There are a lot of things I have always thought didn’t make any sense about what I learned in Church that through studying the Word in detail over the past few months make me wonder how folks can get so messed up in their doctrine. BUT, I can see it almost everyday. Just like folks come forward with political agenda, educational agenda, cultural agenda, philosophical agenda, folks even have a religious agenda that they get all caught up within just like those other agenda. And sometimes the other secular agenda are the bigger influence on their religious agenda than the Word of God itself.
You hate to see it BUT folks find rabbit holes and pot holes to get stuck within or stumble over. Getting stuck in one building around one group of people can be stifling just like any echo chamber. Sitting passively and being told what to believe is another trap that I feel into in my youth as well. I read what I was told to read and thought what I was told to thought. I never went into the Word to read and understand. I took for granted that everyone in the church was looking out for my own well being. Decades later, here I am understanding that just like freedom and liberty of body and mind, freedom of spirit comes with personal responsibility and self ownership. No one is going to give you the education you need to be free. And freedom is not open to outsourcing.
Sure there are many Christian men and women out there willing to help me and you on our journey. BUT there are also a lot of people out there that are passively holding a belief rather than actively engaged in living a changed life. I didn’t get into Christianity to be the same as I was before. I didn’t start this journey to be the same as I was in March 2020. I wanted something new. I needed to be free in all my nephesh. I need to be physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy. And I can’t rely on anyone else to do that work for me. Especially not when it comes to my spiritual health because there are a lot of traps and snares out there.
No. We can’t walk our faith alone. It is simply not a possibility to seclude myself from the world and from the Church. What I need to do is have a knowledge of God and His Word enough to know when others are distorting the Word for their own agenda. And there is a lot of distortion out there among the churches and doctrines. So, spending more time in the Word and in communion with YHWH is the way to get myself there.
When a pastor or priest says things that I can readily see are influenced by an agenda, when a brother or sister is using their agenda to interpret what is being said, when folks repeat things that don’t make any scriptural or spiritual sense, it is my job to understand that it is wrong. It is my job to know the Word well enough to go into the scripture and pray and find the answer. It’s not the job of the ministers to work my plan. It is not the job of ministers to read and pray for me. It is my spiritual responsibility to do the work of Christianity, namely knowing the spirit of Christ and living that spirit daily. And Sunday morning on itself isn’t getting me there. Two services a week is not going to get me there. Three services a week is not going to get me there. I need my daily devotion. I need my daily routine. Just as I wake up every day and choose to be physically healthy and start my day with a workout. Just as I wake up every day and choose to think about those things that make me free. Every day I need to wake up and work on my spiritual health as well. No one is going to do that for me.
Putting faith in humanity to do my work for me has never been a stumbling block. I want to do everything on my own. Now I understand that I need to Church as much as I need to walk the path alone. BUT I am never truly alone. YHWH is there. He never goes anywhere. He never changes. And He never forgets about me. He knew me before I knew myself. And I need to work this out with Him through the Church He provides for me. I am not alone BUT the work is mine alone to complete.
Peace to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.