“People will always hunger for intimacy with God. When churches fail to teach people how to draw near to God, which is their prime responsibility, people will look for God on their own and develop their own substitutes for religion. Then the churches, rather than listen to the silent cries of the people for guidance, attack their feeble attempts to find meaning to life outside of church. The churches have to begin focusing on God again, and on people’s need for God, and like the mystics of the past, teach people how to develop intimacy with God. The Church has all this wisdom, but clergy spend little time developing people’s spirituality. That is why people are drifting away from the church…Church is nothing more than God’s children gathering together as a family to worship God, and pray for one another. My Father is pleased when He sees His children praying and worshiping as a family. But when they come together it is important that His shepherds feed the sheep and not send them away hungry. Otherwise they force them to look for nourishment elsewhere. It is then that the sheep wander into dangerous places and get lost. This is why the Good Shepherd is always going out in search for the lost and hurting sheep.”
Do we see our leaders blazing trails down the canyon walls from both sides, down to a place called Streamside, where the rushing flow brings profound peace as God’s family rushes across a newly constructed bridge and into a giant family reunion hug?
Hurry back for Part 7.
It just gets better from here.