I'm Done With Church!

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is an article from an unknown author that I wanted to share with you.

🚫 "I'm done with church." 🚫

Have you ever felt this way? Maybe someone at church said or did something that hurt you deeply, and now you're considering walking away altogether. But before you make that decision, consider this:

If someone in your family hurt you, would you quit the whole family? Would you say, "Sorry Mom and Dad, I can't come over for the family meal because my brother will be there and he said something mean to me!" Probably not, right?

And if someone at work hurt your feelings, would you quit your job? Someone at the gym took your machine, would you quit the gym you love to go to? What about if someone at the park looked at you funny? Would you stop going to the park altogether? And if the owner at your favorite restaurant didn't shake your hand one time, would you quit and never go back?

Chances are, you wouldn't.

 So why should it be any different with church? Yes, we're all human, and sometimes people in the church hurt us. But let's not let those hurts drive us away from the community that God has called us to be a part of. Many people often claim, "Pastor, God led me to this Church," only to disappear a little later. What happened? Did God change His mind? No, but the Devil was at work.

 Sometimes it's rooted in bitterness, sometimes it's the result of backsliding, but if the Church is following the Bible, we must recognize that the excuse is flimsy and we should swallow our pride and stay to help and heal.

Instead of quitting church, let's work through our hurts and conflicts together, just as we would with our families, friends, or colleagues. Let's remember that the church is made up of imperfect people, just like you and me, and let's extend grace and forgiveness to one another.

So if you're feeling hurt or discouraged, reach out to someone you trust at church, whether it's a pastor, a friend, or a small group leader. Let's lean on each other and continue to grow together in our faith journey.

THINK: If you ever choose to depart from a church, it's essential to have a face-to-face conversation with the pastor before leaving. Showing respect to the servant of God by engaging in dialogue and offering the opportunity for prayer is crucial. Anything less than this is cowardice and cannot be justified by claiming that "God led me to leave." 

The Devil continually seeks to undermine good, Bible-believing churches and families. We all face temptations to become discouraged, experience misunderstandings, get hurt, and even contemplate quitting. However, these moments aren't when we should succumb to temptation; rather, they're opportunities to draw closer to God and reconcile with others. 

Finally, we could fill a football stadium with people who have come and gone from a good, Bible-believing church without valid biblical reasons to depart. Don't be the one who leaves; be the one who stays!

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

The Mouse that Ate The Church

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is a fun article from an unknown author that I wanted to share.

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The Mouse that ate the church 

A Lion lay sleeping and a Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and ran across the Lion's nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his paw angrily on the tiny mouse  to kill it. "Spare me!" begged the Mouse. "Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you."

The Lion was amused to think a Mouse could ever help him. But he agreed and let the Mouse go. Days later, while stalking prey, the Lion was caught in a hunter's net. Unable to get free, he filled the forest with angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free. Aesop’s Fable. 

It’s small things that destroy. The little foxes spoil the vines. Conversely, it’s small things that make things great as well. Great success comes in small steps. Many people can do great things, however, doing small things consistently well everyday is where true growth takes place. 52 weeks. 365 days. 

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A mouse can fit through a hole the size of a dime. It doesn’t take much to let unclean things into your life. A doorway has been used do describe letting the enemy in our lives, yet it doesn’t take a doorway. 

The teeth of a mouse never stop growing. It’s life depends on keeping them small enough to function. If a mouse stops chewing on things their teeth will continue to grow to a size that won’t allow them to function and the mouse will die. If we would quit giving the enemy things to chew on in our lives... the small things in our lives would die and not grow into uncontrollable issues. 

So the mouse chews on plastic, rubber, paper, wood, anything to survive. The spiritual mouse? It chews on our complaining, critiquing, attitudes, and anything unclean in our lives. A mouse contaminates and corrupts. It nibbles. We shouldn’t nibble at the Word of God, we should consume it all. Whether we like it or not. Don’t pick and choose what you’re willing to adhere to. 

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The people of God were told the mouse is unclean to you. 

Leviticus 11:29: These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse....

Here is the crux of the matter. If we will take care of singular issues in our lives and not allow issues to multiply, we can and will win the battle. 

Only the Philistines had a mice problem: 

Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land... 1 Sam 6:5‬ ‭

God never intended for us to have a mice problem. And preventing that means we must take care of issues that come our way. Unclean breeds with unclean. 

We should keep our teeth sharp by chewing and consuming good things. O’ taste and see that the Lord is good. 

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How to keep mice out of your life.

1) Shut the door and make sure there aren’t any holes in it. Shore up the walls. Repair any breaches.

2) If you make a mess clean it up. A mouse is drawn to the unclean. If you make a mistake, repent. To continue going down the wrong road will only invite the unclean into your life. Don’t sit around in a mess you made. Clean it up and go on. 

3) Clean up the crumbs. Don’t leave any amount of food out. It will attract a mouse. Before you know it, you will have mice. And they multiply fast. 

We attract the unclean into our lives when we leave the Word of God unconsumed on the pews. Empower yourself by taking heed to the Word of God. 

Jesus said gather up the fragments that remain that nothing should be lost. Uneaten word of God can be served again and again. 

When the preacher preaches consume it all. 

Everyone has probably encountered a mouse in their lives literally and spiritually. It’s what we do after that, that determines if we will have a mice problem. 

Don’t allow the mouse to loose the Lion!

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

You Don't Like Your Church?

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is an article that is so true for today.  We are a world of complainers.

Questions to ask yourself before you start complaining about your church:

If the church service depended solely on MY worship….. how full of worship would the service be?

