Journey to His Healing: Why are you Striving to Earn Grace?

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

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[Janet Easson Martin]

    
   
    "I am surprised and astonished that you are so quickly turning renegade and deserting Him Who invited and called you by the grace (unmerited favor) of Christ (the Messiah) [and that you are transferring your allegiance] to a different [even an opposition] gospel.  Not that there is [or could be] any other [genuine Gospel], but there are [obviously] some who are troubling and disturbing and bewildering you with a different kind of teaching which they offer as a gospel and want to pervert and distort the Gospel of Christ   (the Messiah) [into something which it absolutely is not."                      

_{Galations 1:6     Amplified}  

              
     After receiving Christ, I started attending a GCx group where I was taught that pleasing God meant obeying the church leaders without question .  The leaders of GCx essentially became a substitute for Christ's intended rule over the church.  We were told we that we should follow the leaders like the Israelites followed Moses, yet God clearly states the old covenant has been done away with and a new one is in place with direct access to God through Christ.  GCx seems to be perverting the means by which God's people communicate and relate to Him..  They have set themselves in a very disturbing position between God and his people.   Jesus Christ died for the unrighteousness of his people so that they would have the Righteousness, Holiness, Mindfulness of Christ, and Priestly Authority themselves to speak to and hear from God.  He alone is their Lord, Master and Saviour.  

     Yes, God's people need to be part of a healthy local church so that they can be encouraged, motivated, ministered to by the body with all its gifts and sincere LOVE; and in return minister to others.  Yes, there should be people with pastoring and teaching gifts to lead with benevolence as good sheperds should, and teach with careful accuracy as spirit-led teachers would.   In my experience, Gcx leaders acted as if they alone had direct wisdom and "authority" from God to strongly advise and firmly direct "their flock" on personal matters, and gave little confidence for people to make their own personal life choices.  This distortion of how God leads his people and abuse of authority in leading them still seems to be prevalent today (according to direct quotes from GCx teaching on this site).

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."

                                                                         _{2Timothy 2:15}

     My choices while in the GCx church were very much persuaded, manipulated, pressured and pushed through guilt and fear into a certain lifestyle that was not only awkward but downright isolationist.  I was definitely discouraged to spend time with those outside the church including my own friends and family, unless they were gungho about GCx.  On atleast one occasion I was even awakened in the middle of the night to go to an emergency meeting.  It turned out to be a long ferocious "spiritual warning of dangerous wolves attacking the sheep" filled with panic and alarm, and much hostile denouncing.  The people in question turned out to be former leaders who were trying to help believers out of the spiritually abusive grip of GCx.  

     Every project that GCx or Jim McCotter (then) pursued was manipulated through teachings to become (at that hour) my life's work - whether it be getting others to join his (the) church organization (pretty high on the list), going to his GCI meetings atleast 3xs a week, plus most of your social time passing out his brochures, buying and selling his newspapers, buying and reading his magazines, joining political activist groups started by him, preparing and showing up for his events or ventures, traveling far and wide to every GCI conference and event to hear him speak, "serving his appointed elders" in giving, babysitting, cleaning, shopping or whatever, defending his church, shunning those who left it, and enumerable other time-consuming activities.  Without realizing it I had become basically a slave for this "church", carrying out this leader's every whim.

   For a while after I left the bondage of GCI, I was afraid to surrender to Christ because I thought this was what pleasing God was about!  I feared if that was Christianity, I didn't want any part of it!   I did not want to loose myself anymore.  But eventually God broke through and showed me that my distress and sacrifice in GCx was NOT AT ALL what trusting Christ was about.  He used this crucial truth below to teach me what REAL Faith in Christ was:


       Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish?  After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?  Have you suffered so much for nothing – if it really was for nothing?  
     Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you BELIEVE what you heard?”

Galations 3:2-5

     Now, I realize that the details of these "righteous standards" may have changed a little over time, but "righteous standards" still very much remain (according to the testimony of many on this site) an inescapable burden in GCx.  I remember a few of the many troubling teachings we were taught by Jim McCotter:  1) that God did not have a specific personal will for each of us, but only the will of reaching the world (the GCx way with the GCx church) with the gospel (his or Christs?) ; and  2) that "righteous" perfection was to be sought after - that there were people within the GCI church who hadn't sinned in a year.  Let's be  honest, the GCx perpetuated idol of the PERFECT MOTHER (always sweetly humming) is just a deception. The whole GCI organization ONLY SURVIVES because of self-glorification, self-righteousness, always trying to impress others, and fear of loosing-"righteousness", friends, or even salvation!  For those who may be offended that I said I served you or your family with "impure motives", I challenge you to look at your own motivational forces.

Nearly everyone I've talked to or heard about who has left GCx says they were just faking their "spiritual growth" and were actually miserable there.

