Strong City

A Pastor’s Experience in an “est” Type Seminar

November 28, 2009 at 10:02 pm (Uncategorized)

I waited anxiously outside the hotel conference room – not knowing what to expect. I looked around at the group gathered there, some seemed to know each other and were chatting, others were leaning against the wall, some sitting – waiting for the doors of the conference room to open. Each of us had made our way to Portland, OR to attend what was billed as a personal growth seminar. Some had flown in from Southern Oregon, Washington, Canada and even the Mid-west. None of us had any idea what awaited us.

Shortly after 10AM, the conference room doors swung open and two women, dressed in black suits stood soberly at either side of the door. Eye of the Tiger – the theme song from Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” – blared from each of the four Peavey speakers setup in each corner of the room. We were given instructions with an unusually stern voice to place all our belongings on a nearby table, affix our names tags, find a seat and sit down. It seemed odd to me that we needed to take our wallet, keys, cell phones and other personal items and place them on a nearby table, but I decided that this was an attempt to keep our full and complete attention and followed through. There were 10 – 12 staff members and volunteers standing in the back of the room, each wearing a black suit. I immediately remembered that in our invitational letters we were all explicitly told to wear casual clothing. This also seemed odd, but I shrugged it off and took a seat. As I sat there, I noticed all around the room were posters with various sayings. Some of them said things like, “I’ve given up on having a perfect past.” “I create my own fears.” “I allow or create most of what happens to me.” “Disagreement doesn’t equal rejection.” I sat quietly contemplating the veracity of these statements which seems to range from the fairly obvious or cliché to the more profound. The cynic in me couldn’t help but wonder how many of them had been found in fortune cookies at the local Chinese restaurant. We waited quietly until the music finished, and the seminar leader stood in front of us.

The leader introduced himself and welcomed us to the seminar, commending us for making such a good decision as to attend, and for investing in ourselves and our future. He then presented a flip chart with numbers in ascending order from bottom to top. Numbers 1 – 3 had the words “Prove it” written next to them, 4 – 6 said “Present it”, 7 – 9 said “I’ll Participate” and the number 10 said “YES!!” next to it. The instructor then asked us, “How many of you are sitting back in your chairs, arms folded, skeptically saying to yourself, ‘Prove it?’” I immediately raised my hand. Having been referred to this seminar by a former pastor, I was expecting something totally different than what I had already experienced. The instructor said, “Good! We can work with that!” Another person laughingly said he had heard this organization was a cult – to which the leader said, “You know what the definition of a cult is don’t you? It’s just a group of like minded people.” The young man laughed nervously while I noted he hadn’t denied that they were a cult, and had also conveniently left out one important element of a cult. Cults are composed of like minded people, but their thoughts and beliefs are often strictly controlled by an individual or a small group of individuals through manipulation or coercion. He continued, “How many of you are open and saying to yourself, ‘Yeah, I’m ready – Present it?’” A number of people raised their hands. Then he asked, “How many of you are ready to jump in with both feet and are saying to yourself, ‘I’ll participate?’” A few raised their hands. Then he asked, “And how many of you are completely engaged at a 10!?!” Suddenly the staff and volunteers in the back of the room all jumped to their feet and shouted a very startling “YES!!” The instructor then introduced us to the staff and volunteers who he assured us were now living life to the fullest, living and working at a ‘10’ as a result of this program. I grew more skeptical, but began praying a prayer I often pray when confronted with things that raise my prejudice and may impede me from learning something important. I prayed, “God, you know why I’m here, I need You to speak to me and teach me what is good and what I can apply to my life, as well as guide me in what I can easily discard. If you can speak Your will through a donkey, You can certainly help me to get something of value from this. Amen.”

Our leader then asked us to volunteer and tell the group why we were there and what we hoped to gain from this seminar. One by one people stood to their feet, introducing themselves and stating what they were there for. One person said they were looking to be more self-motivated. Another said they wanted more self-discipline. Many others shared their deep hurt, unfortunate circumstances and the pain of broken relationships that had driven them to seek help at this seminar. At times the leader would interrupt them and make apparently rude critiques, saying things like “you’re afraid”, or “what are the real issues in your life.” I marveled that someone would be so bold as to, having just met a person, tell them what their real issues were and demand that they reveal more than they were willing to – but I dismissed this with thoughts that pop counselors like “Dr. Phil” and others often use such tactics to push people to really face their issues.

