Wow! Six years, you are right. It has been that long. I had to sit and think about it for a minute to realize how long it has been. As they say, time flies.
As it is with most people, much is the same and much has changed.
I will be a responsible Local Church Discussions poster and cover some LC and LC related stuff first.
1. I haven't paid a lot of attention to Local Church matters over the past six years. A little bit, but not a lot. When I was on the forum and moderating, I felt it was a responsibility given to me by the Lord. Once I was released by the Lord, I was ready to go in some new directions.
2. I have read the book by the Chinese sister about Watchman Nee. Very interesting and eye opening. I have no condemnation of Watchman Nee. He sinned. I hope he confessed as often as he sinned. He's my brother in Christ. There are some things I received from Nee that I believe came from the Lord. There's leaven too. It's my responsibility to understand the difference. I hope Nee received a full deliverance from the demonic affliction and involvement he had that is evidenced by what this sister shared. We all need deliverance from bondage in our lives and to be set FREE to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with a fully free heart!
3. I was given a book by an ex-Local Church member who never knew about the forum. It is called "Genuine Spiritual Authority" by David Dyer. David is the person who gave me the book and authored it. It is somewhat of a response to Watchman Nee's book on Spiritual Authority. It is a very good book for anyone who has been or still is under the influence of Watchman Nee and/or Witness Lee's thinking on spiritual authority. When I received it, the book was not available electronically. Now it is available as a Kindle Book on Amazon for $0.99c. If it hasn't come up here on the forum before, I recommend it. It's not perfection, but I think it is VERY GOOD. Each person has to read it and discern for themselves.
4. During the time that I received this book, I was pursuing a study on Leadership, Authority, Submission and Obedience in the church. This study in the Word of God is one of a small number of more intense studies I have felt to dig into with the Lord's help. I feel that I got a lot of light and clarity that I had not previously had on this subject. However, I am still a student on this subject and no teacher. I am really glad I did this study. I have recorded portions of this study on my web-site (
http://laymansfellowship.com/roadmap-to-laymans/). It's definitely not perfect and it is not even finished as you will see from the roadmap link. Most recently, through a friend I may have someone who is a full greek scholar who will go through what I have studied and point out the issues in my research. I'm sure there are some since I am not a greek scholar.
5. Just as I concluded part (on Hebrews 13:17) of the study I mentioned in #4 and documented on my site (
http://laymansfellowship.com/table-o...a-closer-look/), a couple arrived at my door through a mutual friend. This couple turned out to be part of a group that shares many, many, many common characteristics with the Local Church. It is possible that they were actually worse in their authoritarianism. There is one book that I read about them called, "The Bishop Maker" by Rhett Stuart (It's on Kindle too). This couple was in the process of exiting from this group. Their arrival was an answer to prayer for both of us. I had continued to ask the Lord to give me wisdom about the situation in the Local Churches of Witness Lee. There were (and are) still things that I felt I did not have the Lord's perspective. Through this couple and the group they were involved in, the Lord answered some very specific and important questions I had held. Without giving much detail, my study mentioned above came into full use because the primary theme verse used by the leadership of this group was Hebrews 13:17. Because of a family situation with this couple that I met, they were coming into direct conflict with some of the higher echelon of leadership in the church. We worked together to get through some very tricky waters and, Praise God!, their family is healing and coming back together rather than splintering as many others in the group have. They still have a road ahead to continue healing in their family, but the destruction that the Enemy had planned was thwarted. Most of the work in this situation was this couples' to do, but given my background, I was able to help them gain some mental clarity and encourage them to walk according to the "life and peace" that God gives each one of us in difficult times. I strongly encouraged them to follow through on even the very difficult interactions that were necessary and that God was giving them the "life and peace" to do. It's really hard to to do this, but they did it and it is having an excellent outcome for their family.
However the Lord did it, I don't know, but at one point I ended up in a room with the husband of this couple along with a select number of key leadership from this group and other witnesses. All my hundreds of hours of study on the one single verse of Hebrews 13:17 came to bear in that 4 hour conversation. I can't explain the full outcome here, but God is amazing in how He leads us and guides us into the things He has for each of us to do. We each have our little part and He gets all the glory when we all come together in operation of the Holy Spirit. It is hard to see much of the time, but we get glimpses and we marvel at His majesty, His power and His working among us. There is nothing He can't heal. There is nothing He will fail to accomplish according to His love.
