@Albion
@Faith
God calls us into community, family, the communion of believers. "Do not forsake the gathering together."
There is a grave and constant danger in rejecting that, in this "Just Jesus and Me" mentality, the "I don't need no one cuz I got me" egoism. "I got Jesus and He teaches ME and when He's wrong, I correct Him." Folks like this seem to do that a lot, quote Jesus and then put a lot of "NOT" and "NO" and "CAN'T BE TRUE" inserted into what He says (cuz self is always smarter than Jesus). When you listen to them, it's obvious they are correcting Jesus, He isn't correcting them.
It's a tendency, an attitude found in heretics. Turning their backs on the church, on accountability. And always on Jesus' Word, insisting Jesus MEANT the opposite of what He said. Heretics LIKE to call what they do "interpreting" (in a very new, "creative" way - but smart cuz no one is smarter that self) but actually it's not "interpreting" at all, it's denying, denying what Jesus said. They correcting Him.
Perhaps this is one reason why God calls us together, the gathering, the assembly, the community. For accountability and edification. For keeping us in the one true faith. I recall a study where the pastor shared that Satan seldom attacks the whole flock, he goes after the one who has wandered off my himself - becoming easy prey.
A few days ago, I very sincerely counseled Dave to stop and to talk with his pastor and with some wise people (perhaps the elders) in his church, to let them see what and how he has posted. I honestly felt he really needed that and they could help him. And that's what I wanted, help for our brother. In this thread, we learned why he ignored that counsel. It's sad.
But I don't mean to rebuke our brother.... and I still hope someday he'll stop turning his back on the community. But let this serve to remind us ALL. Satan works HARD.... he works OVERTIME to separate us, to increase our ego, to lead us to individualism and isolation. And the fruits of this are sometimes quite predictable and apparent. In our lives in this fallen, broken world - there are things that can encourage this isolation, this independance and autonomy, this sense of "I don't need nobody cuz I got me." I think the pandemic really helped with this. Sometimes even things like heath or transportation can help with this. But especially in those times, we need to work hard to keep connected to the church, embrace the accountability and edification that fellow believers in the church community provide, the encouragement and support real people give, people who know us and care for us, the community, the church.
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