    Due to this false teaching, it has been a continual but recovering struggle for me to keep going back to simple faith, to receiving grace freely simply because of who I am in Christ (the righteousness He suffered to give me) and not because of what my "righteous" works deseved.  No More Striving to Earn Grace.  Learning only the resurrected Spirit of Christ in me can obey and really please God.  "Without FAITH it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God".  My personal relationship with God is between Christ and Me, not my pastor and me.  I can guarantee you that God has never shared his very personal and thrilling plans for my life with any of my pastors.  My greatest joys are when I ask God to speak to me and he gives me a promise from His Word.  I love cuddling up next to him for help.  He has given me very specific promises in good times and in bad that are nothing less than absurdly good.  His promises are what keeps me going and energizes me.  They all seem too good to be true, but He made me worthy at the cross.  He lifts up my face there.  

     If we get lifted up by anything we do, or think our best moments are something we have done; than the cross becomes irrelevant!  Our obedience should be out of sheer gratitude for all the grace afforded us by the cross.  Christianity is all about believing God in order to become on the outside what he has made us ALREADY on the inside, not about being good or trying hard to do everything right to earn God's love and grace.  When we blow it (many times a day) he offers us sympathy, mercy and GRACE [at our admission (or confession) of it] at the cross.  His suffering forgives and restores us, not our guilt and good works.  The gospel is not just for receiving Christ, it is our ONLY HOPE for growing in Him.  He is moved when we trust his mercy, his grace, and when we believe and rely most dependently upon Him.  And the result is - he works miracles in and around us.  He alone can change us.  We never need despair at our own weakness or failure.

“Why are you striving these days?              
Why are you trying to earn grace?
Why are you crying?                            
Let me lift up your face …”

_{(From the song BY YOUR SIDE by Tenth Avenue North where Jesus asks the weary Christian)}

Learning to Rest by Faith to Receive His Overwhelming Grace,

Janet

[Innerlight]

Thanks Janet...awesome testimony, and it really touched my heart.  I know exactly how you feel. 

[LUISINO]

________________________________________
Whatever experience any one of us can attest to regarding GCM; one thing is certain: 2Cor.13
11 states: "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you." And in John 13:35: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." And finally: Phil. 3:12-15: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." There are enough enemies of THE CROSS to tend to in the world. They don't need our help. Let us pray for one another and forgive. God Bless. Luis A. Garrido-EMT-P/EMD.

[Linda]

I think most of us posting here agree that when it comes to personal offenses, love and forgiveness are the goals.

However, when it comes to false teaching, to be faithful to the Gospel, we must expose and correct.

[LUISINO]

Well said, however let us be careful that we do not allow a root of bitterness creep in our zeal to correct. I have been there, and it is not a "pretty picture"!!!!!  The Apostle Paul stated in Heb.12:14, 15 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
[15] Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Yes we all the responsibility to search the scriptures daily. to see if these things were so... See Acts.17:
[11] These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
But as Paul also stated: "And again:
2Tim.4
[2] Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

Eph.1
[4] According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph.3
[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph.4
[2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
[16] From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Eph.5
[2] And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Col.2
[2] That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
1Thes.3
[12] And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
1Thes.5
[13] And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
1John.4
[16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
[18] There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."  I have been in the middle of many church splits, Not only as a licensed minister of the gospel, but also while on tour as a member of one of two widely travelled singing groups, as a Bible College student, and in counseling sessions on an individual basis, and the GREATEST DANGER resulting from that type of situation is the propensity of allowing a root of bitterness to settle in the heart of the offended. This is an insidious enemy, and often creeps in undetected initially, due to a lack/or absence of, immediate, and proper communication between the parties involved. This is the reason Paul admonishes married couples to prevent the sun going down in their wrath, and again, not to allow prolonged periods of separation between married couples. It is also one of the basis' for not forsaking the assembling together of unbelievers. I am reminded of an old axiom first brought to my attention by some of my Bible College Professors, roughly stated [not a direct quote]...IN MAJOR THINGS UNITY, IN MINOR THINGS LIBERTY, BUT IN ALL THINGS LOVE. I subsequently have discovered that this may be a rough rendition of something possibly attributed to Augustine as follows: Translation: "In necessary things unity, in doubtful things liberty, in all things charity" ... Regardless of who said it, how, or when, it merits some thought, in my opinion.

[Linda]

FYI, you are posting on the Healing Forum. This is a place of no debate. Puff, should these comments be moved? When I posted, I hadn't realized what forum I was on and didn't mean to take anything away from Janet's original post.

The healing forum
A place to discuss healing, forgiveness, and the struggles faced as we move on, engage in other churches, relationships, and our walks with God.
This is a "no debate" forum.

[kaney2021]

Recently, the term 'Spiritual Healing' was mentioned by a friend as something that many people are seeking and it inspired us to write about it. As we see it, all of Creation works through the sharing and transference of energy.

[EverAStudent]

let us be careful that we do not allow a root of bitterness creep in our zeal to correct.

Not examining the 1st century meaning of phrases and allusions is a hallmark of untrained GC "teachers."  That phrase, a "root of bitterness," in the Old Testament and in the 1st century had nothing whatsoever to do with being bitter.

In the early church the phrase meant, "unbelief is a bitter root of poison that kills the congregation of believers." 

