To share a funny story!

My mother-in-law was still using a wringer washer when my husband and I got married 53 years ago. She washed all the clothes in the same water. When I married my husband all his black socks had white pills all over them because the whites and towels were always washed first.

When we were first married we borrowed my father-in-laws camping trailer to live in while my husband finished college. That little tiny home was only about 15 feet long.

It had three draws in the tiny bedroom. As I was placing Rodger's socks in the drawer he came along and asked me why I was doing that, because socks belonged under the bed in a box. You see he was raised in a family of 15 children and only the oldest children had a drawer.

I asked him if it was alright to use the drawer since it would be empty anyway and he agreed. I also informed him that most people did not store their socks in a cardboard box under the bed. This is a funny example of how we think when we are raised with something we think its what everyone does.

His black socks came to the marriage covered in white lint and under the bed dust bunnies all over them. We really came up in the world when the socks were no longer under the bed and they came out of the wash without lint on them. It took me hours to pick off all the lint since in those days there were not fabric shavers or lint tapes.

Just a little funny history of life back in the 60's and 70's.

Deception Within the Church

Many people use the term "pastor" as a title or a position, it is neither, it is a calling from God and no one is to follow the pastors, they are to follow Christ.

The order of the gathering of believers has been culturalized to ignore the Word of God in favor of a model of the Catholic church in which there is a hierarchy.

The only ultimate leader in the Church is Christ Himself.

Leaders are to lead by example and by teaching but have no authority over their brothers and sisters. Everyone is to submit to everyone else and the leaders are accountable to those they lead.

1 Corinthians 14

"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."

One man may lead the study of God's Word but all other men will evaluate and interject as led by the Holy Spirit. This modern idea that a "Pastor" preaches and everyone else must remain silent is not only unbiblical but it leaves the congregation with the distorted idea that the one speaking has all authority over everyone else. It also leaves weak believers to think that that paid pastor up front is the mediator between them and God.

There is only one mediator between each individual believer and God that Father and that is Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 2:5-6 "5For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time.…"

No one has authority over another believer, only the Holy Spirit has this distinction. When we allow others to dictate what we should believe and what we should be doing we are negating the Holy Spirit Who lives in us, He becomes subject to the human leader, clearly a perverse human idea.

Acts 4:12

"Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

1 Corinthians 8:6

"yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist."

It seems radically ridiculous to trust a man when we can trust Christ, our Creator and our Savior Who lives inside of us.

It is human nature to desire a king we can see rather than trusting God Whom we cannot see. Those who are Spiritual will trust Christ alone. We listen to others and evaluate what they say according to the Bible but we never follow them the way we follow Christ.

Following a man negates Christ Who lives in us.

Psalm 118:8-9

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes."

Matthew 15:9

"In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

2 John 1:9

"Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son."

Galatians 1:9

"As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed."

Many preachers today are teaching ideas devised by men who have not been deceived by secular colleges or seminaries that have reduced their teaching to secular psychological methods that are not Biblical. There is much scripture twisting going on in the church because of the paid pastors who were trained in these places.

It is more important than ever now in these last days to evaluate everything that is said and done according to scripture and reject what is not of God. We must depend solely on the Holy Spirit for our wisdom as we seek Him for truth.

Many years ago I asked God to show me wisdom that I not believe anything that is not truth that I have been taught all my life. It is astounding what He has been showing me through His Word. My eyes are being opened more all the time to the "religious deception" and "religious practices" that happen every week in the apostate churches.

My encouragement to everyone is to ask God for truth, do not follow men and wait for Him to reveal it as you study and read His Word.