Testimony

What did TC teach that was different? How does one become an overcomer? What happens if you are not one? What have I learned that may not be accurate?

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

....What have I learned that may not be accurate?

That is a question we all need to ask ourselves, daily. The enemy is very very subtle. It doesn't take more than a little poison to contaminate a life-giving well.

Stay in the Word, and call on the Lord. Our Christian journey isn't one of exclusive enjoyment and feasting. It was never that way. We are being conformed to His image - and His life was not an easy life... but yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil - for Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me...

I believe the ministry taught that the rod was for beating the sheep who would wander (do I recall that correctly?)... But this wasn't what the shepherd used the rod for. The Shepherd loved the sheep, he put his life on the line for them... The rod was for the wolves; and the crook of the staff for the leading of the sheep.

He will continue to lead you, will you trust Him enough to follow? He lead me into the ministry to show me something - something worth loving and longing and working for. He lead me out of the LSM church when I'd seen enough to know the vision could not become a reality in the current environment. Lord, build up Your Church.

Amen

[OBW]

Good response, NFNL. I would expand on these two sentences:

Originally Posted by NeitherFirstnorLast

Stay in the Word, and call on the Lord.

Staying in the Word is not only a solitary thing. Neither it is a closed thing. Be in the word and consider what others have found there. Do not be closed to differing thoughts or interpretations. If God wants to speak to us in it but we reject the very sound of the thing he has to say, then we have not really been in the Word — just around it.

I am a little concerned with this one phrase:

Originally Posted by NeitherFirstnorLast

He lead me into the ministry . . .

This makes it seem that "ministry" is the private domain of Lee and the LRC. This is far from the truth. Ministry is found all around us. It comes in ways that we appreciate and sometimes in ways that we do not appreciate. To others, the preference might be reversed. Do we dare say that the others are not "ministry" or that theirs is somehow inferior?

Besides, if that one truly was "the ministry" then we would not be lead away from it except by the evil one.

And while I'm not sure that we can go this far, I wonder sometimes how many seem convinced that the very fact that they were ever in the LRC, under Lee's ministry, was some leading of God and not a distraction from the evil one appearing as an angel of light. We think that other religious, even Christian groups can be this, but not the LRC. We think that because we had a positive sense while there that it was not just fooling around with our emotions for the purpose of feeding us junk along side any good that might be.

Why do we think we were not deceived but those poor Lutherans are? They were not lead to believe that they were following the minister of the age, the 4th of the 4-in-one. They were not taught that they were the chosen elect standing as a representative for all those other poor, broken, damaged Christians. And they don't seem to need to be lead away from it like many in the LRC are.

Maybe we were actually the ones who were captured in an error, and have now been rescued from it. Maybe we just don't like thinking that we were fooled into joining an error. It is too easy to think that it is the Anglicans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Church of Christ, the Brethren, the Lutherans, the Reformed, even the Catholics — in short, every one but us — that was fooled into error. Never crossed our minds that we were fooled. And some of what we have retained as "better teachings" may not actually be so. We just may have not yet gotten the garlic out of our nostrils.

No. It was God's mercy that he brought us somewhere that he eventually had to bring us out of. (When I reread this, I missed my own sarcasm. This is somewhat of a mockery of our thinking. I even once thought it. I could never go back, but I had this "rich teaching" that no one else had.)

I'm now less high on myself as incapable of having been fooled.

"Hi, I'm Mike. I am a recovering cult member."
"Hi, Mike."

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Originally Posted by OBW

I am a little concerned with this one phrase:
This makes it seem that "ministry" is the private domain of Lee and the LRC. This is far from the truth. Ministry is found all around us. It comes in ways that we appreciate and sometimes in ways that we do not appreciate. To others, the preference might be reversed. Do we dare say that the others are not "ministry" or that theirs is somehow inferior?

Amen brother, thanks for catching that. You know those old LSM buzz words still can slip easily from the tongue - or fingers - I certainly didn't mean to imply that I still have this thought (about LSM's particular brand of Christianity being 'the' ministry... I'm just working out the proper language.

Allow me to re-phrase, "He lead me into the LSM local church...."

...As for why I believe that, let me refer back to my original introductory post, from my testimony: I was Saved outside of a fellowship with any other believer. Anyone. I've been a lone Christian for most of my Christian life. I distrusted ALL other Christians. This isn't healthy; it's even dangerous. I needed to see what I needed; to belong in the Body, and not apart from it.

These saints may be fooled, but that makes them foolish saints, not damned souls. I need fellowship. I crave it. It should be about love; about even sharing the truth in love.

Like I said, the vision does not match the reality... and as long as the truth is concealed, it always will. The enemy is the only one who gains by deception.

"Hi Mike, I'm Ray... I'm still struggling, but I haven't met with the LSM Local Church in almost four months."

In Christ,


NeitherFirstnorLast

[OBW]

Originally Posted by NeitherFirstnorLast

Amen brother, thanks for catching that. You know those old LSM buzz words still can slip easily from the tongue - or fingers - I certainly didn't mean to imply that I still have this thought (about LSM's particular brand of Christianity being 'the' ministry... I'm just working out the proper language.

Allow me to re-phrase, "He lead me into the LSM local church...."

...As for why I believe that, let me refer back to my original introductory post, from my testimony: I was Saved outside of a fellowship with any other believer. Anyone. I've been a lone Christian for most of my Christian life. I distrusted ALL other Christians. This isn't healthy; it's even dangerous. I needed to see what I needed; to belong in the Body, and not apart from it.

These saints may be fooled, but that makes them foolish saints, not damned souls. I need fellowship. I crave it. It should be about love; about even sharing the truth in love.

Like I said, the vision does not match the reality... and as long as the truth is concealed, it always will. The enemy is the only one who gains by deception.

"Hi Mike, I'm Ray... I'm still struggling, but I haven't met with the LSM Local Church in almost four months."

It is too true how the old terminology still creeps in. I've been out sing August, 1987, and I still slip into it on occasion. The only LRC meetings of any kind I have been to since then would be the weddings of a couple of nephews and my mother's funeral. And I still slip back from time to time in my speaking.