Did Your religious group allow you to read the Bible or did you have to follow tradition and man? 

good morning my facebook and youtube friends i just wanted to hop on here real quick this morning while i'm getting loaded and just kind of share with uh with you all how i just ran into a uh an amish man every time god allows me to cross paths with an amish man i like to take that opportunity to share scripture share the gospel you know of how i got my own testimony your own testimony can be very powerful what god has done for you try to show the glory of god and what he's done for you and where i used to be and where i came from and then how i got saved obviously you know just kind of share all of that now usually very very quick into it i can tell where i stand or where that person stands and what what all i'm able to say if it's going to stick or not um so i actually titled this video of were you able to read your bible your religious organization or group did they allow bible reading and did they have bible studies because i realized a little bit ago talking to this amish man uh that he wasn't basically he didn't do bible study and didn't really read it for himself and he was actually told not to have bible studies now that's very similar i realized real quick by speaking with him that he was he was from a very similar community from where i'm from uh any of you that are that are ex-amish on here or still in the community uh comment comment in this video and let me know um what was it like for you were you guys encouraged in your church in your religious organization growing up were you encouraged to read the bible uh were you allowed to read the bible now in my community we were just simply told that if you read too much into it it'll cause confusion and you know you can be deceived and we were also told in my community that it just had to be a german bible you know the 1522 martin luther version uh that's what we were taught i know a lot of communities i've heard different things this amish man here as i was witnessing to him a little bit ago he just made it clear that and orton is very important he said and i said can you explain and he says you know what we got to have an ortnum to keep us aligned with the bible so i picked uh i picked this up and i just i just looked at him and i said sir is this enough for you he says well yeah but if we don't have something to follow to align us with the bible then then we can't please god he said i said well i would like for you to go a little deeper uh of why that you know that is necessary to where you have to have something else that aligns you with this and at this point he still didn't know that i was ex-amish uh i was waiting on that one so he goes on to tell me that if we don't have some kind of ordinance or rules in place that aligns with the bible that we can't please god you know the forefathers he was going through that how the forefathers have taught us this and and then i stopped him at one point and i said uh you know with what you're saying and teaching that you're saying aligns with the bible can you go to the bible can you go to the word of god and show me where that does align with your ordinance well i've read he was saying a few verses where he's read i said but i'm asking you can you go to this this bible and show me you know show me right in scripture where everything you're doing with the rules where it actually perfectly aligns and key and that your ordinance is backed up by scripture and that it actually aligns with the word of god he couldn't do it he really couldn't do it he was struggling he was stuttering and i said now with what you shared with me thank you for sharing i said uh with what you were told by your bishop and your forefathers i said is it is anything that you've ever been taught can you find it in scripture yeah i've read it i said but but you you can't show me in in the bible and then at that moment i took the opportunity to share with him colossians i said sir i got it memorized right here king james version colossians chapter 2 verse 14. i said sir you know what that says no i've never read colossians i said well that's your biggest problem you got to read it for yourself the holy word of god his communication his breath is available for all of us i said if you read it it'll open your mind see the holy spirit comes in and i explain to him how we're open if we pray over the word the holy spirit enters your body your body is the temple of the holy ghost i said when that holy spirit comes in he reveals things as you read it and pray over it and then i shared how chapter 2 verse 14 of colossians blotting out the handwritings of ordinances which were against us contrary to us nailing it to the cross really that's yeah that's what it says you can read it for yourself i said do you have a a uh english bible i got something here in the truck i'll give you one well well we have to have the german one and then i knew he was from a more old order community like where i'm from he says well we read the german bible you know that's that's the authorized version i said well if you want an english bible i got one for you uh if you want to accept it and he he said no no thanks um i said well you got to read the truth you got to read god's word i said where i where i grew up at uh we were not allowed to read the bible for ourselves we had to listen to the elders we were never told to bring a bible to church and but that that was the biggest mistake i see now i said sir i'm now saved and this is enough my bible's enough for me god's word and i don't i don't need anything else i don't need man or anything that for my forefathers has have passed down uh especially if it's not found in here now if it's something they taught us and passed down to us uh i 100 want to apply that if it's scriptural because god's word is my final authority i said and i would like for you to accept that as your final authority what we do we do it's got to be the 1522 martin luther version uh german written bible i said so that's your final authority yeah but i said if that's your final authority do you read all of it and understand it no no it's not for us to understand yeah yeah it is i i said if there's confusion do you know what the author of confusion is and he looked at me and i said the author of confusion is satan satan wants no one to come to the saving knowledge of the truth saving knowledge of jesus christ coming from the darkness to the light and we won't be shown that if we're not born again john 3 3 ye must be born again in order to see the kingdom of god and now he was a little nervous he was doing a little bit of stuttering and i said sir i come from the amish i uh i grew up old order amish in kenton ohio i started i started explaining my testimony at that point and he started walking away he says i can't talk to anyone that's been shunned i said sir i left two weeks before i was baptized then he stopped and he allowed me to share with him how i left i was getting ready to get baptized and i left and i i left for all the wrong reasons sure but i said now since i came to the saving knowledge of jesus christ and i'm born again with the holy ghost i said i want to share that with you i want you to be able to uh to receive what i receive i have peace joy knowing that when i take my last breath i know where i'm going i said and i share it with him ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 where it says for by grace are ye saved through faith not of works lest any man should boast it's a free gift from god it says and i said that free gift is for me and you we fall short of the glory of god but that is a free gift it is free he paid a ransom for many and we can receive that gift simply by believing and putting our faith in him the finished work at the cross and he says well that's uh that sounds you know bizarre because you know when you're of the world he uh he started telling me how i'm of the world you know it's i'm not part of them anymore uh he says i understand that satan can use those that left the amish to try to persuade us and he started walking away i said sir can i can i at least share a few more bible verses with you and he stopped he did stop and i shared this verse with him in romans chapter 4 and verse 4 where it says now to him that works the wages are not counted as grace but as debt and i said sir forgive us our debt matthew 6 chapter 6 verse 12 and i read this to him if we try to justify ourselves by works it is actually counted as debt according to romans chapter 4 and verse 4. so anything we try to do to be righteous i said sir it is just adding up more and more debt see if we have self-righteous things we're doing to please god hoping we can get into heaven i said that is just adding up as debt because we're doing our own righteousness rather than going through the lord jesus christ and his righteousness while he finished on the cross yeah but we we can't know that we're saved i said sir my mother said the same thing my mother told me that eli we can't know we just hope i said so you believe that too you just hope he goes yeah yeah we we we've got to go all through the ordinance and the bishop and what our forefathers taught and then we hope we just hope we get there we can never know i said well my bible does say that we we can know i said sir i just challenge you before you walk away from me i said i want you to read the bible i want you to get an english version that you understand i said i want you to pray and i'm going to pray for you that god can open your mind and and that when you pray and seek him you will find if you seek you will find i said uh christianity is to be a disciple for jesus christ not a disciple of man or church we don't we are not to submit to a man or a denomination or a church or a group uh we are to submit to jesus for what he has done on the cross we are to be a disciple for him i said to be a disciple of man-made rules and religion is religion that equals religion i said john chapter 8 verse 47 says he that is of god hears god's words now he kept walking away from me i was getting a little deep there with him and he kept walking away but i did read it out loud where he could hear me i said he that is of god hears god's words they therefore hear them god's words hear them not because ye are not of god the bible has these words in it that jesus spoke out of his own mouth and he even called those that followed man in religion hypocrites blind guides white wash tombs brood of vipers full of bones spiritually talking about spiritually full of bones serpents and fools even at one point those are some of the words jesus called the righteous people that were going by self-righteousness the only works that people that please god is faith that's the only works we need and he was he was he walked away at that point but i'm just reading this to you all the only works that please god is faith working through love it a born-again christian has love and they understand love and we have to kind of love to where we're going to share it with others that are following other spirits uh faith is love faith plus love galatians 5 6 no love equals no god if you don't have love you don't even know god you don't know my lord jesus first john 4 7 through 21 love your enemies you know love your enemies matthew 5 44. there's so many verses that just stand out but i just wanted to kind of skim the surface here and let you all know that uh reach out if you know any amish or if you if you come across any of them my heart has been to try to reach out to them it's been heavy on my heart too every time i have the opportunity i want to share that with them i don't know where you all are from what religious group you're from but if you don't have a bible study and you're not encouraged to have a bible study that is that is the first red flag for me uh because uh when it when you take this out of the equation and you don't allow bible studies like we did in our community then you're asking for trouble now you're taking you're removing the final authority you're removing god you're now teaching things that a man has obviously set up and taught rather than going by the word of god and that's that's the s that's the biggest thing i saw with talking to this amish man a little bit ago is how he really didn't uh have any bible studies and he was told that uh not to have a bible study they had a couple a couple people that gathered together and he said it went from two families to like 10 families and then the bishop put a stop to it he says you're not allowed to have a bible study and then when they asked why they said well we're supposed to follow our