Micah 3:9-12 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)
Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who despise justice
and pervert all that is right,
10who build Zion with bloodshed
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11Her leaders judge for a bribe,
her priests teach for a price,
and her prophets practice divination for money.
Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying,
“Is not the LORD among us?
No disaster can come upon us.”
12Therefore, because of you,
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
and the temple mount a wooded ridge.
Institutional “Churches” Not of God
The problem with most institutional “churches” of today here
in the USA (and perhaps in other nations) is not just that so many of them are
partnered with the world and with the government in unholy unions, which God
forbids, and that they are marketing their “churches” to the people of the
world, and so they deliberately dilute the gospel message to make it less
offensive to the world, which God also forbids, but they are businesses of
human origin being controlled by big business and not by Christ as Lord.
[Matthew 21:12-13;
John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; 2
Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22;
Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]
Church Planters Twice
My husband and I were church planters twice. Twice we went
to their seminars on how to build, to plant, and to grow a “church.” At the
last one we were taught that we were to “use needy people” until we get up and
running. But once we get up and running we are to “get rid of the needy people
for they will drag you down.” Ouch! Nowhere in the Bible was anything taught
like that! We are to be those who are reaching out to the needy, and who are
caring for them and who are ministering to their needs.
And the pastors are being taught who they should want in
their “churches” and who they should “get rid of.” And people like me were
among those on the list of who to get rid of. I even had one pastor tell me,
first of all, that I should let him be God’s voice to me, if I were to stay
there. And then he told me that he was warned about people like me (in his
marketing training seminars), “people with strong convictions,” and that he was
to get rid of people like me, and so he invited me to go “somewhere else.”
Followers of Man
And then they are being taught what they should teach and
what they should avoid teaching, and that we should friend the “unsaved” for
maybe as long as two years before we present the gospel to them. And I had one
pastor tell me that I needed to follow Rick Warren, in this case in place of
the Scriptures, in place of God. And so many of them are teaching that God does
not require repentance and obedience to His commands but all they have to do is
just profess they believe in Jesus and now they are saved.
There is so much crooked stuff going on inside these “churches”
which is against God, and against His Word, and against morality, honesty,
faithfulness, and love for one another. One pastor called me into his office
and told me something, then he did a non-denial denial in front of our college
group, saying, “I would never do that,” but never admitting one way or another
that he actually said that. So I asked him about that, why he did that, and
then he told their elders, who then called me to a meeting.
But they demanded that I admit that I lied about the pastor
before I could attend their meeting, but I did not lie. So I asked to have that
prerequisite removed, but they refused, so since I could not lie, I did not go
to their meeting, and so they put me on church discipline. And so we took our
college ministry, which we had been sharing with their “church,” and we all
went back to our house. And it was a lawyer and the pastor who were behind all
this. But you don’t make someone admit something before you bring them to trial
to see if they actually did what you accused them of.
So Many Crooked Pastors
And I could go on and on and on. For we have faced so many crooked
“pastors” and “elders” who are following after the ways of man in how to “grow
their churches” and in who they want in their “churches,” and who they should “get
rid of,” all of which is anti-biblical and contrary to the teachings of Christ
and His New Testament apostles. And this is because they are being run like
every day businesses which are making money off the people. And they spend the
people’s money on stuff that will attract the world to their gatherings while
they often ignore the needs of the needy.
And I am not claiming here that I am absolutely perfect,
without error, and that I have never done anything wrong. I have shared my
testimony many times. But the instances which I notated here about these
pastors and their “institutional churches” are absolutely true. And this is
just a sampling. So much of what Micah 3:9-12 says is what is happening in so
many of these market-driven institutional “churches” today. And that is a very
sad reality! But God will have the last word in this. They will be judged by
God.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts
26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans
8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1
Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians
5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14;
Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24;
1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation
3:1-22]
Pastors Who Pervert What is Right
An Original Work / August 29, 2026
Christ’s
Free Servant, Sue J Love
Seven Woes
Based off Matthew 23
An Original Work /
May 31, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Woe to you, teachers
of the law;
Hypocrites, you keep
men from God.
You refuse to obey
the truth,
Nor will you permit
others to.
You travel o’er land
and sea
To win a single
convert to you.
When he becomes one
You make him twice
as much
A “son of hell” as
you are.
Woe to you, blind
guides of mankind.
You distort the
words of your God.
By your practices
you declare
Your oaths mean
nothing, though you swear.
You give a tenth of
your spices,
But you neglect
justice, mercy.
When you focus your
Time and talents on
What is external,
you miss out.
Woe to you, who
appear so clean,
When inside you are
crass and mean.
You work hard to
look so upright,
While you hide all
your sins inside.
You deceive
yourselves when you think
You would not have
done what others
Did to God’s
messengers
And prophets of old,
For you will do much
the same.
You’re to blame.
