Book Club churches form their sermons around popular spiritual self-help and motivational books that are in the marketplace. Though Bible passages are quoted throughout, the main emphasis of the sermons are encouraging Christians to grow effectively toward God.
Unfortunately, Book Clubs are NOT God’s will. Self-Improvement is NOT God’s goals. It is His Precious Word, revealed through the moving of the Holy Spirit, and centered fully on Scripture that prepares and restores spiritual growth to mature Christians.
The Lord is NOT concerned about you growing to be the self-focused, “worldly perfect looking” Christians that popular ideas espouse. In fact, if you read God’s Word, you will find that there is exactly ONE person that perfectly represents God’s will, and that is His beloved Son Jesus Christ. Believers can trust, that through the movement of the LORD God, Lord Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit, guided by His Scriptures, everyone will grow according to His Will; they do NOT need the interpretation or self-help of mere men.
Past God’s workers bear little copycat resemblance to Christ as they struggle to do the works of God in tremendously difficult ministries. When they face turmoil and troubles, they remember Christ’s teachings and strive to obey the things He instructs them to do.
Scripture followers of Christ sometimes eat locusts and separate themselves from the general population. They sit in prison, their minds and bodies wasted, with their faith strongly intact! They cry with deep mourning as their beloved Christ is put to death on the cross, and they stare and wonder with awe as He appears to them at His Resurrection. They don’t understand, but they accept the events of grace and glory because their beloved Savior says it is so with His Word.
They face oppression and persecution, and they are disliked by most of the people around them as they go out of their comfort zone and tell those with ears about their Christ. They suffer greatly from delivering their messages throughout the world. There is NO comfort, baths, pillows, and little self-care to bring satisfactions to their beings.
Oh, the Pharisees and the Sadducees of their times had all kinds of ideas of self-improvement that should be accomplished by the followers of Christ. The laws were strictly enforced by the Jewish leaders and repeated over and over and over to those uppity disciples and Christ Himself to improve them to the standards of the time. Academics that followed as the Christian Church developed, established all the rules of tradition and ceremony to elevate their ideas of self-improvement through religion.
Thousands of books are published by mortal men that are convinced their ideas elevate the flow of God’s Word. And that is the exact problem we face today when confronting churches that rely upon popular books to deliver the messages interpreted by the authors to be the Word of God.
A Book Club church might temporarily trick a believer into thinking that the Holy Spirit is present. There are surely some very strong Christians that write very wise and scripturally correct spiritual books into the things of God, guided distinctly by the Holy Spirit to recognize His Truths. Maybe those books written by man for today’s time in negotiating the journey of faith are spot-on and of value to guide the Christian Walk.
The exact problem is this:
THERE IS NO BOOK THAT CAN BE WRITTEN THAT REPLACES THE WORD OF GOD!!!
God’s standards are clear. He wrote His Word of God through the expression of Jesus Christ and their Holy Spirit. There is NO self-help book written today that can replace the HOLY, OMNIPOTENT, OMNEISCENCE, WORD OF GOD!!!
Any attempt to override the Word of God’s authority by replacing it with narcissistic ideas written by mere men by spinning it to self-improvement is wickedness when it is preached inside a church ad nauseum.
Scripture is the FINAL AUTHORITY OF GOD! His words can NOT be improved for the understanding or spiritual growth or revelation of his Truth by anyone!!! Christian churches must get away from the teachings of man. They must embrace the revelation of God’s Word that He graces mankind to receive through His Scripture ONLY.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (KJV 1900)
14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.