My, it in the very word. CULT-ure.
The human heart is essential a worship machine. If you don’t place GOD at the center of it, ie on the throne of your of you heart as is the original design, you will inevitably place something or someone else in that spot. It cannot be left vacant. That someone could even be yourself and yes it can a group with laws and customs.
A cult is any group that insists on being your God but last time I checked, GOD insists on never sharing that position in people’s hearts.
Meaning, Nothing and precisely no one (Group or individual) except YHWH should be able to wield such power over you enough to overide your GOD given free will especially when said will in in the context of the will of GOD for your life. At that point, you are an idolater. AGAIN, I checked, GOD really hates idolaters so it’s up to you whether or not you much prefer to live life being on God’s hate list or not.
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” THAT IS THE VERY FIRST OF THE 10 COMMANDMENTS FOR A REASON…And guess what number 2 and 3 continue on the very same subject of the exclusivity of worship to YHWH so yeah it’s a big deal. Treat it as such.
This is why group think will always be iffy to me. In all things I’m very watchful of what groups think because where people agree on stuff, unfortunately it is often the opposite of what God wants. It’s a sad statistic but try observing it in your own life. Why is it then when group think is at play it is rarely for the good? Do your research.
This matters to me because the point you loose me on almost anything, is the point where you start to deviate from God’s agenda. The fact it loosing sight of God’s plan is easier to do in a crowd. If you start out with an aim watch what happens to the plan as you continue to take people on board especially without consulting God. In such circumstances, I could try for niceness, I could ignore, I could even be silent but the way my coding operates, when you leave God’s way/path/will you have already lost the best of me. Took me a long time to realize this but some of us are not designed to function ad full capacity in darkness or evil. That environment doesn’t work for us. By nature we require righteousness to be excellent. Trust me, you want me to stay on GOD’s path.
”EVERYONE IS DOING IT” “SOCIETY ACCEPTS THAT NOW” in the words of my mother, so what? What does GOD say about it and did He communicate that He’s changed His mind on it? That’s the question. When she spoke like that I had thoughts like wow this woman is extra but now I understand she was simply born again. I’m warning you now, living born again will inevitably make you look, sound and act completely opposite to the world’s agreed path more often than not. Might as well prep you for it so you don’t develop an ‘outsider complex’ that leaves you lonely and shun-able and therefore exposed to possible compromise of you love for God which will cause Him to loose His pleasure in you.
Another personal observation here; Have you noticed that God much prefers to do His things with individuals over groups? Apart from Israel (and we see how that’s going) and the Christians (we also see how that’s currently going) all His books seem to be about solo acts being wielded by His hand. THATS what made the difference. It was God’s hand upon them not who they were per se, so that no one can ever claim to have done it themselves.
While we’re on this, this is a good place to plug how David learned a lesson along these lines. Ever heard about that episode of God sending an Angel to massacre the army David was so lowkey proud about enough to defy GOD and go count their numbers. God said don’t count them David, you don’t need to know that, what’s it to you how many they are. Dude up and went and counted, dyu know how many of them died because of that? Not even at war. An angel just showed up and started killing them. Could it be that apart from the blatant disobedience, God didn’t want David Mr 66 out of 66 war victory streak to start trusting in the size of the army above the hand of God which was obvious on the guy’s life? 🤷🏽♀️
I don’t do big groups not because I don’t love people but because I know that group thoughts and cultures are often wrong. I could inert myself but everyone including the blind dog will see that my heart doesn’t belong there. From experience, and just observing life in general there is no quicker way to slip into sin than having a mob mentality on an issue. As children adults always seem to warn stay away from or don’t follow the wrong crowd for a reason. Once you eliminate individual responsibility out goes your autonomy and the general level of morality. All of a sudden everyone is bigger, braver and bolder to do fucked up thing (notice the tragectory is always towards sin) than if they were alone and had to bear the responsibility for thier actions. Once you insulated a person from responsibility for trifling wicked actions the unspoken consent from the group blinds them to the fact that they might have gotten away with it in the moment but God is watching and there’s no escaping His judgment. It’s really easy to forget in the moment though that you lil clique will not be judged with you and that you entire soul, your conscience, your dreams even your very breath is within the grasp of GOD Almighty.
So…Will a day come when I have to deal with groups? Maybe. Until then when it is actually my assignment and complete with instruction to do so, a few good men like The Master’s 12 for instance will always be my preference.
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I change not;’ That’s for those of you who think maybe GOD has relaxed a little on the whole worship thing.
