Techi trying to reach for the doorknob and bursting into tears because she can't!
THE CHURCH HAS BECOME SO HOLY and SO OUT OF THIS WORLD and so far beyond anything to which this present generation could attain in the way of pretended holiness, at least. It's pretty self-righteous and hypocritical because they're really not what they pretend to be. That's the ideal of a Christian is to be perfect, you know, absolute holiness and sinless perfection. He doesn't do anything wrong, he always is faithful with church and tithes and he doesn't play cards or dance or smoke or lust after women or do anything evil. Or go to movies, although they've kind of relaxed that a bit since they all have TV now!
BUT THE CHURCH STANDARD WAS SO HIGH that the average sinner looked at it and figured, "Well, it's just unattainable, no hopes for me, no use for me, I never could make it! I could never be a church member, I could never be that good."--Although he could see through a lot of the hypocrisy and a lot of the hypocrites that he had to do business with and how crooked they could be and what phonies they were on the outside. Of course, that didn't help him to have much faith in them either.
THEY HELD UP A STANDARD WHICH TO THE SINNER WAS TOTALLY OUT OF THEIR REACH and UNATTAINABLE and THERE WAS NO USE TRYING. On the other hand, they saw that the church members themselves were hypocrites and did not measure up to that standard at all! Therefore they were ready to, and did, throw overboard the whole Church System, because they held the standard up too high for them to live up to, and on the other hand were phonies themselves and hypocrites because they didn't live up to it either, they couldn't. So they junked the whole system.
BUT THE CHURCH ITSELF DOESN'T DARE ADMIT THAT ANY OF THEIR OWN MADE A MISTAKE or was wrong or committed a sin or was not infallible, because they've got to claim infallibility like the Pope, yet every one of'm's a Pope! The Protestants vilify the Catholics and criticise the Pope for his claim of infallibility, and every one of'm claims infallibility!
THAT'S WHY KING DAVID IS SUCH A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE, because he was such a mess and he did make so many mistakes and committed horrible sins! And yet the Lord forgave him and used him. I must say, he was my ideal! Because I always figured, "Well, if he made it, I guess I can make it!"
I NEVER EXPECTED TO ATTAIN TO HIS HEIGHTS OF GLORY and BEAUTY and PSALMISTRY and PROPHECY and KINGLINESS and ALL THE REST, but I figured if a great man like that can be such a great sinner, well then I guess there's some hopes for this little sinner! I won't necessarily be a great man, but at least maybe I can be a little man for the Lord and not just give up and quit trying altogether.
IN A WAY, THAT'S THE WAY THE CHURCH, I THINK, ALWAYS AFFECTED ME. I was like Ironside. He was reared in a Holiness Church and he had secret sins etc. that he knew were sins, yet all the time on the outside, he like all the rest of the hypocrites in his church kept pretending that they had attained sinless perfection, that they never sinned anymore because they had this second work of grace of the Holiness experience of eradication and that God had cut out all the old self and sin and they were now absolutely totally sinlessly perfect and couldn't sin.
WELL, HE WAS HONEST WITH HIMSELF, AT LEAST, HE KNEW IT WAS A LIE. He knew it wasn't so, with him at least, and he knew with most of the people he saw around him that he saw in church it wasn't so either, in spite of their hypocrisy and pretense and their show. Well, he finally got so frustrated and so worried that it got him down sick and he wound up with tuberculosis and landed in a tubercular sanitarium!
BUT THERE HE GOT TO REALLY READING HIS BIBLE and FINALLY WOKE UP TO THE FACT THAT IT WAS ALL BY GRACE, that it had nothing to do with your own sinless perfection or any kind of perfection that you had to absolutely be perfect and never sin and never make a mistake. That we're all fallible, we all make mistakes, we all have sins and it's all the grace of God! It's only His love and mercy and His grace and His sacrifice on Calvary that saves us! Nothing else! Nothing!
HE WAS GLORIOUSLY SAVED THEN! He realised he was saved for the first time when he had saving faith in the blood of Christ and in Christ's salvation. And I think it was that same verse that came to me before I ever ran across his book. It shows you how the Lord was working with me when I first was baptised with the Holy Spirit when I was 19, and trying to teach me these things.
MY FOLKS WEREN'T REALLY STRONG HOLINESS OR PRUDISH, BUT THERE WAS THAT HANGOVER from the Holiness background that, well, you had to be pretty good, maybe not perfect but you had to be very very good! You might slip a little bit once in awhile, but if you quick repent and ask the Lord to forgive you, you're not going to go to Hell, you know?
