I myself was so disappointed in many churches during the scamdemic. Most of them bowed to the incredible hysteria by closing down and then by punishing those of us who were not vaccinated. As a Christian, I was appalled! In our previous church, we were denied the Eucharist because we were not wearing masks. My husband and I left the chur…
I myself was so disappointed in many churches during the scamdemic. Most of them bowed to the incredible hysteria by closing down and then by punishing those of us who were not vaccinated. As a Christian, I was appalled! In our previous church, we were denied the Eucharist because we were not wearing masks. My husband and I left the church for good. Many churches had signs that said, "you don't love your neighbor if you don't get vaccinated." Where was the faith over fear that Christians are supposed to adhere to?? Gone, out the window! So sad!
right? Why were churches closed during one of their flocks greatest times of need? There were a few brave ones out there John MacArthur, Jack Hibbs (CA Churches no less) and they have GROWN exponentially....but it did reveal something...a friend said....."well, now we're gonna find out who's faking it".
Not only that, the churches failed to condemn the scapegoating and widespread discrimination against the unvaxxed. They still haven’t spoken up as far as I know. Even after the fact would count for something morally. But no.
This! The scapegoating of anybody who questioned the benefits, or who simply didn’t want to be part of a freakin EXPERIMENT! Totally gaslit those who raised questions about the use of unborn babies’ bodies in the research or testing.
Where WAS the mercy and grace for those who disagreed? Instead, we were told that WE were breaking up unity.
This month, my devotional has had several passages dealing with not being fixated on the way others see us. Of course I initially mainly thought about the personal aspects of this exhortation. However, I had the lightbulb moment recently, that this is exactly what all of these churches and many churchgoers have been doing with regard to BLM, Covid, etc. They care more about how the world views them than how the Lord views them. It’s a different kind of legalism in a way.
Exactly. And care more about this than Scripture! Although it is unstated, it is more the selling of the soul to gain the world. But as we see in recent time, there is no safety or prosperity save what comes with obedience to and an unwavering insistence upon God. Harsh times tend to bring things into sharp focus.
Methodists are going through many changes. I no longer consider myself a United Methodist. It took a year for the pastor to call me to find out why I was not there after being closed a year , opening with masks required. Then 2 months later masks again. I quit then. A year ago. Now a phone call? Before I left we had exhortations to get the jab. Nothing much we used to do has returned--including younger families snd children. I am praying for a new congregation.
Get out and start trying new churches! Read their beliefs and mission statements on their websites before you go; you can avoid wasting time with false churches. Only those that preach God’s Word in it’s entirety and that the only way to be right with God is through faith in what His son and our Savior Jesus Christ did on the cross, are worth looking into. I’m the End Times the many false churches will be revealed and the true churches that adhere to God’s Word will remain, although they will endure persecution.
I’d like to. I’m very rural tiny town and driving an hour or so will not work but I may look into house churches. Try some church online worship first. I attended a fundamentalist Bible church for 25 years deep into prophecy and the Bible. That’s how I then connected this Covid to the end days and Satans plan. So I’m grateful for that discernment. That church split into many pieces And basically disappeared. I know the good ones are out there but the mainline ones are all I have within reasonable distance. Someone recommended Lutheran Missouri synod. We have one in town but it closed up as well during the plague. Masked—the whole thing. I live in a blue state. God will lead me. 🙏🏻 I’m not so angry about this. God bless.
I pray that God will lead you to a great church. We attend a conservative Presbyterian church with solid Biblical teaching but I also listen to Second Baptist Houston every Sunday at 9:30am before we go to our church. The pastor, Ed Young is amazing! He’s 85 years old, sharp as could be and speaks boldly about woke-ism and the church! His sermons are amazing. I also like to listen to John MacArthur (Grace Community in Sun Valley, CA.) and Pastor Jack Hibbs (Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, CA). So many opportunities on the internet! God bless you!
I have many friends. Christians. Non Christians. We help each other and others. I still attend a women’s Bible study from the church. God will lead me where he wants me. Since I was receiving little from the worship there having realized the truth of what was happening I asked God to make me fit and strong with a peace to not succumb to fear. A congregation will follow
In Acts 2:42 we read that one of the four things the early church devoted itself to was “fellowship.” Fellowship was a very important part of their reason for meeting together. It was one of their objectives. But what is fellowship?