I stood to my feet and shared that a four and half year dating relationship had recently come to an end in my life, and I had been finding it difficult for a number of years now to develop any close relationships with friends or church family. I also shared that as a pastor I find the expectations placed on me by my congregation to be a continual source of frustration and that at times I find myself with ‘nothing left to give’. He made the comment “don’t you think four and half years was a little long?” which I took to mean that I should have married by now. He also asked me a question he didn’t want me to answer. “Who is your boss? Who do you answer to?” With that he turned to the rest of the class and said, “Give him a hand.” Then I sat down.

Not everyone was able to share before our time for the exercise ran out and we moved on. Next one of the staff members came up to share the ‘rules’ with us. As he read each rule he followed it with this statement: “If you agree raise your hand, if you disagree stand up.” Immediately I noted that they were intentionally making disagreement much more difficult. While I could agree simply by raising my hand, in order to disagree and I had stand in front of the other 17 people who had already agreed and voice my reason for disagreement. It reminded me of those book-of-the-month, or CD-of-the-month clubs where signing up infinitely easy, but finding a phone number or address for cancellation is nearly impossible and all requests for cancellation must be done through letters. My skepticism increased and I nearly stood up for a number of ‘rules’. Some of the rules made a lot of sense, like “I will remain mentally present during the presentations” and “I will be on time to sessions” especially since our fellows would be depending on us during certain phases of the seminar. But the rules seemed to get stranger as he progressed. For most I eventually found an excuse as to why they might ask these things, but taken together, it was obvious that they wanted to maintain a high degree of control. When they came to the rule that stated, “I will participate in all activities and follow all instructions” I was ready to stand up and protest. I knew there were certain things I simply would not do. Obviously things immoral and illegal, as well as things that may not be within my comfort level etc… But I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. I stayed seated, but mentally I knew I had not written them a blank check to tell me what to do.

After we finished agreeing to the ‘rules’ we moved on to the next ‘process’. We played some game to get to know each other a bit and were then instructed to stand in a circle. We were then told to look around at the group of people and select two people that we might not normally associate with. We were told that all of us make value judgments of others and decide very quickly if people we don’t even know are people we would want to get to know based on absolutely nothing. For instance, if they looked like someone we didn’t like, or if they happen to be wearing a color we don’t like, or if they’re too tall, too fat, too thin or whatever other prejudice we may hold we will often choose not to associate with them. He was absolutely right. But ironically, I had just watched him do the same thing with some of the group as he interviewed them and made a few snap judgments of his own based on very little information.

I quickly identified the two people in the group I was most reluctant to approach based on my own predetermined and undefendable prejudices. We were then told that as the assigned moment, we were to go immediately to one of those people and stand in front of them. I immediately thought of the implications. I was going to go stand in front of someone – with the silent introduction hanging strangely in the air – “You are the person I find most repulsive and weird of this entire group!!” Strangely I do something similar at times. I sometimes ask God to lead me to people I wouldn’t normally be drawn to so I can minister to them – but never with that introduction. The moment came, I was about to head across the circle and declare the winner of my own strangest-person-in-the-room competition when suddenly I was looking down into the eyes of a friendly face, staring back up at me. I was startled at first, and then suddenly relieved – as now, I would not have to crown the winner or runner-up of this bizarre pageant. Then the implications hit me again – I was, apparently, the weirdest or strangest person in the whole room to the person standing in front of me. I cracked a smile at the thought – and was glad to find something to laugh about during the morning’s strange activities.

This was my new “buddy”. Evidently we were going to spend the whole weekend together, sharing different parts of our life, listening, and showing our support. We were then told to turn two chairs toward each other and sit down facing our buddy. We were instructed to open our notebooks to a blank page and write the following: “If I fail to produce value from this program the excuse I will tell myself is…” My pen immediately went to work. The cynic in me didn’t have any problem coming up with my answer. I wrote the words, “If I fail to produce value from this program the excuse I will tell myself is it was all a bunch of mumbo-jumbo and the staff can’t all be living at a ‘10’.” We were them immediately instructed to skip a line and write the following words, “I have just judged others and myself, and as a result of these judgments, I am stuck with them.” I had to admit I had just done exactly that, but then I realized that they were the ones who told me to write this in the first place. They were preempting any excuses we might create with propaganda and psychology to keep us from mentally tossing the program before it even got started. We were then asked if anyone wanted to share what we had written, and I immediately raised my hand and read off my statement. Then I was also instructed to read the statement that followed – “I have just judged other and myself…” Other’s read their statements and most of them said they would ultimately hold themselves responsible for not creating value. Of course if you examine the statement they told us to write, “If I fail to produce value…” the only conclusion you can honestly come to is that you are the one responsible for failing to create value. The statement presupposes who is to blame, unless you’re a cynic like me and blame the program and its facilitators. I noted that this ‘process’ was obviously designed to make you feel ashamed if at some later point you find fault with the program or its methods.

