If the above applies to you, my encouragement to you is that you don't have to feel guilty about your decision. You may be thinking, "I don't feel any guilt at all." Good. I hope so. However, if you do feel guilt at some level I'd like to tell you that you don't need to.
Please remember that you didn't leave the church of God's creating. Instead, you departed from a man-made veil that has been foisted upon the church through the centuries. You simply removed the veil in order to see Christ more clearly. What you are yearning for is likely the positives you've read about the N.T. church.
You may go through many years of longing and wandering. This can be frustrating. However, you should not feel any guilt because of it. On the contrary, I believe that desiring something more from church life is actually honoring to God. Why is this? The answer is that you are longing for the church that God designed.
I hope you find it.
5 comments:
Thank you Eric. I would love to add you on Facebook, but I cannot find you. I am reading your blog for a couple of years now, and for me it's one of the most solid out there. God bless you!
Randi Jo,
You are very welcome. I know this is a hard issue for a lot of folks.
Francesco,
Thank you very much. I'm glad that you like my blog. It's nice to know that it is helpful and encouraging to some brothers and sisters out there.
As for Facebook, I really don't know (I'm not too techno-savvy). Please feel free to comment here any time. God bless!
Hi Eric. Thanks for your comments but I cannot agree with "leaving the church" just because a local group of people got it wrong. I only agree with leaving a local church which does not seek to adhere to the reformed theology and teaching of the Bible. In fact, if you are a fully converted a Christian the "church" is you! There is no perfect church on earth yet we still have a duty to worship God, in public. So one must either put up with shortcomings in a church which largely gets it right, or not fulfil part of our duty. So I would advise to keep looking and that God may want you to attend church so you can serve someone else, even if you dont feel comfortable there.
Alison,
Hi. Thank you for commenting on my blog. I'm not suggesting that anyone leave the church. I agree with you that if a person knows Christ as Lord then they are part of the church.
What I'm calling into question is the man-made traditional and institutional practices that have developed over the years. Many of these have no biblical basis. Because of this, we don't need to feel guilty for leaving all that behind.
I do, however, think it is important for believers to gather together. This can happen in any number of times and locations. The purpose of these gatherings is mutual edification.
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