We often hear people talking about fellowship. We hear it said that what we need is more fellowship. But our modern ideas of fellowship have become so watered down that the word no longer carries the same meaning it did in New Testament times.
We are not surprised that the early church devoted itself to “the apostles’ teaching” and also “to prayer.” Apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, these are the two most important means of growth, power, and effectiveness in the Christian life and this is everywhere evident in the rest of Scripture.
But Luke tells us these early Christians also devoted themselves to fellowship. They just didn’t have fellowship; they devoted themselves to it. This means that fellowship was a priority and one of the objectives for gathering together.
They made fellowship a priority. Fellowship takes place in a Church or if need be, in the catacombs.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, NOT FORSAKNG OUR OWN ASSEMBLING TOGETHER, as is the habit of some, Heb. 10:23-25. The God who created us knows how much we need fellowship! Any way other than together is Not the same!
Thank you Kim! I was just going to look up that verse which tells us to
‘Not forsake the the fellowship of believers’.
You’re so right! Our church (local leadership) was pretty weak, but we stuck it out through the sad, inadequate online services. We all realized how bad it was to not be together in person!
Where does it say “in a Church”? You don’t need a fancy building to be a church. I go to a small home church and it’s so much better than the large church I used to attend, or the base chapel I was involved in overseas. We meet twice a week and fellowship and listen to a sermon and study the Bible. And we have no 501c3 status to be beholden to the tax man. You can’t tell me I’m not “in church” just because there is no church building involved. Just real people who love Jesus.
I did not mean a church building. The church is the people, and they need to meet together whether it is in the forests (communist countries) or catacombs in Rome. The location is irrelevant! My church building is a former restaurant.
I have many friends. Christians. Non Christians. We help each other and others. I still attend a women’s Bible study from the church. God will lead me where he wants me. Since I was receiving little from the worship there having realized the truth of what was happening I asked God to make me fit and strong with a peace to not succumb to fear. A congregation will follow. I was also being shamed and guilted by a couple of people there
Oh but we do! Satan is like prowling lion waiting to devour us. We need each other. It is not called the Body of Christ for nothing! If there is no available church to attend then God will give us grace to persevere but if we neglect meeting together we will eventually wither and die.
I’m a much stronger Christian now than when I attended. I got strength and peace from the peace giver and creator himself. I love the people there but they are in a not so nice box. Deceived. This perhaps is the Laodicean era of the church. The lukewarm church. The last of the 7 churches in Revelation. Harsh words for it from God. I refuse to be in it.
I completely agree and took some abuse since my comment yesterday. My relationship with God is my business, plain and simple. I have never felt closer to God as a fallen away Catholic than I have these past few years. God knows my heart. Thank you Janet! God Bless. 🙏
Churches are the farthest thing from God. You don't need a church to be spiritually connected. All churches care about is their 501C status and money from the government. Discernment is needed here.
Not sure if you mean it or if it's what you tell yourself as an excuse not to go to church. Either way it's not true as there are very good churches out there. You paint all churches with a broad brush (only care about 501C status) which you can't possibly know unless you've visited every church. Don't let the existence of some bad churches poison your opinion of all of them.
(Not to mention that if you are a Bible-believing Christian you really don't have a choice as God commands us to fellowship in numerous passages. It's not optional.)
I used to tell myself the same thing but it turned out I was just too lazy to get my butt up on Sunday morning and used institutional flaws as a good excuse to sleep in. Churches are filled with flawed people (aka sinners), there's an old saying that if you find a church without hypocrisy, don't join it as you'll ruin it. The beauty is that the closer we come to Him, the less we sin as He transforms our lives (sanctification). A good church helps immensely in that journey.
Once you find a good spirit-filled, Bible-teaching church it will be the highlight of your week (and more often too as midweek services are great).
That’s great. We got seminary school sermon note rehashes and pablum. My women’s Bible group is much better. We read out loud the whole Bible verse and discuss. The sermon is dead boring. The actual word of God sings and touches us with everything we need as Children of God. Blessings.
As sad and tragic this was, I am thankful to God, He brought me back to the Traditional Latin Mass and clergy who did fight against all that you mentioned. I, too, was told to leave my Ordo Novus Church for not wearing a mask (in God’s House) but it ending up being the best thing that happened to me! I left and found a home. The Vatican is infiltrated and compromised, but the Lord’s Church still stands.
