It is best to remind ourselves that God loves us beyond our understanding in ways where our yearning for Him has a planned “process”. That process is allowing our humble realization that He always knows better than we do in all things. The words, ‘humble’ and ‘humility’ are not references to a groveling submission to an all powerful angry god where we reject anyone who does not fit our personal desires. ‘Humble’ is comprised of ‘human’ and ‘able’ as ‘humility’ is comprised of ‘human’ and ‘ability’ in seeing that God is God to lift us into His creative attentiveness.

   To search for His leading from a point of view found in our ideas, dreams, and emotionally changing responses to our and others influences, causes a false spirit of control over circumstances, at the very moment where God is with us to guide our hearts with His loving-kindness. He certainly does not want us to slander our commitments to marriage and family in what we allow. But, He is with us even then, to guide our wrongdoing into doing what we do for the right reasons.

   A bent toward self-focused intellectual interpretation of Scripture leads to esteeming Scripture, combined with the emotional confused chaos that presents itself as spiritual stirring. Dishonest words and actions are symptoms of lies, but they are not what a lie is. Dishonest words and actions are used to conceal the truth of a matter, opinion, or belief. When one is used to using words and actions to cover their inner fears, defenses, and beliefs, he or she will interpret what others say and do as if there is no real importance; except for a self-directed choosing whether another’s words or acts either cause emotional upset or emotional pleasure. This hidden fiend of dishonesty is revealed in noticing whom anyone is giving attention to, openly or in secret, as different from who legitimately expects to receive such attention.

   When God’s leading of a man and woman in marriage is interwoven, and/or directed, by pastoral leadership opinion (and any others who feel they have a right to involve their decisive will into and between a husband and wife); the pressures to please reasonable logic based in emotionally loaded intellectualism feeds the religious churching of decisions… while scattered attention giving seeks monetary stability through coercion of empathy and devotion. This removes the will of God from a marriage designed to serve Him in spirit and in truth. Thereby, improperly placed attentions wrongly places God’s Authority in the hands of social manipulators – in the name of righteousness and good works.

   Popular revivals are too often carried by appeals to the imagination, by exciting the emotions, by gratifying the love for what is immediate, exciting, and startling. Converts to faith thus gained have little desire to listen to Bible truth as Bible truth leads to listening to God’s Truth in Christ through togetherness with one’s mate in a way where people blindly seek props for emotional practicality wherever and with whom-ever may be available. Unless a religious service has something of a sensational character that provides an escapist’s illusion away from the responsibilities of life’s troubles, it has no attractions for people who have yet to be saved from giving and receiving attentions from anyone who piques their searching curiosity.

   A message which appeals to unimpassioned reason awakens no response when it respects a man’s and a woman’s will of determination for each other and their families. The plain warnings of God’s Word, relating to their eternal interests, are unheeded. However, with every truly converted soul, the relation of attention to God through the relation of attention to a married partner, and the relation of their children to their parents, and all of those things in relational order to eternal things, will be the great topic of life. But, where, in the popular churches and free association relationships of today, is the spirit of consecration to God?

   Because God’s Salvation is given in Christ through faith, consecration to God is found in our tending to how we devote our attentions to our husband, wife, children, other family members, work associates, friends and neighbors according to His created levels of privacy and openness. When people are not versed in the principles of tiered authority as God intends, converts to Christ through faith witnesses do not renounce their pride and love of the world. They are no more willing to deny self and their consequential use and abuse of others, to take up their cross and follow the meek and lowly Jesus, than they were before their conversion. Religion has taken the place of reality and has become the sport of infidels and skeptics because so many who bear its name are ignorant of its principles.

   The power of Godliness has well-nigh departed from many of the churches because the power of Godliness has well-nigh departed from marriages and families (who make up the church) where respect for who should be giving whom attention has lost its honor before God. There is a distortion in understanding our oneness in Christ as a type of “be nice to make it” socialism as a compensation for the lack of a true acceptance of Him as Who He is alive and well, and who we are unto Him as a result. Picnics, church theatricals, church fairs, fine houses and furniture, fancy cars and pleasure travel, personal display, music, charitable works, status through God blessed prosperity, and meddling into the affairs of marriages and their families have banished realistic thoughts of God.

