Unregistered

How much to throw out? Throw it all out, the good with the bad, the spiritual with the fleshly, the theory with the fact, the false with the true...

And start over. Raised in a southern Church of Christ (Campbellites), suffering hit and run with Pentecostalism and charismatic areas, I found myself deeply enthralled with Watchman Nee in the early '70's.

By '75, Watchman Nee's bio had hit me hard. For I read that "Watchman Nee reckoned to read the entire New Testament each month"...

I felt that to be a speaking from our Lord to me, personally. My answer to that, was to read the entirety of the New Testament twice a month since mid-June 1975 (every thirteen days in fact. twenty six times a year). By the time I ricocheted off Witness Lee and the local church in '79 and 80, I was but very little put out when the LC put me out...I didn't hang around long after Basil Waters, with the brothers alongside him, promised to speak my name in the meeting as an undesirable and contentious brother.

For by then, I had read the bible enough to learn to accept it as what it says it is, that it says what it means, and that it means what it says.

I spent many years doing my best to get rid of all that junk I'm been raised in and on. I began to believe that every newly born Christian should leave the church he or she had been raised in, and spend at least two years alone immersed totally in the Word.

For you cannot fill an already full glass. The glass filled with pond scum must be emptied (and washed clean) to exactly the same degree it is to be filled with fresh, clean water.

Religion had filled my glass. Witness Lee and the LC topped it off with what appeared to be whipped cream and a cherry, only to end up being more of the same, said somewhat differently. A better class of pond scum you might say, but pond scum just the same.

So toss it all. Become that empty glass and let God fill it anew with life, light and blessing. You do that by reading the Bible, day in and day out...and by praying constantly, allowing prayer to be your 'default position' in life; and the Bible to be your home page, with links leading you straight to the Word of God in every part of your life.

For in order for "all things (to) become new" all old things must have passed. After all, Paul gave us the divine order with, "...but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press forward". First, forgetting the past. Secondly, pressing forward.

We need to forget the behind things, and press forward to the highest things.

We need to toss it all, every bit of it. After all, what do you have to lose? If you lose some of the good with the bad, God will return the good, polished and burnished and fit for our growth in Jesus, and replace the bad with the good as well. The result will be all good.

God bless you,

I am and remain sincerely yours in Jesus Christ,

Julabee Jones