|
Chapter 2 - Page 2 -
Why Do We Meet Together?
By Adam Bartlett
You see God had a desire to speak to all the people and I believe that desire has never changed. Even though the people were to obey the boundaries set up, God still desired to speak to them directly and for the purpose given in vs. 9, that they may believe forever. The pattern is still the same for us today, we are to cleanse ourselves from worldly attachments, prepare our hearts and minds and then go and meet with our personal LORD. He still desires that personal relationship with man, and that desire is for all men, not just those that have been elevated to the positions we esteem in our churches.
This desire of God to have that relationship with man was established before any law, any church, and any type of tradition, anything we see today. It was established in the Garden with the very first humans. The desire to walk and talk with His creation is an original desire from the foundation of the world and mankind. The church today has created so many layers of bureaucracy that thinking we can reach God without the clergy is unimaginable. Individual desire has been placed on the back burner and replaced with a dependency upon another man to maintain our relationship with God. Instead of us being the vehicle and God the driver, we have allowed the traditions of churchism to put God in the passenger seat and someone with an official title in the driver's seat. We have forfeited our right and even obligation to have God be the driver of our lives and instead rely on the merits of a man to be our guide. By doing this we have relinquished the rightful place of the Word and our personal relationship with God as the main source.
Therefore we get frustrated in our daily lives because we face problems outside of the church atmosphere and our source to lean on is not there. Oh sure, many will say that is not true, "my whole reliance is upon God and the Word." Really? If that is true then why do we feel captive to the church and guilty if we do not have a good reason for not being there? Is our accountability to the church or God? This problem as I indicated earlier stemmed from the people's reaction and decision they made back in Exodus. Look at what happened in chapter 20:
Exodus 20
18: And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19: And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20: And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
21: And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
The people chose to hear from Moses rather than directly from God. The decision they made has plagued the church from that very moment and has continued to this day. The church today is content to let some other man relay the message to them that they should be rightfully obtaining themselves. The catholic church ran with this philosophy to the extent of confessionals and the priests having control over all their spirituality. The Protestant churches are not far behind even though they will most adamantly object.
Continued on... Page 3
Back to INDEX
Bible Headquarters
|
|
|
|