   Lands and goods and worldly interpersonal occupations engross the mind, and swell the emotions; and things of eternal interest receive hardly a passing note. This does not mean to say all the good materialistic things and experiences of life and living, are somehow evil. They are not. It is the perspectives our misplaced attentions bring by disrespecting our right associations. Indiscriminate sharing the good things of living, in dishonor to whom we should be sharing our time and desires about the good things of living, put what we do and have for the wrong reasons above who we are to the ones we love for God’s sake for the right reasons.

   Living a Christian lifestyle is not living a life of Christian faith. If it were, the witness of the churches throughout the centuries would have made this a vibrant and perfect world of peace and loving-kindness. Most times throughout history the people have been subject to the church by patronizing influential control for power and profit instead of the church being subject to God and the family. The same is with the argument of purposeful management between churches and governments to oversee commerce and direction of personal objectives. Proper schooling of our children is where these personal and social responsibilities converge.

   Most independent and organized churches in the world today base their belief systems on woven tapestries of out-of-context Biblical passages much the same way as the Pharisees and Sadducees used when Jesus was teaching in the Temple, then under the hand of Roman government. Ideally, in the minds and hearts of a society’s expectancy of life and living the realities of Christian faith, both the churches and governments would do well to recognize an order of priority: God, Family, Church, Commerce, Community, and Government as a constructively healthy arrangement for applied authorities. It is the only order for a sensible strength of peace. Anything else causes a disordered disarray of factions and contrary discord.

   As each sphere of significance properly should hold in respect various levels of interdependent place(s) of priority, individuals involved (employed) can retain their attentions of integrity in positive accord to their responsibilities. Governmental services are subject to the authorities of general community interests, community ventures are subject to the authorities of commercial and private business welfare, trade and industry is subject to the authorities of the collective organized church’s specific needs, community church collective cooperation is subject to the authorities of individual church/family requirements, and pre-adult children are subject to the authorities of their parents who, together as one where the wife is subject to the authorities of the husband, are subject to the authorities of God (the Generating Creator) through Christ (the Word of Generation) via the Holy Spirit (the Truth of the Word that causes what is to be).

   Lifestyles are a matter of devotion to choices of being and are dedicated involvement in worldly life; whether or not religious. The traditional church setting is a social club designed to give individuals freedom of expression through song, drama, and community bond. When a man extends his sense of duty by teaching, preaching to, and praying for people, from a platform in front of a group of others, he provides an environment set aside from the usual interactions of a person's life. Many times one’s healed or 'saved' get sick again and/or 'backslide' being told they do not have enough faith or it is not God's will for some reason.

   The misinterpretation as a result most often opens a false theatrical trusting in the setting and process - the involved one’s and spectators believe certain settings and conditions are required to connect with the power of God - a sense that meeting God happens in a sanctuary with a particularly blessed leader. The extension brings people to home and to business not expecting to rely on God except in 'church'. Church members many times are asked to discontinue participation with the congregation when expected social standards are not kept to support the doctrine will. A variation is to view the power of God as greatest the closer one gets to the church and/or blessed leader and particular emotional/environmental attachments such as music.

   Music has two basic aspects in our practices. The first, and possibly only, true purpose for music is our spontaneous expressions from the heart of joy and appreciation. True uncontrived worship is our naturally soul-felt thankfulness and gratitude that wells up in our being-ness, bursts forth with glad triumph in Christ, and is not used to create mood altering atmosphere even though the witness does create mood altering atmosphere. That is our basis for evangelism.  The second is our use of music as a means, a tool, where worship is commonly misunderstood from our instinctual/emotional submissive subservience to an all powerful vengeful God. We become compulsive in our determination to “get God” through the music and our mortal condition is turned into forced requirement. It feeds offense against ourselves, by seemingly diverting negative pressures into a positive, and thereby builds ambitious arrogance over bitterness.

   When an individual responds through simple faith to the message and from genuine need of God, to God; salvation and healing is real. Salvation (healing) is a walk of faithfulness being complete in Christ, but our completeness in Christ is only entire when we are out of this mortal flesh existence. The witness of Truth becomes misunderstood through pastor's and onlookers' pride and the false church loop continues. Many times the emotional sensations of cleansing become the perceived goal of salvation. It leads to compulsions to 'get dirty' to re-experience another cleansing by indulging ever more deeply the sins that brought us to the cross in the first place.

