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Church routine - iniquity?
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What does the Lord think about the church routine of many Christians today? Do our services and sacrifices in our church temples bring a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord - or something much less pleasing? It is time that the Lord's people really start caring what is most important to the Lord in these last days - and it's not the church routine.
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Isaiah chapter 1 presents some verses that are very sobering:
11To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12When ye come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations;
incense is an abomination unto me;
the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with;
it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:
they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
With each passing day, it is becoming more and more clear that the issue Israel dealt with in Isaiah's day is the same issue we are dealing with today in much of organized Christiandom. From Isaiah's record we see that the Lord had commanded Israel to offer sacrifices, call assemblies, keep the sabbaths, etc., and Israel was obedient in keeping these things as instructed by the Lord. But now, the Lord is calling the very things He told them to do abominations, iniquity, and He is tired of bearing them! Verse 11 is saying they were sacrificing unto Him, not some other false god. All these things they were doing for Him, but it had become iniquity because the more important matters of holiness and righteous living had become neglected and forgotten. Therefore, these outward forms and ceremonies were more than vanity, they had become iniquity, even though they were ordered by the Lord!
Could this happen again in our time? In the New Testament, we are told "to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together". However, just as in Israel's day, is it possible for a large segment of the church to descend into such an unrighteous state that keeping this weekly "calling of our assemblies" becomes iniquity to the Lord?
Israel's greatest issue is that they did not understand the time in which they lived. They felt good after they went to the temple and offered their sacrifice. They felt like they had been obedient to God, when in fact, just the opposite was true. The weightier matters had become so neglected by Israel that the Lord was actually angry when "they obediently followed their church routine", so to speak.
This sounds so harsh, so mean. In reality, however, the Lord is trying to save their lives! He is trying to save them from famine, pestilence, and the sword, for this was the judgment that was peaking over the horizon.
I sense in my own spirit that the Lord is calling out to those with "ears to hear" to begin in earnest to pray as Daniel prayed. Not a self-righteous prayer as the Pharisee. But rather a prayer where we identify with the sin of the church and our nation; where we take ownership of how sin has a chain reaction, and how we have been part of that chain.
For example, when a Christian man looks at pornography, he supports and helps fund an industry that produces very high numbers of women that get abortions. When women are objectified, the result is a massive wave of sexual activity that results in more and more abortions. Will God hold all the Church going men guiltless of the murder of the innocent ones, because they didn't actually commit the crime? Will he hold them guiltless because they voted for a pro-life candidate? God is not mocked. The court room of heaven will be stacked and staked with rows of "conservative Christian men" being held accountable for their part in supporting the slaughter of children because they helped fund the porno industry. Instead of smashing their wi-Fi router and cancelling their cable TV, "conservative Christian men" are lulled into thinking that participating in Church meetings and activities somehow keep them on the good side of God. The Spirit through Isaiah would say otherwise.
The simple truth is that the American church routine has become dangerous and decpetive. It offers a false sense of security to many whose lives continue to demostrate worldliness and sin. How long will the Lord warn us before the "baptism of fire" begins?