Watchman Nee said, "to say to another Christian, 'you meet in a denomination, and we are against denominations, therefore we cannot me with you' is to become yourself sectarian and denominational."
Most of the brothers and sisters with whom I met have an extremely skewed view of what LSM has defined as "fallen, denominational Christianity". They believe, for instance, that Lutherans must read Luther's stuff, and think that only Lutherans are the Body.... but they don't. I was raised a Lutheran, and we were never exposed to any of Martin Luther's works... and we were never taught that we were separate or better than other members of the Body. I have met with Mennonites and Hutterites - supposedly both very exclusionary, but had wonderful fellowship with them as well - and most have never read the works of Menno Simon or John Hutter, let alone read them to the exclusion of all others. I have met with Pentecostals and Presbyterians and Catholics, and been able to fellowship with them also... the same with Baptists, non-denominationals, and a fellow affiliated with the Greek Orthodox church... Praise the Lord for His Body!
LSM reviles denominations for daring to take names apart from the name of Christ... but the names we know these denominations by are not neccessarily names they've taken for themselves - they are also names thrust upon them by outsiders, who ever want to label... and LSM certainly has their own labels.
You
need to take a good look around, and see that Christ isn't moving through a single man or a single ministry. He has not abandoned the other members of the flock, sheep not of your fold, to their own devices. He is the Good Shepherd, and He has laid His life down for them... He will
never leave them nor forsake them.
In this day and age, Christ is calling MANY of His people together. Non-denominational and inter-denominational movements are literally EVERYWHERE. You only can't see it if you are locked into a man and his own unique ministry; a ministry that teaches you to distrust anything apart from it because that might mean one less HWMR sold that month. And that, I fear, is the real bottom-line.
You are merchandise, and the best way to keep you right where you are is to make certain you absolutely will not and cannot dare to look elsewhere.
Trust in the Lord, in Him only, and "hear what the Spirit says to the church
es." Revelation 2:17
In Christ,
NeitherFirstnorLast
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
Thank you! for posting my post yesterday.
I will say regarding experience of denominations that I have had some in my personal history; I see the division in them is the Sardis condition. Sardis is the condition of living a name that is dead... like "baptist," "pentecostal," "Seventh Day Adventist," and on and on. Have any of you really considered just how many divisions there are now? have you considered how many street corners there are with multiple so called "churches" on them; Is there ANY sign of oneness of the Body of Christ in this??? Absolutely not. It is this very condition that Jesus is calling his people out of..."come out of her my people." And not just the Sardis condition, but every condition that still remains on the earth today, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea! The coming out of these conditions is actually the overcoming of them; and the overcoming is the objective standing from them. All people are subjective to one condition or the other (and because of the age now with us, all are also subjective to the Laodicea condition, a condition of doing what is right in each one's own eyes; a condition of rights of the people).
But I come this week in the condition of Philadelphia, brotherly love. I come with the key that opens and no one shall shut and shuts and no one shall open. This key is the Living Word who is God coming in flesh. The natural man hears this and thinks "the God Man" or "God became man so that man could become God." I have seen these thoughts brought up and I dismiss them. Man is a VESSEL. God does not become a vessel so that a vessel can become God, NO GOD INHABITS a vessel. Our oneness that Jesus calls for in John 17 (which I have seen invoked in this thread) is a oneness of WORD. Jesus is the WORD become flesh! He declared that the words he spoke were not his own, but they were the Father's who had sent him. And in that sending we see that Jesus has also sent us! (vs 18. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world) I know that some would like to limit that verse to just the disciples, but to limit it in that way is to MISS THE SPIRIT of it! IT IS SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED; IT IS SPIRITUALLY RECEIVED! and remember "He that has an ear let him hear what the SPIRIT says...." DO you have an ear? I do! so let me hear what the Spirit says!
But I am not here to make confession of myself in that regard, I can only ask that each here examine themselves. Have we "kept His Word?" will you say to keep is anything less than what James tell us in 1:22, to be a poet; a poet KEEPS the WORD in his hands He writes what he sees in his environment. Which environment includes the world around him and the world he sees as he reads the text of the Bible.
What you have just read, this is what I see! and what I see is the Living Word coming in my hand and I WILL ABIDE IN HIM.. because he abides in me! I am a vessel for Him and he becomes a vessel for me and I will hide myself in Him...
Bless you in all the measure of your receiving herein.
As the Local Church goes, I am the Church in Greenback! I stand upon the Ground of the Church and Because I stand upon this Ground my eyes are above the floodwaters of the age that have been poured out of the mouth of the natural man. These flood waters hide everything from all who won't come out of it... everything that is now arising as dry ground upon which to stand.
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