Subject: Circus Churchianity vs.Spirt-led worship |
Bible Note: Nuge, for the third time today I find myself responding to your posts, and since you've made only three to date -- one was a duplicate -- that means with this post I'm batting a thousand! In reading your bio, or user profile as Lockman calls it, I chuckled when I read that you frequently have visited the forum to see what has been said on this or that issue or topic. I chuckled because I couldn't help wondering what you may have thought about some of the really outre postings that would be more at home on a freak show than a Bible forum. But this observation, in fairness to the forum, must be counter-balanced by noting that there are also a number of good people on it who have favored it with sound, scripturally oriented posts. More on topic, to the fine responses you have received thus far from Joe, Ed, and Steve, please allow me to add a brief (my definition of "brief" may differ slightly from Mr. Webster's) couple of comments. The church of my childhood was, by the common standards of today, an austere one. There was no clapping at all and a smile was permitted only at Easter and Christmas! I always showed up at worship service wearing that dreaded, severely starched white shirt, because my mother had the notion that her son had to be somewhat uncomfortable in order to worship God properly. I think that idea was cut from the same piece of cloth as was the belief that medicine did no good unless it tasted horrid. But back then we had no exposure to the unsettling influence of the many religious circuses that crowd the TV channels, and the politically correctness games were not being played even by most politicians and assuredly not by any churches that I know of. We hear so much talk bandied about these days concerning the separation of church and state but so little about the separation of the church and the world, by which I am talking about the role of the church in society. It is not to compromise its position of spiritual leadership and direction by becoming like the world. We Christians, individually and corporately as members of the body of Christ, are commanded to be salt and light in the world and we markedly dilute our influence to the extent that we aspire to narrow the gap between the way the church thinks, or ought to, and behaves, or ought to, and the way the world thinks and behaves. We have polluted our worship by allowing praise of man (humanism) to replace praise of God. Many of the "revivals" and the "healing crusades" that routinely take place all across our land have more of a circus or carnival atmosphere than a service of worship. The "throwing the Spirit" farce is more aptly named than one might guess at first glance. It is throwing the Spirit all right -- throwing the Spirit out the door and replacing Him with the antics of charlatans who are deceiving men and women by the thousands. And the most outrageous blunder of all perhaps, is the truly blasphemous teaching that we can, and should, force God to make His promises good -- that it is our right and our heritage to claim the promises and God's "duty" to obey our commands! I'd dearly love to be able to hear Charles Spurgeon preach a sermon denouncing that one! ...... Speaking of promises, I did promise to be brief, but words got in my way :-) --Hank |