I think I have been in ministry just long enough to have made a few
observations of people slowly lose out spiritually. I'd like to chronicle a
proposed process for abandoning the Lord & His Church. First let me note that while I do believe an individual can forfeit the saving grace they received, I do think it is a rare thing. Most often people we believe have backslidden have really never been born-again to start with. (I do not believe "once saved always saved.")
But, let me make a few observations of how this process takes place:
1) Nurture spiritual pride. Convince yourself that you are more spiritual than the Christians around you. (You are holier, more important, more intellectual, more talented, more valuable, etc.)
2) Come up with a good reason to stop doing any ministry through your local church. Good reasons include, but are not limited to: "I just don't have enough time." "I have too many irons in the fire." "I can't take the stress any more." "I need to spend more time with my family." (Hey, excuses could be a good blog post down the road.)
3) Come up with a good reason to stop participating in some of the peripheral ministries of the church such as prayer meetings, Bible studies, and small group meetings. (Make sure that you don't use the same excuse over, it is more easily spotted as a spiritual need on your part if you do.) A good excuse at this point is to be "hurt" by something innocent that was said by someone at a prayer meeting or Bible study. Be upset by what that person implied. (If you are really lucky some other person in the same spiritual boat as you will intentionally say something hurtful.)
4) At this point stop socializing with other Christians in the church; it will only make your final break more difficult. Get to church late and leave immediately following the service. (When you do socialize, make sure to do it with someone else who is disenfranchised about something going on at church. You will be able to feed off of each other.)
5) Keep an up-to-date record of everything your pastor does wrong. Do not give him any slack.
6) Tell people: "I'm just not being fed."
7) Get hurt/mad/upset with a random member of the church (it can be the pastor) about something small. People will understand why you forsake the Lord & His church if you let them know about how that person looked at you funny during communion. (If it is the pastor, it will be easier to cover up your own spiritual deficiency.)
8) Don't read the Bible very much. (You're actually too spiritual for that anyway.) Instead, read some book by a guy who doesn't believe in God, but claims to know all about Him.
9) Don't pray. (Actually, this was more toward the beginning, but in case you did have a dead form of prayer... go ahead and stop that now.)10) Come to the realization that you cannot really learn anything from Sunday School, the pastor's messages, or any other branch of the local church's ministry. (Remember you are close to self-actualization!)
11) Convince yourself that you do more good by yourself than working with the rest of the body of Christ.12) Church-hop (you can repeat the above steps at each new church only in a shorter time period.)
13) Make the "discovery" that the church has it all wrong on issues of morality (you may even discover that there is no such thing as morality). The church is just a bunch of old fuddy-duddies; but you know about true Christianity.
14) Realize that you are a Christian, so everything you do is, by definition, Christian activity!
15) Come up with your own "religious issue" that trumps all others and thus makes the faith of all others worthless compared to yours. (Issues like King James Version of the Bible only, no food in the church, no musical instruments, everyone must wear a tie, no one should wear a tie, etc.)
16) Be miserable.
17) Be secure in your practical atheism.
18) Be hostile to all Christians. (Call them hypocrites.)
19) Stay busy, drunk, and/or active so that there is no chance the Holy Spirit will speak to you and draw you back to where you need to be.
20) Work on developing a hard heart.Congratulations. If you can accomplish the previous 20 steps you will now, if not before, officially make it onto the prayer list of most churches.
(Assuming of course that churches still pray for lost people.)
God Bless you, your house & God Bless planet earth (we need it!!)
PS. When growing up we didn't get our first computer that was on the Internet until 8th grade. its a Gateway, we still have it and it still RUNS. we didn't have CD burners, DVD burners, ipods or a laptop, we had a much smaller, slower internet and we still didn't have boredom moments.
BORED? May i suggest a book? ITS THE BIBLE - if you cant quote it all the way though you haven't read it enough!
BORED? May i suggest an activity? ITS PRAYING .. try it.
- 7 days with out prayer = 1 weak
- prayerlessnes IS a sin of omission! (keep that in mind)
CANT THINK OF ANYTHING TO EAT?
- FAST, no not sprinting but make up in your mind that you will skip the meal, and eat the next time or simply not eat until a certain time such as midnight then you will be hungry AND if you done your fasting correct it will bring GOD glory (we, the church exist for that purpose anyway, right?)
