `church` I do not agree with the solution he suggests - that is to come out of `her`.

There is a spirit at large that wants us to be alone, out of the church scene, saying that holiness consists of removing ourselves from the sins we see. However scriptural holiness is the removal of the old man in ourselves. We cannot attain holiness through changing the outward, from leaving a church which is committing the sins laid out in the article.

It is so easy to look outwards at the sins of others and not see that we are sinners too if we have not had the root of sin taken out so that Christ can dwell in a holy temple.

If we do have Christ within us then even our presence in an unholy company will convict others of sin. Finney displayed that.

Come out from among her is an order to come out of the sins she commits. We need revival not a pile of hermits.

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Kathleen

Just a word of balance here. We each have the opportunity of knowing God and serving Him whereever He has planted us. Is that a small thing in our eyes? It is for that task, and none other, that He will fill me with His Holy Spirit; it is just there, in that routine position, doing those dull jobs, meeting that same old set of uninteresting people, that He has promised His blessing. Don’t despise these circumstances, because they are the medium through which God purposes to make Himself known to you, and be very, very sure of His leading before you seek to change them.

George Mueller wrote some sage advice to believers...Be slow to take new steps in the Lord's service...weigh everything well; weigh all in the light of the holy Scriptures and in the fear of God. Seek to have no will of your own, in order to ascertain the mind of God, regarding any steps you propose taking, so that you can honestly say you are willing to do the will of God, if He will only please to instruct you.

In Christ,

Ron

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Ron Halverson