Worship #1 Why the Early Church Did Not Have Worship Services - revised

Something Interesting Has Happened in these Last Days of Apostasy

Has anyone else noticed something very interesting, in these last days of godlessness?

The clothing has become foolish, the decor in homes is stark and uninteresting, the hair styles are beyond sloppy and much more. Everything is getting uglier.

I cannot tell you how disturbed I feel when I see woman wearing ripped jeans that they paid $80 for brand new.

I remember for years how I waited for the style of saggy pants on young men to go away. They were offensive to me and even immoral at times.

Now I am waiting for the ripped faded and worn-out jeans on women to pass.

It makes sense that the devil would want to make everyone look terrible to dishonor God.

I have heard it said by young people that God does not care how we dress. My response was, then why are you obsessing over how someone else dresses appropriately for church gatherings?

The young people seem to be irritated at proper clothing to worship God. They are using the excuse to dress down to justify their lazy and irreverent attitude about God and His gathering.

They will use the scriptures out of context to say that we should not honor one person over another based on clothing. Of course, I agree with God on this but remember God was not speaking of those who can afford to do better in their clothing, He was addressing the matter of the poor not having anything else to wear but tattered clothing because it was all they had. We are not to treat others disrespectfully because they are poor and do not have anything else to wear.

God was teaching us not to treat people disrespectfully because of their financial status. It would be equally bad to judge someone as haughty for dressing a little better for gathering than they do in their every day lives. He never at any time told everyone else to dress down so they can feel comfortable. This matter of clothing had to do with wealth and poverty not clothing style.

Back in the day when farmers were poor people had one set of clothing for working and one set for church and going to town. They valued that their attitude was seen in their choice of clothing when in the presence of others. This is not wrong, it is a virtue to look our best for God and for others.

We are not to judge others according to their appearance, but we should be diligent in our appearance for ourselves. Our attitude is seen in whether we are diligent or lazy.

By the way, it seems foolish to me for anyone to be wealthy and pay big bucks for ripped clothing. Just saying!!!!!

I recall one time when someone who claimed God doesn't care how we dress to attend church meetings came to the gathering once dressed very well because she was going to an office Christmas party afterward. So an office Christmas party was more important than the worship of God?

The clothing for the office party was seen as appropriate for the gathering there but not appropriate for God's Worship gathering?

I guess I am old and out of step with the culture as a whole. So many things that are held as important in our modern-day seem foolish and even irrational to me.

I don't judge anyone based on their clothing but apparently there are those who love to "dress down" who do judge those of us who do not do what they do.

Again, just saying!

Focusing on Christ will Bring Great Joy no Matter how People Treat You

When our focus in on the way things have always been done and on the culture around us accepting us we cannot serve Christ. Those who are in bondage to the cultural traditions of our age will be weak and worried all the time about obtaining approval of men rather than approval of God.

It has been my experience more than anything else in the modern church that people call obedience to Christ "legalism" while judging those who are free from man-made rules when they obey Christ.

Legalism is following man's rules to please man and obedience is adhering to God's principles in His Word to please Christ.

When we step out of the legalism of man and obey Christ we will be judged by the superficial church attendees as disobedient for not following their version of spirituality made up by men who love to control others.

Matthew 23:4: "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger".

Matthew 23:5-6 "5 All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues,…"

The modern one-man-paid pastor system affords prideful teachers to elevate themselves above others as though those without a degree cannot hear from the Holy Spirit. Even though many of them would pretend they are not greater than the Holy Spirit in all believers, they will act as though only they can know the truth.

Remember that the Holy Spirit is our teacher and there is no one greater than He and that He lives in everyone who has been born again.

Many people who say they are Christians, who attend church gatherings and do good deeds deny Christ by their refusal to seek His Word and the Holy Spirit causing them to follow the lies of the culture and psychology rather than Christ Himself.

Every time these pretenders add to the Word or ignore it for their own desired results they are denying Christ. Christ is the very essence of His Own Word.

Matthew 15:8-9

"8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,[a]

but their hearts are far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines human precepts.’”

We ought to be more concerned about the church changing the word of God to suit their own desires than we are about what the world is doing in politics. After all, the world will always deny Christ but for a "Christian" to deny the words of Christ is even worse.

It has been my experience that most "Christians" who are corrected with God's Word will argue, fight or dismiss and demean anyone who challenges them to follow Christ through obedience to His word.

Christian family will exclude anyone who corrects with the Word of God, and yet they will still say they are Bible believers. Yes, it is true they are Bible believers, but they are not Bible followers. Even the devil believes in Christ, he knows who Christ is and rejects Him.

We are living in the end times in which many will have a form of Christianity but deny Christ in its disobedience to Him. They mock the Holy Spirit, they mock us who belong to Christ and they refuse to look into the Word of God to prove what is true.

