Thursday, October 29, 2009

Wallow in the Mire

Our congregation recently received an email from a nearby "Church of Christ" that was very excited about all the modifications to their building to increase their kitchen appliances and size, dining room and capacity to "minister" to those in need through FOOD. Yes...physical food.

The logic here is that by helping those through church funds physically that they would eventually be fed spiritually. I cannot find anywhere in the scriptures that this is authorized or encouraged. Quite the opposite... The scriptures tell us to feed our friends with spiritual food.

John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

Christ is the food that sustains us for ever. The Williamsburg congregation may be able to feed an individual or family for a weekend, but the word of God will sustain us forever.

When I lasted addressed them via email about their error and questioned the authority, I was repeatedly told that I was missing the big picture. Apparently, as long as we have a big picture, they believe that we can do anything we want. God is very serious about adhering to His authority. I can see the people of today telling Uzzah that it's okay to stabilize the ark of the covenant because the big picture is that the ark should be protected no matter what. Is this what God thought?

NO...he punished Uzzah immediately with death for touching the ark without authority. (2 Samuel 6:7) Let us take God's word seriously and realize that only God has the big picture and who are we to question it?

2 comments:

maconpane said...

Years ago, I had a discussion with a nearby camper while on vacation in Yellow Stone. The lady was a member of a church in Arizona; supposedly a "church of Christ". She was very proud of their new building because it was constructed so the auditorium doubled as a basketball court for "church league" tournaments, and local denominational preachers were invited to fill the pulpit. After discussing scriptural authority for awhile, she informed me that if I were more mature and "enlightened", I wouldn't need scriptural authority as a "crutch". (I kid you not!) With that revelation, it became obvious that this woman was so "mature" she didn't need to refer to God's Word for justification, and I was too "un-enlightened" to understand. I decided my time was better spent cleaning bug juice from the windshield of my motorcycle.

Lance said...

I'm afraid that God's word no longer means anything to anybody, even so-called "christians." It's the whole itching ears thing mentioned in 2 Tim 4:3.

I just stumbled upon your BLOG from a Google search. Noticed this BLOG hasn't been updated in a while. I would love to see more articles. Keep up the good work and stand for the truth.

--lance
Athens, AL