Freed From A Cult/God’s Place For You

Cults come in all shapes and sizes.  Some may only have one or two fellowships.  The bottom line is how they distrust mainstream Christianity and most other Christian groups.  They also feel they’re God’s favorite and one day the rest of the world will catch up to them.

Back in the day when I was a member of a Holier than most, “Jesus Only,” cult if you had told me that one day there would be over 800 fellowships in America that follow a “One Church, Many Locations” pattern, I would have scoffed in your face.

“You mean everyone watches the senior pastor on a jumbo-tron screen and he’s not even in the building? That can’t work!”

Well yes it can. And it does! In fact it frees up allot more space for growth and sets allot of people free to minister more effectively. And making more and better disciples is what it’s ALL about.

Meanwhile back in those days if you had told me that I would drive 10 miles from my home in my small city to go to a church in the suburbs I’d have said,

“Get thee behind me!”

Especially if you had said the church was in the Town of Halfmoon.

“Halfmoon?

No Way!”

Way!

In fact I’ve never felt like I belonged more to any other church( including the cult church) than I’ve felt now. And it happened so fast!

Part of it is God’s timing and part of it was the people that go there.

Besides it only took 10 years to get me out of a cult. But it took another 2o something years to get the cult out of me!

Now I know that I don’t have to try so hard to prove myself.  That never works for anyone anyway.  (We’re already approved by putting our faith in Christ alone!)

But years ago I never would have thought in my wildest dreams the whole multi church location thing could ever work.

Yet here I am. Proud to belong to a satellite church that draws in part from the same area as the old cult church did. And it feels so good to be SO OK with that!

Who’d a thunk it?!

There’s no such thing as a perfect church, but IMHO there’s a perfect place for everyone.  And it looks like I’ve found mine at last!

What about you?  😉

So We’re Saved, Now What?

Image by slworking2 via FlickrIt’s a problem many of us Christians struggle with.  We got the salvation message.

It’s a problem many of us Christians face.

We got the salvation basics down alright.

Believe

Repent

Receive.

Declare.

Got it!

OK, so what now?

Somehow many of us fall into this trap that now we’re working for God.  Come judgment day we have to prove ourselves.

Did we accomplish anything for God or did we mess up?

We got this Holy Paranoia thing going on.  What am I supposed to be doing for The Lord?

What if I get it wrong?

No

No!

No!

Hello!

By grace we’re saved and by grace we grow.

The great Apostle Paul laid in all out in the book of Ephesians Chapter Two . . .

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

It’s all about letting God work on us.  We never can earn anything from God.

Yes we are His and we belong to Him.

But it’s never ever ever anything like punching a clock or meeting a quota or making a deadline.

He makes us into His image.

Only He knows the quota.

And the whole world will know when the deadline is upon His return!

Since Nobodies Perfect . . .

I’ve never been to the church “House of Praise” in East Greenbush, but I wish I had been there two weeks ago to hear their guest speaker.  Perhaps after the service I’d understand why they even invited him in the first place.

(HT Albany Times Union)

“Disgraced former national evangelical leader Ted Haggard brought his message of forgiveness to the House of Praise church on Route 9 Sunday, peppering an hourlong talk in front of a congregation of 200 people with some ear-raising nuggets — like how God has specifically used people like Oprah Winfrey to assist in his resurrection from personal despair and public shame.

Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and leader of a mega-church in Colorado, was forced to abandon both posts in 2006 after a male prostitute publicly said Haggard paid him for sex for three years and used methamphetamine in his presence.”

Wow!  That’s big.

You see I used to belong to a church that’s suffered the loss of not one, not two, but THREE leaders due to a moral failure.

Things are never the same after that.  Most members move on and are slowly replaced with others.  The church I’m thinking of is doing well under it’s new leadership and organization.  But I’m not sure I could ever go back after recalling all the damage that was done.

The biggest thing about Haggard is that

“he never discussed the specifics of the controversy, instead referring to his transgressions as “compulsions,” and that with therapy he hasn’t repeated the acts that brought him down. He did say that he never travels alone, posts on Twitter about his whereabouts and constantly calls his wife when they’re not together.”

Since nobodies perfect it’s a too bad people can’t deal with their “compulsions” (Sins) as vigorously BEFORE their caught as they do after.