So many Christians are worried about everything more than they are thinking about Christ.
Matthew 6:33-34 "…33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own."
Matthew 6:25-26 "24 No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?…"
They worry about their jobs and their life.
They worry about the virus and the vaccine.
They worry about the loss of freedom.
They worry about the closing of the church buildings.
They worry about their food.
They worry about the connection with family.
Sadly many Christians worry about not being able to meet for worship in a large building because they have been programed that one cannot worship unless they are in these places.
The modern paid pastor, who is really a hireling, is worried about the people gathering because it diminishes their salary, status and benefits. Of course, they cloak this in ways that make them seem as though they are concerned about their congregations. The pastors are worried about people meeting in their particular building as though there is a violation of the word "not to forsake the gathering together", if they do not show up.
What they are not understanding is that Christ said; "where two or three are gathered there I am in the midst. This is gathering, it does not have to be more than two or three to be worship.
Most Christians have not been encouraged or taught to worship anywhere else except in their large gatherings with a paid hireling. They do not realize they can worship at home with their families and stay in contact with other believers throughout the week without a special building. This is a fulfillment of the command to "not forsake the gathering."
"Do not forsake the gathering together" meant something very different in Christ's day. It meant that we can gather at any time, anywhere, and mostly in the homes of beloved brethren.
The one-man pastor educated by the seminary system has managed to guilt people into thinking they must be under that paid hireling and go to a special building in order to worship.
Sadly too, the "parishioners" are more worried about disappointing their paid hireling than they are about displeasing God.
In our day the paid pastors ought to be teaching and encouraging people to meet in small groups at home, to show them that authentic Christianity is not much like the modern system that is fashioned after the Catholic church. Yes, I said that!!!! The way believers gather today was modeled after the hierarchy system of the Catholic church. We have modern protestant popes and priests only we call them by different titles such as "Pastors" with a capital "P" or "Bishops" who dictate to the people. There is no model of this in the New Testament for the born again believer.
In our day the "pastors", that is elders of the local gathering ought to be teaching those in the flock how they can worship, pray, and sing in a small gathering. Because, I promise you, one day the churches will be closed permanently, God will close them because they have become apostate, teaching doctrines of demons.
We do not need those large gatherings or the buildings, we have Christ and one another.
The modern pastor is agitating their flock to be upset and fight back rather than rest in the arms of Christ and enjoy the newfound freedom to worship in homes as God originally endorsed.
Yes, people are in bondage to their pastors and buildings. They feel a sense of fear when they can't meet the way the modern church has encouraged and intimidated them to meet.
The cultural Christianity of today does not want small gatherings because they cannot hide in one of these. The small gatherings are intimidating to those who wish to hide. The pastors of today have encouraged this form of hiding by building edifices to their leadership. For these paid hirelings the bigger the better. There is a certain amount of theater involved in these gatherings, otherwise, the congregations would stop coming.
I heard one pastor claim that believers could not obey the command to "gather together" because they could not go to the closed church buildings. This is a blatant misuse of the scriptures with the claim it is to obey God.
However, God was the One Who shut the churches to show how dependent the people were on their pastors rather than Christ. The people even use titles like "Paster Whoever" to describe their one-man leader, not realizing that the gift of pastoring was just that, a gift, not a title and that several men in one gathering ought to have this gift. Elevating one man over others is not God's way, He wants all the glory to go to Him, not to one man.
When we meet we ought to be meeting by the leading of the Holy Spirit, not by the leading of a man.
The modern church has become so apostate that very few people understand these principles of gathering around the Lord instead of a man. The apostate church will defend vehemently their own pastor while never defending Christ. They believe their pastor is above correction or criticism because they have made this "man" a god in their own eyes, who can do no wrong. In other words, most Christians in these apostate churches have an idol, that is their pastor.
Do you see why God shut down the churches and removed the pastors from their sphere of influence, and the people from the influence of the pastor. Christ wants the believers to seek Him for themselves, throwing off their co-dependency on the one-man pastor and placing it on Christ.
There ought to be only one Person we are depending on and that is Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not hard, all it takes is asking God to remove from our hearts all those things we believe were wrong traditions that led us away from the principles of Christ. But it takes desiring to know the truth above everyone and everything else in our lives because it may cost us companionship and the love of others.
What you will gain by throwing off tradition to embrace Christ is freedom beyond anything you could imagine. The freedom to walk in truth without the sense of intimidation of others. Yes, they will try to intimidate, mock, and demean us, but it will have no effect because Christ is our companion.
When Christ is our constant companion we have no worries, we have no emotional meltdowns when we lose someone or something of this world. The traditions of men are burdensome, throwing them off is liberating. Even if we are in prison for our faith we are free, no man can imprison our Spirit.
Colossians 2:8
"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."
Matthew 15:3
"He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?"
Mark 7:3-9
"(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ..."
