In Exodus 33:13 we find an often overlooked concept. Moses is speaking to God. "And now, if I have indeed found favor in Your eyes, pray let me know Your ways, so that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your eyes; and consider that this nation is Your people." This simple plea is one of the most powerful statements in the Bible. In it, we find an answer to what far too many people miss. How can I know God? Moses, our teacher, knew the answer to this question. He knew that learning God's ways was the path to knowing Him.
There will soon be 50,000 different denominations of Christians on this earth. Billions of people are searching for a relationship with the Creator. Some move from one denomination to the next, in hopes of finding that relationship. They never really do. What they find is an emotional experience which is a replacement for a relationship with God. Rivers of tears before an altar made with tools does not make a relationship. Knowing God is not an emotional experience. It transcends emotions. Moses stood in the presence of the Most High at Sinai. Does it say that he cried? It doesn't describe his emotions at all. Do you know why? It is because they were irrelevant at that moment. The word "awe" comes to mind. When you are truly in a state of awe you are neither happy nor sad. We toss that word around a lot these days. Everything is "awesome". It really is a misuse of the word. It has come to mean something we like instead of something we can't comprehend.
How do people impart their ways upon the Creator? In many things. We learned from the incident of the golden calf a good example of this. The people who were trying to worship God were doing it in such a way that was not appropriate. ( see The Second Golden Calf for more information). Churches are still doing this today. With so many different denominations practicing various forms of Christianity, is there any doubt that at least some of them are doing something wrong? The truth is they are all doing something wrong. They are imparting their ways on the Creator.
Earlier we learned that Moses wanted to learn God's ways in order to know Him. God revealed His ways in the Torah. If you had nothing but the five books of Moses, you would have enough to learn His ways. But today, Christians don't study the Torah. They study the New Testament which says the covenant outlined in the Torah is void. How can something which teaches God's ways become void? This is the greatest folly of them all. In ignoring God's ways they are saying they don't want to know Him.
Ask a Christian if they know God and they will say yes. But they never take the time to learn His ways. Moses gave us the answer plainly so that anyone could understand. It is not some complex idea set aside only for scholars. What has happened is that people, in their rebellion, didn't want to follow God's ways. They were lured away by following their heart and their emotions. This is the reason God warns us against following our heart. Instead, we are told to control our heart and use it to love the Lord our God with all of it. In other words, don't allow room in your heart for those things which, on the surface, look and make you feel good. The emotional experience you feel by following Jesus is the very thing which leads you away from God. Most, if not all Christians are always willing to tell us how Jesus makes them feel. While I don't think God wants us to feel bad, I think, and scripture seems to back this up, that it is more important to follow His ways than it is to get a warm fuzzy feeling.
How is it that people impart their ways upon the Creator? There are two things that come to mind. First, is the corruption of His instructions. For instance, we know that He said to keep the Sabbath holy. So why does Christianity ignore the Sabbath and keep Sunday as The Lord's Day? This is a corruption or a changing of the instructions. The second is to ignore the instructions completely. One great example is eating unclean animals. To their own detriment, Christians completely ignore this. They will say that because Peter had his famous dream, it is okay to eat any animals. That's not what the dream was even about, but that's beside the point. The point is, who should you be listening to, Peter or God? If the answer to this question is hard for you, you should consider more study of God's word.
The church has done everything it can to impart its ways upon the Creator. Pick any denomination you wish and you will see it. The taking of communion symbolized eating Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood. People are certainly not considered kosher. Praying to saints is equating mortals with God, even if it is to a lesser extent. Putting a table in front of the church and calling it an altar is another way. For starters, the altar can only go where God chooses to put His name. That is the Temple in Jerusalem. Collecting money and calling it a tithe is a complete corruption of the system of tithing outlined in scripture. Here is one of the big ones. Claiming that Jesus is God is actually considered idolatry. Claiming to speak prophesy when God has not given you instruction to do so would get you killed in Deuteronomy, but Charismatic Christians do it every day. Early Christian leaders changed the Holy Scriptures in order to make them fit their own beliefs. The Isaiah scroll found among the Dead Sea Scrolls predated Christianity by some three hundred years but it is the same as the book of Isaiah found in the Tanakh. The book of Isaiah in the Christian Bible is very different. They changed it to say what they needed it to say.