"Bitter root of unbelief" (Hebrews 12:15) is an allusion to Deuteronomy 29:18...

so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. (Deuteronomy 29:18)

[Janet Easson Martin]

Journey to His Healing

My Story: Fading Joy

When I came to Christ at the age of 21, my joy was bubbling over. So much so that it affected my siblings and my mom coming to Jesus. I loved to sing praise songs. I loved to read his Word. I loved the fellowship of other believers. My desire to honor and obey God grew.
 
But there was a bad influence* labeled as “Bible teaching” that I was drawn into. Its focus was centered on rigorously pleasing men’s “spiritual” traditions, which subtly substituted for pleasing God. As a very young Christian I could not discern the difference because there was truth mixed in. There were lies and threats about our good standing with God if we didn’t exhaustedly perform. We were told often we were lazy, selfish, and stubbornly proud believers. Mind you most of us were very new Christians.

God started looking mighty hard to please. I got on a treadmill of always trying to win God’s acceptance and approval.  I constantly worried and feared I wasn’t good enough.

If we are persuaded we can be “more worthy” Christian’s by following some additional pattern other than Christlikeness through the activity of His Spirit in our lives, we begin turning away from Christ to a deceptive dependence on legalism. Thinking if we do this or that or don’t do this or that we are superior to other believers, and slip away from grace.

The terrible result was that my joy in Jesus was fading. I had little desire to share the gospel because it wasn’t good news to me any more.
 
-Janet Easson Martin



*Of course the bad influence is the teachings and practices of GCx Churches.

[Janet Easson Martin]

Wanting to remember one very encouraging and influential Christian author who passed away in 2023, I am including this about Sarah Young who died in August at the age of 77.

I have found the devotional “Jesus Calling” by devoted author Sarah Young especially inviting and motivating to the spiritually abused. Helping us to comprehend and accept the fervent and active love God has for each of his spirit-born children by penning his biblical characteristics and activity in first person. Others may write these explanations or paraphrases and begin with “God is ... this or that.” She uses personal pronouns to powerfully illustrate biblical concepts of God in a way that calls our attention to this very endearing relationship.

Jesus Calling illuminates the Grace of God to those who have been under the dark and heavy shadow of legalism or fundamentalism.  It can be a springboard to rise above cold and dutiful prayer. It marvelously and so poignantly focuses on our relationship with Jesus as a result of the Grace we have received in Him and now live in. It can touch the reader in deep places where other devotionals may only brush the surface of our lives. It seems this may have come from her own deeper prayer life with God amidst suffering and trials; and from many hours a day of prayer for her readers.

Sarah Young’s descriptions of our journey with Jesus from times that are dry to being completely swept away with Him, emphasizing his longing to personally shepherd us through casting our cares and reliance on Him at every turn. As other sound teachers have said Sarah has put the spotlight on PERSONAL in connecting with God. The following phrase really ministered to me yesterday from her devotional.


“Rejoice as we journey together in intimate communion. Enjoy the adventure of finding yourself through losing yourself in Me.”

-“Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young, December 30th



Jesus Calling has been endorsed by Christian authors, teachers, and ministry leaders Dr. David Jeremiah, Max Lucado, Mark Batterson, Lysa TerKeurst, Jennie Allen, Lee Strobel, Ann Voskamp, Sheila Walsh, Christine Caine, Roma Downey, Dr. Jack Graham, James Robison, Josh Warren, and others.


“When I read Sarah’s work, it’s pretty obvious to me why it’s been so highly regarded and received. She makes prayer very personal. Sometimes prayer isn’t personal, sometimes prayer can be very cold and empty. Maybe that’s why a lot of people have a hard time sustaining any kind of a prayer ministry. What Sarah has done has made it possible for people to say, “I talked to God today…I communicated with my Father.” That’s what prayer is supposed to be and she has moved the ball down the field quite aggressively in that direction.”

-Dr. David Jeremiah


Max Lucado talks with Jesus Calling Team on great benefits of journaling
https://www.facebook.com/maxlucado/videos/max-lucado-on-the-daily-practice-of-journaling/488498171931670/

[Janet Easson Martin]

This is an excerpt from an earlier post of mine in response to painful triggers they experienced:


I can relate to having painful twinges regarding thoughts of “a relationship with Jesus”.  That is not to be unexpected when what has been defined to us as a “dedicated walk with the Lord” is associated with isolationism, perfectionism, legalism, authoritarianism, and very limited personal freedom; not to mention how circumscribed and unspontaneous life looked ahead.

I have shared on here that when I used to drive past those sets of three crosses on route 70 I would actually cringe (and even freak out a little).  I certainly did not feel passion or commitment when I saw them.  Initially, I thought it was because I was uncomfortable with Christianity and thus would carry a nagging guilt whenever we drove by them even years after I had left the organization.  What was that? I couldn’t put my finger on it.  Then, I gradually came to realize it was MY ASSOCIATION with those crosses. It was the isolation, condemnation, judgement, oppression, and truly bondage in GCx I associated with them that my soul cringed at.  I didn’t really know Christianity outside GCx.

-Janet,   2018