Testing your church or your Internet teacher;
Have you been feeding your spirit with spiritual milk, (fast food), or spiritual steak and potatoes, (real food that will stick to your ribs)?
These are pretty important questions considering that 10% of church membership has left the church to looking for something more they can find the reason for staking their eternal destiny on.
When I was a new Christian, I was criticized for visiting other churches in the area, and was told, “I should bloom where I was planted”. One Christian lady told me, “I heard you wuz church hopping”, it sounded like a put down and that I should knock it off. That old trite phrase is well and good, but what if a new Christian has questions about what he or she is being taught, and finds that perhaps instead of “blooming” where they were supposedly planted, find they are wilting..or starving for real spiritual nourishment. Or, perhaps they feel they need to compare what they have been taught in their church with what other churches are teaching? And another thing, what is so wrong with merely fellowshipping with the brothers and sisters in other groups. Some of these non-church hopping folks act like you’ve committed an act of spiritual treason if you visit another church, and some will even give you the third degree if you miss a service saying, “Where were you last Sunday?”, or “We missed you last Wednesday night”…which raises the question in my mind, do they think I belong to them, have they bought and paid for me with their blood or do I belong to Christ?
May I suggest to you that neither the Apostle Paul or the other apostles were merely content to be couch potatoes after receiving the revelation of Christ as the Son of God and their Savior and Redeemer. No, they did take an active part in going from church to church, telling the good news, and discipling others. They were not content with being spoon-fed with milk and never going beyond what their teachers chose to feed them with, or hanging out in the same ole place where they were supposedly planted 100% of the time. (sound like a fairly good way to stagnate in some cases). They armed themselves with the truth of God, the scriptures. Personally, I have found that NO church or Internet ministry has the total corner on the truth. Better think twice if you believe they do. And, better think twice if you’ve begun to hang on their every word and are quoting them instead of Jesus. You know, the LORD has this “thing” about being a jealous God, and his people turning to idols, (preachers, teachers, ministries), and such like.
Christians nowadays are too prone to sit back, willing to be fed at their Master’s Table, and then do nothing further about it, all the while the fields are white with the harvest ready to be reaped at this end of the age.
Did Jesus call you to do this? To only be armed with what your pastor or Internet teacher is teaching you, or are you supposed to be able to answer questions about why you believe, (apologetics)? Are you willing to give up the easy believism and dig into the scriptures on a deeper level, as part of your rightful service?
Mainstream Laodician churches pastors, and that may include some of the Internet “ministries” teachers as well, seem to think it’s good enough to appeal to Christians who are satisfied with spiritual junk food with few nutritional calories, and well, really…maybe that’s all these guys have to offer them. And the junk foodies don’t seem to know the difference. Remember…Satan is an expert in pulling off counterfeits!
A simple word search in the scriptures reveals that God didn’t have very many good things to say about pastors. Check it out. YOU have a responsibility yourself to search the scriptures, to do the work Christ has called you to do. YOU are the one who will have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Not your church pastor or Internet teacher. YOU will be accountable for what you’ve learned, what you’ve studied, what you believe…and what you’ve passed on to others.
Spiritual Abuse Sanctuary 