Dead End Church Street by Piano on Fire
My friend and sister in Christ, Susanne Schuberth, is often taught by the Lord by dreams and things she sees in her daily prayer walks and bike rides as well as hearing His voice from time to time and feeling His gentle nudges. She was recently on a bike ride and felt drawn by the Lord to turn down this lane called Kirchenweg. Kirchenweg in German literally means “Churches Way.” Well, she had not pedaled far when she saw a second sign that said, “Sackgasse” which is German for “Dead End.” It did not take Susanne long to get what Jesus was trying to tell her. The way of the churches is a dead end road. She wrote in her blog, “Honestly, who would ever tread on a path, beautiful or not, and follow a road if they knew it was as dead-end street?” Yet, she did so this time because the Lord led her to do it that He might show her a lesson.I hope you read her blog article. (*)
Sad to say that going down this dead end road of church attendance is done by millions who still seek after God in the highly visible, beautiful kingdoms of men called “churches.” Yet, if Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21, ASV), why do we seek Him in buildings made by the hands of men? Don’t we say, “Lo, Here!” when we say, “What church do you go to? You are welcome to come to mine”? God spoke through Isaiah the prophet 2,700 years ago saying, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that you build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?” (Isa 66:1, KJ2000). Yes, where is the place of His rest?
For many years I followed that dead-end way of the churches. Each attempt at making a new church my home ended in failure as I attempted to fit into their mold and follow all their rules. Somehow it just did not work and I went away sad and kept looking for a church in which I fit. I felt like Cinderella’s ugly sister trying to cram my size 13 foot (yes, hard to believe, isn’t it?) into that size 7 glass slipper. Finally, one day after another failed attempt, out of desperation I cried out to God, “Lord, I don’t fit! I just don’t fit!” To this He replied in an almost audible voice, “YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FIT!” You see, what I learned through all my bad church experiences was that none of them were THE Church which Jesus said He would build (including Catholicism which I grew up in) and all of them were and are spiritual dead-end streets. It wasn’t until I gave up on them and sought the Lord alone, that God started teaching me from some very important scriptures that had been right there in front of me all along. For instance that this one,
Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Heb 13:12-14, NRS)
It is of the fallen nature of Adam to go forth with a curse upon the earth and try and build cities just as Cain did on sinking sand, to leave our mark and to build a visible legacy that will last long after our miserable carnal lives are over. Yet, we have this promise which the builders have ignored. In Hebrews we read,
“See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:25-29, NRS)
Only the kingdom that God has built within us by His Spirit will remain and survive this final shaking that is upon us. We are faced every day with a new terrorist attack, a new contagious disease, a new pestilence, a new famine or a new super storm, a fatal earthquake or a new financial disaster. All our attempts to hold our outward worldly lives and institutions together will be for not. The more we hang onto them and seek to save them, the greater will be our loss, “for our God is a consuming fire.” Paul wrote,
“Now if any man build upon this foundation [Jesus Christ] gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall test every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” (1Cor 3:12-15, KJ2000)
Why do we keep pursuing the fallen ways of Cain of building lasting habitations when our example is so clearly the faith walk of Abraham?
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should later receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Heb 11:8-10, KJ2000)
Yes, Abraham sought a city, but it was a city that was made by God, not men. They were sojourners and remained so while on this earth living in tents and building nothing! What we who have our hearts fixed on our Creator are looking for is outside the gates of Christendom City and the mindset that goes with these institutions. Remember the Stone which the builders have rejected, has become the Head of the corner (See Matt. 21:42-43). God’s temple is made of living stone, not timbers, bricks and mortar (See 1 Peter 2:5).
I would like to end this with an excellent quote from T. Austin-Sparks,
Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. (Hebrews 12:26 ESV)
Everything is going to be shaken in earth and in heaven, with a view to finding out just how much there is of Christ living in it. These Jewish believers [to whom Hebrews was written] were going to see the temple and the whole temple system wrecked, and then they would discover just how much they had got of Christ, or how much of their life was bound up with earthly things. They would see what was left when that was all gone. God is not only going to shake Judaism, but this heavenly thing. He will shake heaven and earth, and we shall find out by that shaking what we have left when the earthly system passes, when even the representation of heavenly things in Christianity is tested (for Christianity has developed a representation of heavenly things, just as Judaism has). Men have made an earthly representation of the New Testament revelation of the church, and ministry, and priesthood. It is all going to be tested. For many it is now in the melting pot. The issue is the shaking of heaven and earth. What have we got left? The issue is Christ.
Whether you like all that we have said, or agree with it or not, does not worry me; but I am concerned that we have come to Christ, to show that Christ in heaven is our Life, Christ in heaven is our All, and appointed to be so by God, and nothing here can take the place of Christ. God will bring everything to an end that takes the place of Christ. He has determined from eternity that in all things Christ should have the preeminence, and have the fullness, and that nothing shall glory before Him or take His place. The Lord bring us into a larger measure of Christ, and a larger measure of Christ into us. http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002954.html
* https://enteringthepromisedland.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/the-way-of-the-church-is-a-dead-end-street/
A Wilderness Voice 
“Lord, I don’t fit! I just don’t fit!”
Ah Michael, I hear you. I have cried out those same words many times. Once when I was preparing to go into a church, I think the Lord actually tried to strangle me with my own seat belt. I kid you not, I got trapped in my car, could not release the thing, and just started making it tighter. And then I witnessed some unkindness in the parking lot in front of me from some of those “good Christians,” and I just knew I wasn’t supposed to go there.
I think one thing that is often forgotten is that we are the church. When two or more of us are gathered in his name, He is there. Church is not somewhere we go, it is within us. It could be a bible study or a small gathering of believers. We should fellowship, worship together with others in some form, but that “form” is often where we get lost.
God has been very kind to me and I’m really quite grateful for having grown up outside the church. It’s given me time to really cultivate faith, to build a relationship with Him and to learn His voice. I can totally see how many churches discourage and stifle that very thing.
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Gabrielle, you wrote, “God has been very kind to me and I’m really quite grateful for having grown up outside the church. It’s given me time to really cultivate faith, to build a relationship with Him and to learn His voice. I can totally see how many churches discourage and stifle that very thing.” Very well put!
Thanks for letting me know that you have gone through the same process. One time I was telling my church woes to a pastor’s grown daughter and she said something without knowing it, that helped me see that I would never fit in that system. She said, “You know, when you go in a person’s yard and go to ascend the front steps of the house and a big dog comes out from under the porch and bite you on the leg, you should get the message you don’t belong in that yard.” I said, “You are right! I don’t belong in ANY of these church yards!” Since then we have met casually with other saints in two’s, three’s and sometime as many as eight at a time and have just been family to one another and kept it simple and if Jesus shows up with a word for us, fine. If not, it does not stop us from fellowshipping in His love around a common meal. The lesson learned from all my trials is K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, stupid! You are a member of a family, not an institution. It is called the family of God. Thanks again for your kind comment. ⭐
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I have not had many significant dreams, but last year I had one that may illustrate your point. I was going to dismiss the dream at first because part of it was unnerving. However, I felt a check in my spirit, so I turned to the Lord and said “I know if you have something to say to me, you can just tell me.” His immediate answer was “Yes, but an image keeps on giving.” So I began to consider (and still consider) the implications of the dream.
The setting was a large auditorium set up for church. Young people were milling around the platform preparing for worship. On a slab at the bottom of the platform stairs was a woman lying on her back. She was dressed well and I knew she normally had an important part in the service. No one seemed concerned or understood that she was dead. A side door opened and a well-groomed, confident man strode in who I knew was the pastor. A young girl from the platform came down and informed him that the woman on the slab had been that way since she arrived. The pastor was not concerned. He said that she worked and sometimes rested before service. He was extremely confident he could wake her as he had before. He walked over and called her name–something like Renee. She didn’t respond so he put his face closer and began to speak to her in French, a language he knew she would understand. At this point her eyes popped open. They were completely vacant. I knew in the dream that this was the only way this church leader would begin to understand that the woman was dead and would not rise this time. When I looked up the name I thought I heard in the dream, the root meant “famed throughout the land.”
Meditating on the dream, I believe the woman is symbolic of the Spirit departing from certain practices in the church. I was struck how the worship team was unaware of the state of the woman and also the absolute confidence of the leader to awaken her. Only her vacant eyes would begin to reveal the reality.
