Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
I think part of the reason LSM books sold well in the past is because people who were there in the heyday of the LC wanted to be immersed in what Lee was teaching. Therefore, buying all the books being put out, reading all the Life-Studies was more desirable during that time.
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Early books by Lee closely covered the scriptures, either sequentially or topically. As I entered the scene in 1976, we would receive a few messages a week on "standing order." At the time, the church in Cleveland was going thru Genesis. I found the messages very "edible," and easily carried in my pocket, so I could read them at work. Then they did away with "loose" messages, which made them less accessible.
Initially the messages met a real need in the saints. It was apparent that the ministry of WL attempted to "serve us." Then, those on standing order began to receive books at an overwhelming rate. Only the fastest readers could keep up. I went back to college and had little time for superfluous reading. Unread materials started gathering dust on my shelves. Then the same materials were re-released as "rainbow" booklets, then in soft-bound books, and eventually hard-bound in green volumes. Soon most of us only stayed with the standing order as a donation, and by the '90's most of us dropped out of the standing order.
LSM over time moved from Life-Studies to New Way Instructions to Crystallization Studies to "High Peak" to Blendeds Re-speaking, with each progression distancing the written page from the Word of God. Some where along that windy path I lost my appetite for all things LSM. In '07 my basement flooded wiping out boxes of un-shelved books, then a few years ago I gave away all the blue and green bound volumes. I never missed them.
Some of the brothers who were with WL from the early days have written how they had definitely noticed the anointing on his ministry wane over time. The decline definitely corresponded with unrepentant unrighteousness in the ministry. So it's no wonder that the long-time survivors would speak of those old glory days at Elden Hall. For most of us, the truth behind the "storms" of rebellion was kept secret, so we became laden with guilt that our lack of appetite for ministry books was our own fault. Actually it had nothing to do with us. The books now are mostly tasteless doctrines.