I was told by my mother-in-law years ago that my husband and I were going to hell because we left the Catholic church. I told her I felt bad for her that she was worried for us, but told her that we didn't leave Christ, we became closer to Him and that He lives in us. She cried because she knew she could not change our minds. She rejected Christ and clung to Mary to the very end of her life as did one of my husband's brothers before he died.
The statues are gone, the rosary is gone, and the canned prayers dictated by a priest are gone, but the mentality that a man leads remains dominant in the "Protestant" church system.
It has become ritual to attend a large church building with worship teams who lead instead of the Holy Spirit. Where the songs are dictated by those in charge of choosing songs, prayers are said by one man up front and not by the Holy Spirit within the gathering, as each one is participating as led by the Holy Spirit.
Sitting in the pews doing whatever the man up front tells them to do and believing everything he says is cultic and the pew sitters don't realize it. They give up their autonomy in the Lord to follow a man.
The modern church does not know how to worship and pray day to day at home. When the virus hit many people were upset that they could no longer meet in those buildings and were lost without their "pastor." This was because they didn't understand that the church are the people and can worship and pray anywhere at any time. We need not adhere to man's traditions according to day or place.
The traditions of men are so strong those who have been following them all their lives experience false guilt when they do something different. This is why it is essential that each of us ask God for truth and be willing to set aside all the wrong things we were taught by men, so that we can obey God.
Believe me!!!! It is far less stressful to follow Christ than the burdens men place on one another that are not even Biblical.
Romans 14:4-6 "…4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes a special day does so to the Lord; he who eats does so to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.…"
Man's way is full of rules God never made, ideas God never taught and pressure from one another God never intended. Man thinks they can do it better than God, the very reason they make their own rules that God never commanded.
May each one reading this ask God to show them the truth so that they can have the freedom, peace, and joy of God's way.
1 John 5:2-4
"2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith."
