Thread: Outer Darkness?
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Old 08-12-2018, 01:08 PM   #205
Trapped
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Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 1,523
Default Re: Outer Darkness?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio View Post
None of us should try to persuade Drake of what we have seen or heard in the LCM, but "we know what we know" ...

This is how it always went folks:
  • If hardship befalls those inside the LC's, then we heard comments like, "the enemy always fights hardest against the saints," or "the Lord really loves him/her, and wants to gain their hearts," or "this just proves how much the enemy is out to get our families," etc.
  • But if hardship befalls those outside the LC's, especially those who have left the LCM, then we heard comments like, "the Lord really means business in these days," or "don't play games with His testimony," or "see, if you leave the recovery, you leave the Lord's blessing."
Thus, they can have it both ways. Self-reinforcing circular reasoning in action.

That is a great point. Absolutely I have been on that circular merry-go-round.

The reality, that I think I only have ever heard expressed once in the LC, is:

1. Hardship befalls everyone in life - old, young, happy, bitter, believers, and non-believers.
2. Sometimes the enemy or the Lord is actually directly behind a situation. But oftentimes things just happen (a gallon of milk slips out of your hands and spills everywhere....that wasn't Satan or the Lord, it just happened).
3. Saints in and out of the LC get cancer, have children with disabilities, die of tragic accidents. This is because we are all humans, not because we are in or out of the LC.
4. If the Lord truly is behind something happening, whether sovereignly allowing it or actually causing it, I think anyone who points to it and claims to know the reason is overstepping the Lord's position. Vengeance or punishment belongs to the Lord, and only He knows why He does or allows anything, and the reasons behind it.
5. As believers, because of His mercy, we have the Lord. As we endure hardship like every other person on earth does, He is the best person for us to turn to. We do not have to be in the LC to turn to the Lord or for Him to meet us. We just need to be where He wants us. Actually, He will meet us even if we aren't yet where He wants us at that point in time!

If Drake says he didn't hear or experience certain things, I don't have a reason to doubt him in his own experience. He has also stated many times that if he went through what many of us describe he probably would not be around either.

We all experience, perceive, and interpret different things differently. I know in some localities the brothers are very clear: "We do not follow a man." And in other localities it gets stated equally clearly: "We are following a man!" I know this happens - two groups of saints, all in the LC's, hearing diametrically opposing thoughts, each convinced that the opposite could never be true.

I used to take everything that came out of the saints' mouths as being the truth and the Lord's speaking, but now I know I need to discern. Many times the saints are just wrong in their speaking, but often without malicious intent in their error. Rather, they are not clear themselves. I'm not saying this to imply that I am clear or am never wrong in my speaking, just that I've learned I need to be cautious to filter what comes in through the light of the truth, or else clearing out the sludge that builds up without filtering is a much more difficult process.
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