Bitterness

[GeorgeE]

The wilderness that the Children of Israel had to pass thought for forty years was a dry and empty place where God’s people learned to follow the Ark where ever it went. It could of took them 9 days but God used that empty desolate place to change them.


Deut 8: 2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

 

[gennfamily]

I did not mean to post twice and now while the edit option claims i can delete, actually doing it is turning into a quest! sorry.

 

[gennfamily]

Excellent question. Honestly I am noticing more that it is the churched community that is bitter against each other, against outsiders, against our country(u.s.) It's incredible. When churches of all doctrines hobble ministry and especially evangelism based on debatable doctrine I wonder what spiritually healthy Christian would not be angry? And when did being angry become a sin? We are not supposed to sin in our anger, not simply not get angry. Anger is merely a strong negative emotional response to something traumatic or unjust. I'm pretty sure that the Lords eyebrow would raise if I did not get angry. What I do about my anger is the draw line.
My personal wonder is if we are not to get angry about these things when we and those around us are spiritually harmed or alarmed where will the draw line be that it is finally time to say enough is enough?
And I think history has shown that no two people are going to agree on all issues, even Scriptural issues. So the line of needing to agree, in my lowly opinion, should be limited to those things relating to salvation so that our time may be devoted to bringing as many to salvation and keeping us there as possible.

May I suggest that you shift your faith... from faith in faith, to faith in the One who never changes, never fails, never lessens His love for you in spite of your behaviour.... i.e. Y'shua ONLY.

Shalom... WAB

 

[Rick Otto]

I agree re: bitterness inside the churches.

 

[TheAJKMan]

I wonder what spiritually healthy Christian would not be angry? And when did being angry become a sin?

I think we need to keep in mind that there are essentially 2 types of anger. Righteous and that which is sinful from start to finish. A good litmus test is to check the motivation of those involved, when self is involved, then it's fairly safe to assume that it's not a Godly/righteous anger.

TheAJKMan

 

[christandisrael]

Do you think that it is common among unchurched/homechurched people you know to be bitter against those who attend church, the church institution itself, or Christianity today?

I've been noticing a lot of anger disguised as many things (sarcasm, critique, rebellion, pride to name a few) from some folks in these two groups. For some reaosn I've noticed it a lot more recently and I wonder why.

Do you think I'm nuts? Are you angry or bitter? Why do you think these feelings might exist? Can there be resolution and healing?

These people must learn to love the people into their ecclesia or stop being one.

 

[ReceivingGodsLove]

I belong to a home church gathering and I don't think I've been bitter, but I am against the church system. What I mean is that I believe it has been defunct ever since Constantine tried to mix Christianity and politics about 2000 yrs ago. I honestly believe that having a pastor as the head gets in the way of people seeing Jesus as the head of His church, the Body of Christ. The system is set up to support financial obligations and so they must preach the tithe, which is a part of the law, or Old Covenant. All that money tied up in paying for a building, salaries, could be better used to support our suffering brothers and sisters in persecuted countries. (See InJesusName.org) of even the adopt a family on welfare for a year instead of passing "feeding the poor" onto the government and maybe they would accept Christ by seeing His love. The Holy Spirit would institute His programs by His creativity and the purposes of God if we would follow what He said to do. But with the established programs of man there really isn't any room for God to work and speak to His people in the system. I could go on and on, but if someone doesn't see the system for what it is, thenI can't really help. It is spiritually discerned.

 

[The Bad Templar]

I belong to a home church gathering and I don't think I've been bitter, but I am against the church system. What I mean is that I believe it has been defunct ever since Constantine tried to mix Christianity and politics about 2000 yrs ago. I honestly believe that having a pastor as the head gets in the way of people seeing Jesus as the head of His church, the Body of Christ. The system is set up to support financial obligations and so they must preach the tithe, which is a part of the law, or Old Covenant. All that money tied up in paying for a building, salaries, could be better used to support our suffering brothers and sisters in persecuted countries. (See InJesusName.org) of even the adopt a family on welfare for a year instead of passing "feeding the poor" onto the government and maybe they would accept Christ by seeing His love. The Holy Spirit would institute His programs by His creativity and the purposes of God if we would follow what He said to do. But with the established programs of man there really isn't any room for God to work and speak to His people in the system. I could go on and on, but if someone doesn't see the system for what it is, thenI can't really help. It is spiritually discerned.

Amen to that!

I used to hope that I would see the church you described in my lifetime... however... I've resigned myself to the fact that only a future church could be like that.

The current system is like a cattle feedlot. The influencial skim the cream to serve their own interests, the companymen pick up the scraps and the average Christian is totally dependent on the system that they can't exist outside the institution.

Welcome to the forum.