We took a break for lunch, and I found myself sitting with 5 of the other participants. Lunch was nicely catered by the hotel and we enjoyed a short break from the chaos that had been our morning. To my surprise I discovered that everyone I met, except one person, was Adventist! Evidently we were all there by word of mouth at the encouragement of friends, family or pastor’s who had already taken the course and loved it. The people who came to the seminar I found to be warm, caring and supportive – even if they were dealing with difficulties at home, work or in their relationships. We enjoyed our short lunch break and the fellowship.

When we returned for the afternoon session, we learned a hodge-podge of different things during the ‘processes’ that took place. I noted that a number of them had merit and would be helpful if people could take them in and apply them. Many of them I had already learned and have been applying for years, but I understand not everyone learns things the same way. We learned that many times when people hurt us, they have really only found our pain, and that we have giant buttons in painful places in our hearts that others find easy to bump into. Many times it’s not that a person has terribly and completely damaged us through one incident, but simply that we all have a past and it includes many painful memories and experiences – some of which have occurred over and over. We must be careful how we react and process things carefully. We learned a variety of little lessons through ‘processes’ or games. How to receive a compliment, how to greet people appropriately, how to shake hands, how to hug properly, how to acknowledge someone else’s views or positions without implying that they are ‘wrong’, how to accept other people’s ways of doing things, how actions follow feelings and how feelings follow thoughts and if we could learn to control or reframe our thoughts that many things about us would change. I didn’t find anything terribly profound or earth-shattering. Certainly nothing that merited the course’s $1795 entrance fee. I am not prone to rash judgments or snap-shot assessments. I like to give things a fair shake. And while I don’t intend to throw the baby out with the bath water, I feel I was wading through a septic tank to find a few tiny gold nuggets.

Our afternoon sessions consisted of small group sharing. Each group was composed of two facilitators and 4 or 5 participants. My group had 6 people total and we went around the circle sharing different experiences. At first we shared simple things. Then we moved into deeper material. We shared specific situations where we’d been hurt, where we’d hurt others, things we had participated in that we were ashamed of, times we’d gossiped about people, times our relationships had fallen apart etc. All the questions asked of us could only have negative answers. Once they asked for a specific situation in a relationship and once we had shared it they would ask if we had created a ‘win/win situation or a lose/lose situation.’ One participant shared a situation where he had created a win/win situation but was immediately told those were not the kinds of situations we were sharing and that he should think of another one, a negative one. One individual seemed obviously unable to go very deep, but it was apparent that she had some deep things to share as her face turned red and her eyes well-up with tears. One facilitator chastised her with these words, “This is your time.” The comment was made in a very harsh tone, and it was apparent that what she really meant was “You’re wasting our time.” Others had a difficult time thinking of situations and were immediately chastised with similar comments and harsh tones. Once I was trying to think of more examples of a time I had been angry – which I’m not usually very angry – and after having shared only 2 small examples I was immediately skewered with “What is it your hiding?” I thought to myself, if they expect us to bear our souls to each other and to them, they certainly aren’t creating an environment that is even remotely safe!! In spite of this our group bared our souls to each other – boldly and courageously dealing with our own personal demons. All the while other facilitators and volunteers walked around each group listening in on conversation after conversation. When the session was over and my fellow participants had left the room, I spoke to our facilitator and told her, “If you want us to share openly with each other, you need to make the group a safe place and not be constantly badgering people for deeper answers.” She shrugged and told me to bring it up the next morning during ‘big group’ time. By this time I had moved from irritated and skeptical to steadily growing angrier all the time.

