I have a young friend who physically disabled and yet is sound in his faith. Sadly his family are anything but. They care for his physical needs and yet they are biblically illiterate and supportive of false teachers and do not care for his spiritual needs.
Life is hard for my friend. He cannot get to a sound church and his family refuses to take him. His comfort is found in God’s Word, listening to sermons, posting truth, and in the fellowship of his brothers and sisters online.
Is this perfect? Not even a little. But it is his life. A life over which God is sovereign. A life given totally over to the Lord.
I’m writing this article at the request of my friend. His family attends an unsound church. This church, like so many others in the SBC, doesn’t teach truth; it barely teaches the Bible at all. God’s Word is twisted, maligned, and ignored. It’s watered down and dosed out in cotton candy flavored bits. None of which honors God.
My friend wanted me to warn against it.
Often my friend’s family simply sits at home and watches “church” on TV. This for many in America has become a new way to “attend church” and yet my friend sees what many don’t: watching church isn’t attending church. It isn’t worship as God intended at all. His heart breaks week after week as he sees the blindness of the family he loves.
Here’s the heart cry of a young man who loves the Lord but can’t get there to worship Him and who is forced to sit by as his family becomes blinder by the day: “Once again my folks watched their “pastor” –something about family. Mom said church was good; they watched on TV. That’s not church; the only reason I do it is because I can’t get there. My family has no clue that their “pastor” shouldn’t be preaching; they don’t read the Word.”
“They don’t read the Word.”
That’s the gist of all the problems in the United States. We have access to the Word of God like never before but we don’t read the Word so we don’t even know that we are being led astray by pastors who twist the Word.
Then again, maybe that’s what we want. We want the Word twisted because we want to feel good about ourselves in our sin and a pastor who teaches God’s Word would make us uncomfortable. We’d rather die in our sins than to confront them.
I wrote this for my friend, to warn others away from the “church” his parents and siblings love so much because they love their comfort and their idea of God more than they love the God of Scripture. But more than that, I wrote it because God’s honor is at stake not just in this “church” but in all the other so-called churches across our land where God’s Word is not the standard of truth.
Read your Bible, sisters. Study it. Ask God to open your eyes to truth. How? Ask yourselves these questions:
“What sin, comfort, or belief, am I unwilling to be Scripturally confronted about?”–This is where you need to begin in your repentance; if you cannot and will not accept correction from those more mature in the faith than you, you are being willingly blind in some way.
“Do I read and pray for understanding and then apply what I learn?”–If not, start doing so today.
“Am I living my life for God’s glory–not my comfort, not family, not fame or popularity, not friends–but for God alone?”–my friend, who is disabled, is doing this; how much more ought we who can get around, who aren’t dependent on others, who aren’t standing alone, ought to do?
My dear friend, I love you. I’m praying for your family, that their eyes might be opened and their hearts broken over their sin; may they be brought to repentance. I’m praying for strength for you and for your continued and ever greater love for our Lord. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write this.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Photo by Josh Sorenson: https://www.pexels.com/photo/group-of-people-raise-their-hands-on-stadium-976866/
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