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This was an interesting dream, dear sister. I have lived that “life” depicted by the dead woman on the floor. I was in a Christian cult that worked us until we dropped. The leader openly boasted that he was exploiting us and had so much power over us that we kept coming back for more! And what was he building? He was building an organization around HIM that he might be “famed throughout the land.” Finally, God set me free through a car wreck in which I as the driver became more of a liability to him than I was an asset. It was then that I got my “walking papers.” Thanks for sharing your dream.
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Thank you so much for your kind words and for the link to my blog article, Michael! 🙂
That comment of yours you had posted on my article which eventually turned out this blog entry is well written and profound, I believe. I do hope many will read it! ⭐
Your sister and friend in Christ,
Susanne 🐱
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Thanks, Susanne. Once again the Lord used your words to stir me up to write something. I only can wait until He stirs the waters and then jump in. I know you know what this is all about. 🙂 You can’t fly your kite until the wind is blowing. I have seen many a child dragging their kites down the length of the field because they have not yet learned this. :-p
God bless you, my dear sister. 🐻
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You’re welcome, Michael. Yup, I know you know that I know what this is all about, Michael. 😀
BTW, I forgot to mention that I truly love the pic you posted. To me it is obvious that it was God’s choice.
May God bless you too, my brother! 🐱
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Amen, amen, and amen!!!!
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😀 Thanks for your enthusiastic comment, Stacey.
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As a young adult my mother always said, go to church and just pray. She was one who didn’t get involved at all. I go to church and pray, it is a community of people in faith. I don’t get involved in the politics I fellowship with many others outside of church and that keeps the community together up in Maine. The churches connect with each other in all denominations. I have built a relationship with Christ on my own, as so many that i have found to have done the same. I never went looking for anything but looked towards Christ. A church begins inside of us, and how we helps others communicates our Christian or YahShua’s way… If we look to church to heal us or anything else then we don’t get the message…It is open up our minds, our souls, and return to the Holy Spirit and Yahshua with complete acceptance. I suppose sin, spiritual sin of such natures creates feeling of loss. It all comes down to that. Sin. People judge churches all the time, and that is the culprit… there is sin in church and out of church. Manifestations of sin can be in high ground. So like my Mom said, Pray. Pray for the people .
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Yes, John, “going to church” is great as long as you do not get involved. Being a “wall flower” in the back row is the safest place to be. For some reason at 6′ 4″ I was never allowed to just blend in and pray. The closer I was drawn into the inner circle of leadership, the more I became a target of church politics, for what Jesus was saying to me and what the management was saying were in direct conflict to one another. Your mom had the right idea as far as church attendance is concerned… the best profile is NO profile. BUT THAT IS NOT what it means to be a member of the kingdom of God. I am so glad that I have found HIM as my Father and Jesus as my Brother and many other simple saints as my brethren in our own community outside that system of conformity. Jesus said,
“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth concerning anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt 18:19-20, KJ2000)
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“Church” is going on right now and I am at home enjoying your blog and trying to enjoy Jesus on my own.
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Fred, one of the biggest lessons for me was to seek Jesus FIRST and let Him add fellowship with Christians as HE sees fit. Unless HE builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Christian fellowship can become an idol when it is our loneliness for other humans that drives us more than the will of God that we might individually KNOW His Son. Accept NO substitutes my brother. Christ is our sufficiency in ALL things.
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What is interesting is I have one facebook friend that has been posting a lot about the need to go to “church” lately.
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Yes, that is a common thing on the net, Fred. But if we are the ekklesia (translated “church” instead of “called out ones”) how do we go to ourselves? The church is found wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus’s name… His character and personage, not anywhere else.