After another break, we entered the conference room as we always did – placing our personal belongings on the table, and putting on our name tags – only this time Eye of the Tiger wasn’t playing… it was some rock n’ roll song you could dance to. And after hours and hours of somber faces and harsh demanding tones from the facilitators we entered to the whole crew dancing as if they were half drunk in some bar in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Now I was really getting irritated. By this time I had learned that many of the facilitators were from Walla Walla, WA and I had learned that many of them were Adventists. I even recognized my former dean at Walla Walla College as one of the facilitators. I fought my feelings of anger and mistrust and told myself that if they asked me to dance I would tell them it was against my religion. During this session the stern, harsh treatment was replaced with kind and gentle words, an atmosphere of ‘fun’, with all the staff and facilitators smiling at us and engaging us. I felt as if we were prisoners being worked over by the ‘good cop / bad cop’ routine. They had treated us ice cold all day up to this point, and now they wanted us to loosen up and enjoy ourselves.

The last ‘process’ of the day was a guided meditation. We were instructed to sit in our chairs, close our eyes while some eastern sounding music was playing in the background. I realized that they had been making extensive use of music throughout the seminar, often to evoke emotions they wanted us to feel, and this exercise was no different. We were then told that we “would not need our intellect for this exercise” and that we should get in touch with our emotions. I had been praying all day, both for myself to overcome my own prejudice and for the other participants who I could tell were very broken and hurting, but at this point my prayer changed completely. I prayed, “Lord, I don’t believe this kind of meditation is from you, and I don’t want anyone else in my mind except You and me. And I especially need You in my mind right now giving me insight into what’s going on.”

They had us imagine we were walking through some wood on a mountain side during a nice summer day. Eventually we stumbled upon the house of our childhood. We entered to smells of mom cooking in the kitchen and other mostly positive memories. As they went on, I noticed the language began to be mixed. “You meet your mother in the mist. Do you feel Happy? Sad? Angry? Joyful? Whatever you feel, that’s the feeling that’s true for you.” As the session continued the language became exclusively negative. They would paint a certain situation to the participants and then ask “Do you feel… Angry? Hurt? Bitter? Abused? Remorseful? Abandoned?” They were now using exclusively negative language to describe all potential feelings. I realized they were manipulating people’s thoughts and trying to illicit negative responses toward our parents. I asked myself the question, “What if someone actually had a good relationship with their parents? How would this help them?” They did ask some meaningful and important questions during this time however. Questions like, “What would your father tell you if he were to apologize for something?” “What would you tell your mother has hurt you most in your relationship?” “What would you tell your father you needed, but didn’t get from him?” and a variety of other questions. Fortunately this was something I had done the month before in a one week visit with my folks. We had, under the guidance and direction of the Spirit of God, worked through many of our issues, pains and hurts and I have found that to be a great blessing. But this ‘process’ seemed only to be a form of mental and emotional brainwashing. When the descriptions were over, they played music designed to illicit negative or hurtful emotions. At the end of the description of our time with our father’s they played Harry Chapin’s song Cat’s in the Cradle, which outlines the life of a father so busy with worldly success that he never has any time to spend with his child. While the emotion inducing music was playing and our eyes were closed, the staff and volunteers of this organization went around to each participant and massaged their shoulders and gave them tender backrubs.

I had seen just about all I could take, but I was exhausted mentally and emotionally. I had gotten up at 4:30am and driven four hours to Portland, only to be accosted in this non-stop hot and cold, mentally draining, 12 hour program. I was looking forward to a good night’s sleep. I would decided what I would do the next morning. I prayed and asked God for wisdom and insight to discern truth from error and fell asleep exhausted.

The next morning I woke up early, took a shower and spent some time in God’s Word. God directed me to Colossians 2:8, 18, 19, 23

8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ… 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those thing which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

I immediately prayed and asked God’s forgiveness because I realized the even though I didn’t know what this seminar was about – I had been looking to broken cisterns to try and deal with my issues and problems. I had not been holding fast to Christ as the answer to all my problems. I had been dealing with my depression through escape, distraction over eating and any other false god that could give me a short time of reprieve from my pain.

When my roommate woke up, I was already at the desk writing a letter. I told him I was planning to leave this morning, but that I felt compelled to give a reason to the group should the facilitators not allow me to state my reasons for leaving in the morning session. Before we entered the conference room, I informed my fellow participants that I would be leaving today, that I had my reasons and that they didn’t necessarily have to agree with them, but that I needed to do this for me. I also told them that I honored and respected them for having the courage to face their issues and seek help and that I encouraged them to continue doing so. I informed them that if they wanted to know my reasons for leaving that I had written a letter and had left it with my roommate and they could ask him to read it if they choose, but I would rather be allowed to speak to them directly and to the facilitators if I was given the opportunity.

