Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Matthew 23:23
Doing church has a danger, and the danger is Phariseeism (actually there are many dangers, but it is one of the primary ones).
It can lead to what Rev. Michael Dunlap did to me. When I requested Sanctuary from the church, during a worship service, When my physical safety was being threatened by others in the worship service — he ignored me. Then after the service, he promised to help find me an advocate, and instead kicked me out of the church, and lied about what I had said, put words into my mouth which I had never said, and put those lies in print, in a letter to me.
He lied, deceived and coerced me, all to keep the propriety of his service in tact. Note that Propriety is not one of the weightier matters Jesus talked about above.
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
James 2:15-16
One of the things lately that has become worse than hearing people swear, is hearing people tell us “I am praying for you.” Not because we think prayer doesn’t work, but because we believe the people telling us that aren’t working themselves, thus making their prayers of no effect. Before you pray for us, keep your promises to us, don’t lie to us, deceive us, and use coercive actions from you places of power to distort and twist the truth so you can go back to your Phariseeism.
If you boasted less about praying, and put feet to mercy and faith, you would find your prayers much more effective.
At The Rainbow 