   This is because we have been deceived into believing our walk of faith is more experiential instead of positional. Praise and worship service to God, then, becomes arranged, calculated, and programmed in response to a planned community social structure. The true Church recognizes that genuine need is not properly a making right of health and happiness for flesh life, while response to Who God is will bring healing and joy in flesh life as a positive symptom of life through faith. True praise and worship is spontaneous thankful joy of appreciation for our realized realities of life in Christ.

   All religions, including Christianity as served in religious ways as religion, are by their very existence and functions idolatrous endeavors to answer life’s conditions with social controls. The reason this is true is found through intellectual/emotional desires to get a handle on God by bringing Him and His heavenly beings down among us and/or lifting us up among Him and his heavenly beings. The enemy of God and humankind works not only in the bad side of the knowledge of good and evil; but, uses the darkness of evil, as a diversion, to hide behind his cultish false light of religious piety in the good side of the knowledge of good and evil. Blindness is from assuming God is not with everyone through Christ, at all times, in everything everybody does.

   A cult is a mockery by the adversary within people through the emulation of spiritual realities: Any church or collective centering attention any place (including mind and emotion) but in response to God’s design of family structure, especially including an acceptance of the concept that pastoral leadership and ways and doctrines not central to Christ's redemption, brings one near to God in priority to the togetherness of a man and woman in marriage. A cult is the deceptive belief that doctrine, dogma, and religious principles and traditions found in organized church are God’s blessed will of contact and contract for robust, healthful, special set-apart saintly livelihood. Christ transferred the dispensation of the Prophets under His Law, that ended with His Resurrection, to His Truth of Spirit in and through a man's authority with his wife, to their family, under His Grace.

   The focal point for identifying all religions, or any religion, in its idolatry against God’s will and ways (as religion is not the reality of God as manifested in and through the Crucified and Resurrected living Man, Jesus Christ) is, One: found in fear of and fury against “the world’s ungodliness” by and through escapism into religious orientation aside from “lesser inhabitants”. And, Two: condemnation of any peoples of “the world’s ungodliness” by and through self-protective separation, and condescending self-deifying charitable works, which deny those helped the necessary means to respectfully honor their own marriages and family success.

   The natural and instinctual emotions of love commonly held as right are not the same as our feeling response to the Love of God through His unchangeable patterns and openly honest ways of marriage sharing and family togetherness as a result. Most people come to think love from God is a validation of emotional security as somehow separate and compartmentalized from an appreciation of their loved ones. This leads to the serving of the self, through the emotions and thoughts, in what is believed to be the service of God - where sensationalized Reality becomes a farce - making contrived experiences appear to be happenstance from God.

   A community spirit and interaction for the goal of the common welfare of human-kind would be enough to satisfy any eternal rest. Clearly, when the good of man is thought to be the good of God, an association is made in the mind to believe good works are Godly works. Jesus Christ, of His own desire of will, applies to us all complete redemption from evil influences as we trust Him in faithfulness during the pitfalls of life – we meanwhile, in our self-righteous indignant pride of acquired holiness unto God through Christ, stand in fierce opposition to anyone who does not suit our way – as if our choice of exclusive right-of-way is God’s way.

   The concept of communal separation has its roots in limiting influence from the “enemy” through the environment of the world. Surely the world is at odds with living in Truth of Reality and children learn to resent and reject their training because of it. The paradox of protection and involvement (the always impossible tension of balance between growth and change and the permanence of who we believe we are) brings one to deciding how much of one’s-self one is willing to give to God. Devoting time away from environment to God in an effort to limit influence from the enemy has the effect of taking from the world the witness and interaction God's call on life asks. Working within the world requires a strength and reliance on God to keep us safe from downfall and an often fierce rejection and mockery of Him in a life.

   It is true it appears others do not listen or take heed to efforts extended but it is not our duty to stop and reflect about the results. The results we may be looking for may be our own standards and forms of belief instead of God's since we cannot determine another's position and purpose relative to the extended needs of the situation and moment. This is precisely where dark persuasions seem to be light. A generalizing catch-all ideal has pervaded evangelism to compensate for trust in God - "after all, if you were to die tonight, are you sure you will go to Heaven?" This question asks another to put his self-consideration in priority to responding to Who Christ is, and is contrary to His aliveness in them if they accept Truth with understanding.

