Thanks so much…I feel so much better now that I just forgot about all the people I love being abused by my old pastors and Apostles. 

And the point of the good Samaritan was…..?

(PS…little advice for you, I wouldn’t utter that advice to any veterans of war or Holocuast survivors.)

These are among the types of cul…um families of churhes that encourage deep meaningful exclusive friendships within the church which leaves the leaver with a lot of brainwas….um gung-ho churched friends making listening to the swilll…um, I mean messages relevant to the dismember…um I mean leaver. 

Sorry about the paragraph long run on sentencce.

If you see abuse, you should turn a blind eye.  Don’t report it to anyone.  Forget about it.

If you’ve been through a trauma, don’t process it or work through it.  Just move on.  Get on with your life.  Ignore the pain and the problems that ignoring this abuse brings. 

Did you take a bullet in a drive by or a war?  Just get on with things.  Don’t get the shrapnel removed.  Just pretend it didn’t happen.  Move on for goodness’ sake.

God would never want us to deal with our problems, help others to be set free or cause us to love others so that they could experience the same kind of love and comfort He’s given us, He’d never want us to warn others of abuse or create a place of comfort, education or encouragement.  Nah, God would never want anything like that.  He much prefers when we pretend nothing ever happened and move on.  Good idea.

PS.  Lay off of Jim.  He’s doing a loving thing here that had brought healing to many, truth to the light and freedom to those still struggling. 

Holy crud.

I bet you never thought of that before!  If you leave a church, forget about the blood-bought saints left behind!!  So clear to me now!

I’m so glad Jon dropped by.

“Dropped.”  Hm.  That reminds me of something.  (scratches head.)

Oh yeah–”dropped.”  Kind of like what happens when those who lead the flock astray get “dropped” with a millstone around their necks into seas and stuff like that:

Luke 9:42:  “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown (kind of like “dropped,” n’est ce pas?)  into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.”

Perhaps Jim is pouring his time. cash and life into snatching back a few:  not only the hurt sheep, but the millstone-bound shepherds, too, who lead Jesus’ beloved into legalism and away from the grace of the Gospel.

The post at the beginning of this thread was the text of an email. I don’t listen to MLC sermons.

Rise up O Men of God!

Have done with lesser things.

Give heart and mind and soul and strength

to serve the King of kings.

Rise up, O men of God!

The kingdom tarries long.

Bring in the day of brotherhood

and end the night of wrong.

Rise up O Men of God!

The church for you doth wait,

her strength unequal to her task;

rise up, and make her great!

Rise up, O men of God!

Tread where his feet have trod.

As brothers of the Son of Man,

rise up, O men of God!
(I love Phill Keaggy’s version of this song. It’s like a march into battle.)
 
Time to do battle for the Truth.

Truly. They can’t hurt you.

We are praying for you and the upcoming ‘family meeting.’
That you are putting on the full armor of God  (Eph 6: 10-17 )
That you will take courage to require full truth of your leadership  (PS 27:14)
                                                                                                                                         (Micah 3:8)
That you will remember that YOU are the church “choice and precious in the sight of God,living stones being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (IPeter 2: 4-5)
That you will “remember the Lord Who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters,your wives and your houses.”  (Neh 4:14)

During the Chesapeake battle, almost 2 years ago, intercessors were praying for the “Gideons” to come forth.  In that large church- by the Spirit of God –only 4 men answered Holy Spirits call.  None held a church position. But they pressed in, took Gods courage, went to meetings to “see” for theirself…and opened their mouths to fight.
(These men were in addition to the men in “the 3 couples”).
We are praying for your Gideons, and your fighting men — there is a battle for truth and untangling the effects of destructive polity in sgm.

We pray that leadership or any ‘apostle’ will not seek to whitewash or ‘spin’  the issues brought forth. The mentality that “protecting the church” involves manipulations of truths
is actually resisiting the powerful, thorough cleansing…..and thus, healing, which the
Holy Spirit would readily bring forth.

Samuel Wesley:
“The churchs’ one foundation, is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation by Spirit and the Word:
From heaven He came and sought her, to be His Holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.”

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit  (Philemon 1:25),
  – Waters

Gracie,

Your only problem is that you gave yourself a name that is hard to live up to.  (Yet you seem pretty full of it.)  I, myself, would have picked the name, “Grumpy”.  Much easier to live up to/down to. 

“These comments about church use of funds remind me of a story I have shared before.  Once our pastor (who was PDI, but at the time of this story was not) asked my husband for prayer.  He was going on yet another spiritual retreat to a conference somewhere or other to get refreshed and revived, all expenses paid by the church, of course.  So, he asked, “Pray for me, I’m going to (such and such) conference.”  My husband graciously replied, “Pray for me, I’m going to work.” 

I love the Holy Spirit of God.  I did not have peace about this comment.  The Holy Spirit would not leave me alone about it.  Today He orchestrated a divine appointment that left no doubt as to what I needed to do.  I am humbled but grateful to Him. 

My comment was snarky and exaggerated.  It infers that I believe there were financial indiscretions going on with my former pastor.  Let me be clear:  this verbal interaction did take place, but I do not now nor did I ever think that this pastor misused church funds or managed them poorly.  And although we no longer attend his church, our reasons for leaving had nothing to do with financial mismanagement or the number of conferences he attended.  Although you do not know the name of my pastor, I didn’t want to smudge his reputation even in anonymity. 

While I do think there can be a disconnect at times between some full-time pastors and the regular 40 hour week (or more) working guy, what I was trying to emphasize was my husband’s quick wit not my pastor’s error.  And I apologize. 

Thanks for listening.  Still trying to live up to my name here!  Thank goodness for the grace of God.
Gracie