Jesus Is My ‘Church’

When will people get it? Everywhere I go, and every time I meet someone new in the kingdom of God, it’s the same old song and dance. Everybody is just trying to get everyone they can to “come to their church.” I hear folks talking about someone who is down and out, and it’s always, “They need to get back in church.” Really? No one considers that their 'church' probably has little to benefit those who come to it, as far as edifying in the Spirit of God. Nobody considers that their ‘church’ may be a house of Baal, and that it suffocates the Spirit right out of the people who frequent it. And somebody needs to “get back in church?” I don’t think so. Their ‘church’ may likely be by and large the reason they are down and out to begin with. God’s people need to quit playing religious games and get seriously real with God. It’s never about “going to church.” It is ALWAYS about GOING TO GOD!! Anyone who goes to God with a humble, sincere heart in faith is going to get somewhere WITH GOD! God’s people need to get back to God, not to ‘church.’ Someone is always trying to get me to come to their [church], and they expect me to come and act like I’m moved by the Spirit that isn’t moving there. I already know what is there, and I already know what is not there. What is there is confusion, error, and strangulation of the souls who attend. Oh, there might be some noise, and there might even be an occasional appearance of the Spirit of God actually being in something. But in any event, what is there is a mixed gospel, and that about a 98-2 mix in the wrong direction. What is not there is an atmosphere of God’s love, power, and truth; and people who know how to maintain that atmosphere. My question for those who try to recruit me is this: What’s in it for me? How am I going to be improved? I’m already filled with God’s love and peace, and have no fear of anything at all. What is your ‘church’ going to add to that? I’ll tell you what; confusion, nice human manners, competition, self righteousness, etc. Thanks, but no thanks. I think I’ll keep the love and the peace, and the knowledge of the truth that cultivates and maintains the same (Jn. 8:32). No, I don’t need to go to their church, they need to go to my God, and to their God if indeed he is. The apostle Paul said what I'm saying like this: "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (II Tim. 2:22). Indeed my friend, go there.

Hosea understood what I’m talking about: “Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images” (Hos. 10:2). If you think that has changed, you are fooling yourself my friend. That’s the mixed gospel I’m talking about, and the only reason it’s even mixed at all is because God’s people have received his Spirit. Otherwise they aren’t God’s people to begin with (I Cor. 12:13; Rom. 8:9). The scripture says, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Cor. 3:17). The only atmosphere of worship and service to the Lord Jesus Christ that is acceptable to him and his Father, is one where the Spirit is at liberty to be the whole show. Jesus said it like this to a Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (Jn. 4:23). Man needs to get out of God’s way, and let his people worship him wholly. A mixed gospel is not what Jesus died and rose again to give us. He died and rose again to give us the power of the holy Ghost to cleanse us from sin, and to enable us to fulfill the worship of God “in spirit and in truth” (Acts 1:4,4,8; I Cor. 6:11; Rom. 15:16). It’s that simple, and that’s all there is to it. Do you want to know where to go to worship God? Try this on for size: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:1,2). Go there my friend, and if God has a group of honest souls somewhere who are doing the same, he knows how to connect you to them. Otherwise, if you want to please God, just do it right if it means doing it by yourself; and it very well may mean exactly that, at least for a season. And the next time someone recruits you for their ‘church,’ ask yourself this question: Would you rather be more like you, or more like them? That’s what it comes down to. I’m doing just fine myself, thanks be to God and his glorious grace. In fact I believe I’m doing even better than that. I recommend going where I go, meaning heavily to God with those who do the same. God bless