These are the end days of apostasy growing more mean-spirited every day, without a conscience or shame for their rebellion.

Isaiah 29:13

"Therefore the Lord said: "These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men."

Mark 7:6

"Jesus answered them, "Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me."

John 5:23

"so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."

Next time you are tempted to feel rejected by family and friends, remember they did it to Christ and the apostles too, we have no reason to think we will escape it.

Hallelujah

James 1:2-4

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

Matthew 5:10-12 "…10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.…"

Keep these passages in your mind when you encounter those who hate you because you love Christ and His principles.

Proud of How Good? Nonsense!

Many Christians I have known were so proud of how good they think they are I avoided them before I was born again. Then God got hold of my heart and I avoided these same people because they thought they never did anything to be ashamed of, so they looked down on those of us who lived a wild life before Christ changed them into a new creation. Sadly I cannot have fellowship with those who elevate themselves to the level of God pridefully thinking they never deserved condemnation.

John 3:18: "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God"

Romans 3:23

"23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

Even those who think they have never done "the big sins" were on their way to hell until they repented of the same pride the devil had when he was thrown out of heaven.

Those who know they deserved hell and trusted Christ because they had no ability to earn heaven will never see others as beneath them nor will they have contempt for those who have not yet trusted in Christ. No one is better than anyone else, those who have been changed by Christ into a new creation are not better than the unsaved, it is only Christ Who is better.

2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. . ”

Ephesians 2:10

"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

The hardest people to reach for Christ are those who have a high opinion of themselves, even those who are pretenders in the church. Anyone raised to believe they were above others will be the hardest to convince they need to be saved from hell through confessing their sinfulness and trusting in Christ.

All born-again believers ought to be saying;

"Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

Within every person who has a high opinion of themselves is raging anger that is ready to emerge as soon as someone challenges them to ask God if they were ever born again. Those who have been born again will be humbled and desire to know why someone might think they are not born gain.

Only the unsaved pretenders would become angry at a challenge to ask God if they were ever born again.

May we all challenge ourselves to walk more diligently in the principles of God never seeing a challenge as hate but as love.

Where Did AMERICA GO WRONG and What Can We Do About It? | Dr. David Reagan

Pretender or Authentic?

Remaining in a large dead church will eventually cause deadness in the one who stays. As God said; "bad company corrupts good character." The masses of people are far more likely to dilute our walk with Christ than we are to enhance theirs.

Wherever there are groups of people there is less chance of being heard by those who love their superficiality.

God has shown me in these last days that He must be the One to put me in contact with those who might want to follow Christ. We must trust Him and be willing to speak the truth boldly while the rest of apostasy is playing their religious games guiding more people to hell than helping them to repent and trust in Christ.

Playing religion looks like this:

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Difficult Times Will Come

3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

Authentic Christianity looks like this:

Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth."

The superficial apostate self-righteous church is mentioned in 2 Timothy 3 and the authentically born-again believer who has been changed by Christ into a new creation looks like 1f Corinthians 12.

Those who are discerning can sense quickly those who walk in the Spirit of Christ and those who are pretenders. Not just because we know the Scriptures but also because Christ in us connects deeply with Christ in others.

When we are around those who claim to be Christians but are pretenders we sense no connection with them no matter how friendly they are to us. That superficial friendliness fades quickly when we speak the gospel to them or the principles of God to help others grow in holiness.

An authentic believer will thank us for sharing and pray about what was said, unless they already have done their homework and agree with God's Word. The pretender will fight and argue to defend their wrong belief system while acting contemptuously toward the one who brought the truth.

We can pray for the defensive pretender but we cannot be close friends with them. They will ultimately intimidate us into silence to avoid their rankor.

Our close companions must be those who agree with God's Word, those who are humble and desire Spiritual and emotional growth.

Hallelujah!!!

The Spirit of This Age

The spirit of the age of the end times is here now in force and only growing worse.

Ephesians 2:2

"2 in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience."

The spirit of the age is a description of the end times apostate church. It is no wonder that many people are leaving the organized church religion based on human order instead of the order God gave in the Bible.

We are living in time in which most people who say they are Christians do not live according to the Bible and most people in the church follow a "form of godliness" dependent on the cultural ideas of their time not on the principles of God's Word.

2 Timothy 3 is a description of the end times "Christians" or apostates who believe they are saved but have never been born again.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

"Difficult Times Will Come (Meaning; ragingly insane times)

3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

These people who attend gatherings every week thinking they are doing God a favor and fully convinced they are special and wonderful are full of self-love and hatred for anyone who would expose their false Christianity.

I have experienced more "Christians" angry at me for bringing the scriptures to bear on a subject than I have had unbelievers with whom I have shared Biblical truths.