SO HE THEN WROTE THE BOOK: "GRACE PLUS FAITH PLUS NOTHING!"--Which was a shocker to a lot of those church people and he really socked it to'm that they were a bunch of hypocrites, they weren't perfect, and they ought to wake up and confess it. He finally confessed it himself in the tubercular sanitarium dying of tuberculosis!
HE HAD TO FACE GOD and DEATH and HE GOT DESPERATE, read the Bible and came to the same conclusion, made the same discovery that dear Martin Luther did who also had a Holiness background in the Holiness Catholic Church which pretended to be holy and pretended to be perfect and its Pope infallible but it was as big a mess as the World if not worse because it claimed to be what it wasn't!
WHEN THE LORD TALKED ABOUT LUST, HE DIDN'T SAY IT WAS POSSIBLE NOT TO LUST AFTER WOMEN. He was showing those hypocrites what sinners they already were! They were so strong against adultery and they'd stone women to death for it! I don't know why they always let the men get off so easy!
BUT HE WAS SAYING, "NOW LISTEN, YOU GUYS ARE GOING AROUND LOOKING AT WOMEN LUSTFULLY ALL THE TIME, and in so doing you've already committed adultery with her in your heart!" (Mt.5:28) He was merely showing up their wickedness and their sinfulness in spite of their pretense of righteousness, their self-righteousness and their hypocrisy.
HE WASN'T SAYING IT WAS POSSIBLE NOT TO LUST AFTER WOMEN, BUT THIS IS WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES!: "Oh my, if you really are a Christian and saintly you'll never lust after another woman!" I mean, that's as ridiculous as saying to a guy that's hungry and sees a gorgeous delicious meal and smells it that that's lustful, that's greed, that's gluttony to see and smell a delicious food when you're hungry and want it, you shouldn't want it, tsk tsk!
IT'S A NATURAL HUNGER! IT'S A PERFECTLY NORMAL PHYSICAL DESIRE WHICH GOD PUT IN US TO FULFIL HIS PURPOSE OF PROCREATION!--To lust after nearly every woman we see and want to fuck her if we can in order to make sure that His creations are made, His children are created! I sat there in church many times trying to look saintly and trying to be good and trying not to think those thoughts, but it was impossible! 40. MY GRANDMOTHER USED TO SAY, "YOU CAN'T KEEP BIRDS FROM FLYING OVER YOUR HEAD, BUT YOU SURE CAN KEEP THEM FROM BUILDING A NEST IN YOUR HAIR!"--when she was talking about evil thoughts. And I thought to myself, "My Lord, it's hopeless! I keep batting these birds away but they keep coming down here and settling in my head anyhow, and they certainly have built a nest on my hair and I can't even seem to shoo'm out! 41. "NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY, I CAN'T THINK PERFECTLY PURE HOLY THOUGHTS--according to the standards of the church--I just cannot keep'm out of my head! I can't look at a pretty woman without admiring her and longing for her and just wishing I could touch her and love her and hug her and kiss her and fuck her!" I mean, it was just impossible! 42. SOME OF THOSE WOMEN WHO CAME TO CHURCH IN THOSE FILMY FLIMSY DRESSES in Florida where it was hot, I'll tell you, you could see plenty and you wanted more!--and it was mighty hard--in fact, it was impossible--not to lust after them, just impossible! So I just figured I was a hopeless case, I was a sex maniac, I must be a pervert because I was jacking off, masturbating all the time in private, "I guess I've got a hopeless secret sin!" 43. I READ ALL THESE LITTLE CHURCHY BOOKS ON SEX and they said that people like that always became diseased and went crazy and became morons and went to insane asylums, and if you did those things you'd really become an absolute degenerate! So I just figured there was no use for me, I was a hopeless case! I must be the worst sinner that ever lived! 44. SUCH A SAINTLY and GODLY MOTHER and FATHER and SUCH A CHURCH UPBRINGING and all the knowledge I had, and oh boy, the Scriptures used to go through my head! "He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck!"--I wasn't hardening my neck but I was sure hardening my penie! I just was waiting for that awful fearful looking for of judgement that comes "if we wilfully sin after having the knowledge of the truth!" (He.10:26,27) And boy, those Scriptures kept drumming into you in their Holiness churches! 45. SO I THOUGHT, "WELL, THE BEST I CAN DO, AT LEAST I CAN BE A HELP TO MY MOTHER and HELP HER PREACH THE GOSPEL. I can't, I'm not good enough, how could I ever preach to other people when I myself am such a vile filthy sinner so full of this corruption of the lust of the flesh and I'm anything but perfect. I'm a weak sinner and sex was my big sin and my temptation, I couldn't seem to overcome it, I just could not overcome my sexual feelings and my lustful cravings for sex." 46. WELL, GOD NEVER EXPECTS YOU TO OVERCOME IT! How could He expect you to overcome your natural appetites that He gave you and created to satisfy your natural needs?