God Loves You Thoughts--by Adron: When it May Be Wrong To Go To Church

God Loves You

We think it is always good to go to church, but is there a time when the Bible suggests it is wrong?

"Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. then the word of the lord came to me"' Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them this is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them myself in keeping with his great idolatry..." Ezekiel 14:1-4 NIV.

IDOLS
There are many kinds of idolatry but the worst and most deceptive is the idolatry of the heart. Idols misrepresent God, take His glory away, and are untrue in every respect. We think they are innocent but they mislead and guide us down wrong paths away from the very God we seek.

ORIGINS
There are many sources for heart dwelling idols. We can harbor some fantasy life in our imagination, or some bitterness clouds our vision of God. A past experience may stain our view of God. A wrong understanding of God may be caused by our parents, relationships, or contact with others who communicated the error to us.

It is questionable if any of us have a correct idea of the infinite, all powerful, all knowing, God of wonders and majesty. We are not capable of it since He is infinite and we are made of dust.

OUR HEART
There are times when our job, family, or retirement account may be an idol; but other well-meaning values may be exalted to idol statuses, such as ministry, denominational identity, or mission. We may harbor an idol by saying our style of worship is more acceptable than another's, or our standards of Christian conduct is more valid than another's.

An idol may force us to exclude a person from our church because of a culture or heritage or practice; even if the practice or culture is clearly defined as offensive to God once we make that doctrine and not God the standard we have become idolaters and are in danger of hearing Gods rebuke.

THE ONE TRUE GOD
God wants to be known correctly and it benefits us to know Him that way. We only know Him by His gracious revelation of Himself to us. Let's pray and ask God to show himself to us, (at least as much as we can handle). As we seek the truth of His revelation of Himself in honest humility we may come before Him in the confidence of acceptance and not fear His rebuke.

If we are not coming to the place of worship with an open and humble heart that honestly seeks to know and worship the Almighty we are deceiving ourselves and might just as well stay away.

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