We again entered the room to the sounds of Eye of the Tiger and took our seats. Each of us was wearing our name tags, but I noticed that staff members were coming by each person and removing their names from the plastic and replacing it with different descriptions. I turned to the neighbor on my left to see that her name tag now said “Damaged Goods”, while the name tag of the neighbor to my right now said “Doormat.” I looked down at my own name tag only to discover that it said “Nothing Left.” At this point I was shocked and furious. They had spent the previous day listening to our fears, our hurts, our pains and then crafting the most degrading, dehumanizing labels they could think of to describe us. I was furious!! I think I felt some of the anger Jesus experienced the day He cleared the Temple of all the greedy merchandizing going on there that left the poor people apparently beyond of the mercies of God. I began praying that God would grant me peace and that He would take control of my mind, thoughts and heart that anything I said could not be ignored as the rantings of an angry out-of-control man.

The instructor begin the same way the previous day had begun, by having the people who hadn’t shared the day before share why they were here and what they hoped to gain from the seminar. As my roommate stood up, gave his name and began to share why he was there, he was interrupted. He was told that that wasn’t his name and that he needed to introduce himself with the label on his nametag. Again, I was furious. After the remainder of the group had shared, the instructor asked if anyone else had anything to say. I raised another prayer to God and stood to my feet.

I don’t remember everything I said. I am certain however that God was in me. I had peace, I had confidence, I spoke intelligently and calmly. I began by honoring the courage of those who had come to face their issues and told the group that they were the only reason I would even think about staying. I then turned to the presenter and his team and said something like… “The sign on the wall back there is true. It says ‘We create or allow most of what happens to us.’ But the sad thing is I’ve paid you to treat me like this. You’ve been trying to teach us to honor and respect ourselves and others in our relationships and to work our way past our own shame and fears – yet you have done nothing but dishonor, shame and disrespect us. I reject your methods. Christ only taught what He modeled and lived. He never taught His lessons by using manipulation, coercion or shame. I feel as if I’ve been wading through the mud to find half a rotten apple or a crust of bread to eat. Your methods and many of your teachings are completely bankrupt to help any of us conquer our issues. They are the methods of the enemy and I reject them.” At this point the instructor stepped forward with a half smile on his face and said, “Let me tell you a secret. We don’t want you to like us. You haven’t been through the whole training. You haven’t seen where we’re going.” I said, “I’ve seen enough to know that this is one movie I don’t need to see the end of. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to create some kind of boot camp where we all band together and form bonds of camaraderie and trust. The ends don’t justify the means. The method’s you’re using are bankrupt and I reject them.”

I sat down briefly, shook the hand of my roommate who was sitting next to me and got up and left. I was followed by the man who had been my dean previously at Walla Walla College. We sat and had a conversation for about 20 minutes during which he tried to convince me that somehow this program was a good thing and that they were simply teaching biblical principles using other methods because the atheist who attended would never be able to get past the God-speak. I persisted to state that God does not use the tools of the enemy to accomplish His purposes. He only employs the principles of righteousness and truth, and that the methods they were using were in harmony with the principles of Satan – deceit, manipulation, force, coercion and shame. (GC 498.1, DA 759.1) I also mentioned that the guided meditation tool they had used the night before has no origins in the Bible, but rather eastern mystical religions, and that Christ was not being taught as the only answer to the sin problem and that what they are teaching is humanism and only trying to cope with our sins, instead of asking Jesus to give us new hearts.

I went up to my hotel room, packed my things – certain that they would no longer allow me to room with someone who was still involved in the program since I was now no longer a participant. Then I remembered that Oregon Conference was holding a men’s workshop on pornography, anger, boundaries and other issues. I had been sad when I has signed up for this seminar because I would not be able to attend both. I drove over to the conference office praising God and thanking Him for being with me. I don’t know that I have ever been so happy to be with the people of God on a Sabbath morning. My heart rejoiced as I listened to powerful messages centered in Christ and His power alone to bring victory to our sinful condition.

As I have been processing the things I experienced I have learned many lessons. I now more fully understand God’s words in Ezekiel 34:16-22.