The unbelievers know they don't know the Bible so they listen without arguing, but the pretend Christian thinks they know the Bible while adhering to biblical ideas sprinkled with worldly psychology and count themselves as knowledgable. They are full of all the terrible 2 Timothy 3 traits of rebellion and think they are fully Christian, mostly developed through worldly ways mixed with some Bible truth taken out of context.

We are living in an age where most people who would identify as Christians have a form of religion but deny Christ through their scripture twisting and even out right denial of what God says to justify their disobedience and rebellion.

These people will become enraged and vengeful when we expose their false beliefs to help them see the difference between worldly Christianity that leads to hell and true Christianity which leads to a transformed life that seeks after the heart of Christ.

Those who love and obey Christ are being gossiped about, maligned, distrusted, dismissed and even persecuted through family devaluing as they attempt to live their lives according to God's Word.

I can remember a time many years ago when I objected to a particular movie being shown at a family gathering of "Christians." This movie was full of the Lord's name in vain and other ways that should be objectionable to any born again believer. I was treated disrespectfully and ignored because of my objections rather than anyone of those in the room supporting my stance. This was a strong indicator to me of the mentality of those who wanted to watch the movie. They were more interested in seeing this movie than they were in standing for Christ.

Sadly, at the very least those who said they were Christians should have turned it off for no other reason than it was objectionable to a Christian sister. The choice to keep the movie running in spite of my objections made it clear that my well being as a believer was of no interest to them. I was viewed as a fanatic and ignored as though I was irrelevant.

Notice something about this story of the movie scenario, those involved defended their right to watch this movie while they threw their Christian sister and in my case mother, under the bus merely to have something to watch on that television. No one defended me and worse no one was concerned about what Christ throught.

This is the state of the false Christianity of today, the wholesale misuse of scripture to justify sin and trampling on the heart of believers who stand against it.

As the Lord progressed me in my wisdom over the years I began to realize that most people who say they are Christians have never been born again. I can understand a Christian getting caught up in something they shouldn't but when confronted about it they become ashamed and humbled seeking to do better next time. However, the one who is not born again defends their right to sin and even dares to deny that what they are doing is sin.

Each one must make their own decisions about their television watching however, if another believer objects because of their own sensitivity to the sin in the show, the others in the room should make an effort to protect the conscience of the one who cannot allow themselves to watch what they believe dishonors God.

The proof of the 2 Timothy 3 mentality was seen in the disdain for the one who could not indulge in the movie. There was no sense of love, no protection of the believer who didn't want to partake, but there was contempt and refusal to protect the one who wanted to remain clean in their conscience.

On another occasion we were invited to a baptism where we first met at a home before going to the church building. While we waiting for the time of the baptism the super bowl was playing and half time came on the television. Those in the room were watching this horrid display of immorality in the half time show without the objection of anyone, right before going to the church building where someone was going to be baptised.

At the baptism, there was laughter and marry-making as though this was just another ceremony to have fun. I was so disgusted and appalled it made it hard for me to believe the one being baptized and those in attendance to watch, understood the Biblical mentality of being transformed by Christ. They appeared to be performing a ritual without understanding of what it means to be baptized in Christ. Again I was appalled.

Since this time many years ago I have seen more of this and even worse in various gatherings we attended. The church gatherings as a whole have become social clubs with a little Bible thrown in to make them feel special but no sense at all of what it is to be transformed by Christ into a new creation. There is no humility, no sense of awe for Christ and even worse a blatant refusal to be corrected when confronted with the flippant attitude. Those in the audience were laughing uproariously as the preacher and the one to be baptized trivialized and joked about what was gong on.

There have been many events like this that finally led to my decision to remove myself from the organized church system of apostasy that frustrated me rather than uplifting Christ. In a sense I was prevented from living out my Christianity as described in the Bible while surrounded by those who would reject me for loving God's Word and refusing to engage in the foolish indulgences of those who were pretenders.

In my humble opinion most churches have lost their first love, that is Christ, and engage in a pseudo Christianity that give reign to the flesh without regard to the commands and principles of Christ in His Word.

In fact most of the people who say they are Christians have a few false phrases they use from the Bible out of context and think they know the Bible. Some even know all the stories of the Bible but often miss the principles and lessons in those stories. They even twist the meanings of those stories to fit their worldly ideas.

Who is saved and who is not? I cannot know perfectly who is saved and who is not but I do know what God said in His Word about the mentality of those who are born again.

Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law"

A born again believer who loves the Lord would never rage at, dismiss or gossip against another believer who corrected them with Scripture.

Matthew 7:18

"18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit."

The fruit of the Spirit of Christ are not deeds, they are the character qualities of Christ that bring about all the qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. This fruit produces a humble spirit and a spirit who cannot treat people with disdain or contempt even when they disagree.