Helpful Insights from old posts

[askseek]

Here are some helpful insights I've gleaned from reading some old threads.

Note that I saved these in my own personal file for future reference, which is what I'm copying from here, so there's some rewording (without changing the meaning) and no attribution.

I'll quote them in separate posts with a brief heading for easy reference.

Please add to this list as you see fit!

[askseek]

Criticism of others

My elder in church, who is also ex-LC, told me he noticed LCers, including ex-LC, have trouble shaking off a spirit of criticism. He said this because he noticed it in me, so that I could be free of it. Most of the Christians I meet today seem to have a much better time at seeing the good in people. However, people from LC backgrounds, myself included, will easily see the bad and struggle to see the good. We were trained for many years to criticize Christianity while overlooking our own hypocrisy. After leaving the LCs, we in turn took this subconsciously-tuned mindset and turned it against Lee and Nee.

Think about it, some of us have been out of the LCs for decades, yet we are still struggling to be free. Many of us may not have even settled into a new church because we see irreconcilable problems with all other congregations. I know it was hard for me as well, and it took forever to find a church both my wife and I were comfortable with. Maybe the only way to move on is to be free from this spirit of criticism inherited from the LCs.

Perhaps to get the worst of the LC fully out of our system we should learn to be merciful to others and try to see the good in them. I know I've failed many times in this regard, but perhaps once you realize the beam is in your eye, you can finally make an effort to take it out.

[askseek]

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is not only for the person you forgive, it's for you. It should set you free from a lot of negative feelings. Someone once said that holding a grudge is like drinking poison in order to kill the other person. At some point you just have to let it go and move on. You may not have all your questions answered, but you have to move on.

[askseek]

Hero worship (by John Ingalls)

This is a day characterized by “the passing of the hero.” It should be for us a day of the passing of all the heroes, of all those who rival the place of the Lord Himself. Isaiah said, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up” (Isa. 6:1). It is best for all the kings to “die” as far as we are concerned so that we may see the Lord Himself high and lifted up. To see Him in such a way has a mighty life-changing and life-compelling effect, as it did on Isaiah (see Isa. 6:5-8). Our problem is that when one king dies, we replace him with another. When one hero passes away, we find another hero that suits our taste. If it is not someone else, it may sometimes be ourself. May the Lord deliver us from any form of hero worship and bring us wholly back to Himself. This is surely a great lesson and a continual exercise.

On the mount of transfiguration Peter saw with Jesus the two Old Testament heroes, Moses and Elijah, and would memorialize them along with Jesus. To Peter they were still heroes, as they were to all the Jews of his day. The Father then removed the heroes and pointed Peter to His Beloved Son. May He so the same for us. And “they saw on one except Jesus Himself alone” (Matt. 17:8). Strangely enough, after the Lord’s death and resurrection, Peter himself was made a hero, along with Paul and Apollos, by the saints in Corinth, and the Lord had to speak again through His servant Paul to recover the saints to Himself. Paul said, “Neither is the one who plants anything nor the one who waters, but the One who makes to grow, God” (I Cor. 3:7). What a blessed day when we see no one but Jesus Himself alone! The Lord is indeed jealous of our affection and wants it all.

[askseek]

Financial practice (by John Ingalls)

In the light of recent scandals involving TV evangelists, reporters asked Billy Graham (who has preserved a reputation untainted by improper conduct) how such despicable behavior as evidenced in current Christian leadership could be avoided I the future. Billy Graham responded with three notable points:
1. Make public the financial statements of your organization.
2. Do not have family members on your Board of Directors.
3. Practice what you preach.

The first two points are undoubtedly of signal importance and should be observed by every Christian organization, but I believe that the third, although somewhat of a cliché, is the greatest. We certainly would all subscribe to that; but how exposing that Christian leaders “Take heed to yourself [first] and to the teaching…for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (I Tim. 4:16).

[least]

Hello askseek
I like your posts below. I hope this site can have a section that help christians grow in the truth and resurrected life of Jesus. Free from Nee Lee Blended-We (or 'after Nee Lee Blended-We trauma). Into the Fellowship in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
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