Being conformed daily to the Image of God

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

The longer and further I am from LSM's doctrines, the clearer I again become in the discerning of the Word. Not to say that I have yet laid hold, but, free of the religious constraints of a system that teaches that one man had the proper discernment and interpretation and understanding, I am at last able to move on with my Walk with the Lord; heeding His voice and not forcing Him into silence so that I can follow "the ministry". As we obey, the veil lifts again; and as we seek, He is faithful to ensure we find.

Today I want to share this: from 2nd Corinthians 4:11

"For we who are alive are always being delivered unto death for Jesus' sake that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh."

That's an incredibly powerful verse Saints. And it's the last verse you might here quoted these days by the ministry.

In this past Winter training, Ron Kangas delivered a message wherein he stated that he was going to "show us something that would really change our entire way of thinking". That it would require us to "completely rethink everything we learned about our life in Christ.". What did Ron claim to have seen that would so revolution our concept of the normal Christian life?

Ron stated that we are not here to serve, but to be served - as Christ Himself came to serve us. Ron said that we are here to enjoy and to be ministered to; that Christ came that we might have rest. He came to wash us, and to love us, and working for Him was working in the flesh and against His very economy.

I will make no bones about it. Heresy. That's what that is.
I thought when I first heard that, it was a radical departure from what I'd heard from the ministry before. Not until today did I realize it really isn't.

This is the kind of thing I've heard from other members of these churches. One sister, who left for a time, only to later to return, said "I've never gotten as much life as I do here!"N and a brother who always rejected anything I ever shared from outside of the published ministry work said "there might be some good there, but I get LIFE out of the ministry.". I never asked what they meant by that... Never even questioned it - but now I do.

Watchman Nee said that anything that comes from the hands of man (written work) is dead; it cannot possibly give life. Only the Word of God, which is Itself living and active, can give life. Believing that, we must see that the ministry work, the footnotes, the endless interpretations, be they good or bad (and there's a lot of both), are NOT able to give "LIFE". It's a lie to believe tjey can.

The local church, as secure as Laodicea, believes it has all of the Truth wrapped up in the teachings of Lee. No matter that the man has been mouldering in a grave for 17 years now; surely he had unearthed the most precious truths and Christ is only tarrying His arrival to meet His surely-prepared Bride.

Ah Laodicea! Why did the Lord say "...you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked"? Because the truths to which you cling are lies. Lies that make you useless for the Lord's move.

So concerned with enjoyment and being served, you forget those who came before. You forget that the Servant is not greater than the Master. Where in the early Church was the enjoyment and rest of Stephen? It wasn't in calling on the name of the Lord in a meeting hall; it was calling on Him while being stoned by furious unbelievers. Where was Paul's LIFE-giving enjoyment? It wasn't in reading the testimonys and interpretations of the elder apostles, it was in the ship-wrecks and beatings and imprisonments suffered for the glory of the Lord.

We are not called to relax, but to act. Live out the life of Christ! How did He live? Not an easy life to meet the needs of the flesh, but a hard life that denied the flesh and sought the Fathers will in all things.

Today I saw Matthew 4:8-10
"Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the Kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him 'all these will I give You if You will fall down and worship me.'. Then Jesus said to him, 'Depart from Me Satan! For it is written, 'you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him ONLY shall you serve."

Satan's offer was rejected by Christ, but how many of us have accepted it? Maybe we didn't get the World and all it's kingdoms, but that just means he bought us at a lower price. He makes that offer to us daily - and for wages, a nice house, a good time, some fleshly enjoyment, we buy in.

I want to serve Him ONLY. Can I, as a father of four and a husband? I don't know. I've always worried about practical matters- but that is foolishness. He equips those whom He calls - and does not call those who think they're already equipped.

2nd CoRinthians 3:5. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God."

In Christ,

NeitherFirstnorLast

[David]

Two things:

If the things in Witness Lee's teachings accord with godliness (like in 1 Timothy 6:3), then they should be the Truth; there is no lie in the Truth, and we know that the Truth is from God alone and not from people (2pe 1.21). We are merely vessels to contain God. We ourselves are nothing; God is the substance and is everything that is important.

