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Originally Posted by coalsoffire
New to the forum. Any other sisters here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I sense more yang than yin here. (And if you ask me... Hmm... Perhaps... Just perhaps... It is the male ego that is the most damaging element to the Recovery.)
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I think you are close: the male ego is the second-most damaging element to the Recovery. The most damaging element is when we think that since we've read a few spiritual books we are "spiritual" and our egos are firmly under the cross. Wrong. Nobody is safe on this side of the Bema. If you think you are free from your ego you are instead the most deceived. "You think you see; therefore your blindness remains (cf John 9)."
Quote:
Originally Posted by coalsoffire
Thank you brothers & sisters, all of you, now & forevermore! For what? In the words of Mr. Rogers, "By just your being you." (If I recall correctly, I read a beautiful statement once by Brother Lee: "To function is to be who you are.")
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Yes, but eventually I found that "to function" in the Recovery churches means to repeat, verbatim if possible, whatever "the ministry" has been recently merchandising. The new members may self-indulgently wallow in whatever voices they hear, but "mature ones" are supposed to be "tape recorders" for the voice of Mr. Lee, and only Mr. Lee (even Watchman Nee et al are to be filtered through Lee). So while it was fun, initially, to function in the Recovery churches, eventually the cost of functioning according to the Ministry Plan (Lee uber alles) was too high for me.
In general, however, yes; "To function is who you are". For example, look at John 13: "It was just before the Passover Feast... Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father....Jesus knew ... that he had come from God and was returning to God" And also look at John 16: "I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father"
Jesus did what He did (i.e. functioned) because He knew that He was from the Father, and was returning to the Father. And in His functioning, Jesus has unoquivocally showed us who He is; and when we see Him we see the way (John 14:4). In seeing who Jesus is, we recognize our Father. Now we can function. We know who we are. We know why we are here.