God's Ordinances not Man's

God gave ordinances but they are His, not ours. Baptism is a symbol of our having died to self and been raised to new life, head covering for women is a picture of the church and the lack of it for men is a symbol of Christ. , and the Lord's supper is a symbol of the death burial, and resurrection of Christ. These are symbols of Christ not based on man's feelings but on God's purposes.

Notice that man (symbol of Christ) and woman (symbol of the church) stand side by side because Christ lives in the born-again believer, both the man and the woman.

Man has created many rituals God never gave and with reflection we see how they have led away many from thoughts of Christ to the thoughts of the rituals instead.

Mankind loves to have things they can see that make them feel safe and special. God gives His principles that elevate Him above everyone and everything else.

Let us evaluate everything we have been trained to do and believe so that we can more fully follow Christ, expunging everything from our lives that detracts from Him.

No Rituals Just Christ

No "ritual" of worship happens with the new testament born again believer because Christ lives in us, we are His temple, this is why He said; "we worship in Spirit and in truth."

We don't see outward ritual here except what He gave in the Bible, the Lord's supper, baptism as a display of our newfound salvation, the head covering on women as an expression of the church and the lack of head covering on men as an expression of Christ as the head of the church.

Christ is the head of the church no man is the head. There is no hierarchy in Christ's church because He is the head.

Any gathering who has appointed a man as the head is in violation of the Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 14:26 "26What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a psalm or a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. All of these must be done to build up the church."

Ephesians 5:19

"Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,"

Romans 12:6-8

"We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith; / if it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; / if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."

1 Peter 4:10-11

"As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another. / If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen."

Hebrews 10:24-25

"And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. / Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

All those in the body share to edify one another as we are built up i the faith to go into the world and preach the gospel to the lost.

The gospel is not for believers.

To encourage people to bring their unsaved friends to the gathering of believers is a violation of the Word of God. It is man's idea because those in the gathering are lazy, rather than speaking to the lost outside of the gathering they are letting someone else do it through preaching that belongs in the world not in the church.

We are told to go out and make converts, we are not told to bring the unsaved into the gathering where the edification of the saints would be neglected by the continual preaching of the gospel. The saints do not need the gospel they need edification in the Word and support from one another. It is the lost who need the gospel.

Acts 2:42-47

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. / A sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many wonders and signs. / All the believers were together and had everything in common."

There is not one scripture that tells us to bring the unsaved into the gathering. However, if one happens to wander in out of curiosity that is different, we love them and allow them, this is far different from inviting every unsaved person in the community to come. This matter of welcoming the unsaved who happen to wander in has been used as a lazy excuse to invite all unbelievers in to avoid the embarrassment of speaking to the unsaved one-on-one in the streets on their turf.

When we deviate from God's plan for His church we run into many problems that do not have to be there. The edification of the church is the purpose of the gathering, so that they are equipped to go in to the world living out their faith and sharing Christ with others.

And, the building is not the church, it is not holy and has not been commanded by God, it is man's idea and has led to much error and deception.

Doing things God's way brings Spiritual and emotional maturity for those who gather in His Name. The Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Deception is Real but Our God is Stronger

There is now more deception than truth in our generation. Everything is tainted with covert lies that sound good, but are evil in the sight of God.

When we take each thing and compare it with the word of God we see how much deception is woven in among the truth, this betrayal of God is rampant and constantly menacing.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."

All that is holy and righteous is being rejected by this generation. Most people in the apostate churches are accepting things that are sins against God while they defend the sin and reject the truth. They also reject all those who bring the Bibel to bear on everything.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

"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."

Many of these people make up their own ideas influenced by demons to confuse those who do not read their Bibles and do not seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit.

Our generation does not want to learn God's ways, they want to make up their own ways, add a little of God to their ways and claim it was from God.

As long as believers remain silent and do not correct or rebuke the wrong thinking this phenomenon of half-truths is growing into full lies. The believers are becoming more intimidated to speak openly that most will remain silent. However, sometimes silenced is what is best because of the stubbornness of our culture, we might be throwing our pearls before swine.

The lies are used to imprison others into bondage to the lies while a few who teach the lies remain in domination over their subjects.

Born-again believers are not in bondage to people or leaders who exalt themselves above others. We are free in Christ to believe and follow Him.

The day we reject the idea of a person as the authority over us is the freest day of our life as we look only to the Authority of the Holy Spirit Who lives in us. No man has authority over the Holy Spirit. No man has the truth better than the Holy Spirit.

To allow a "person" to have authority over us is to place them above the Holy Spirit.

John 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."

Trust Christ not Man!!!!!

What is Worship

The definition of worship: "respectful devotion—loving, honoring, and obeying someone who deserves our highest regard"

We do this every time we speak of Christ as we honor him through obedience to Him.

The born again believer worships in "Spirit and in Truth", no outward rituals are required for this mindset of worship.

The only rituals God gives us in our worship is the Lord's supper which Christ commanded us to do in remembrance of Him. And, the ritual of baptism to declare to others our new life in Christ as well as the head covering for the woman and lack of head covering for the man in the gathering as a representation of the woman as the church and the man as Christ.

There are no other outward rituals God commands for the believer. We need no buildings built to meet in, no vestments for men to wear, no special prayers devised by men, no knee bowing at the pew or any other outward sign. Our devotion to Christ is not in ritual but in heart loyalty to Christ and all His commands and principles. We add no human ideas to His, we do not take away from His commands to make them palatable to our culture.

What a freedom and peace we enjoy when we just follow Christ alone.

Peace With Christ in All Situations

As we walk away from those who are contentious and they walk away from us because we are sold out to Christ, there will be a sense of new freedom and peace because of their absence.

 
Being alone is preferable to being stuck in the continual drama about nothing important. But we are never alone because Christ lives in us and He is everything we need.

 
We don't worry about the future because we know Christ will give us what we need when we need it, our faith in this sustains us.

 
Philippians 4:19 "But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus".

 
When things get rough and our "feelings" run amuk we can ignore them because we know rationally that God knows about it and what comes next. He will never leave us alone to flounder in fear and unsure about the future. We walk by faith in Christ, not by sight in what we see with our eyes.

 
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 "6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight—
8 but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad."

Still Looking Up!!!!!

Rejection of the World but Blessings from Christ

Why do born-again believers have so much rejection in this world and find themselves alone with Christ often? Here is the reason:

 
John 3:19-21 …19 And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.”

Ephesians 5:11-13
"Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. / For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. / But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself."

Romans 13:12
"The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

1 John 1:6-7
"If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. / But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."

1 John 2:9-11
"If anyone claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he is still in the darkness. / Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him. / But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

Isaiah 29:15
"Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”

Isaiah 30:1
“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin."

Praising God for His wisdom and that He gives it freely to those who ask for it.

 
James 1:4-6 "…4 Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."
Hallelujah!!!!

Love is not Competitive

When we are obeying the Scripture, the very Word of God we have no place for competition with one another, gossip or any other divisive mentality that brings chaos and the devil's glee.

 
Ephesians 2:20-22
"20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy [a]temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."

1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 "…10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. 11 Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
"4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Praise the Lord for all those who live according to God's principles. Having set aside worldly wisdom and man-made rules that oppress others they seek Christ for His truth and principles. They pursue love as the first fruit of the Spirit. This love of Christ dominates everything and everything flows from it.

 
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
When there is Christ-like love all the other character traits follow. Every born-again believer has this fruit and love to live them out, it brings joy and peace to all who want to live according to God's Word.