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SpeakersCorner · 08-28-2008, 01:53 PM

MikeH,

We'll miss you, brother. Actually, maybe I won't because I really need to bow out myself ... again. It's ridiculous that I spend so much time here. I do enjoy the joust, at times, but what good is it doing me? Sometimes, when I get into a theological discussion, I do get the benefit of having to do some research to support my points. That's pretty good. But often it's just a melee.

I do agree fully with your points about the missing opposition. It seems to me that this forum has become kind of the bizarro LSM: same dogmatic, demonization of the other side. I've tried to play the devil's advocate and I am the most pro-Witness Lee voice here, I believe. But this place needs a Bilbodog in the worst kind of a way. Gosh, I miss that ol' coon dog.

One of the most striking things to me about this site and those who frequent it is how much impact the LC had on them. Some here have been away from the LC for over twenty years (not sure about you, Mike). That's a long time to still be driven to argue things. My take is it's because the LC really did have something, something that none of us finds outside it.

Back in the early 70's there was a conference in St. Louis where the theme was that we've all been "wrecked." I remember coming back to Indy and having a meeting where everybody kept jumping up and saying, "I've been wrecked for the Lord!" What a prophecy! We really have been wrecked. So very few have made it out of the LC into mainstream Christianity. Don Rutledge wrote movingly on how he is pretty much rejected by everyone in the Christian realm: the LSMers, the Christian he meets who always discover his LC past, even other LC churches who aren't in the LSM way anymore. I was deeply touched by that post. I have been wrecked in the same way. I have no where to go but to the Lord.

My hope and my inspiration is that we, the wrecked ones, are like the vessel the potter was working on in Jeremiah 18:

"Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it."

It seems we were marred but it also seems the Lord may be looking us over, considering how to refashion us.

Anyway, goodbye Mike. I may join you.

SC

08-28-2008, 01:53 PM	#15
SpeakersCorner Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 273	Adios, amigo MikeH, We'll miss you, brother. Actually, maybe I won't because I really need to bow out myself ... again. It's ridiculous that I spend so much time here. I do enjoy the joust, at times, but what good is it doing me? Sometimes, when I get into a theological discussion, I do get the benefit of having to do some research to support my points. That's pretty good. But often it's just a melee. I do agree fully with your points about the missing opposition. It seems to me that this forum has become kind of the bizarro LSM: same dogmatic, demonization of the other side. I've tried to play the devil's advocate and I am the most pro-Witness Lee voice here, I believe. But this place needs a Bilbodog in the worst kind of a way. Gosh, I miss that ol' coon dog. One of the most striking things to me about this site and those who frequent it is how much impact the LC had on them. Some here have been away from the LC for over twenty years (not sure about you, Mike). That's a long time to still be driven to argue things. My take is it's because the LC really did have something, something that none of us finds outside it. Back in the early 70's there was a conference in St. Louis where the theme was that we've all been "wrecked." I remember coming back to Indy and having a meeting where everybody kept jumping up and saying, "I've been wrecked for the Lord!" What a prophecy! We really have been wrecked. So very few have made it out of the LC into mainstream Christianity. Don Rutledge wrote movingly on how he is pretty much rejected by everyone in the Christian realm: the LSMers, the Christian he meets who always discover his LC past, even other LC churches who aren't in the LSM way anymore. I was deeply touched by that post. I have been wrecked in the same way. I have no where to go but to the Lord. My hope and my inspiration is that we, the wrecked ones, are like the vessel the potter was working on in Jeremiah 18: "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it." It seems we were marred but it also seems the Lord may be looking us over, considering how to refashion us. Anyway, goodbye Mike. I may join you. SC