It has been bugging me for a while; I wanted to join this church we have been attending...
BUT,
God never gave me the go-ahead.
Everything seems so good, but something was up. There had to be a reason, a solid reason why we couldn't join, and, most importantly, there had to be scriptures to back up and explain everything.
Then one morning a couple "joined" the church. During the member acceptance thing (speech), the pastor was reading out of a book. There was something said to the gist of do you promise to uphold the blah, blah, blah of the "general assembly".
What? What was that?
Something kind of clicked inside letting me know this is why God had not released me to join this church.
I went on to research everything I could find on the denomination.
There was nothing out of line.
Everything was in order. Everything was in line with scriptures.
I could NOT find a single thing wrong with anything anywhere.
Okay, so what now?
I started searching out the scriptures to see if I could get an answer.
There was something about that promise to the general assembly.
I started with looking at "vows" in the Bible. I looked at every verse, but nothing clicked.
I next looked into "oaths" in the Bible; nothing there either.
I pondered and prayed, but nothing came forth.
I talked with some of my friends that are in deliverance ministries and they laughed. The general thinking by deliverance ministers is that you CAN'T join any church. I have explained that I have a wife that has a call of God to work with children; she feels we need to be a part of a church to do that. My kids would like the comradery of going to a church with a good youth group. My son has gone as far as to tell me specifically that he does not want to be the son of a preacher nor does he want to go from church to church (nothing like a little PRESSURE, huh?!). I explain this and people say, "hmm... I'll pray for you".
Then, something clicked last night. What do you do with an oath?
You "SWEAR".
"Swear", that's it!
I started looking that up...
"'Or if a person thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil--in any matter one might carelessly swear about--even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty. Leviticus 5:4 NIV84
This is in reference to unintentional sin.
???
Unintentional? How about "presumptuous"?
Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Psalms 19:13 NASB
Or,
Don't let me do wrong on purpose, Lord, or let sin have control over my life. Then I will be innocent, and not guilty of some terrible fault. Psalms 19:13 CEV
So it is boiling down to a sin that will control me, whether unintentionally committed or presumptuously.
Obviously, God does not want anybody to commit any sin whatsoever, whether on purpose or otherwise.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Hebrews 12:1 NASB
There is no obvious sin that I can see, but it seems there is some hidden snare that God is trying to keep me from.
Faith. If it ain't in faith, it is sin.
My friends, above all else, don't take an oath. You must not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. "Yes" or "No" is all you need to say. If you say anything more, you will be condemned. James 5:12 CEV
But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; Matthew 5:34 NIV84
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