I discovered my traditional faith AND heroes fighting evil (Archbishop Vigano, Bishops Strickland and Schneider, Cardinal Mueller, and the now name-worthy priests: Fr Altman, Altier, Heilman, Mark Goring, etc.
Congrats, Pamela. I too am a TLM Catholic. When Covid hit, we lived near Ground Zero in Seattle. The chickens*&% archdiocese shut down immediately & ordered all parishes closed. So we switched from the FSSP parish to the SSPX one.
Unfortunately, the SSPX parish was directly across the street from the town police station, so pretty soon we were out of luck there too as Gov. Inslee put on his jackboots and stomped out all Christian worship.
We fled Seattle in 2020 and went back to the midwest where life and Mass was mostly normal.
Wow, reading your comment about having to move to another state so you can worship God in a church is quite jarring. My ancestors, along with so many others, immigrated to America because of its constitutional and religious freedoms. How dark and regressive much of America has become. My heart & soul weeps. We live in a very rural county in Texas and we did not experience anywhere near that level of government overreach.
Still in WA, waiting not too patiently for the emergency of Inslee to expire on Monday. You can bet there will be some celebrating in the streets in front of my house,
We are Reformed Faith, and all of what goes along with that. But I have to say, such people as you have stated have certainly stepped up to the plate and should be counted as true heroes. And by the way, stood up to the entire corruption of the Latin Church. That takes guts.
I myself was so disappointed in many churches during the scamdemic. Most of them bowed to the incredible hysteria by closing down and then by punishing those of us who were not vaccinated. As a Christian, I was appalled! In our previous church, we were denied the Eucharist because we were not wearing masks. My husband and I left the church for good. Many churches had signs that said, "you don't love your neighbor if you don't get vaccinated." Where was the faith over fear that Christians are supposed to adhere to?? Gone, out the window! So sad!
right? Why were churches closed during one of their flocks greatest times of need? There were a few brave ones out there John MacArthur, Jack Hibbs (CA Churches no less) and they have GROWN exponentially....but it did reveal something...a friend said....."well, now we're gonna find out who's faking it".
Would Jesus get the Jab? The Romans say all must submit to the new mystery medicine, and take shots every 3 months just like cattle.
It's crazy how many houses of God go along with this.
Not only that, the churches failed to condemn the scapegoating and widespread discrimination against the unvaxxed. They still haven’t spoken up as far as I know. Even after the fact would count for something morally. But no.
YES!
This! The scapegoating of anybody who questioned the benefits, or who simply didn’t want to be part of a freakin EXPERIMENT! Totally gaslit those who raised questions about the use of unborn babies’ bodies in the research or testing.
Where WAS the mercy and grace for those who disagreed? Instead, we were told that WE were breaking up unity.
This month, my devotional has had several passages dealing with not being fixated on the way others see us. Of course I initially mainly thought about the personal aspects of this exhortation. However, I had the lightbulb moment recently, that this is exactly what all of these churches and many churchgoers have been doing with regard to BLM, Covid, etc. They care more about how the world views them than how the Lord views them. It’s a different kind of legalism in a way.
Exactly. And care more about this than Scripture! Although it is unstated, it is more the selling of the soul to gain the world. But as we see in recent time, there is no safety or prosperity save what comes with obedience to and an unwavering insistence upon God. Harsh times tend to bring things into sharp focus.
Same here.
Methodists are going through many changes. I no longer consider myself a United Methodist. It took a year for the pastor to call me to find out why I was not there after being closed a year , opening with masks required. Then 2 months later masks again. I quit then. A year ago. Now a phone call? Before I left we had exhortations to get the jab. Nothing much we used to do has returned--including younger families snd children. I am praying for a new congregation.
Agree with Janet. Similar situation for me, except I didn’t even get a phone call. Blessings to everyone!
Get out and start trying new churches! Read their beliefs and mission statements on their websites before you go; you can avoid wasting time with false churches. Only those that preach God’s Word in it’s entirety and that the only way to be right with God is through faith in what His son and our Savior Jesus Christ did on the cross, are worth looking into. I’m the End Times the many false churches will be revealed and the true churches that adhere to God’s Word will remain, although they will endure persecution.
