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smurfette

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Everything posted by smurfette

  1. Hamm, I am glad we all talk about things that happened 20-30 years ago! Even though twi taught it, we are ones who believed all this stuff. My response to realizing p*ssing away all those years is: 1. Keep posting on here for those still stuck in. 2. Realized my mistake, got humble and finally drew near to Jesus like verse 40 mentions. Oh BTW--even if you leave the "ye think" out --the end result is the same--they still don't draw near to Jesus Christ.
  2. Mr Hammeroni said the following in the Way Wonderland thread: Here's what John 5:39-40 says in the Amplified: You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me! And still you are not willing [but refuse] to come to Me, so that you might have life. Ham-that is exactly what we did during our stints with twit world. Spent so much mental energy studying and thinking the Word..but never drawing near to Jesus with our hearts.
  3. hmm cffm.org came back as 18% evil and 82% good!
  4. Actually oldies, In reference to change our ways and thinking...that does not necessarily mean I am changing my beliefs. I have examined my motives for what I do. I have realized that my performance-based behavior (that was encouraged by twi)is wrong. Yes, I know we were taught to not be men-pleasers, only to try to please God. Many things were taught correctly but when it came to what happened in practice, it was a whole other ballgame. (Beliefs I am changing are some of the things taught by loyboy, not vpw) smurfette out
  5. I was reading Max Lucado today. He talked about Paul's conversion. Before his conversion, Paul was a hero among Pharisees. Then he had the events on the road to Damascus. Saul had to come to terms with himself. He called himself chief among sinners. "The message is gripping: Show a man his failures without Jesus, and the result will be found in the roadside gutter. Give a man religion without reminding him of his filth, and the result will be arrogance in a three piece suit. But get the two in the same heart--get sin to meet Savior and Savior to meet sin-and the result just might be another Pharisee turned preacher who sets the world on fire." TWI showed us religion-arrogance in a three piece suit. After TWI it's like we have to repent--change our ways and thinking--get forgiveness and move on somehow. We need to redefine our true purpose and goal in life. My question: How did each of you do that? I am mostly asking those of you who would consider yourself still a Christian. Did you try extensive independent bible study? Did you start attending a Church? Did you go down for an altar call? Did you do nothing for a while?
  6. I agree wayfer not. The first time i went to a praise and worship service...I spent the entire time singing with tears just streaming down my face. I was shocked by how powerful and healing the experience was..but I was also so frustrated by twit teaching that I didn't fully participate even though I wanted to. It has been a process for me to gradually get more into it...but as I lean on God more and more my peace I have grows deeper and greater.
  7. Belle, It will either wake him up fast or lull him to sleep slowly. I will keep praying that he somehow really sees the light for what it is at twi--darkness
  8. Evan rofl! Quick bring me the paper towels!!
  9. smurfette