If the church had to depend solely on MY faithfulness…… how faithful would my church be?

If the church had to survive solely on MY prayer life….. how much prayer would be going on?

If the church could only go as deep as MY relationship with God goes….. how deep would my church be?

If we had to make it on MY Bible reading and knowledge……. How knowledgeable would my church be?

If the preaching depended solely on my response to the preaching and the altar call…….. how responsive would my church be?

If it all depended on me……. What would happen? 

Before you start complaining…….. make sure the you’re: 

The first one praying

The first one dancing

The first one reading and studying

The first one responding

The first one fasting 

The first one faithful

Remember: we can’t complain if we’re not being what we say we want.

By: Keith Smith

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Churchianity VS Christianity

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

He is a little something I found that I wanted to share with you.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

The Basics Of Biblical Hermeneutics

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is a link to my book called, "The Basics of Biblical Hermeneutics."  It is a list of principles to assist you in properly interpreting the Bible.   It will be a blessing in your life. It is sold on Amazon.com for $9.99.

https://www.amazon.com/Basics-Biblical-Hermeneutics-Principles-Interpreting/dp/1093841079/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=The+Basics+of+Biblical+hermeneutics&qid=1555457968&s=gateway&sr=8-2

William James Roop, M.A.B.S.



Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Apostolic Theological Seminary

Biblical Hermeneutics

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Biblical Hermeneutics

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Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation. Therefore, Biblical hermeneutics is the science of Biblical interpretation. Most people think that all they need to do is to read the Bible and they will fully understand it. As with all literature, this is simply not true. We must know the author, understand why he is writing on this subject, and understand his style of writing to understand the work. With the Bible this is even more complicated since the Bible is a compilation of sixty-six books written by forty different authors, writing in different styles and in different time periods. Also, the Bible has within it history, poetry, personnel letters, a book of advice, a song book, and much prophecy.

 “In its technical meaning, hermeneutics is often defined as the science and art of biblical interpretation. Hermeneutics is considered a science because it has rules and these rules can be classified into an orderly system. It is considered an art because communication is flexible, and therefore a mechanical and rigid application of rules will sometimes distort the true meaning of a communication.” “To be a good interpreter one must learn the rules of hermeneutics as well as the art of applying those rules.”

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 If we do not interpret the Bible correctly, we will misinterpret God’s Word. Then, it will no longer be God’s Word, but only our own words. Nobody cares about our words because they are not important, but God’s Words are everything. Nobody likes to have his or her words taken out of context. This is especially the fact with God. People who intentionally misinterpret the Word of God are involuntary agents for the dark side. The Bible is God’s Truth and Light but only if it is handled correctly and with skill. In Jesus’ day the Pharisees did just that and were rebuked for being ignorant (Matthew 22:29). Let us not fall into the same trap!

 Every morning I like to drink a cup of coffee and read the newspaper. I think that is how most people start off their day. Well, anyone who reads the newspaper every day will understand that a paper will always have a political slant. Some papers in the United States are conservative but most tend to be liberal. This affects how the news is interpreted and written in the paper. A reader must consider the editor of the paper, the owner, the journalist, and of what country they are from. All of this affects the outlook of the paper and the writing which goes into it. All of this must be understood by the reader or he shall be led astray by others political viewpoint. The same could be made by books. Shakespeare was a fine author, but if you understood the man and how he wrote, you can understand his writing in a much fuller manner, and his work will come alive for us. That is called Shakespearean hermeneutics.

 God’s Word is even more important. We must understand all of the principles involved to fully understand what God is telling us. The Bible student will discover that if they will follow these basic hermetical principles that the Scripture will literally interpret itself. God has written His Word so that even the most simple among us can easily read and understand for himself.  Once we read and understand, then it is our responsibility to apply the knowledge to our lives for our edification. When we edify ourselves then we will edify the Church.

 There may be many applications of Scripture but there is only one interpretation. That is the interpretation that God intended it to have. While reading the Bible we interpret it using the literal method unless the text implies otherwise. The literal method means to understand using everyday normal language that has the everyday straight forward meaning. If I said that there is a cow in the field eating that is exactly what I mean. Because the inspired writers of the New Testament quoted hundreds of verses using the literal method, it could even be said that it is the approved method of the Holy Spirit. When ever Jesus or the church leaders used the Old Testament they always used the literal sense. There is figurative language, poetry and even a few allegories used in Scripture. But these literary tools are only used to enhance the literal true. These figures of speech must be located, understood why they are being used, and interpret them correctly.

 For example, symbols, if the verse is not clearly symbolic, no symbolism should be forced upon it. If it is clearly symbolic, the symbols must be interpreted literally. Sometimes angels are symbolized as stars. But we understand that angels are a literal entity. Here in the United States we live in a Jesus saturated culture that is biblical illiterate! There is a church on every street corner filled with Bibles. Most private homes have at least one Bible inside. Yet, only a small minority of people have actually read the book in it’s entirely. In our soup opera culture and with so little biblical knowledge is a recipe for wild stories and false doctrines preached by spiritual snake oil salesmen in the world and even within the church.

 When the children of Israel returned from captivity they were ignorant of God’s Law. They had been living in bondage in Babylon and were now speaking another language Aramaic. Ezra, the priest had to read the Law to the people and give the proper interpretation. “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8). Ezra and the Priests did not just leave the reading of the law to chance; they “distinctly gave the sense” and “caused them to understand.” That is what Biblical Hermeneutics can do for us today. It can give us the sense and cause us to understand God’s Word.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango