Not sitting well... pt 2

Okay, so now for part 2 of my little rant.

Another thing that was said during the sermon was that when we become Christ's, we are given a blood transfusion (I'm ok with that statement). We get new DNA and have that of Christ (on a spiritual level.. yes I agree). But then it went on and was said that when we get this new Blood DNA, we no longer have to worry about family histories of illness. And I quote "My family has a history of diabetes, a history of cancer, a history of heart problems... but not me... not any more... I've been given a new DNA... a new blood in my body... I don't have those problems in my life b/c I have Jesus..." and ending the quote b/c this next part will be paraphrased, but he said that as a follower of Christ, we don't have to worry about getting sick, or illness or terminal illnesses b/c if we truly follow Christ, none of that will happen to us. We'll always be healthy.
What? Seriously? Interesting. Paul at the end of one of this letters talks about his handwriting and how he was writing this part on his own and how that showed the specialness of it b/c Paul had bad eye sight. Guess Paul didn't really follow Jesus then. What about Moses (I know, he's OT but still)... He had a stuttering problem. Guess he didn't really seek God. What about people I know in my own personal life who struggle w/ arthritis in their backs, who have complete deafness in one ear, who have cancer at this very moment and fight for their lives? Do they not follow God? I was angered by this man's statement. I even have a friend who is a member at this church who suffers from seizures and has almost lost her life to these struggles. How can she sit and honestly hear this and feel good about being there knowing she still has the seizures?
Nowhere in the Bible my dear friends does it say that we'll never have illness or hardship or struggles. It's actually quite the opposite. Jesus even said people will hate us b/c of Him. Numerous times we see people sick in the Bible. We see people who are downcast, people who have physical ailments. What happens to these people? They push on even with their problems and serve God and go on to write books of the Bible, to lead nations back to God, to bear children when there is no way they should be able to give birth.

I could go on and on and talk about the "healing classes" the church teaches on how to "divinly heal physical handicaps", the woman who ran 3 laps around the auditorium during the sermon when the preacher said he was "getting happy in the spirit" and started stomping his feet, or how they had everyone take communion (even the little children all the way down in the nursery). But those will be topics possibly for future posts.

Now please understand, I did not write these two posts as a bashing of this church. Not by any means. In all honesty, my family and I were made to feel very welcomed there. The building was beautiful, the people there were extremely friendly and went out of their way to talk to us and show us around and even to show us where our children would go for their classes. One man even let us know that he would be walking the halls of the church checking on the classes, and would come and give us updates on our daughter in her class if we would like. People came up and shook our hands, welcomed us, ministers, elders, deacons, members... a lot of people did. Even some of the younger people. I know a lot of churches that could learn a lot from the friendliness of this congregation.

However, all that aside, those few things I talked in detail about, I could not overlook. These are problems with doctrine in my eyes. You can agree with me or not. It's up to you.
But as for me and my family, we're still looking for a church home here. Let's see where God leads us.

Love God... Love people... Serve the world...
Jpack