Not Again and Still Clueless
May-June 2021. God was working on my heart. The joy of being saved returned. Going out twice a week putting tracts on doors and talking to those who were outside was a joy. I started refreshing myself on some of the verses that I memorized years before. You know the old saying use it or lose it. Many of them I still could quote. Some of them I had to go over a few times over a few days before I could quote them again. It was wonderful. A teen group was coming to help the church plant and I was teaching church History and was in the time period where a group of Christians were known for being able to quote large sections of scripture. So I think God put it on my heart to learn a few more verses so I could string together some continuous sections to quote for them. I wanted to teach what history shows Christians did by actually doing it. Set an example. In teaching do as I say and not as I do, never works. Only do as I do works. So I got busy and worked hard. It was a joy. By the time June arrived I had 3 good sections of scripture memorized so I could quote scripture continuously for about 7 min. I could tell that it was making an impression with them.
I had no idea that God had a different reason for me memorizing those specific sections of scripture. Like I said I was still clueless. I will not go into all that started to go wrong with the Pastor. I started to notice errors in the teaching and preaching. It started getting weird and mean. My family saw this before way back in 2005 thru 2006. My first thought was not again! Times like this you just pray and wait on God.
I tried to encourage him, but I noticed that everything I said as encouragement was twisted and used against me from the pulpit. This is where those verses that I memorized came in. A good deal of them had to do with doing all things without murmuring or disputing. God knew what He was doing. I needed those verses in my heart and on my mind. It came to my attention that I was under attack. What did I do? Ignore it and continue in my joyful walk with my Lord.
In June comes a big error. I mean huge. God used it to really get me thinking. He was bringing something forward from the Old Testament without New Testament validation. There are things that were in the O.T. that had a place at that time. Many of them are pictures to show what Judgement would look like without mercy. Many law of first mention situations. If you brought everything forward into the N.T. age then we would have to be stoning people in adultery and all kinds of other things. The rule on what we bring forward and what is left is really simple. If it is validated in the N.T. the practice of it comes forward. If it is not validated in the N.T. then it gets left behind where it belongs.
Since I had been giving myself to God, He had been doing a work in me. I had been evaluating my Luke warmness, and now it seem He wanted me to evaluate everything.
The question must be answered. If he is bringing this crazy practice into the N.T. what other things have been brought forward. I mean obviously they are not teaching this simple rule in Bible College anymore. What other things and what other traditions of men have been added to what we do without any N.T. validation.
Was I really willing to ask that question? Was I really willing to seek this out with an open mind? Was I really willing to go where this might lead? I was a little scared of what I might find. But I have been telling God take my heart and do with me what you will. So how could I not search this out? I absolutely had to. At this point I am still clueless as to what God is doing, but I was willing to find out and let Him drive.