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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Something
God Hates The
idea that God could possibly hate something is not socially and
religiously correct these days. If
you look up the word "hate" in a Bible concordance, you'll
soon find out that what isn't socially and religiously correct,
certainly is Biblically correct.
The
apostle Paul said that not all Israelis were true Israelis. (Romans 9:6)
The same can be said about
the church. Not all groups
claiming to be church are part of the church. There's
all sorts of groups that try to squeeze themselves under the umbrella of
that which is called church. They
range from liberal groups to conservative groups, and a myriad of other
groups in between. Then,
when it comes to the Sunday morning meetings of these groups, there's a
marketplace of gatherings to choose from.
Whatever fits your fancy at any given time can be found on a
Sunday morning. Some
groups incorporate worship songs into their gatherings while others sing
secular pop songs. Some
meetings are led by a gay pastor; others are led by a straight pastor.
Some gatherings are small; some are super-sized.
Some sermons teach that Jesus is God; others deny His divinity. Some
groups expect you to dress up in what was once called "your Sunday
best"; others suggest you arrive in casual attire.
Some services are liturgical; others are free flowing.
Some gatherings are participatory while others are performance
based. Some meetings are
interesting, while others are just down right boring.
There's a smorgasbord of groups calling themselves church, each
having a distinct flavour to wet our religious appetite.
Most of these groups have little resemblance to New Testament
teaching about church. Jesus
despised the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders of the day.
He had more compassion for the out and out sinner than He had for
the religious hypocrites. Of
course, like many of us today, those hypocrites didn't view themselves
as hypocrites. I'm
sure you remember Jesus calling the Jewish religious leaders snakes, and
other such names. (Matthew 23:33) He
got so upset that on a couple of occasions he knocked over the tables of
commerce in the By
the time Amos was called by God to preach repentance and judgment to the
northern kingdom of Amos
5:21 to 23 tells us how God viewed these Israeli gatherings.
I warn you, what you are about to read may not be suitable for
the weak in faith. God
said, "I hate, I despise your religious feasts.
I cannot stand your assemblies.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I
will not accept them … away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps". The
Lord's words are self explanatory. God
hates, even despises, adulterated, humanistic, and paganized worship
services that pose as being godly or Christian, no matter how good the
music and the singing is. And,
what does He say to those who promote and participate in such
gatherings? He says,
"away with it all", or in my words,
"get lost". Hopefully
the Lord isn't saying this about the gatherings you attend.
My guess is that He's saying this, or something similar, more
often than we think. I
believe the prophets of God are calling that which is called church to
repent, or else fall to the judgment of the Lord.
For some groups it's too late.
They've already fallen. The
"for sale" signs on their buildings show that to be true.
For others, there's still time to repent and turn to true
Biblical worship.
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