"Form" Is NOT the Issue

6/22/2011

My wife was just saying how she doesn’t feel like a road where she feels lonely could be right, and that we need to be meeting with other believers regardless if the “form” they indulge in is imperfect. I’m fine with any road we need to be on as far as being with believers and building relationships etc, but I don’t want to go back to religious “Egypt” ever again. I think she doesn’t either, in her heart of hearts, but the withdrawal symptoms from all we’ve ever known and transition to laying down our lives for them instead of attending them is challenging our own hearts and priorities, as you know.

Love, Stanley

Hi Stanley, you have already done the clergy thing in your life, personally, so you already KNOW this: Tell your wife that IT isn’t about “form”—but about whether JESUS IS LORD to ALL who would dare and desire to wear HIS Name! THAT is NOT “negotiable”—and is truly what can be at stake in the lives of those attending a show, but never told the Truth for fear of losing their donations. We have folks from methodist, seventh day, pentecostal, charismatic, presbyterian, lutheran, anglican, whatever WRITE TO US EVERY DAY. Even THEY know we aren’t about “form” but OBEDIENCE.

“Ritual is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Not ONLY did Jesus and the Apostles HAVE no ritual, but the REASON they opposed it is simply that OBEDIENCE is no longer necessary with make-believe (unBiblical manmade heathen religion) structures of clergy and ritual. We can HIDE in a place where ritual and externals and words are sufficient, but no LIFE is required as the “Fruit” Jesus said was the only true test. That only happens in daily life and character and relationship, not at a prepared show on a calendar slot. But, “form” is NOT the issue.

WHY would every background on earth write to us if we were about “form”? They wouldn’t. We are about JESUS and they know it. : )

https://jesuslifetogether.com/Foundations-Series/Trowel/Exclusive

Now if your wife doesn’t care about OBEDIENCE to JESUS in daily lives or about “GET THE LEAVEN OUT OF THE BATCH” or “ADMONISH ONE ANOTHER DAILY SO THAT NONE ARE HARDENED AND DECEIVED” and “SEE TO IT BROTHERS THAT NONE OF YOU HAVE A SINFUL UNBELIEVING HEART”—if she doesn’t care what God says about THAT, then she should say so. That’s her prerogative and her choice, with the consequences God ascribes to those choices. But, let’s be clear about our choices, and honest, without clouding the matter with “I don’t under-sta-aa-aand” or try to make it a question about some “form”—when that has never been the issue. : )

Is it really about “form” to insist that God meant what He said about “daily” Life amongst His Family in HIS Body? No. Not at all. I think you can see it, if you try, in any area of life. For example, IF running in the Olympic 5000 meters is your only goal in life, and someone suggests you not wear sandals or rubber gardening boots at the starting line, does that mean that the Olympics are all about legalistic shoe requirements? THAT is not the topic. It’s about RUNNING FAST and “removing all that hinders” the ONLY GOAL. : ) Why would we NOT want to do that, as God has Called us to do, in our TRUE Life, our Spiritual Lives and His Church?!

By the way, “meeting with Believers” (Heb.10:25) is NOT REAL (“your meetings do MORE HARM THAN GOOD” 1Cor.10-11) if Heb.10:24 and 10:26 are erased from the context of 10:25. Heb.10:25 is NOT about having “services” and “simon says sit down, simon says sing, simon says listen to a speech, simon says shake your neighbor’s hand, simon says go home.” Heb.10:25 is about RELATIONSHIPS and being in each others’ homes and IN EACH OTHERS’ LIVES! That is the context, 10:24. “Not ISOLATED.” So, if that is what she means, not “attending” some unbiblical fake version of “church” but investing in LIVES—then she’s right. You DO need to be involved in others’ lives and homes and families and workplaces and neighborhoods! Where the PEOPLE are—Heb.10:24-25-26—to save the lost, encourage the timid, challenge the stiff-necked and ambitious, hold the hand of the weak…to be a PRIEST CULTIVATING A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS. : ) No one has ever been “lonely” when they’ve poured out their lives as a drink offering, “house to house, night and day, with tears.” When we LIVE His Way, “Together with all the Saints,” then we no longer “abide alone.” We reap with Joy!

Much love!