Hello Everyone!

[kisstheson]

Hello dear brothers and sisters,

It looks like I am a little bit late for the party, but here I am as well! I have been lurking here for a bit and I appreciate the spirit of all the posts so far. May the Lord continue to use this new forum to build us up together in love.

I thought I should allow everyone to get to know me a little bit. I am re-posting my testimony that I orginally posted on "that other forum" almost a year ago:

07-15-2007
"Hello dear brothers and sisters,
A few weeks ago, I "appeared out of nowhere" and posted in two different threads. I don't know how much time I will have to post here in the future, but I did want to properly introduce myself and give my testimony, so that all of you know where I am coming from.

I guess I should not be too surprised by all that transpired - it was the inevitable outcome of my over-esteeming mere men and allowing that place which only the Lord Himself should occupy in my life to be overtaken by men.

I was involved with the LC and some of its offshoots for three decades - the 80's, 90's, and 00's. I was not raised in the LC, and I suppose my story is very similar to the testimony of all you other dear seekers of Christ. Ever since I was saved by the Lord, I always wanted everything the Lord had to offer, both individually and corporately, no matter how high the price was. I just was not happy anywhere I fellowshipped. I had a real longing to find the "real church", the early church of the NT. Anyone who claimed they had captured the essence of the early church and had brought it back to earth in our day was of great, great, interest to me. Of course, the LC abounded in this kind of talk, and I gave myself completely over to the LC. I expected no less from the rest of my family. After all, we had found it – “God's very best”!

I was there for all of the "High Peak" years - I never missed a training, a conference or an FTTA weekly message. One interesting thing that rarely gets mentioned is how disappointed Witness Lee himself was in the LC the last few years of his life. His disapointment is right there in the "High Peak" messages - he had a very grave concern for "the recovery". Some of his utterances from those years included: "You all are just performing. Nothing is genuine." "I speak and speak and you are moved, but you don't move!" "Catholicism is demonic, Protestantism is dead, the Brethren are Christless, and our condition is not very good either." These kinds of utterances were commonplace from his mouth. He even admitted a few times that "symptoms of Laodicea" were creeping into the LC! Suddenly, he was gone, the BB's went overboard of their eulogizing of him, and the downward spiral has been accelerating ever since.

What drove me and my family to leave? The many heartfelt and thoughtful posts written by former LC-ers which I read on several internet discussion forums played a big part. For the first time, I found out that we were not alone. What a healing and liberating discovery that was! Just when we reach our lowest point of despair and think that no one else understands, our Lord always can point to His “7000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” In addition, the growing arrogance and divisiveness spewing forth from Anaheim gradually sickened me more and more. Witness Lee admitted that "symptoms of Laodicea" had crept into the LC. Has the whole LC become Laodicea? I am not the judge! One day earlier this year [i.e. 2007], as I was listening to a message from the “Crystallization Study of Mark” training, the Lord showed me how proud, arrogant, and Laodicean I had become in my inner being. I myself was becoming a model citizen of Laodicea! What could I do but weep and repent before Him? After such a repenting time, I had to cut myself off from the source that was making me look down on so many other dear brothers and sisters in Christ. This source, LSM, was causing me to refuse to receive any fellowship that did originate in the LC, and was causing me to quite literally hate my fellow slaves in Christ.

Newly free from the LC, I have never been so happy, so free in Christ, in all my many years of knowing Him! He has actually started loving all people through me, not just those deemed to be "good material". I love Him! I love ALL the members of His Body! No more narrow, sectarian, elitist, heart for me. The God of Love has been slowly duplicating His heart of love in me again. This is how Christians were meant to be! O the joy of being away from the fear, the subtle thought control, and the not-so-subtle peer pressure in the LC. The Bible, the Body of Christ, prayer, fellowship - all these things are brand new to me again. I do thank the Lord for the positive help I received in the LC, I really do; however, the same LC where I "caught a vision on a mountain" has become so puffed up by that vision that a terrible spirit of religious jealousy is now reigning there. "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I am free at last!"

[aron]

Originally Posted by kisstheson

... I had a real longing to find the "real church", the early church of the NT. Anyone who claimed they had captured the essence of the early church and had brought it back to earth in our day was of great, great, interest to me. Of course, the LC abounded in this kind of talk, and I gave myself completely over to the LC. I expected no less from the rest of my family. After all, we had found it – “God's very best”!

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I am free at last!"

I can relate. I also gave myself completely. Eventually, when I found there were things there I didn't want to give myself to, I merely gave myself "selectively" to the parts I liked (i.e. the dear saints I knew and loved). Eventually I just decided the whole thing stank. But God put me there for a season, so Praise the Lord! I thank Him and praise Him and I go on.

p.s. Did you see YP's cartoon "Free atlas! Free atlas!" from the all-night Cod Diner? Really bad cartoon. But I had to bring it up because it was so similar to your sentiments.

[kisstheson]

Amen, dear aron.

I appreciate the balance in your post. On the one hand, I share your testimony in that our dear Lord also led me to the realization that the whole thing stank. On the other hand, how healthy and and freeing it is to see that our dear Lord had us all in the LC for a season. He is sovereign! Amen. Yes, we thank Him and praise Him and we go on in Him.

P.S. I did see YP's cartoon. I was totally unprepared for the punch line, even though the whole cartoon was setting up the pun! I guess there is a universal appeal in Dr. King's words "Free at last, Free at last . . ." If I remember correctly, I used those words in my testimony a year ago because I had seen them in the testimony of another dear seeker.