What’s Wrong With Our Churches Today? - Part 4 (Originally From the "Well Done" Blog Post Dated August 18, 2012

What’s Wrong With Our Churches Today?

The last chapter of this story ended with the sadness of divorce. Divorce is a picture of shame, defeat, and failure, especially for those that did not want a divorce. Even though I felt shame and was broken in the spirit God had a better plan for me.

Long before the divorce whenever I prayed I would write down my prayers in a journal and date the prayers. I did this so I could go back and read the prayers to make note of those prayers that God had already answered. There was one prayer, in particular, I remember because I prayed for a wife of specific values and beliefs that were close to mine. I think I was assuming God would make some changes in my wife, at the time, so she could be more in line with the type of woman I felt God had planned for me.

Years after the divorce and after I had remarried I found that prayer journal that I had put away and had forgotten about. When I read the prayer I was shocked by what I was reading because the person I described in my prayer was a perfect picture of the wonderful woman I am married to now. I realized then that God had heard my prayer years ago and answered it in His own way and in His own time.

God’s ways and His plans are so much better than what I could have thought of or even asked for. After the divorce, I had this strong desire to attend a meeting of an organization for single parents called PWP or “Parents Without Partners”. This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life because the friends I made there helped me to survive the lowest point of my life. I had dated several different women and after a three-year relationship with one particular lady, the relationship ended abruptly. One of my PWP lady friends told me she was going to fix me up with someone and she suggested some people we both knew. I told her that the people she suggested were not of interest. She then said, “I know someone that is just perfect for you, but she has just gone through a divorce and is not yet ready to meet anyone right now.” She said, “I’ll let you know when she’s ready.”

As time went on I had forgotten about the lady that was “perfect for me”, but one day my friend called me and stated her friend is ready to at least talk. She gave me her friend’s phone number and said that I should call her first and I can ask her out if I like what she has to say. I did call her and we talked over the phone for about two hours. I was standing outside in the hot Mississippi August sun ringing wet with sweat and enjoying every minute we talked. We had our first date on August 16th, which is the same date as my anniversary wedding date from my previous marriage. Needless to say, we’ve been together ever since and that will be 20 years tomorrow. God has an amazing way of answering prayers and bringing blessings into our lives.

Ephesians 3:20 is one of my favorite scriptures and I quote it to my wife all the time because God had answered my prayers in so much a greater way than I could ever envision it:

“20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” NKJV I give Him all the glory and praise. By now you are probably wondering what this has to do with the subject of “What’s Wrong With The Churches?” After we were married we decided to get involved in a local church and we joined a large Baptist Church in Jackson, MS. The Pastor was a wonderful preacher and our Sunday School teacher was very knowledgeable in the Word. We enjoyed going there, but we decided to change to another church a little closer to home. This was a much smaller church and we decided to move our membership to this church. There were opportunities for service at the church, but the only position I was allowed to be involved in was with a greeter at the front door. Why? Because I was once a member of a pentecostal church. I guess they were afraid that I would burst out in tongues during the middle of the service. We started attending a Bible Study at another denomination and we asked about becoming a member there. We were refused because of my previous pentecostal background. I cannot figure out why these churches were so against The Holy Spirit and His gifts. Why were they so against me because I believe the entire Bible to be the inspired Word of God and not just part of it?

To be continued . . .

What’s Wrong With Our Churches Today? - Part 3 (Originally Published August 17, 2012)

 What’s Wrong With The Churches - Part 3

In the Book Revelation Chapter 1:4-20, there are seven letters written to the seven Churches of that day. John wrote Jesus’ words, the good, the bad, and the ugly in each of those churches. What if He were to have you write letters to each one of the Churches of today? What do you think He would say to them?

The Church as a whole makes up the body of Christ and Christ is the head of that body of believers. You would think all the pieces of the Church body would perfectly fit together, but they do not. They willfully fight against each other because their theology or doctrinal beliefs differ so greatly. Why is this so? Does Jesus approve of this? Did Jesus create it to be this way? These are very difficult questions and my answers to these questions will cause some disagreement. And, that’s okay for you to disagree, but test everything that is said by what THE WORD says and not what I say.

One of my first experiences with so-called religious intolerance came from a church and came through a Pastor of a small church in a rural community. My employer had transferred me to a small town in Southern Mississippi ( I am so ashamed of this town I will not mention its name ) and the only place we could find to rent was an older home on a dairy farm. One day, while I was a work, the Pastor from the local church mentioned earlier, came to my house to invite our family to visit his church this coming Sunday. My wife invited him to our home to visit and this Pastor had the nerve to preach to my wife that my entire family was going to hell because we were from a Pentecostal denomination. He had her in tears with all his ranting about how horrible these tongue-talking, snake-handling, holy rollers were. (I have never handled snakes nor have I rolled in the isles of any church, but I am proud to say I do pray through The Holy Spirit in a heavenly prayer language that The Father hears and understands.) This Pastor made sure to be gone by the time I got home because if he’d still been there by the time I got home I would have laid hands on him in a very non-holy way. Needless to say, we never attended that church and the community never welcomed us because we would not bow down to their church's doctrines.

We did start attending an Assemblies of God Church in town and we assumed that this church would be as open and friendly as the Assemblies of God we left back in the Delta. Wow, were we ever wrong! We were never accepted in this church, in the town, nor at my place of employment for that matter. My kids were never accepted at school either. I had never experienced this type of evil in one area in my life. Why were we not accepted? The local people did finally tell me that we will never be accepted here because there are only two types of people that are accepted. They said you can only be accepted if you were born here, or if you are a wealthy person. I could not believe what I was hearing. My oldest son was even ridiculed at school when he tried to be friends with the daughter of a state politician. She liked him and wanted to be friends, but the grade school kids would not hear of it and stopped that relationship before it could start.

At work, I was able to make some friends, but still, they let me know I was never to be a permanent resident there. They jokingly called me names like Yankee because I was from North Mississippi. They said it jokingly, but they meant it at the same time. They made it plain that they secretly hated me for being there. I felt like the civil war was still on and I was in enemy territory. I think the Lord allowed me to feel this so that I could only get a small taste of the evil that is in men’s hearts. This small town and surrounding towns all suffered from the same evils; inferiority, selfishness, jealousy, pride, arrogance, and intolerance for anyone different than themselves.

We lived in that town for about two years and one day my wife said she could not stand it any longer. She told me she was moving to Jackson whether I went with her or not. We did move to Jackson, Mississippi and I continued to work at my job in Southern Mississippi for another year and a half. I drove 90 miles to work and 90 miles home every day until my employer was acquired by their competitor. I asked the new owners not to offer me a job as I would no longer work here and they agreed.

The bad news about this chapter is it ends in divorce.

To be continued . . .