True Religion vs Man's Traditions

More and more I find myself getting very annoyed with the Church. We are so totally off-track when it comes to doing what God has told us to do. And I'm not talking about cults.

A few examples:

In the new testament and in the old testament we are told that true religion means to take care of orphans, homeless, and widows. When was the last time we heard a sermon about taking care of orphans? We get into all kinds of issues about what righteousness is but the simple things we ignore.

Proverbs tells us what the excellent woman does. She reaches out to the poor. (Okay, we are also told that she buys a piece of land --without asking her hubby's permission) But honestly, why do we read the Bible without looking at what it actually says.

Another example:

Jesus tells us to heal the sick, raise the dead, command the disease to leave, and preach the gospel to the poor. When was the last time we did that? I've heard people in church praying for the unsaved to be saved. But Jesus didn't tell us to pray for the unsaved to be saved. He told us to pray for laborers to come to the harvest and he told us to preach the gospel. So if we know someone who isn't saved we don't go kneeling down to God to ask for the salvation of that person. Hey, God might answer the prayer. What we are to do is to pray for God to send the right laborer to the unsaved person at the right time. Or we ourselves are to ask God for wisdom, word of knowledge, boldness to heal the sick and so when we preach we will have signs following. Something else: we are told to heal the sick. We are not told to pray for the sick. We are told to HEAL the sick. The elders of the church are to pray for the sick by anointing them with oil and to pray the prayer of faith -- which is a command to the sick person to be healed. But what I see are elders anointing people and then asking God to heal the sick.

There are so many things in the Bible which we must simply look at and see clearly...with our own eyes. I forgot who said it (Mark Twain, I think) but he said was, "People think Christianity has been tried and failed. But the truth is: it has not been tried."

Can we be brave and do what God wants us to do? How many times have I wanted to tell the old lady dancing in the spirit (and stepping on everyone's toes) to stop it because the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet? A zilliion times. Know why I have never told her to quit all that being carried away with the spirit stuff? Because she will say to me: "I can't. It's the spirit. It's the spirit." GROAN!!! Well, don't you have control over it? If not, then you're indulging yourself.

Oh I could go on. But folks, let us read our Bible to see what it actually says and let us do what it says we should do ...and let us understand what it wants us to understand. -C