"Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity." (Psalm 98:7-9, NIV)
Last time we saw how God was guiding my wife into
truth by giving her the gift of His Spirit... Even when she didn't believe in
His Spirit! Meanwhile, in my own time, God was working on me...
It has been for several months that I had been
bothered by the fact that the members of my church criticized one another
constantly. I ignored this, however. After all, they had all truth, didn't they?
And somehow this also helped me to overlook the fact that the church taught from
the writings of the church founders rather than from the Bible...
One day I met a pastor from the denomination we
belonged to. He told me that a sister church from the same denomination in a
nearby city had a problem: Several members were praying in tongues!
I asked him what they did about the situation, for at
the time I didn't know my wife had received this gift and I didn't believe it
was of God. He said they had no choice but to ask these members to do their
praying in tongues--at home!
This pastor had done research in the Bible, just as my
wife had done, and discovered that speaking in tongues is, indeed, Biblical. It
wasn't part of the doctrines of this denomination, however, and he didn't know
what to do.
I didn't know what to do with this information either.
Could my church really be wrong about this? And if so, what else were they wrong
about? I decided to pray to my Father and ask Him to tell me what to do.
Within a few days, I went on the web and all of a
sudden I ended up on a site from the early church fathers. Please understand
that the main doctrines of this demonination was keeping the 7th day Sabbath,
and I was sure that this was 100% biblical. I was taught that the Sabbath had
been changed to Sunday by the Catholic Church in the 4th century AD. Imagine my
disbelief to learn that according to this web site, all of the early church
fathers taught the same thing: Since Jesus' resurrection, Christians came
together on Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! Not one of them
contradicted that fact!
I started to research more and more the writings of
the early church fathers. There was no doubt about it, they all worshipped
together on Sunday.
I had no idea what to do with this information. My
family were all staunch believers in the 7th day Sabbath. Finally I talked to my
wife about this; for though it would be hard to change, if the early christians
worshipped Jesus on Sunday, we too should celebrate Jesus' resurrection on that
day as well.
That's when we began to realize that the church we
were attending did not have all truth as we had been taught to believe. No
wonder they preached solely their own doctrines and the writings of the church
founders.
And no wonder that members were always criticizing one
another...
Since we left this church, we have never encountered
criticism. That was an eye-opener. In fact the Bible says: "We want to avoid any
criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift." (2 Cor 8:20, NIV)
If you want to know the real truth, ask our Heavenly
Father. He will guide us at all times.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will
find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives;
the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knows, the door will be opened."
(Matt 6:7-8, NIV)
What are you waiting for?
Rob Chaffart
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
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The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.