Re: Need advise on 40 DAYS OF COMMUNITY

Every once in a while, I will hear something about a time period being spiritually significant. It doesn't seem right,...we have everlasting life and we're supposed to think of 40 DAYS of Christian behavior. I don't know, it works for some. Anyway, you seem well aquainted with spiritual ideology and the practical significance of freedom and sentiment. I can sense your love for The Lord from what you write and your concern for worship in truth and spirit is notable. Before I forget, I go to a VINEYARD also. The name may just be similar, but it might be a different denomination, which I can't feel comfortable with ANY partisan politics, so I am also torn about the practices of the modern church. Check my church website at the bottom. You might even want to report this to my pastor if it is the same church, it sounds like The Lord would enter the temple and overturn the tables of the moneychangers. I have also been going to my church on and off because I just can't see to agree wholeheartedly with modern practices and ideology. Being from the 'old school', we have learned sincerity of heart (more sentiment instead of simple emotions).

It does help to write your ideas on paper because you are also formulating your thoughts in a way that they are understood and explained (communicated) to others. I have done some writing in my time and have noticed that the best way to write something so that other people will WANT (no exaggeration) to read and understand what you write is to be concise (as opposed to being WORDY and long winded). Be NOVEL (offer new points of view). While that does not always seem possible (Ecclesiastes >there is nothing new under the sun), if you are concise, people will be as interested as a child learning new things about the world. Try to be reasonably neutral and not let your bias show (bias is somewhat alienating and offensive, usually, even an objective reader will tend not to agree with you if you show too much bias,...human nature).

Anyway, in my opinion, Christianity is all about our personal relationship to The Lord, but it seems as though it is being forgotten by the modern church that we must keep our relationship pure and unpolluted by this world's materialism. The Lord is a jealous God and we should let His spirit yearn jealously and resent any intrusion into our personal relationship , even pastors (James 4:5), we must share His Word, but not the relationship. Modern congregations do not have the same understanding of sincerity, many people only understand PARTISAN loyalty (as in a fan club), not true sentiment. Do not let any one convince you that a woman should stay silent, there were many women in the bible that did the work of The Lord (including Junias, see link). Since God is love, the most learned of The Lord's disciples have the best understanding of what love is. There are not TYPES of love (agape, eros, philos, and storge). Love is an attitude of mind and heart, love is one, God is one Galatians 3:20). This is the most important false teaching of the modern church and the reason for misunderstanding the message of God.

http://nycvineyard.org
http://www.churchofgoddfw.com/monthly/junia.shtml