[Curious]

Hello again. In response to aron’s response to my post, I want to add some more.

First, to emphasise the issue of repentance and forgiveness, 1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” It’s a done deal, and if God forgives, who are we to withhold, us mere mortals? We have an obligation to God to forgive. If any LSM leader repents, forgiveness is assured.

Germany repented to the world and to the Jewish race after WWII. They received reconciliation, restitution of friendly relations with the rest of the world, including the nation of Israel. If a nation can do it, so can a Christian ministry. Aron, your willingness to be transparent and vulnerable in sharing your own story to illustrate my points was more than I was expecting. Thank you.

I’m going to pick up on your mention of ‘shame’ in the package of things you felt as a young adult. Shame and rejection are major tools of destruction to the human heart. In quarantining and shunning, as well as other disciplines, shame and rejection has been used to control people, in the LC. This is very effective, given our vulnerability, and very evil, in my opinion. A great fear of shame and humiliation will terrify a person from opening their heart in the way aron has done, but easy when repentance is a way of life. The terror of being vulnerable in a critical and harsh environment can feel very real, and create a huge barrier for a person to navigate. Yet peace and a huge deep release await on the other side of that barrier. Being cleansed from all unrighteousness is a wonderful and empowering experience, actually.

Isn’t it interesting that the word ‘humility’ and the word ‘humiliation’ are so similar yet have very different meanings? (It’s one of the God-incidences in our language, like the word ‘sun’, gives light to the physical world, and ‘the son’ is the only source of light in the world of the heart). Humility towards God, and the fear of the Lord are the antidote to fear of humiliation. It brings with it the peace of knowing that all us human beings are fallen, and nothing we can be ashamed of or attacked about is more than what is common to man. Which releases us from shame. Humility is, in short, the antidote to humiliation. There is no hook to punish us by humiliation when we are detached from human approval and attached to Gods love and acceptance of us. To realise how core this is, demons often use mockery, its very common in deliverance ministry situations. Demons are evil. Mockery provokes shame and humiliation and demons know it is a powerful weapon against the human soul. Any using of it as a tool is evil as I said above, and Jesus never disrespected people in this way, never ever EVER.

Also, the fear of the Lord. If nothing else, face the temporary humiliation to spare yourself eternal punishment, that's still a good deal. After all, salvation depends on repentance. Genuine repentance is caring more about how you've hurt others than it is about preserving self. Which matters more? Next time I’m going to talk about the bubonic plague and its relevance to this discussion. That sounds well off the wall, don’t mind me, I am a bit wacky…. it will make sense when I explain it!