There are so many people who think as long as their heart desires to worship God it doesn't matter how they do it, whether it is His way or their own way, all is good, this is not the truth.
Remember when Saul was impatient and did the sacrifices that Samuel was supposed to do? Uzzuh saw the ark of the covenant teetering and reached out his hand to steady and God killed him for it. Uzzuh and Saul are examples of men who thought they could do what they wanted because they were doing something for God.
1 Samuel 13:10-14 "10 But as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him.
11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Since I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come at the appointed time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash,
12 I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the Lord.’ So I worked up the courage and offered the burnt offering.”
13 But Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly! You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for the Lord would now have established your kingdom over Israel forever.
14 But now your kingdom shall not endure. "
God gave the priestly role of sacrificing for the people to Samuel but Saul ignored Gods' way to do things his own way.
Is is any wonder that the churches are full of apostasy, the people seek after pleasure more than God and the nation as a whole is an abomination to the world while the people in it pridefully cry out, "God bless America"? We have no reason to expect more blessings when we disrespectfully use God's blessing to enhance and enlarge our sin.
Saul was told that his nation would not endure because God didn't want a leader of the Lord's people who disregarded the commands of God.
Matthew 7:21-23
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
Our modern culture might say something like this: "but Lord didn't we sing hymns on Christ-mass and also on Easter for you?"
Perhaps God might reply something like, "that wasn't for me it was for your pleasure. You gave yourselves gifts, practiced paganism, praised one another and mostly ignored me." If the holidays were really for Christ then we would stop doing all the ritualistic practices God never commanded.
Some people claim they celebrate Halloween for God, as long as they put God's title to their desired holiday they are all alright because they are doing it for God.
I believe it is an abomination to God for people to take pagan things adding the name of God to satisfy their own desire for man-made rituals that make them feel good.
Ephesians 4:17 "So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds,"
What makes us think God would be happy with paganism mixed with the portions of His word that please us? The holidays are not really for God as so many claim, they are for those who enjoy their rituals.
God worked in my heart years ago when I began to question the holiday systems because of the ungodly attitudes I saw from people who were "religious" but had no fruit of God's Spirit.
I questioned God what was it that seemed so "Off." Then He began to expose the paganism associated with these man-made holidays and their implications. It wasn't very long before I lost all interest in them even dreading the season of the year when they emerged once again, year after year, so glad when each one passed.
We can be sure when the secular world loves the holidays there must be something wrong with them. Unsaved people who do not attend church gatherings don't practice the one observance God did give, it is of no interest to them, which is the Lord's supper. This is the only celebration Christ gave to His followers and it is the one most Christians and all seculars' ignore.
"Come let us reason together", is the phrase God gives us, that we might think with our minds according to His principles and commands not our emotions and never according to the culture.
around us.
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