   The core of the true Church is the family. By this it is not meant the local congregation as a church is made of families of believers, even though it is; the family itself is the Church. The man/husband carries the role of Christ while the woman/wife carries the role of the Church. He is responsible unto God for service to the woman and children - she is responsible through her husband unto God for service to the man and the children. Marriage is the only human bond that holds the unifying commitment: "for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health". Part of God's design in marriage is for a woman to bring her concerns to her husband - not anyone who happens to be convenient.

   It is a matter of upholding trust in our faith unto God and His patterns of living. Consequently, the only right (rite) place for personal and physical intimacy is within the marriage as a celebration of creation. Children need parents in their parents, not pals and peers of alliance that undermines a child's responsibility to mature. The oneness of the resurrected body of Christ negates any thought or secular consideration of divorce. We like to think of some people as 'misfits' to feel like we are better ourselves. But, everyone is a misfit in some way or another.

   When a woman marries a man she is given in marriage, takes on a new name, and becomes a member through her husband of the new family Church. Her new in-laws now are her priority after her husband and children in honor to her husband and the vows of marriage for God's sake. An unusual attachment to the family left means a less than honoring commitment to the new family of bond. A community church building is a meeting place necessary to provide room for a collective of marriage churches. The extended family of parents, in-laws, grandparents, etc. are the wider church - the body of Christ - as elders and experience provide strength of support for young family churches.

   Direction and control of the collective church in each family Church's business is at a minimum since authority of strength in the single family structure resides in faith unto grace in rightly honored positions of respect. The delegation of authority from God is accordingly through the man to the woman in marriage and, together, through them to their children. No other has the place or right to tell a woman what a man has to provide for his wife, and no other has the place or right to tell a man what a woman has to provide for her husband. Such interference causes strife and discord directly where God is the presence to make the two as one.

   If a family and/or certain members of the family live unto the self seemingly without regard to righteousness, grace and longsuffering must be extended without reserve. After all, God is God and gives us all the freedom we need to be aware or deceived. The witness of others, passive or directly, has its place but the power of prayer and trust in Truth gives the family the strength to not condemn but lift up errant ones.

   At times, to reduce mockery and exploitation by an errant family member or members, it is necessary to distance, or sequester, self serving manipulators in order to uphold the respect and dignity of a marriage bond - because a man and woman are one in body and spirit through the power of faith in God‘s promises just as the Church is Christ‘s body through His resurrection. Patience truly is a virtue. Every meal is Communion just as Jesus said: “As often as ye do this...” means as often as we gather to eat. And, though He knew who Judas Iscariot was, Jesus did not exclude him from communion.

   Once one discovers Who Christ is and why, a choice to accept His life is always present in the living out of each day. When a moment finds us dwelling unto ourselves - immersed in our thoughts and emotions - we are serving the enemy in that our attentions are held captive from accepting Life in the giving up of self. Who Christ is is the essence of who we are whether we are in His life or in His death, we are either being persuaded through the world and our surroundings, to continue in the dying of our temporal existence unto the destroyer (folded into Christ's death on the cross); or we are living by the giving up of ourselves as we accept the life Christ claimed for us in His resurrection.

   In Life as part of Christ's resurrection we have Truth coming from within as God intends. We can live in self - the pleasures and resentments and fineries and poverty of the flesh - having a full and robust time doing it because God gives us the will and opportunity to continue on as we wish (or at least when we know we are accepting deception as a way of life, we have the knowledge we are living grandly unto ultimate death - John 3:12-21).

   We, in Christ's resurrection, can be living in luxury or not - having the same appearance as a worldly one - but our conditions are influenced in another way. The enemy surely does not play favorites; wishing none should find Truth in Life and attacks the earthly bounty one may attain in service to God. People, having been taken with worldly delights, must endure battles of personal magnitude - for one living unto the self, a worldly loss is a catastrophe.

   One living unto Christ understands the evil of loss but has joy in knowing a worldly loss is of no consequence compared to the overall outcome of staying through to the end of the battle of ages. Seeing others' misfortunes gives an opportunity to help them, pray for them, and lift them up as we can - we cannot in right deem others as not being 'right with God'. Only One is right with God and His Life extends grace and virtue in measures to surpass any petty or diabolical wrongs we may point out to see ourselves as somehow better or worse, more holy or evil than another. Faithful living is not as much what we know and do as it is where our heart is in response to God’s promises.