[OBW]

I am more prone to see the early life of what is now the RCC as a movement of God than the LRC. And while it is true that some that were clearly in God's light seemed to become stuck somewhere along the way, I think that the very idea of God's movement in terms of revivals and their aftermath, or splinters that took a different way from the rest is an error in uderstanding of God's move.

This kind of thinking categorizes Christians as "in God's movement" or "not in God's movement" when I think that God is always moving and in all kinds of ways. No matter a particular person's preference for style and doctrine, God is moving — in virtually all of it. To think of one as part of God's move and another as not seems to be in serious error.

And that brings me to my comment about the LRC in the beginning. As a group of Christians, the LRC is part of God's move. But the same is true of those in the RCC, the EO, the UMC, RCA, Lutherans, AOG, Baptists, and so on and so on.

And some probably have noted that for some time I have questioned whether it was ever anything from Nee and Lee that made the early days of the "church life" so apparently glorious, or it was simply the nature of the people who were collecting at that time. Something came to my memory a few days ago that I think captures this idea. In the early to mid 70s there was movement to set a lot of scripture to music. And most of it was Psalms, although there was some Isaiah, Jeremiah, Romans, and even a little from the gospels (and probably others). But the Psalms were prevalent. In Dallas, we set out to record several of the songs. Besides psalms that we got from elsewhere, there were 4 or so talented ones in the Metroplex that wrote new songs, including my brother. We recorded a lot of them. I played my 12-string in most of it, and possibly bass in a little.

Then a little bit later, we discover what Lee thinks about all of that. He starts belittling the Psalms. He mocks, saying, "His mercy endureth, forever, and ever, and ever, and ever . . . ." and we stopped singing them. And some of the joy went away. We may have thought that he was theologically right to say it. But it changed us.

It changed us from what we were into something else. From the people that were seeking Christ to people seeking the approval of the one who was working up the courage to ask to be our MOTA. Lee didn't provide the glory days. He just put off stopping them long enough for us to get hooked to a little of his garbage so he could cast them aside and give us more garbage, now at a cost — training "donations" and standing book orders.

And the BBs have discovered that the spigot did not turn off when Lee died. But the "glory" and joy that once was never had anything substantial to do with Lee or Nee. It was all Christ and us. And we let it be taken away.