[Thankful Jane]

Originally Posted by Roger

To try and convince anyone in the Living Stream Church that they are guilty of idolatry in an exercise in futility. It's not a matter of being bold to do so.

Originally Posted by Roger

We've all had our moments of "boldness" when in our foolish youth we were willing to blow somebody away with all our acquired knowledge on any one subject. I can remember standing on my dad's toes, when I was fresh in the Lord, and telling him he was destined for hell without Christ.

Inaccurate information? Probably not. Foolish presentation? Absolutely.

Eventually my Father was led to the Lord in the most tender way, when he was open, and it was done with much prayer, discernment, understanding, and care.

It's been my experience that the greatest success comes while discerningly showing them how they have been deceived. This hasn’t been an easy lesson for me to learn. But I know it is the way.

Blowing people away with extreme terms and labels? We learned that in the Local Church. It's one of those residucal LSM traits that the Lord has to deal with in us.

Roger

I may be wrong, but this thread is not about persuading the LSM folks about anything. They are like the "them" in Rev. 2. They aren't listening. If we are closely related to any of them and might be able to help them, I totally agree with the approach you've described--persuasion in love over time as God leads.

I believe this thread is primarily about understanding what happened to so many of us who were there, but are no longer. What went wrong to produce such evil fruit?

This understanding can help all categories of survivors: abused, abusers, and assentors. Why were we abused? Because we willingly submitted to the control of men more than the control of God. Why did we submit like this? We were taught to do so with leavened teachings. Why did we abuse? Because we coveted something other than God. We were enticed by the devil to be "someone." Why were we silent? Because we feared men more than God. Why did we fear? We were taught unhealthy fear through leavened teachings.

Abusive situations thrive in silence and in fear where the selfishness of the abuser can continue unchecked. In the case of God's family, to end silence, to face our unhealty fears in God's light, to purge out the leaven, and to say no to the selfishness of evil men is to end disobedience to God. We are told to expose evil deeds, not put on blinders and hope they go away. We are told to communicate in the light of God's truth, not in the hide in dark perversions of it.

We need to learn from what we have passed through so we don't repeat it in some other form, one that looks better. If we still have the basic building blocks of hierarchy in place and hold vestiges of deputy authority teachings which we may believe are the correct "cleaned up" version, it is only a matter of time before there will be bad fruit again. If we don't understand what it means for a Christian to "eat things sacrificed to idols" we'll be found chowiing down again on adulderated and leavened words of God.

We need to reach correct conclusions about the lessons God wants us to learn, with His help and light from His Word. So, what we are doing here is a worthy endeavor.

My husband and I are in contact with a number of people in the latest "home" church movement. These people are waking up to the evils and deadness in so many churches today and are wanting to come back to Jesus only. I think we have been able to help in some way with some of them as a voice of warning about the danger of making their focus "doing church right." We have been able to share some about how this seemingly good purpose can be used by the enemy to cause us to miss aim from our high calling to know Him. We've been able to warn them about wolves who come clothed in sheep's clothing as angels of light who intend to lord it over God's seeking sheep. Any "together" experience is about helping each other know Him and follow Him as the pre-eminent one, not about building a new and better church expression or offering selfish men a platform for their ambition and becoming objects of their abuse.

I am thankful for their sake that God has spent (and is still spending) a lot of time clearing up our minds by light and truth from the pure Word of God which sets free from deception. Otherwise, we might find ourselves spending more time in the wilderness trying again, with them, to do church right. We might even find ourselves as know-it-all wolves who come like angels of light to them but end up lording it over and abusing them.

Lord have mercy on us. Send your Word and heal our diseases. (Psa. 107:20)

Thankful Jane