I’d like to. I’m very rural tiny town and driving an hour or so will not work but I may look into house churches. Try some church online worship first. I attended a fundamentalist Bible church for 25 years deep into prophecy and the Bible. That’s how I then connected this Covid to the end days and Satans plan. So I’m grateful for that discernment. That church split into many pieces And basically disappeared. I know the good ones are out there but the mainline ones are all I have within reasonable distance. Someone recommended Lutheran Missouri synod. We have one in town but it closed up as well during the plague. Masked—the whole thing. I live in a blue state. God will lead me. 🙏🏻 I’m not so angry about this. God bless.
I pray that God will lead you to a great church. We attend a conservative Presbyterian church with solid Biblical teaching but I also listen to Second Baptist Houston every Sunday at 9:30am before we go to our church. The pastor, Ed Young is amazing! He’s 85 years old, sharp as could be and speaks boldly about woke-ism and the church! His sermons are amazing. I also like to listen to John MacArthur (Grace Community in Sun Valley, CA.) and Pastor Jack Hibbs (Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, CA). So many opportunities on the internet! God bless you!
Thank you!!!
I’m sure Satan is laughing his arse off at the success he has had ruining .”Christian churches”.
You left the Church for good?
Don't give the devil a win. He wants to separate you from God and his Son.
Nothing on this earth is perfect.
The enemy of the good is the perfect.
The covid madness has subsided in the pews.
You don’t need a church to stay close to God!
Sheep separated from the flock are ripe for being picked off. You just have to find a good flock with a good shepard (besides the Good Shepard).
I have many friends. Christians. Non Christians. We help each other and others. I still attend a women’s Bible study from the church. God will lead me where he wants me. Since I was receiving little from the worship there having realized the truth of what was happening I asked God to make me fit and strong with a peace to not succumb to fear. A congregation will follow
In Acts 2:42 we read that one of the four things the early church devoted itself to was “fellowship.” Fellowship was a very important part of their reason for meeting together. It was one of their objectives. But what is fellowship?
We often hear people talking about fellowship. We hear it said that what we need is more fellowship. But our modern ideas of fellowship have become so watered down that the word no longer carries the same meaning it did in New Testament times.
We are not surprised that the early church devoted itself to “the apostles’ teaching” and also “to prayer.” Apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, these are the two most important means of growth, power, and effectiveness in the Christian life and this is everywhere evident in the rest of Scripture.
But Luke tells us these early Christians also devoted themselves to fellowship. They just didn’t have fellowship; they devoted themselves to it. This means that fellowship was a priority and one of the objectives for gathering together.
They made fellowship a priority. Fellowship takes place in a Church or if need be, in the catacombs.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, NOT FORSAKNG OUR OWN ASSEMBLING TOGETHER, as is the habit of some, Heb. 10:23-25. The God who created us knows how much we need fellowship! Any way other than together is Not the same!
Thank you Kim! I was just going to look up that verse which tells us to
‘Not forsake the the fellowship of believers’.
You’re so right! Our church (local leadership) was pretty weak, but we stuck it out through the sad, inadequate online services. We all realized how bad it was to not be together in person!
Where does it say “in a Church”? You don’t need a fancy building to be a church. I go to a small home church and it’s so much better than the large church I used to attend, or the base chapel I was involved in overseas. We meet twice a week and fellowship and listen to a sermon and study the Bible. And we have no 501c3 status to be beholden to the tax man. You can’t tell me I’m not “in church” just because there is no church building involved. Just real people who love Jesus.
I did not mean a church building. The church is the people, and they need to meet together whether it is in the forests (communist countries) or catacombs in Rome. The location is irrelevant! My church building is a former restaurant.
I am replying to the person who stated she stopped going to church.
Its great that you have a Christian fellowship !
I want her to consider the importance of that fellowship.
I have many friends. Christians. Non Christians. We help each other and others. I still attend a women’s Bible study from the church. God will lead me where he wants me. Since I was receiving little from the worship there having realized the truth of what was happening I asked God to make me fit and strong with a peace to not succumb to fear. A congregation will follow. I was also being shamed and guilted by a couple of people there
Oh but we do! Satan is like prowling lion waiting to devour us. We need each other. It is not called the Body of Christ for nothing! If there is no available church to attend then God will give us grace to persevere but if we neglect meeting together we will eventually wither and die.
Exactly.
