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Dave L
Guest
One thing I always do is pray that God would open their heart to love the truth, or to expose them for what they are. It seems he exposes them more than not.I've heard of Christians turning to home groups. The place I do most of my growing is in personal bible study. I still like being with other believers and we go to bible study when I'm able.
I think it's a shame though that churches are failing their members this way. I learned a lot through all those experiences and I know exactly what you mean by "pastors saying just enough to remain Christian." One thing I do have control over is whether or not I financially support a church, and I couldn't, in good conscience, put money into a plate at the above churches.
I've seen pastors willing to sell out Christ worse than Judas Iscariot. There are a lot of Judas' in the world. The one loose-goosey church we went to were so corrupt that the pastor left. All the doubts I had about them, the pastor confirmed when he invited my husband & I over his house. It was too late though - they had already cheated us. I learned to trust my instincts, but my husband didn't trust my instincts and we were badly burned. The corrupt family replaced the pastor and I emailed him. His wife I believe, is who answered me and kept asking what I wanted. She screened his emails I suppose. Finally I sent the message through her and asked her to pass on the message. I told her that Sullivan's cheated us and I wanted to know how the Word of God came out of that Pastor's mouth.
She never responded.
They knew the family who owned the church was corrupt and cheated and hurt a lot of people, but the pastor was willing to sell his soul for 30 pieces of silver.
So I learned how even Pastors sell out biblical precepts when it comes to money. I had my suspicions, but that family worshipped money, and didn't care if they had to cheat others to get it. I think they were stealing from the donations. When my mother died we had her funeral there and in lieu of flowers they asked for church donations. I had a handful of cash and handed it over to one of the family members. She snatched that cash from my hand like a dog snapping for a bone. Looking back, I wished I had never agreed to donations for that corrupt church.
The only thing I can do now is warn others about that "church" - the way I was warned early on, but my husband refused to listen. I agree that you need to find out for yourself, but if someone else warns you, I think you should be on guard. - I guess the bitterness still comes out now and then and I try to forgive, but it's hard.