Home Church..maybe

In March of year this I attended my assembly of nearly 20 years for the last time. I didn't leave angry, but I was disappointed, not in God, but in the man of God, the pastor. I had prayed and I had talked to him, but he simply could not see some things. I was certain it was finally God's will for me to leave.

One other man left when I did and we began having our own little services at my house on the same weekday evenings and times that we had met at the other assembly. Within a month a third brother quit the other assembly and began to meet with us as well at least part of the time.

My wife and I have also begun to regularly attend a Sunday morning service at an assembly located about 45 miles away from our home. I enjoy the fellowship and really appreciate the attitude of the new pastor and his wife, but I continue the home services because of the distance involved to attend their night services and my own inability to do much night driving. My wife is my night driver, but her health has limited her ability to endure the latlong days.

I am no preacher, but generally I do most of the talking inour home services. The one brother who never misses my service while extremely committed to God reads very little and it falls to me by default when the third brother isn't there.

I lead the service somewhat, but I really try to follow the Lord's lead. Sometimes He has really helped us in that and we have been very blessed as a result.

Hi Amadeus,

I hear you loud and clear, many are being called out of 'her', many are being called into the wilderness to not partake of her sins.

thing I've been seeing is that as the blindness comes off the Jews and we are finding our Messiah, so does the blindness now start to cover the eyes of the Christians, those who say they are, but really aren't. The tares are starting to come to maturity and starting to be revealed.

Psalms_119:105 wrote:

Hi Amadeus,

I hear you loud and clear, many are being called out of 'her', may are being called into the wilderness to not partake of her sins.

thing I've been seeing is that as the blindness comes off the Jews and we are finding our Messiah, so does the blindness now start to cover the eyes of the Christians, those who say they are, but really aren't. The tares are starting to come to maturity and starting to be revealed.

Hello Psalms 119:105,

There is certainly much to what you are saying here that I able to see. For a long time prior to finally quitting my "church home" I was visiting church services all over town. Even in our city of only 25,000 there are approximately 70 different "Christian" churches. I found a few positive things in some, but there was not one that to me was preferable to the problem 'church' I already had and I had to leave it.

Brother, I know that still I see through a "glass darkly", but I still do have a "vision". [Where there is no vision, the people perish.] I am not completely blind. It seems that so many who are called Christian or call themselves Christian who cannot see much of anything. May God help us all!

What were some of the things that pricked your heart and told you they were wrongly being preached? I have found in my own congregation I attended last that there was this constant new choice offer. In Deut 30:19 Moses tells the people that he is calling upon heaven and earth as witnesses that he set before them two choices, one to follow the commandments of G-d and live ( choose life) and the other choice is to disobey and thus choosing death. But he enjoins them to CHOOSE LIFE! that both they and their children to come may live ( eternally).

Today I see a twist on that. Yes, choose to follow G-ds commandments, but using this scripture you can do it this way (plan A ) or this way (Plan B) but either way is both good and acceptable to G-d.

But the truth is, it isn't. He does not give us a variety of colors to choose to follow him, just like you said there are so many churches that say they got the truth, but they all can't be right, but they all can be wrong.

The church doesn't even have the 12 leaders or 70 of a Body of Sanhedrin, such as Yeshua established in Exodus in the 70 elders of Israel, or in the tenth chapter of Luke.

Everyone does what is right in their own sight. Some even go so far as to tell you that you must stay within their group as it is biblical to gather together. But do you stay where there is evil in the name of G-d? Do you not then attach yourself, or yoke yourself with their unrighteousness?

Yeshua said if they accept not your truth wipe the dust off your feet.

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What were some of the things that pricked your heart and told you they were wrongly being preached?

On the surface we had the best type of services that I have ever seen practiced with an open pulpit and an open floor where anyone could testify or preach or teach or sing without giving prior notice or waiting for a time prescribed that particular type of event. This held true even if they were not a minister or did regularly attend our services. Of course anyone who did say or do something might expect to be subjected to questions from our ministers if they said something someone considered questionable. It took years for me to realize that in spite of what was allowed and what was spoken, the group as a whole was really just another denomination. There are no written rules or rituals set down by men for men, but both in fact did exist. They were unwritten, but anyone who attended regularly knew what the rules and rituals were.[/size]

Another problem was that while they had 'open' services, certain things were treated as absolutely settled. Our pastor would talk with us about them if we wished, but more with the purpose of teaching us the Truth than in considering or sincerely discussing the possibility of these particular things were might be among those still being seen through a glass darkly.

I learned a lot in the nearly 20 years I was in that assembly from the preaching and teaching, but there is one thing I learned while there which was not taught or preached, at least, not intentionally. After having been in Catholicism and being certain that it was right, and then having been in ‘oneness, Jesus name’ and being certain that it was right, in this group I always doubted that they were right even though they seemed to be closer to the Truth than either of the others. The main similarity between this one and the other two is that each one believes that their place is the focal point for God’s people. I, in effect, jumped on such a bandwagon twice, but I will never do it again. I know that God’s Way is only one Way, but I do not know all of the steps along that Way and neither does anyone else.

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I have found in my own congregation I attended last that there was this constant new choice offer. In Deut 30:19 Moses tells the people that he is calling upon heaven and earth as witnesses that he set before them two choices, one to follow the commandments of G-d and live ( choose life) and the other choice is to disobey and thus choosing death. But he enjoins them to CHOOSE LIFE! that both they and their children to come may live ( eternally).

I am with you on this one. The verse I usually look to is:

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15

I see the “gods of your fathers” and “the gods of the Amorites” as all the same. They are all not the One and only True God. Man has never really had more than the two choices: God or anything else.

The word, “Amorites” in that verse could be replaced with any one or more of the following without changing its meaning: Americans, Russians, Methodists, Pentecostals, Catholics, Baptists, etc.

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Today I see a twist on that. Yes, choose to follow G-ds commandments, but using this scripture you can do it this way (plan A ) or this way (Plan B) but either way is both good and acceptable to G-d.

But the truth is, it isn't. He does not give us a variety of colors to choose to follow him, just like you said there are so many churches that say they got the truth, but they all can't be right, but they all can be wrong.

I agree with what you say here, but I have heard the same thing said by quite a few people. Each of them has believed that his ‘color’ is the exactly the correct shade of ‘green’ (the color for GO). I expect that you will say the same about your color too, but maybe I will be wrong.

I don't have a color, I just wear whatever HaShem tells me.

Yeshua said, there is a path that leads to live, and that path is a narrow road and there are few that find it.

I don't find it my responsibility to take along anyone else. If this is the right path I'm on, the L-RD will lead His other elect to it, he doesn't need me as a tour guide.

Psalms_119:105 wrote:

I don't have a color, I just wear whatever HaShem tells me.

Yeshua said, there is a path that leads to live, and that path is a narrow road and there are few that find it.

I don't find it my responsibility to take along anyone else. If this is the right path I'm on, the L-RD will lead His other elect to it, he doesn't need me as a tour guide.

I am glad to see that you have a sense of humor. I usually do not have much of one, but every once in awhile it pops its head up. lol

I am certainly glad to hear that you are not a self-proclaimed tour guide.

I believe that there are believers within and without the various denominations and non-denominations . As believers they are seekers for God's Truth but they all in some respects are at various different levels or on various different pages or at various different places on the highway of holiness. All will end up where God wants them to end up, if they follow Him to the end. But...again, they will be different parts of the Body of Christ. All of the parts do not have exactly the same function, but all are subject to the Head who is subject to His Head.

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All of the parts do not have exactly the same function, but all are subject to the Head who is subject to His Head.