I shared this 5th item (and it is relevant to this forum) because my time on the forum and moderating the forum was a preparation for my part in this "good work" the Lord had designed in advance. Without my time on the forum and moderating I would not have had the ability to help this couple properly.
So, thank you...
Other Things... unrelated to the Local Churches...
1. Family - Picture attached. I'm the ugly one
. We are doing well. I have two daughters who are 7 and 5. One of them is just like me in looks, personality, etc (scary, but in a good way if I don't screw up to badly) and the other one is just like my wife. They match the meaning of their names. The one that is like me has a name that means "son or child of Matt" (no kidding). We both liked the name and didn't pick it for it's meaning, but it fits. The other one means "my delight" and it is also a perfect fit.
2. Cuba - within a year of stopping my parcipation on the forum, I began to get involved with some of what the Lord is doing in Cuba. To say the least, it is pretty amazing. I don't know what the Lord has planned for me in this matter, but my involvement has continued to grow over the past five years. It started with a pretty simple verse from the Lord about the boy with five loaves and two fishes. He was showing me that something I was doing was like that and to put it in His hands and let Him do the work. It's truly amazing when the Lord speaks such simple things with profound outcomes. I can share more about this if there is interest, but it is OFF-TOPIC!!! I mention it because it is one of the more important things that the Lord has put in my path since the forum.
3. Church Involvement - I cannot remember if I ever clearly shared on the forum before what my church journey has been. Here is my summary and current situation. I was never a member of the Local Churches of Witness Lee by my own choosing. I was born into it, but my parents left by the time I was at an age where I would choose my own involvements. I was a believer and part of the Body of Christ, just no specific local body. Starting at age 17-18, I felt the Lord had shown me that I was not supposed to join any specific church. I could attend, but not join. This is still true for me today, but I understand it to be inclusive not exclusive. I am a believer in the Body of Christ and I recognize all other believers across any lines or smaller groupings that they might acknowledge. There are no boundaries in my mind. Just one body. This is a spiritual reality for which I am not seeking a physical, local expression that I can point at with my finger and see with my physical eyes. I have witnessed it in operation at various times and it goes across the boundaries that men acknowledge.
So, starting at age 17-18, I have had two distinct phases of my life related to church.
Phase 1 - no membership and not much "regular attendance" at a specific church. I went here and there, but was clear that my primary responsibility before the Lord was to follow him. One of my longer term friends who has watched this process jokingly tells me that this was my "back side of the desert" phase. That phase last 15 years. Phase 2 (10 years) Starting in 2005, I received a phone call from a sister in Christ (a mom I knew grewing up) who I hadn't spoken to for a while. She had a simple word from the Lord for me. "It's time to find a church and go". This was a confirmation for me of something else the Lord was speaking at that time from the book of Haggai.
Phase 2 - So, over the past 10 years, I have been a regular attender at 4 churches. (a) An ex-Baptist, turned non-denominational church, (b) a "Brethren" church (probably best classified as "Open Brethren"), (c) a more contemporary non-denominational church and (d) the church we are at now which I cannot classify. It's too confusing to classify and there are very few people there who have a common background. The roots of the church come from the Mennonite church, but they have clearly moved away from the Mennonite approach. Without going on about it, I can say that our current church has the presence of the Lord in ways that are unlike anything at any of the other 3 churches I have attended. The only comparison I can make goes back to home meetings that were post-LC, but included "refugees" from the LC and other churches that I participated in briefly in the mid-90's. In summary, I no longer ask the question "What is the best church" and then try to find it. I now just ask God, "Where do you want ME to be and I go there". Sometimes it is suffering (2 of the 4 churches I mention were more of a suffering for me). Sometimes it is a joy (2 churches were more of a joy). I now believe my personal experience of the church doesn't matter. My agreement or disagreement with the theology doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is to go where the Lord asks me to go and to find out (as time goes on) why He wanted me to be there. Sometimes it is for me. Sometimes it is for others. Sometimes I don't know and just wait until he shows me or releases me to go elsewhere.
4. Work - yep, still working... Thank you, Jesus!
Signed: A little less of a tease, Matt