    Upgrading

    I dont have one of those boxes to the right of my display name either Paw. All I know is I wanna be smurfette on the new system too. Help!!
  10. I have a question for you doctrinal buffs. TWI taught water baptism was replaced by baptism in holy spirit shown by SIT. Some have eluded to the first century believers practiced water baptism still. I have been thinking... veepee taught baptism meant to dip,wash, immerse I am wondering if water was implied/understood. As far as English language goes, I normally say I need to eat. I dont say i need to eat food. Seeing that there was wrong teaching in twit world, I figure I need to re-evaluate everything. (The church I am currently attending believes in water baptism.)
  11. BTW I consider myself lonely because I haven't allowed myself to relax andlet down my guard at the church. It's large enough that I can go there and be left pretty much alone. (Though a few people have noticed me and been very nice-I am just not ready to unload all my personal thoughts,feelings and confusion.) I think in some ways I am scared to get more involved than that because of my previous twit experience.
  12. Hey all I wasnt trying to start a debate. I am wondering about CFF....But I am also getting out of my comfort zone and have found a pretty cool church in my area. I am trying to figure out what might be best for me. I really appreciate everyone and all of your comments! :)-->
  13. Sorry all for not being more specific. I was referring to bible-based fellowship. I think someone here had called the offshoots in general a halfway house of sorts.
  14. Getting lonely and wondering about checking out CFF. Anyone here fellowship with them?
  15. I was wondering about Heather Dietlin? I knew her when she was a teenager. I saw Chuck listed on cff website as a teacher.
  16. Just trying to bring to the top to get more discussion. Maybe the title should be changed.
  17. In the Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, several questions are presented in order to determine if one should stay in an abusive church or leave. They are: 1. Does grace really have a chance? (If leadership is grace-full--even with very legalistic "sheep"- grace has a chance. If however, there is a bottle neck of power-posturing leaders at the top, who are performance oriented, the chances of things changing are very slim.) 2. Are you supporting what you hate? (By staying and contributing your time, money and energy,are you helping something continue when, honestly in your heart, you disagree with it? We believe that if everyone who was doing this would stop, many vedry unhealthy and abusive origanizations would be unable to keep functioing.) 3.Do you need to be right? (If I am right, why do I have to leave? This thinking keeps people supporting a system they detest.) 4. Can you stay, and stay healthy, both at the same time? (this is one of most importnant questions to ask. Losing you spiritual, nnot to mention physical, emotional adn psychological health is not worth the cost. dont lose your integrity and become an emotional and spiritual mess.) 5. Can you decide your own limits and stick with them? (Set limits as to how much of yourself you are willing to invest without seeing healthy changes in the system. Then stick to your limit. 6. Do you believe God cares more about the church than you do? (We should not feel responsible to fix every problem we see. God cares about His church even more than you do. He can fix it without you.) 7. Is it possible the system might need to die?(Sometimes staying in a spiritual abusive system, instead of being helpful, simply props up its faade as a healthy non abusive system. Others may be thinking, "It cant be that bad, If it was that bad, peoplewould leave, right? Leaving does not kill a dead system, is just makes it look dead as it is.) 8. Are you trying to help the system even though you are exhausted? (If so, you are no longer resting in God. Find a place where it is absolutely fine for you to simply rest and receive for a while. In a spiritually abusive system, permission to rest will never be granted.) 9. Are you able to listen to the voice of sanity? (Connect with others who have already left) 10. Do you really know where to sow? (Sow the truth where it can actually grow. MOST IMPORTANT! If you came today for the first time, knowing what you now know about the system, would you stay? If the answer is no, then why are you continuing to stay? All of the above are quoted from chapter 20 of book mentioned above
  18. Happy Birthday Krys!! Enjoy a few more days of celebrating!
  19. I feel bad for how many people I helped lead to the legalism that is the way, instead of leading them to God's grace and a real relationship with Jesus Christ as their REAL Lord. I still believe in God and His Word, but have had to switch to a different Bible version due to too much waybrain.
  20. Sorry all. I probably should have put this wth approval addiction. IF anyone originally had good intentions..they eventually switched to please the leaders above you mode. That meant clean out the old but get fresh new naive newbies. Remember all the different reports that twig leaders had to fill out-witnessing, how many new people had come to fellowship, what was taught etc? Numbers numbers numbers is what it became. Who can get the most classes together, what state had most new people etc. Plenty of you know even more than I
  21. which imo was a crock--used all that homo stuff and genuine spiritual suspicion as a cover to kick people out
  22. The measure of success according to loyboy was how much you cleaned out an area since we had so many homos and other problems. had to get spiritual and clean house I am sure others here could go into more detail about how corpse would tell "horror stories" of cleaning up a super messed up area BTW did the previous branch leader leave as an assignment or did they get kicked out/leave on own? I remember other posters talking about how into some corpse were when it came to cleaning up.
  23. Where things started going wrong with some well-meaning people who were also deceived like us In my version of, Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, on page 174, the authors start discussing how sometimes us humans get our sense of value from what we do or how we look. "Let's say the focus of our hope for value is aposition in the church. Rather than pointing to Jesus, what is really valued is how well we perform in church. Eventually, we realize that memorizing and spouting Scripture, witnessing and leading study groups are terribly inadequate sources of life, in and of themselves, leaving us empty and looking for more." Then in an attempt to be rewarded and fufilled, some go into ministry. ""So let's say here I am: A new Christian leader, with lots of drive, lots of ambition, a Bible in my briefcase and a mission in my heart. The mission? To build the Church! To advance the kingdom!These are wonderful sentiments to be sure; but part of the "working out my own salvation with fear and trembling" will be to remember that there is a significant problem lurking in the shadows of my soul. The problem is subtle, and very dangerous. It is this :Unless I stay rightly connected to God, my entire sense of value as a person will come from how I perform as a person and how others reward and applaud my behavior. When we cross this inner line, something wrong begins to take place. I may encourage you to come and serve and give to the glory of God. but the real reason I'm encouraging you to do that is because I will look like a success if you do. I will use you to make me look good. At this point, my ego has begun to feed on you." I thought of this quote while reading about the 3 page what to do/not do when the mog came to visit--mostly about the mog needing us to give them a feeling of value/like they were succeeding.
  24. I would agree with WayferNot on the $$ thing. But I do agree she has a message that can be very healing and she is straight to the point about stuff. I was so blown away when a local church gave me (for free!) 3 different teaching series without asking for anything. All 3 were nicely packaged, even came with some discussion/workbook type handouts as well. Oh and one of the guys that wrote "The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse" also has written one called "Tired of Measuring Up" which has been an interesting read. That goes along with the approval addiction.
  25. Hi and welcome! Well, one angle that could help with some of the fear is to start looking at local churches. You may find that there is something else out there and that God blesses people in "oh My!" CHURCHES too!! Some churches probably meet at times that are different than regular fellowship times. I found being a part of a real worship service was oh so healing and showed me what I had been missing for so long. Hang in there!
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