There are many more ways in which the church imparts its ways on the Creator. I have shown you a few. But there are more. The scope of this piece is not sufficient to expound on all of them. The point I hope you will get is that if you are doing these things and think doing them will get you a relationship with God, you are mistaken. You will have to look beyond what you have been told and find out for yourself. Ask yourself if what you are doing can be found in what Moses taught. We know that Moses found favor in God's eyes. We know that Moses learned and taught God's ways. You can do yourself a tremendous favor and read the five books of Moses in the Tanakh. Or, you can continue on as you are going and never really know the truth. Do you believe the way you do because it is what you were told? Now is the time to be honest with yourself. The things the church teaches and does are an abomination in the eyes of God. Are you following His ways or are you imparting your ways on Him? Only you can answer this.
How do people impart their ways upon the Creator? In many things. We learned from the incident of the golden calf a good example of this. The people who were trying to worship God were doing it in such a way that was not appropriate. ( see The Second Golden Calf for more information). Churches are still doing this today. With so many different denominations practicing various forms of Christianity, is there any doubt that at least some of them are doing something wrong? The truth is they are all doing something wrong. They are imparting their ways on the Creator.
Earlier we learned that Moses wanted to learn God's ways in order to know Him. God revealed His ways in the Torah. If you had nothing but the five books of Moses, you would have enough to learn His ways. But today, Christians don't study the Torah. They study the New Testament which says the covenant outlined in the Torah is void. How can something which teaches God's ways become void? This is the greatest folly of them all. In ignoring God's ways they are saying they don't want to know Him.
Ask a Christian if they know God and they will say yes. But they never take the time to learn His ways. Moses gave us the answer plainly so that anyone could understand. It is not some complex idea set aside only for scholars. What has happened is that people, in their rebellion, didn't want to follow God's ways. They were lured away by following their heart and their emotions. This is the reason God warns us against following our heart. Instead, we are told to control our heart and use it to love the Lord our God with all of it. In other words, don't allow room in your heart for those things which, on the surface, look and make you feel good. The emotional experience you feel by following Jesus is the very thing which leads you away from God. Most, if not all Christians are always willing to tell us how Jesus makes them feel. While I don't think God wants us to feel bad, I think, and scripture seems to back this up, that it is more important to follow His ways than it is to get a warm fuzzy feeling.
How is it that people impart their ways upon the Creator? There are two things that come to mind. First, is the corruption of His instructions. For instance, we know that He said to keep the Sabbath holy. So why does Christianity ignore the Sabbath and keep Sunday as The Lord's Day? This is a corruption or a changing of the instructions. The second is to ignore the instructions completely. One great example is eating unclean animals. To their own detriment, Christians completely ignore this. They will say that because Peter had his famous dream, it is okay to eat any animals. That's not what the dream was even about, but that's beside the point. The point is, who should you be listening to, Peter or God? If the answer to this question is hard for you, you should consider more study of God's word.
The church has done everything it can to impart its ways upon the Creator. Pick any denomination you wish and you will see it. The taking of communion symbolized eating Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood. People are certainly not considered kosher. Praying to saints is equating mortals with God, even if it is to a lesser extent. Putting a table in front of the church and calling it an altar is another way. For starters, the altar can only go where God chooses to put His name. That is the Temple in Jerusalem. Collecting money and calling it a tithe is a complete corruption of the system of tithing outlined in scripture. Here is one of the big ones. Claiming that Jesus is God is actually considered idolatry. Claiming to speak prophesy when God has not given you instruction to do so would get you killed in Deuteronomy, but Charismatic Christians do it every day. Early Christian leaders changed the Holy Scriptures in order to make them fit their own beliefs. The Isaiah scroll found among the Dead Sea Scrolls predated Christianity by some three hundred years but it is the same as the book of Isaiah found in the Tanakh. The book of Isaiah in the Christian Bible is very different. They changed it to say what they needed it to say.
There are many more ways in which the church imparts its ways on the Creator. I have shown you a few. But there are more. The scope of this piece is not sufficient to expound on all of them. The point I hope you will get is that if you are doing these things and think doing them will get you a relationship with God, you are mistaken. You will have to look beyond what you have been told and find out for yourself. Ask yourself if what you are doing can be found in what Moses taught. We know that Moses found favor in God's eyes. We know that Moses learned and taught God's ways. You can do yourself a tremendous favor and read the five books of Moses in the Tanakh. Or, you can continue on as you are going and never really know the truth. Do you believe the way you do because it is what you were told? Now is the time to be honest with yourself. The things the church teaches and does are an abomination in the eyes of God. Are you following His ways or are you imparting your ways on Him? Only you can answer this.
Copyright 2016 by:
William Bouker
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