On nearly every website where products are available for sale, one will find reviews, they are important enough that there are companies that will, for a price, intercept these reviews before they reach the websites in question. The purpose of course is to instill confidence in the item for sale, by weeding out the negative ones, at least to a degree, and modifying, if necessary, those that are not quite what the image of the product is, in relation to the manufacturers wants. Do not show too much of the negative, but do not lift up the positive over abundantly, too many bad reviews, and the people will not purchase the product, too many positive ones and they will become suspicious.
I ponder these points this morning as I seem to do with many of my thoughts these days, in how they reflect what matters, the spiritual realm, for the time that we are here in the materialistic cannot be compared to eternity. “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Cor. 15:53) I am contemplating reviews of religious organizations in this letter to you, which would have the most positive, the most negative, the most reviews at all, and just how would that or does it reflect on those different sects.
I would skip past those that speak of the beautiful stained-glass windows, the comfortable, or not, pews, the clothing or garb that the one behind the pulpit wears, even past the ornate wall coverings or immensity of the structure, whether it holds thousands or only a few would be of no concern to me. Instead I would search under the heading of worship and praise, past the emotional context and directly to the submissiveness of those in attendance to adhere to the words of Scripture, the prompting of the Holy Spirit, the proclamation of the name of the Most High.
But not only in the setting of the church, I would search for reviews of what the members of the congregation are doing for the glory of God during the week, how are they reaching out to a lost world, how do they lift up and help to carry the burdens of their brothers and sisters Monday thru Saturday and beyond. I would search not for the amount of prayers offered to God, again only for His glory, but the context of them, are they focused on Him alone, do they seek nothing but the Lamb’s favor upon them in the area of furthering the gospel message to all they can reach. It is the reviews of the heart that I would search for.
“Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7) My lovely wife will attest that I at times do far more research on a subject than may be necessary, I search out every possible corner before we purchase an item, not because I want to get the best price, but because it is God’s money I am preparing to spend, and I want to depart with it wisely, I will not cast pearls before swine, (Matt. 7:6) and I will not purchase the field unless I know the value first of the pearl in it. (Matt. 13:46)
If we were only to go on the amount of reviews for any religious organization, at last check, and use that only as our guide, we would need to be a part of the Roman Catholic sect, a Muslim, or perhaps a Mormon, and here is where the error of many begin in the Spiritual realm, they go with the crowd, for they assume the crowd is correct, if the building is full, that must be where God is. Just because many people say something is right does not make it right, truth is not reflective, it is dogmatic.
Many if not most that attend a church will defend their beliefs, no matter what form of the Bible they adhere to, even those like the Mormons and others who have made up their own versions, I am no different, the King James Version of the Scriptures is the final word for me, the only difference is that the faith I hold can be proven, not by me or others that follow this same path, but by God Himself. This is where the exhaustive research must come into play, for we are easily deceived, and the main purpose of Satan is not to cause pain and suffering, it is to deceive, and there is no better way to keep people away from the truth than to instill false truths into the equation. He is the father of lies, (John 8:44) and there is no better way to deceive in this area than to begin “churches” of your own.
Individual reviews mean very little to me, entire sets of them in either a negative or positive context hold little value in this area, the area of my soul. “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” (Job 19:25) I need no further proof, my own life has been proof enough for me to place the entirety of my trust in Him. Everything that we do in this life must be based upon only one criteria, does it glorify God, does it bring honor and glory to the Most High, does it lift up the name of Jesus, all else is a worthless review.
