Posted by Otter at 11:14am Jan 12 '09Why are you judging God's love based on your impression of man's church?
Awesome Church's are awesome... and lame Church's are lame... and they are all built by man and fall HIGHLY short of God's amazing standard.
The problem comes when people confuse their impression of church - which is guaranteed to be full of hypocrites - with God himself.
Religion could be defined in some ways as any man's modification or adaptation of God's truth... and therefore invalid.... which is why you might occasionally hear me say "I don't really like Religion".
All the same - there is truth in what he's presenting to you... and things that you may not have considered or understood that are explained adequately in a sermon (or not!).
I love our pastor like a brother... and when he calls me on the phone he calls me HIS brother "from another mother"... we have a great relationship and I have nothing but love for him as a person and as a great leader.... HOWEVER.... I don't always agree with every message he delivers and - in fact - we've been through an entire message series or two that I thought just sucked.
He would also be the first person to admit that he "doesn't have it all together".
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What I see here - and you can correct me if I'm wrong - is you basing your opinion of God on your experience in Man's church and your knowledge of Religion.
It's a very reasonable mistake and one that many make... but is it really truth?
----
Like the Cult of the Dead Cow (an old hacker collective) might say... when you buy that packaged ground beef at the grocery store - do you stop to think about all the steps it went through to get prepared for you... cleaned-up, milled, tinted, arranged, sealed, packed and labeled all nicely? Do you ever think about the dead cow it came from? The two are quite distinct in appearance.
God is like the whole dead cow... only he's more complex than we can ever truly comprehend. Different Church's are like different grocery stores. Important and necessary for modern life but not the whole package by any means.
In some Church's the word is left pretty organic and fairly close to it's original truth.
In other Church's the word is brutally slaughtered and doesn't resemble anything like it's origin.
It's really not all that different from the meat industry in this particular way.
Awesome Church's are awesome... and lame Church's are lame... and they are all built by man and fall HIGHLY short of God's amazing standard.
The problem comes when people confuse their impression of church - which is guaranteed to be full of hypocrites - with God himself.
Religion could be defined in some ways as any man's modification or adaptation of God's truth... and therefore invalid.... which is why you might occasionally hear me say "I don't really like Religion".
All the same - there is truth in what he's presenting to you... and things that you may not have considered or understood that are explained adequately in a sermon (or not!).
I love our pastor like a brother... and when he calls me on the phone he calls me HIS brother "from another mother"... we have a great relationship and I have nothing but love for him as a person and as a great leader.... HOWEVER.... I don't always agree with every message he delivers and - in fact - we've been through an entire message series or two that I thought just sucked.
He would also be the first person to admit that he "doesn't have it all together".
---
What I see here - and you can correct me if I'm wrong - is you basing your opinion of God on your experience in Man's church and your knowledge of Religion.
It's a very reasonable mistake and one that many make... but is it really truth?
----
Like the Cult of the Dead Cow (an old hacker collective) might say... when you buy that packaged ground beef at the grocery store - do you stop to think about all the steps it went through to get prepared for you... cleaned-up, milled, tinted, arranged, sealed, packed and labeled all nicely? Do you ever think about the dead cow it came from? The two are quite distinct in appearance.
God is like the whole dead cow... only he's more complex than we can ever truly comprehend. Different Church's are like different grocery stores. Important and necessary for modern life but not the whole package by any means.
In some Church's the word is left pretty organic and fairly close to it's original truth.
In other Church's the word is brutally slaughtered and doesn't resemble anything like it's origin.
It's really not all that different from the meat industry in this particular way.
added on 11:41am Jan 12 '09:
Also - the bottom line is about your relationship with God on a personal level... it isn't about your relationship with a Church.
well.... - Otter