Follow God and not the Traditions

First of all, we (the born-again believers) are the church and wherever we meet is our choice.

Secondly which day we gather is also our choice. God never gave commands on "how to worship", "where to worship" or "how many should meet together except, two or three", nor which day to meet.

The problem is that the modern church has turned its traditions into rules that determine someone's spirituality.

Mark 7:13 "13 Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”

There is also no rule from God that we have to go to the same gathering every week. We can choose to hop around and be of service to people in other gatherings. There is no such thing as "membership" in a particular local church gathering.

My suggestion to believers who see these truths is to not allow anyone to "guilt" them into staying in the traditions of men that God never commanded.

I am excited every day about the way the Lord is bringing out these truths to the believers who are waiting expectantly for the Lord to return in the clouds for His Bride.

All the traditions and myths of men that transformed the church gatherings into social clubs are being exposed for what they are and many people are being set free from this bondage of traditions of men.

Mark 7:1-8 "7 The Pharisees and some of the scribes *gathered to Him after they came from Jerusalem, 2 and saw that some of His disciples were eating their bread with [a]unholy hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the other Jews do not eat unless they [b]carefully wash their hands, thereby holding firmly to the tradition of the elders; 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they [c]completely cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received as traditions to firmly hold, such as the [d]washing of cups, pitchers, and copper pots.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk in accordance with the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with [e]unholy hands?” 6 But He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘"This people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far away from Me.

7 And in vain do they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

Just because you are familiar and comfortable with the traditions of centuries does not mean you must remain faithful to them. It is God we are faithful to, He alone should dictate our comings and goings.

Hallelujah!!!!

Intellectualism is the Outcome of an Inner Heart of Pride

"Intellectualism" is the love of using high-minded words strung together, often unrelated to one another, but used in the same sentence, in order to impress others making them believe the "intelligent one" is "so very intelligent."

I assert that the more high-minded the verbiage the less wise. God's gospel and His Words in the Bible are not hard, they are simple, high-sounding words that almost no one else in our culture uses and have no value in leading a sinner to Christ or even edifying the searching Christian.

1 Corinthians 8:1 "Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes one conceited, but love edifies people."

The words "puffs up" denote a person who is bloated, full of air with nothing inside like a balloon. Balloons can easily be popped by better rational arguments.

Foolish word-salad does not edify believers and rarely if ever brings anyone to Christ. A lot of modern leaders who are hell-bent on teaching predestination for salvation are of this sort. Those who choose to come to Christ in faith are predestined TO BE HOLY AND ASSIGNED TO PARTICULAR WORKS AS BELIEVERS. The word "predestination" does not apply to salvation it applies to someone being assigned a position or calling.

Christ was not a highly educated person, He was easy to understand and full of the wisdom of God the Father.

2 Timothy 2:15

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.z'

1 Corinthians 2:14

"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

Modern definition of "Intellectuallism: the theory that knowledge is wholly or mainly derived from pure reason; rationalism"

Notice that God is not involved in God's wisdom. "Intellectualism" is the human thinking process to come up with the ideas of their own mind.

In the case of modern "Christian intellectualism" man is attempting to interpret God's word in a way that makes sense to them, it births many false doctrines and makes many people terribly proud of their findings based on human wisdom mixed with scripture. They dissect God's word, copying and pasting one small context from its position in Scripture into another part of the Bible to make it say what they want to believe.

Those who have been changed into a new creation by Christ do understand the simplicity of the Bible and its truths. What we struggle with we can ask the Holy Spirit within us and He will make it all clear, or He makes us satisfied with not understanding what He has not revealed yet.

James 1:4-6 "…4 Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.…"

God never told us to seek out the most intelligent or educated person we know and ask them to explain the Bible. HE TOLD US TO GO TO JESUS CHRIST, His Holy Spirit Who lives in us.

In these last days of rebellion, there will be few people we can trust to "rightly divide" the Word. The only One we can trust is Christ and His Holy Spirit.

Be sure that you will cause people to deride and mock you for your decision to trust the Holy Spirit. They will say you are "using Him as a crutch" as though you should not, that will be the devil speaking through those who have never trusted the Holy Spirit and cannot understand what it is like to hear from Him.

They will say trusting the Holy Spirit is a "cop out", putting everything on God that we should figure out for ourselves. I have heard this myself, it made me laugh. After all, why on earth would I trust a man more than I trust Christ Who made the man?!!!

We are to question all things men say, and trust all things Christ says. His Word gives us all the principles we need to find the answers and what is not answered specifically we can pray for His will to develop the scenario to follow the way He wants us to go.

It really isn't hard to understand but it is hard to do if we do not trust in Christ.