Guidelines for the Church

Guidelines for the Church

Do not engage in any buying or selling. If there is any exchange in goods or moneys or properties, it is to be by free gift only. But also, don't begrudge those who do. Why? Because the love of money is the root of many evils. Exchanging goods and services for money, even in the innocent beginnings (to support the ministry), easily and quickly slips into another godless business of money-making. Instead model the ministry after the example of Jesus when He fed the five thousand; let the increase come from Heaven.

Do not join with any worldly entity. Any union between the church and the government or state institutions will result in a snare for the church. The Church is made up of individuals who are free spirits, freed by Christ, and not to be caged again. As people, obey all the laws of the state, until the event whereby the state tries to enforce a law that is contrary to the command of the High King, Jesus. Create no institution; so that the state, IRS, or law makers can not get their hands on you.

Do not set up a name for yourself. Do not signify yourself in any way other than "the Church," or the "body of Christ," or other named recorded in scripture. You can signify the part of the Church by the geographical location it is in. For example, "the Church at Corinth, or the Church at Corpus Christi." Just as the man, Adam, named his wife, so Christ Jesus names His Church.

Do not set up any man or woman over you. The individual members are to submit to one another as unto Christ, and unto Christ directly. If there are pastors and prophets and teachers, they are co-laborers and servants, not the boss or a priest through whom you are to learn Christ. You learn Christ by individually dying daily and participating in His Resurrection, and by washing yourself in the Word. If you listen to a pastor or teacher, or anyone else, listen not to them, but listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit through them. You can learn to recognize this Voice by turning away from all the junk of the world, and devoting your pursuits to the scriptures, and prayer.

Believe the scriptures with a pure conscience. If you read a passage and don't understand it, don't try to explain it. The Holy Spirit alone gives understanding to hidden things. If you try to explain it before the Spirit of Truth teaches it to you, then you will fall into a snare. Trust in God always, and never lean on your own understanding.

Build no Kingdom on Earth. Instead, be the light of the world, be the bride of Christ, and comfort those who mourn and suffer, and give every earthly resource to the increase of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord and King, Jesus will bring His Kingdom when He comes, not too many days from now. Our place is not to set up kingdoms, but to lower the mountains, and raise the valleys, so that when His Kingdom comes, it has cleared land to set up on. So, don't drain all the resources that we are to use to feed the hungry, and clothe them, in order to build bigger buildings, and produce flashier bulletins. Meet in facilities that you already have, or in homes, or in no facility at all, in restaurants, in parks, online in various groups, on the streets, in office buildings, in football stadiums, at the beach, or anywhere else you can. If you seal yourself away in brick boxes, you are not the light of the world.

Do not quarrel, but search the scriptures diligently. Being saved from sin, and slow to speak, and quick to believe what we see in the scripture, we can come to the knowledge of the truth.