Relaxing in God really means relaxing in the Sabbath, who is God. When we stop our doing then we truly will be resting in God. Stopping our doing means denying our old selves and stop fulfilling our fleshly desires. If you feel like you are working while doing this, then you are not believing in God. You should be completely at rest while denying yourself (Matthew 11:30). As for the road being hard, I wouldn't say so, if you are truly a believer. It certainly is a constrained road to everlasting life, but not a "hard" or "difficult" one (1 John 5:3).

The true Sabbath is God and we rest in him by letting him serve us instead of us serving him. Acts 17:25 makes it clear that God is not served by human hands. in John 13:8 Jesus said unless he washed Peter then Peter would have no part in Jesus. Mark 2:27 says Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; this means that God is the one serving us, not us serving God. If Jesus is our new self, then it is perfectly clear that it was never us doing any good work, but God doing all the good works in us. This accords to how God is everything and we are nothing.

The Church in Ephesus did good works (hard toil, patient endurance, testing who are apostles) but Jesus was still unhappy, so much that he was going to take away its lampstand unless they repented. Though the Church in Ephesus had the good works, they were missing God. They lost their faith in Jesus and did not "stop their doing on the Sabbath" by believing in Jesus.

For 2 cor 4.11, it is speaking about us being delivered to death in our flesh, not in our spirit. our flesh must die continually but our Spirit must remain alive. This tests us and refines our faith.

We are called to relax. I'll leave you with this verse:
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 "

[OBW]

Originally Posted by David

We are called to relax. I'll leave you with this verse:
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 "

Taking on any yoke is not to relax. A yoke is a yoke, no matter how light. But the burden required to carry that yoke is less than the burden of carrying the yoke of legalism, or even of the enslaving world.

But since a yoke is a yoke, then it is not relaxation.

And since relaxation is contrary to the bulk of the teachings of Christ, then to teach otherwise is to dismiss Christ. Paul did not dismiss Christ. Neither did any of the other NT writers. But Nee and Lee did. They dismissed Christ in favor of some religion that relaxes.

In some recent reading I did, I realized that this error is not just a LRC problem. One writer has pointed out that the whole idea that all human acts of righteousness, service, etc., are "as filthy rags" is to ignore the context of Isaiah 65 and at the same time ignore too many commands of scripture, including those of Christ to actually do things.

And it is noteworthy that scripture strongly commends people like Zechariah and Elizabeth who were "both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord." And what about Jesus teaching that the wise person hears his words and does them. (Matthew 7:24). No hint that this is only hypothetical. Later in the same book he later tells them to disciple the nations, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.

Or was that another hypothetical, with the only commands that matter being those that reflect abiding, resting, and relaxation?

[KSA]

Well, when a very heavy burden is replaced with a light one, it is a kind of relaxation - or at least, relief.

[David]

Originally Posted by OBW

Taking on any yoke is not to relax. A yoke is a yoke, no matter how light. But the burden required to carry that yoke is less than the burden of carrying the yoke of legalism, or even of the enslaving world.

But since a yoke is a yoke, then it is not relaxation.

And since relaxation is contrary to the bulk of the teachings of Christ, then to teach otherwise is to dismiss Christ. Paul did not dismiss Christ. Neither did any of the other NT writers. But Nee and Lee did. They dismissed Christ in favor of some religion that relaxes.

In some recent reading I did, I realized that this error is not just a LRC problem. One writer has pointed out that the whole idea that all human acts of righteousness, service, etc., are "as filthy rags" is to ignore the context of Isaiah 65 and at the same time ignore too many commands of scripture, including those of Christ to actually do things.

And it is noteworthy that scripture strongly commends people like Zechariah and Elizabeth who were "both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord." And what about Jesus teaching that the wise person hears his words and does them. (Matthew 7:24). No hint that this is only hypothetical. Later in the same book he later tells them to disciple the nations, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.

Or was that another hypothetical, with the only commands that matter being those that reflect abiding, resting, and relaxation?

I'd like to stress "and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29)." No doubt no one should "relax" even the least of the commandments and tell others to do the same (Matthew 5:19). But when I said relax I meant we really feel more relaxed when we are being brought together as one flock to Jesus Christ. When we are away from Christ, that's when we lose all relaxation and everything goes to chaos and hell. I'm sure your inner being agrees.