THE THIN LINE BETWEEN TRUE WORSHIP AND HYPOCRISY

      Acts 10:22 KJV” And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.”

    There is a thin line between the practice of man-made religion and true worship in the church of Christ. Except when analyzed under a scriptural microscope, one may not know the difference. There are two types of error , one that is deliberate and born out of ignorance and the other not deliberate, sincere and born out of a lack of proper guidance. Cornelius’ error falls into the second category. Both errors are easily hidden under a religious camouflage in our churches.
     Cornelius could have easily passed for what we may refer to as a faithful- brother- in- the –lord, considering his visible qualities. He was a successful military carrier officer with over a hundred soldiers at his beckon and call, he regularly made charitable donations to the poor and maybe built a couple of churches too. He was well spoken of in the community .
      Despite these qualities, God was not impressed, there was a missing ingredient, Cornelius was religious ( worship based on man’s standards without accountability to anyone  )  and as such had no intimate relationship with the Holy Ghost.   This is common in the body of Christ , were so many persons deny or refuse access to the ministry of the Holy Ghost for the fear of being made to be accountable to someone else and the loss of friends(Jn5:44)  oblivious of the fact that godly honour is far greater than the honour from man(1Pet.5:10) .
     The Holy Spirit uses us as He wishes not as we wish. It is the desire to always be in control of our lives and to dominate others that leads to many denying the ministry of the Holy Ghost. Without the ministry of the Holy Ghost, a church is spiritually dead, it is merely a social gathering devoid of life- changing power. The bible says in 2 Tim 3:5, that this shall be one of the signs of the last days  . Cornelius was thought a lesson in spiritual accountability by being sent to meet Peter and their fellowship together opened a door of spiritual revival in Cornelius’ family.            
         Hypocrisy is defined by the dictionary as, :  a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially :  the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion ( Merriam-webstar Dictionary)"  In the Greek, the word is "hupokrisis" and means "the playing of a part on the stage."as in (luke12:1). The hypocrite always has an ulterior motive for his or her actions. This is one of the reasons for the increase in marital crisis in the church.  As you read this receive grace for a Holy Ghost revival in your family in Jesus name.
By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi 
+234(0)8035536911,+234(0)8098536911, email:michaelbensonajayi@gmail.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BREAK EVIL FAMILY PATTERNS

Image
 By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi  Titus 1:12 -14 "One of themselves,   even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians   are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.  This  witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply,  that they may be sound in the faith;  Not giving  heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of  men, that turn from the truth."       The church in Crete was in disarray and the apostle assigned Titus to go and put things in order . On investigation it was discovered the church suffered from a vicious cycle of evil family  patterns. They were not enjoying the fruits of the salvation experience . An example of evil family patterns is that of King David who defiled Uriah's wife ,murdered him and his son Absalom murdered his brother Amnon (2Sam13) dethroned him and defiled his concubines openly (2Samuel16). His son Amnon defiled his sister Tamar (2Sam.13) and so on yet David was the anointed of the Lord....
Read more

COMMON CAUSES OF DISUNITY.

Image
 By Rev Michael Benson Ajayi "Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following."Acts 20:30 NLT   "An angry person starts fights; a hot-tempered person commits all kinds of sin." Proverbs 29:22 NLTBible        Disunity is defined as : disagreement and conflict within a group. It is the greatest hindrance to the promotion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Disunity creates an avenue for Satan to promote sin.       The causes of disunity are not farfetched ,they include : Unhealthy Crave for power or self- promotion. Whenever there is an unhealthy pursuit of influence in a family or group it results in resistance. Self-promotion gives birth to unfair practices and injustices. In Numbers 12: 1-15  Moses' sister Miriam and Aaron rebelled against him desiring to rule by force and in Numbers 16 :1-35 Korah led an insurrection against Moses desiring to be part of leadership. In both cases ,God wa...
Read more

CONSEQUENCES OF LACK OF FAITH

Image
By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi " Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God." Hebrews 3:12 NLTBible  ' Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”John 20:27 NLTBible     Faith is the guarantee of the manifestation an unseen reality . It is the reason behind the hope we have in God and the fulfilment of his promises. It is the substance ( title deed) of things hoped for ,the evidence of things not seen (Hebrew 11:1) .The Bible warns against not having faith in God. Lack of faith is equal to calling God a liar and untrustworthy. This type of reasoning turns us into enemy's of God.    The gospel is so much under attack by the activities of faithless religionists . They plan to replace the holy scripture with humanistic dogma. The danger in this is the relative...
Read more