I’m a much stronger Christian now than when I attended. I got strength and peace from the peace giver and creator himself. I love the people there but they are in a not so nice box. Deceived. This perhaps is the Laodicean era of the church. The lukewarm church. The last of the 7 churches in Revelation. Harsh words for it from God. I refuse to be in it.
I completely agree and took some abuse since my comment yesterday. My relationship with God is my business, plain and simple. I have never felt closer to God as a fallen away Catholic than I have these past few years. God knows my heart. Thank you Janet! God Bless. 🙏
God is good—ALL the time. ❤️This the the day the Lord has created—let us rejoice in it! God bless you, WendeAnne.
Churches are the farthest thing from God. You don't need a church to be spiritually connected. All churches care about is their 501C status and money from the government. Discernment is needed here.
Not sure if you mean it or if it's what you tell yourself as an excuse not to go to church. Either way it's not true as there are very good churches out there. You paint all churches with a broad brush (only care about 501C status) which you can't possibly know unless you've visited every church. Don't let the existence of some bad churches poison your opinion of all of them.
(Not to mention that if you are a Bible-believing Christian you really don't have a choice as God commands us to fellowship in numerous passages. It's not optional.)
I used to tell myself the same thing but it turned out I was just too lazy to get my butt up on Sunday morning and used institutional flaws as a good excuse to sleep in. Churches are filled with flawed people (aka sinners), there's an old saying that if you find a church without hypocrisy, don't join it as you'll ruin it. The beauty is that the closer we come to Him, the less we sin as He transforms our lives (sanctification). A good church helps immensely in that journey.
Once you find a good spirit-filled, Bible-teaching church it will be the highlight of your week (and more often too as midweek services are great).
I can't like this comment, but rest assured I tried.
During services, 501C tax status was never mentioned at my Church.
Passages from the Holy Bible are read and discussed.
You might need to find a new church if this is the case.
That’s great. We got seminary school sermon note rehashes and pablum. My women’s Bible group is much better. We read out loud the whole Bible verse and discuss. The sermon is dead boring. The actual word of God sings and touches us with everything we need as Children of God. Blessings.
Suppose you were ordered to relocate to a new country for the rest of your life and
and you were given a choice of two countries.
The only information about the countries would be...
Country A permitted Churches
and
Country B prohibited Churches
Which country would you choose?
lol
As sad and tragic this was, I am thankful to God, He brought me back to the Traditional Latin Mass and clergy who did fight against all that you mentioned. I, too, was told to leave my Ordo Novus Church for not wearing a mask (in God’s House) but it ending up being the best thing that happened to me! I left and found a home. The Vatican is infiltrated and compromised, but the Lord’s Church still stands.
I discovered my traditional faith AND heroes fighting evil (Archbishop Vigano, Bishops Strickland and Schneider, Cardinal Mueller, and the now name-worthy priests: Fr Altman, Altier, Heilman, Mark Goring, etc.
Congrats, Pamela. I too am a TLM Catholic. When Covid hit, we lived near Ground Zero in Seattle. The chickens*&% archdiocese shut down immediately & ordered all parishes closed. So we switched from the FSSP parish to the SSPX one.
Unfortunately, the SSPX parish was directly across the street from the town police station, so pretty soon we were out of luck there too as Gov. Inslee put on his jackboots and stomped out all Christian worship.
We fled Seattle in 2020 and went back to the midwest where life and Mass was mostly normal.
Wow, reading your comment about having to move to another state so you can worship God in a church is quite jarring. My ancestors, along with so many others, immigrated to America because of its constitutional and religious freedoms. How dark and regressive much of America has become. My heart & soul weeps. We live in a very rural county in Texas and we did not experience anywhere near that level of government overreach.
Still in WA, waiting not too patiently for the emergency of Inslee to expire on Monday. You can bet there will be some celebrating in the streets in front of my house,
Happy to hear you fled Seattle. I hope you’ve found a faith filled parish in the midwest.
I have found a wonderful FSSP parish in Rapid City, SD. As far as I know, they never shut down.
Yes! My TLM parish was wonderful. Our priests were not afraid.
We are Reformed Faith, and all of what goes along with that. But I have to say, such people as you have stated have certainly stepped up to the plate and should be counted as true heroes. And by the way, stood up to the entire corruption of the Latin Church. That takes guts.
May God Bless and Protect you and your family Ellen K.!
Dominus vobiscum!!!