Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Have you made the Christian life too difficult? So often, man takes something easy and light and turns it into something difficult and heavy. Jesus is calling us to forsake the complicated way and to follow Him in sincerity and simplicity.
Part 1: The Simplicity of Christ
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Part 2: The Simplicity of Fellowship
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Part 3: The Simplicity of Spiritual Growth
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Part 4: The Simplicity of Spiritual Discernment
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Hi Shelley,
Your story is indeed like so many of us have experienced. I too was in the church for some 20 years and doing all the right things or so I thought. I too, became at first saddened by what passed for church and the working of the body. Then moved through anger and guilt and finally surrender to the fact that I could not change anything about the system. I could not have others see what was so obvious to me. Jesus wasn’t there and I wanted to be where he was. I too lost all my friends and I remember how much it hurt.Then I realized that all that time I had believed that my friendships were based on Christ and they weren’t. I knew it was time to leave when I spent the majority of any service asking God to forgive me for how I was feeling and the anger at the fluff that was coming from the pulpit. Organized Religion is all about man and little or nothing about knowing God. I too have met and enjoy the writings of Wayne Jacobson. I have met him and have through the internet corresponded with him. It was God that brought me into contact with Chip. There was a web site called “Contemporary Pentecostal Issues” Chip was one of the posters and so much of what he wrote spoke to me. I knew exactly where he was coming from because that’s where I was. I have never met Chip personally but have and do access his articles and teaching. The Lord does and will provide for our every need so hang in there and know you are not alone there are many of us out here. God will find a way to bring us together when the time is right.
Hi. I’ve just finished listening to your message, The Simplicity of Spiritual Discernment, and it’s given rise to a question. I’ll try to make this brief.
I’ve been saved and in the institutionalized church for 28 years…that is minus the past month and a half. On September 15, 2009, I made this entry in my journal: “Father, such a struggle I’ve had for so many, many years with the institutional church. I’ve been angry at myself for “judging” what I see, for being discontent, for feeling I must be rebellious, for shaking my head in disbelief, for trying to submit to something that’s not of you. Then of course the questions, and the confusion, the condemnation, the guilt and the shame plague me. Then the blame. Then the disgust. And finally, the overwhelming sense that it’s making me want to puke. How about you Father? Does it make you want to puke too? Are you ready to spit it out of your mouth?” Then came a sense of freedom. The entry continued, “I’ve decided to step off the merry-go-round. I could go on and on and on about how the system serves the system. I could tear it apart piece by piece and tell why it’s not working and why it never will. But I’ll leave that for someone else. I don’t even have the desire anymore to “prove it” or “convince” anybody of it. I don’t need to try and pull anybody out with me. I only need to obey you. And so this particular struggle is over. The decision to leave has been made.”
It has only been since this decision that I have heard of men like Wayne Jacobson and others who have come to similar conclusions. It is through sites like theirs that I was lead to this article. “He must increase and I must decrease”, the message of “the crucified life”, “Christ in me, the hope of glory”, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us”. These are the messages that were burned into my heart when I was first saved. Every song I wrote was a prayer: Let me walk every day in the strength of your
power
Let me cling to the cross, each waking hour
Let me walk in the light of your love,
seeking only things above
Let me run the race set before
Where to live is Christ and to die is gain
Where all things are but loss for the sake
of the gain
Of knowing you
Take my life, into your hands and lead me
In the path of the Lamb.
There are no words to express my gratitude for your site! But as I said, I’ve been left with a question. I have no friends any more. I have no fellowship (of the human kind). Some who originally sought to remain friends gave up on me when I couldn’t be persuaded to “come back”, my closest friend was told by her pastor that it was dangerous to hang out with me. Others I see in the store run the other way before I can even make eye contact. I can accept all that. But I have to admit that I still fear being deceived. In “The Simplicity of Spiritual Discernment”, I think you were saying that checking with others that we’re in fellowship with is one of our safeguards. But I’m not in fellowship and everyone that I was in fellowship with thinks I’m deceived. Which is almost enough to make me wonder if I am…deceived?
Shelley, I only know of you by what I read above, but I would say no, you are not deceived. Your experience is similar to my own and my wifes, and I am sure, others. God took us out of ‘mans’ church some 20 years ago – by ‘taking out’ I mean that it was too heart achingly painful to stay – we had been saved and ‘in’ church for some 16 years. During that time we had been doing the church ‘hop’ as we tried to find somewhere and someone who taught the truth. Every time we ‘hopped’ we were seen as ‘backsliders’ – when we finally ‘came out’, we were shunned. The only friend we had was Jesus, we turned to Him, and came to realise that was all He wanted – us to form a deep, ongoing relationship with Him. In writing this I see that we had each other and that you may have no-one.
As time went on, God Himself introduced us to others who had been called out of the mans structured church system – some we never met, and still havent – we had/have contact through phone, snail mail and email. Some we still have contact with, some we dont as they have found one or two other ‘living stones’ who live closer to them, and yes, in that time we met deceivers.
We live in New Zealand, one couple that God introduced us to lived in the South of England and had to travel to the North of England to find true fellowship – after some months of email encouragement to each other, we have had no contact for some years – they too have found brothers and sisters in Christ who live less than an hours travel from them.
Today we have phone, email and physical contact with some 5 or 6 couples across NZ, who are in a similar situation and are true brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ. We also have contact with a few others around the world, either by direct email or through forums such as Chips, and I am sure that Chip has contact with people world wide through his website.
We also have plenty of neighbours, work acquaintances and friends who we can work with and alongside in a ‘ministry of oneanothering’ – Chips teachings will tell you more about that..!
So, the pain is now, the loneliness may be now but not forever – I cannot tell for how long, but in that time you will have Jesus as your friend, and He will never desert you. I believe that God will introduce you to others and you will have such a deep fellowship with them because of the Spiritual bonding you have through Gods Holy Spirit.
My own personal belief is that God Himself is gathering people who have a heart for Him, and are pressing into a relationship with Him. He is calling them out of the religious systems of mans world and into His church, His Ecclesia, the Body of Jesus Christ, of which He and He alone is Head, and to be worshipped. Although many of these believers and ‘followers of Jesus’ may never meet, they are bonded together spiritually as described above.
Welcome to that company in Jesus name – may He ever be with you and counsel you in all truth, and give you the discernment to recognise deceivers.
Hi Shelley! In your case, getting out of that religious environment is the first step to seeing and hearing clearly. So it sounds like your discernment is working just fine. There is a time to check with others, but not them! One way to do it is just to do what you have done… we affirm and bless your stand for the truth. Now that you are free, stand fast in your freedom. God will grant even greater spiritual discernment now that you have been obedient to what He has already shown you.