Dear Christmadealive,
Your quandry will speak to hundreds, if not thousands, of believers who are in a place like you. I whole-heartedly agree with Grounded.
I love your forum-name. Christ indeed has been made alive in you. In fact, You are the
Righteousness of God in Christ. His glory
resides in YOU. You have been
made holy! You
are JUSTIFIED by Faith. You have peace with God. The glory of the Lord has
risen on YOU. Start listing the characteristics the Bible says you have as a new creation in Christ. Then recount them outloud whenever you start to think negatively about yourself. God does NOT think negatively about us and neither should we. Yes, he hates sin in any of his children and is faithful and loving to discipline those who are his. But, it's not because we are failures. We are victorious in CHRIST. He wants us to be
convinced of who we really are so we can DO what he has given us power to do, through FAITH alone.
"I will HEAL your Faithlessness (waywardness) and LOVE YOU freely, because my anger has TURNED AWAY FROM YOU
I will be like the dew to Israel (you). He (you) will blossom like the lilly. He (you) will take root like the cedars of Lebanon."
Hosea 14:4,5
What you are feeling is
normal for a person in your position. Most of us felt that way or we would have left sooner. We have all been under a systematic stripping of our power. It is an underhanded scheme to unseat our rightful and lofty position in Christ. Bootcamps call it "breaking you down". And then, it is subtley conveyed through soft verbal assaults that the best thing about you is that you are part of GCx! You are deceptively
told that you will avoid mediocrity, insignificance, loss of reward, and much waste of time, that they say is 'inescapable in regular christian churches', by committing with them your very LIVES.
How long will you assault a man?
Would all of you throw him down--
this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
They fully intend to topple him from his lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouth they bless,
but in their hearts they curse.
Psalm 62:3-4
Then, in addition, the
voice of truth by former members trying to
warn us of the peril to our faith and the
obstruction to our walk with Christ is suffocated by slander, lies, and excuses of the leaders.
Truth is forcefully shut out. We were TOLD they were basically "enemies". Communication was utterly cut off from the outside by intimidation and fear. According to testimony on this website it still is today.
It seems the reason we stay so long is what the Bible says: the teaching is so captivating, so bewitching. Who wouldn't want to avoid mediocrity, insignifcance, loss of eternal reward, and wasting their time?
This kind of persuasion is not from God. These are fraudulant claims, deceitful lies, that can only come from the one who disguises himself as the angel of light. Satan uses anyone he can connive to be his agents, and tragically
even christians, by offering such wordly rewards as power, fame, or money.
"But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons"
1 Timothy 4:1-3
In the end,
what believers in GCx and churches like them
actually experience and receive is just exactly
what they were promised they would not. Just read any number of
testimonies on this site. People are too busy to make this stuff up. But don't despair,
God has you reading this site so you will
see and experience HIS infallable hope, comfort, and healing because He is DEFINITELY
the God of Second Chances, redeeming even our ashes. I would not be able to encourage anyone on this site if GOD HIMSELF hadn't turned my dry rubble into a river and a garden.
Thank You Gracious & Ecstatically Loving Father.
In His Care,
Janet
