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Religious People are wicked.

Just that phrase alone will get religious people stirred up. I was raised in the catholic church. There, we thought that anyone that attended church more regularly than Christmas and Easter was next to God. Periodically the church would bring in a Franciscan monk and put him on display. We'd look at this man with his shaved head and heavy brown robes and KNOW that he had to be pleasing to God. All of this is external religion.

In Matthew 23:25, Jesus says .."Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess".

vs. 26 "Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also".

vs. 27 " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness".

vs. 28 "Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity".

As I attended the catholic church I came to know the man and his wife that led the church choir. He directed the choir and she played the organ. They not only were at church regularly, they also had to be pleasing God because after all, they were leading the choir.

At one point, they announced that they were adding to the choir. Anyone that wanted to join could audition and if accepted, become a part of the choir. It was in my heart to join so I went to the audition. I thought that singing in the choir would be pleasing to God. At that time, I didn't know that what pleases God is obedience. The reason that I did not know that, is that the church leaders didn't know that. If they had, they would have taught me to obey God. In the catholic church you do not learn to obey God. One of the reasons I know that is that they taught us that God would not talk to us. He spoke to the priest. If God won't talk to you, how can you obey Him?

After a short while in the choir I came to realize that the man and woman who led that choir were not quite what I expected. There was a rule for those in the choir. The rule stated that all meetings were mandatory. If we missed a meeting, we would be tossed out of the choir. One day, the Director announced that there would be a meeting after school the next day. At school the next day, the guys in the choir told me that the meeting had been canceled. They told me that I did not have to attend since it was not going to be held. As a result, I went home after school. The next day, when I arrived at school, the boys in the choir told me that I had been thrown out of the choir because I had missed the meeting. They never gave me a reason as to why they lied to me. After hearing this, I went to the choir director and told him what had happened. I told him that the other boys had told me that the meeting was canceled and that I did not have to go. He told me that he would ask them if this was true and that he would speak to me tomorrow. The following day, he and I met again. He told me that he had spoken to the boys and that they had admitted that they had lied to me. He said that he knew that I did not attend the meeting only because they had told me it was canceled. He then told me something that stunned me. He said that he knew that I had been lied to, but...I was still out of the choir. He had thrown me out because I had missed the meeting. He knew that the boys had lied to me, they admitted it, but I was still out.

It amazed me that this couple, people who I idolized (yes, they were idols), could be so unfair. The reality is that they were not being unfair, they were simply wicked. They had devils in them and they yielded to them. The boys in the choir were also obviously quite wicked. The devil in them did not want me to ever worship God. He knew that I would obey God and he did everything he could to tear me down.

Now the irony of this all. After I came to Texas, God led me to Water of life. We do not have a choir. Instead, we have been taught to worship God. Just because you have a choir, does not mean that you know anything about worshipping God. God is a spirit. We must worship Him in Spirit and truth. That choir was neither good or in the spirit of God. I have learned that after being born again, I have received the spirit of Jesus. His spirit in me worships God. I have learned that God isn't concerned with the quality of your voice. He said to worship Him in a loud voice, not a professional voice. Psalm 149 tells us that we should sing aloud to God. We should praise Him in the dance, and that we should praise Him with timbral and harp. That means instruments. When we worship God in the spirit, it is as a two-edged sword in our hands. We execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people.

During the Gulf War, God had us worship Him daily. He told Doyle that if we worshipped Him, the enemy would not fight. We worshipped God daily except for a couple days in the beginning. During that time, Doyle was working out that he had heard God. Once he was sure, we worshipped God and did not stop again. The Iraqis did not fight and we had no other casualties.

I am now in a place were we strive to only worship God in the spirit and truth. I find it quite amazing that religious people would yield to the devil and throw me out of a choir, yet God would bring me to a place to learn to worship Him. It's apparent that God does not think much of (catholic) choirs. I have had to forgive the director and his wife, as well as the boys in the choir. I ask God to bless them and open their blind eyes.