16 “I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.” 17 ‘ And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. 18 “Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture — and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? 19 “And as for My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet.” 20 ‘ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD to them: “Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep. 21 “Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad, 22 “therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

This organization, whether they realize it not, is preying on the weak, the tired, the hurting – taking their money and feeding them grass trampled in the mud and making them drink water fouled with the residue of their own feces. Adventists need to be warned since they seem to have been made a special prey.

I also realized that whether we like it or not – many of our churches do the exact same thing on a much smaller scale. Think about it. Often times there is an undercurrent of shame and condemnation that we are ready to dish out on those who don’t dress ‘appropriately’, those who enter the sanctuary inebriated, filthy, wearing jewelry or anything else we decide is taboo. I refer to this activity a drive-by. We wound them with the bullets of shame and condemnation either to make them change their ways so we can be more comfortable in church, or to run them out so we don’t have to deal with them again. I think we do this because deep down inside we know that we really don’t have anything to offer them. Our own lives are a mess, and we’re just keeping up appearances. Many of us aren’t living victoriously at home, at work or even in the church – we’re just putting up a sham, acting, claiming we’re living life at a ‘10’ when we’re really just as bankrupt as some of the people we run off. Jesus can’t be happy with us when we do this. He must feel like he does towards the lambs that are ‘butting all the weak ones with their horns.’ We owe it to ourselves, to our church and especially to Christ who died for us to throw out the tools of the enemy completely. We must never again take up the tools of shame, condemnation, coercion, force, manipulation or any other harmful thing to try and make people conform. We must be about our Father’s business. We must commit ourselves to living radical lives of love and sacrifice for the benefit of others and we must be willing to speak the truth in love and correct and encourage those going off the path. The only way we will know how to balance the two is to be filled to the brim with the Spirit of the Holy God.

I am trying to understand how to relate to the people who put on the seminar. I have some very angry feelings toward those who are knowingly taking advantage of others. I have less passionate feelings for those who have been taken in by this organization and made to think that it’s a good thing and are supporting it with their finances, time and energy. And I have much compassion for those who have attended, been cheated of their money, and been made to eat the ‘residue of the pasture.’ Proverbs 20:22 says, “Do not say ‘I will recompense evil’; Wait for the LORD, and He will save you.” God will one day make all things right. In the mean time, our job is to gather all who we can into His kingdom. We must pray for and work for those who have attended these seminars, those who have been unknowingly helping and promoting them and even those who may know exactly what they are doing.

I am reminded that Daniel was taken from his homeland, castrated, made to serve the very king who destroyed his city and country and yet Daniel served with the Spirit of God. When the word came that God would judge Nebuchadnezzar by making eat grass for seven years, instead of gloating in the coming judgment of God against a man who had cheated Daniel of everything, his heartfelt desire was that the king would “break off [his] sins by being righteous, and [his] iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. [That] perhaps there may be a lengthening of [his] prosperity.” Dan 4:27 Daniel most definitely had the Spirit of Christ dwelling in his heart to be able to have forgiveness in his heart, desire the prosperity of the king and call Nebuchadnezzar to repent in the hopes that God would also grant him forgiveness and He would be found in God’s kingdom. There is NO ONE who is beyond the reach of God’s mercy and grace, no matter what organization they work for, whether they are aware of unaware of the evil it may be perpetrating. We must remember that and work together with God for the salvation of all!! Speaking the truth in love and being ambassadors for Christ.

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Re: Crown of Thorns

September 1, 2009 at 10:31 am (Uncategorized)

I just read Wayne Bent’s latest post regarding his “crown of thorns”. I noted this sentence in particular, “When Christ is crucified, few stand with Him.” The pull of that thought on his church family can only be understood by those who have been there. Yes, his followers have always been free to physically leave Strong City, but as the story of Jaycee Dugard demonstrates so cogently, they are bound emotionally and psychologically and some may never break free.

It was also interesting to hear the report by Alex Hannaford in which he states that the remaining faithful  followers of David Koresh are still awaiting his resurrection from the dead. In all likelihood, some of Wayne’s followers will do likewise if Wayne should die from his fast.

When you consider the deceptions that overtook the angels in heaven, oh how critical it is that we order our lives by the living Word of God. “Cursed [be] the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm…” Jeremiah 17:5

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June 27, 2008 at 12:56 am (Uncategorized)

May 5, 2009

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