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Good object lesson. It might be more accurate to say the way of man is the dead end. Organized religion is just that, religion. The Church on every corner is made up of individuals, as are we ourselves, an individual. I’ve been out of organized religion per-se for nigh onto 50 years. Yet it has only been in the past few that my eyes have been opened to see that it is all about Christ, and not about me. How can I go around bashing people for still attending the IC, when they are doing the only thing they know to do, just as I am, trying to do the ‘right thing’? It’s not a matter of the outer attributes, while it is totally a matter of the inner-working, the revelation of Jesus Christ in our own hearts. We have to see Him, as He is, within our own earthen vessel, before we can ever accomplish anything for the Kingdom of God. And anything accomplished will not be attributable to me, because it is only those things done by HIS Spirit in me that has any value. We are all on an absolutely dead-end-street. Whenever we do what we ‘think we should’ according to our own understanding. The way of man is death. Our best is unacceptable, (filthy-rags). We do not have the capacity or ability to be anything but man-centered. My present gripe with the IC is simply this, that my entire life I was never told the truth of what my salvation encompassed. I never knew that I would never have any more of Christ than I have right now, at any given moment. I never realized that where the veil had to be rent was in my own soul, so that my eyes could behold my Lord and Savior, as He Is. That my inner man had to die to everything of me, and this world, and my own understanding, in order for Christ to be raised up and be ‘all things to me.’ That knowing things ‘about Him,’ is not the same thing as ‘knowing Him’, intimately, All I know now is, that once we see Him, everything else falls into place, and we are no longer driven to figure anything out (that is our flesh). We are His Workmanship, He does not need our help. He does require our complete submission to His Lordship, and obedience to His instructions. Our flesh is drawn to the ism’s and ologie’s, while the leading of His Spirit within is in a still, small voice, and invisible to the natural eye. That is why it is so seldom heeded. May our hearts cry be… that I may see Him, being made conformable to His Image. Everything in the world today is ample demonstration that in all of its forms, social, religious, political, cultural – the way of man is a Dead End. To Jesus Christ Be The Glory!
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Thanks, Cathy.
You wrote many good things in your comment, but I want to bring out this one thing that sums it all up for me,
“That knowing things ‘about Him,’ is not the same thing as ‘knowing Him’, intimately, All I know now is, that once we see Him, everything else falls into place, and we are no longer driven to figure anything out (that is our flesh).”
Intimacy is what God is after. Jesus prayed, “Father, that they might be one, even as we are one, I in thee and thou in me that they might be ONE IN US.” We each individually must be ONE IN Jesus and the Father (not just about them), just as they are ONE enfolded into one another. Only then can we be enfolded into one another just as we are IN THEM. THAT is the intimacy that is ours IN the Spirit. The individualism of the old Adam is done away with, but we have a new individualism that is IN and in submission to Christ.
No, it is not about buildings or temples “neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in Spirit and in truth.” It may not matter where we meet, but we must meet with Christ in the Spirit in all truth in our inward parts. “All things are yours and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.”
Thank you for your great insightful comment, dear sister.
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I read and appreciate your blogs whether I respond or not.
I heard of a book title years ago that intrigued me. I did not read the book. The title is ” Why do Men gather?” There is something in me ( that I assume is common to man) that wants to gather with other people. Perhaps unwittingly the “church” has capitalized on that. My thoughts could be unique to me and have no application to others.
Deep down, I am like Abraham looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Perhaps at times I have almost glimpsed it.
I joy in the Lord in you, my brother,
Pat Orr
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Thank you, Pat. You should seek Jesus wherever you can find Him… Accept no substitutes, dear heart. Love Christ in you too!
Michael
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Loretta, thanks for your comment. It seems many of us must walk the same path as Jesus who said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes…” But we can count it a wonderful thing to suffer IN His name for if we are walking IN Christ, it is HIM they reject. A servant is not greater than His Master.
Sister, feel free to quote any part of my blog articles if you like. If you would give the link to where it came from that would be nice. I got that graphic off of Google Images by searching “Dead end churches.” There are a lot of good images on there, but this one was the best.
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I think the lack of clear definitions is confusing me on this. I can imagine several things that I could refer to as the “church”, and most of them I can consider “Dead Ends”, although I don’t think I’m able to make too many judgements. For one thing I don’t know what God might be doing and besides, when I found Christ at 24 years old, he put me in one of these places. (I do believe that bad fruit evident in these.)
I went to a home church for a while and it was better but not too many lost were found and feeding on God’s Word was lacking. It too was ran by man.
The Lord finally took me out of all of it, except to read Christian classics and talk to him. I would say it mostly made me hungry for him. I prayed that he would place me where I could be filled and maybe pour into others.
