TidesofTruth said:
brainisengaged said:
Hi, I was subjected to King Jack and Queen Cindy and Prince Ken and Princess Jaclynn for over a dozen years. I bought the lie that they were the best Christians on the face of this earth. A lie they perpetrated relentlessly, by the way. The perfect plastic first family of fundamentalism. God's chosen, God's pets, God's most highly blessed and anointed. We adored them, we doted on them, we panted after them the way America pants after her celebrities. Some still do...but not I.
I think I can comment on the turn things have taken, but thank you anyway for your admonition.
In the words of Red Dawn's Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner: All that hate is gonna burn you up kid.
Well you use the word WE like all of us did and that is simply not true. Obviously some did but WE did no such thing. Many of WE were praying that God would fix him or remove him. Many of the WE were writing letters to him and staff outlining doctrinal issues that needed to be addressed. So I understand being angry at yourself for doing the things you admit However I wouldn't be so quick to use WE when it means YOU. And furthermore, your anger or resentment or whatever you want to call it will not hurt WE, it will only hurt YOU. I have seen too much throughout my years. I can trot out hundreds of examples.
So now you know/understand your responsibilities as a believer. Your responsibilities are to be a berean. Sure you can blame the system for teaching not to be but you know better now. It wasn't like you were told not to study the Bible for yourself and it wasn't like you were told not to have your own walk with God. In all your personal devotions did you not read:
1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: and
1Th 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. You've been saved for a good long time. You had your own spiritual growth to be responsible for. For years nothing passes through my ears without the discretion of the Word of God to prove what is true and what is not. For many years I have realized spiritual growth happens only in the quietness of my prayerful walk and the solitude of the long night of grief and not in the loud booming of a Sunday Night rally cry. So many others could be blamed but my growth has never been about them. It was never about them. My service has always been for God and Him alone in which others have benefited but the reward and the protection for me and my family was God. If I did it for God, no man could burn me out. If I did it for God, No man could abuse me. If I did it for God, No man's mistakes could hurt me. One sure thing to learn and understand is that everything man touches is corrupted. But everything God touches is restored and renewed. When Christ makes all things New it wasn't just talking about someday. It is talking about NOW. So if we go about doing the Father's business He can and will restore that which the devourer keeps corrupting.
I just know that if I understand as God does that we are but clay and people are bound to fail but keep looking for the Good and allow God to do His perfect will He can fix messes. And in doing so I can maybe allow God's grace flow through me on others so they might have a chance for restoral as well. Does it mean we ignore evil? Absolutely not! But we should have God's heart when dealing with other's sin.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Believe for good in others, hope for the best in others and when they fail you endure with grace and work towards God's restoral.