tradition in the ordinance what the forefathers have always taught us and it just matched everything just matched exactly how my community was and i knew at that point that he was from a very similar community where i grew up in and i knew at that point also spiritually i could feel it that god had a divine appointment for me to speak with this man uh we we cross path for a reason um that is something that we all have to take an opportunity to witness to those that don't know the truth that haven't come from darkness to the light and god can use me and you us brothers and sisters to uh to share that to share that with others um if we have christ in us us if we're born again with the holy spirit we now have christ we abide in christ and that is love uh we are filled with the love that christ had and that makes us love others enough to to witness to them tell them the truth because god said it is not his will that any should perish and it ain't god loves all people the same there's no there's no favoritism there god has no favoritism god has no certain group that he has chosen uh neither jew nor greek he says in the bible he loves all people uh so it it's the same way with every every denomination all those name tags you see on different religious groups he loves all of them and he wants none to perish but for those that don't know the truth he can use those that do know the truth to help them in love in love to share with them how we got saved what god has done with you we can simply share our own experiences short and show the glory of god and if we show that what god has done not point to self but point everyone to that one road jesus is the only way the truth is in the life no one comes to the father but by him so when we point people to that road and show them the glory of god and what he's done for me a sinner like eli yoder you know 19 years of what i've been you know it was my way or the highway i did it my way and then for god to touch my heart one day and and yank me right out of the pit of hell from alcoholism and pornography and i mean just i was i was living a kind of life to where i thought you know this this is what's gonna please me this is what's going to bring me peace this is what's going to fulfill that emptiness that is inside eli yoder here but one day god just pulled on my heart see it wasn't from me it wasn't it was nothing that i could do in the flesh i just had to uh allow god and you know he pulled on my heart and brought me down a few notches and one day i uh i felt his presence you know and when i disobeyed him i didn't get nowhere and one day i said all right i'm done you know i there was something that happens when we receive that holy spirit where we we hate our sin all at once i couldn't stand the old eli yoder i knew that the old had passed away in the new has come corinthians 5 11 because i now couldn't stand what i used to do but yet i remember my heart i remember thinking that's the life that that's number one that's what's gonna please me that's what's gonna fulfill the empty spot that i have you know so you really you really look back when you're born again and you say praise god hallelujah because it's not me that did it it was god he's the one that that literally took my hand yanked me right out that rut that i was in because i couldn't have done it on my own i remember my mindset so i praised god for that i gave him all the glory for that and i just want to love others enough to tell them the truth now i'm going to share this with you i know some some that are still in the communities that follow me on here they don't really like this but this brother in christ jim yoder one day shared this with me because i truly i truly came from darkness to the light so i i just love how he put it one day he says amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch sinner like me i once was amish but now i'm found was blind but now i see and i don't regret i don't regret that statement because i know that i came from the darkness to light is everything about the amish wrong no they got a lot of good values can you be saved and be in the amish yes but you're going to have a harder time following the lord you can have a clearer smoother walk with the lord to close your walk with the lord when you have no hindrance nothing in the flesh no rules nothing that has been added on top of the gospel will is good for your soul it can satan always uses things to prevent us from having a closer walk with with the lord because he knows those that belong to him because he can't touch us we're sealed with the holy ghost so yes you can be in that community and god can use you i know a few of them that i talked to this week that are still in those communities and god is using them to shine light on the darkness god bless them god can use them uh but they do did express with me how it can be very hard because usually the elders come up against them really hard they're not allowed to have those bible studies especially in my community we were told not to gather together and try to read that bible i just visited a brother of mine that i thought was kind of over the hump over the summer when i went to tennessee to visit my brothers one of my brothers openly told me when i was sharing the gospel with him and how much i've learned in the bible and i can't get enough of it i like to read it every day literally said these words he says but you got to remember it can get you very confused i don't like reading the bible too much it makes my head spin i said really i've never had that experience donnie when i was still amish i did but i said right now i can't get enough of god's word when i pray over scripture the holy spirit comes in and i can't i just can't wait to see what how it's going to unfold i'm getting through that chapter and he's teaching me so much i'm drawn to it the holy spirit just draws you to it sometimes i use the term the bible verses are just popping off the pages it has so much meaning so i was trying to get him to realize that if you're open the holy spirit will never force himself onto anyone but if you're open if you seek you'll find god bless you all see you

Channel: Eli Yoder

Views: 1,159

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Id: QELNHu5_-U4

Length: 20min 12sec (1212 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021