He placed me into a body of believer’s that love him and lives out of his Spirit. To me this is his church (body of his children) and it is not dead. I see it doing the things that his Word says it will be doing. His children are growing, being edified and being sown together in love. I have grown closer to the Lord from going to this church and before my relationship to him was hindered.
I believe the Lord has taken me down this path. I have learned different things from all of it and I can’t tell you where his judgements will fall in all of it, but I do believe we are saved by grace and I have seen myself right in the middle of the worst of it at one time or another.
I praise him for his love, mercies and guidance.
In Christian Love
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I’m glad you posted this. We can judge (discern) by the Spirit whether we should be part of any particular assembly, but never judge (pronounce a verdict) on other christian assemblies. The Lord makes divine connections for His purposes & sets us on a journey. I am struck by 2 Corinthians 6 which describes the pouring out of oneself for others with the intent that both should open their hearts to one another without restriction. Also I Peter 1:22 which admonishes us to love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Genuine, pure love must be tested. The “just Jesus & me” philosophy can be tempting at times, but is really a man-centered delusion.
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Sister J., Thanks for bringing up this subject of “judging” verses “discerning.” The problem is that the KJV translators used one word for both these “judge” and have cause a lot of confusion in the minds of Christians ever since. Yes, the spiritual man discerns all things. and No, we are not to judge (condemn). Here is an article I wrote on this subject if you are interested. “Are We to Judge?” http://www.awildernessvoice.com/judge.html.
As for 2 Corinthians ch. 6. Yes, God has been speaking to me a lot lately from that chapter.
“Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what partnership has light with darkness? And what harmony has Christ with Belial? or what part has he that believes with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2Cor 6:14-18, KJ2000).
He has called me and many millions of other faithful Christian out of the counterfeit churches and into a closer relationship with Jesus that is not clouded by the words of false teachers that seek the preeminence. We have been given the gift of the discerning of spirits and I thank God for that. We do not have to judge anyone to leave what is false. These leaders will have to stand before God as their judge, not us. God told me to get my eyes off of them and put them on Christ. I am content to let the blind guides lead the blind, just as Jesus said. He has appointed ditches to teach them in the long run, those who will not learn any other way. Ditches can be great teachers. I speak from experience here, believe me.
Am I a loner? Not hardly. I have some local brothers and sisters that I have great fellowship with and get far more of it face to face than I did when I was spending an hour and a half each Sunday staring at the backs of hundreds of heads while one man did all the speaking. I also have found some great fellowship with other saints on the internet that has been a real blessing to me. God often uses this fellowship I have with His saints to inspire me in what I write because when we come together, each of us have opportunity to speak through the leading of the Spirit and HE is the Teacher.
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Thanks, Russ. I am glad that you have found a group that seems to be living out what the ekklesia of God should be, a body of members who are knit together in His love, edifying one another in the love of Christ. They are very rare these days. “Unless God builds the house, they who build it labor in vain.”
Love you, too, my brother.
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I am just grateful to the Father. I began to wonder if ekklesia really existed. I would catch glimpses of it once in a while but most of it wasn’t right. As far as the pouring into myself and others, I find that as I stumble along… so that I can not put any confidence in myself, I must reach out to the Father that loves and excepts me as I am… I spend time with him alone and out of the love that flows during these moments… he provides something that can be poured into others… when he wishes for it to flow. It is hard for me to understand how my heart can be so deceitful at times… but his love goes beyond all that.
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My brother, Russ.
I read your comment with great joy. You truly are on the right path. As we seek to first have fellowship with the Father and the Son and truly enter into it (thinking of John 17:21-23 here), then out from that will come what is needed to have fellowship with one another. Where two or three are gathered together in the love and light of God, THAT is when fellowship happens here with one another.
I want to share these words from T. Austin-Sparks that I believe speak to why we find true koinonia when we do and why it is often missing. Yes, the key to fellowship is found when the saints walk together IN Christ’s love.
Thank you Russ for the fellowship I sense in your spirit, my brother. I hope we can stay in touch.
Your brother IN the Son,
Michael
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I hope to. The comments everyone makes here are rich in Christ.
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Thanks, Russ. It has really been good how Father sends so many wonderful saints to contribute here. Thanks for your part.
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