--Such as food, or such as fresh air, the desire to work and play and exercise and have sex! 47. LOOK AT OUR CHILDREN, IF YOU CONTINUALLY TELL TECHI TO SIT DOWN and BE STILL, SHE'D PROBABLY JUST GO TO PIECES!--Because she's so active and so full of life and motion every moment! You can't make a little child that small really be still and be quiet for any length of time unless they're asleep! It's just not natural! They're perpetual motion. 48. THE DESIRE FOR ACTION and EXERCISE IS A NATURAL APPETITE, and for food, it's a natural appetite, your desire to breathe air is a natural appetite. If you've got to overcome all these desires for things that you enjoy--including sex!--you'd be like the farmer and the cow. He said he got her used to going without feed and he would have got her used to going without water too if she hadn't died! 49. WELL, THAT'S ABOUT THE WAY THE CHURCH TEACHES! Now you've got to get used to going without food and satisfaction of these natural physical desires before you can become a real Christian and a saint. You've got to overcome all these natural carnal cravings. * * * * * * * * * * 93. WELL, I APPRECIATE THOSE GOOD OLD HYMNS and GOSPEL SONGS TOO and I SING'M, but I have even delayed for years even singing them or giving them to this generation for fear they will remind them of church and they will get that church quirk! It's a mental conditioning that people like us get who have been in church all their lives. 94. FOR A LONG TIME AFTER I HAD LEFT THE CHURCH I HAD REAL CHURCH BLUES and qualms and nostalgia periods of real homesickness for the church again, to want to be back on stage and singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs amongst the saints and all that beautiful music and all that nice peace and quiet and just with people who know and love the Lord and out of the World and separated from the hubbub of the System, and church was a little bit of Heaven on Earth. Just like our Homes! 95. BUT THE CHURCH HAD SO FAILED and LOST THE VISION FOR GETTING OUT INTO THE WORLD SOMETIME TO WITNESS, pass tracts and win souls, that they had gone in for nothing but fellowship and nothing but selfish self-feeding of the Word, and they were over-stuffed with it and they were not giving it out at all. They were not witnessing, they were not winning souls, they were not getting out the Gospel, passing tracts, they were not going out as missionaries. So I just got fed up with it! 96. I THOUGHT, WELL, IT'S ALL SELFISHNESS! They've gone overboard on this fellowship thing and feeding on the Word and this saintly separation from the World to where they will hardly even go out on a street corner to pass tracts, much less into a bar and witness and try to win souls! So I got fed up. I saw that that for sure was not where it was at. 97. I COULD SEE THAT IN SPITE OF ITS CLAIM OF HOLINESS and SAINTLINESS and its holding up ideals of such perfection, that the church itself was very very immature, imperfect and even corrupt in the eyes of God in failing to obey to do the biggest job God ever asked them to do!--And that was to get out and love others, give'm God's message of love and salvation and woo and win them to the Lord! 98. SO I'VE GONE TO THE OPPOSITE EXTREME: WE'VE LEFT THE CHURCH ENTIRELY and all that churchianity and beautiful fellowship and organ music and lullabies and the fellowship of only the holy saintly saints and the purity of it all and the beauty of it all and the peace of it all, the quiet of it all, the separation of it all from the World. You have that feeling when you walk in to some of these big churches. 99. I LOVE TO WALK INTO CATHOLIC CHURCHES, IT'S SO NICE and QUIET and PEACEFUL and away from the din on the public street out front, it's beautiful. It really inspires you to pray, and I must admit, it gives you a feeling of closeness to Infinity and the spiritual and prayer and the saints and God and all of that, it's beautiful. My Dad said, "If you really want to go in for church, why don't you become a Catholic? They've got more church than anybody!" 100. HE WAS PRETTY MUCH OF A RADICAL REBEL REVOLUTIONARY, IF YOU ASK ME! It was amazing how much he knew. I guess I got a lot of it from both him and my mother. He was a little more radical about some things than she was, and she about some things than he was, so there was a good balance. 101. BUT WE HAD TO BREAK AWAY FROM ALL OF THAT IN ORDER TO GET BACK TO THE BASICS, that the love of God is not templeism and temple-worship, and being a Christian isn't just going to church, but that God's only law is love, love of others and love of God, and not just going to church on Sunday. * * * * * 102. VIRTUALLY THE CHURCH'S ONLY LAW IS GO TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY, and if you'll come to church on Sunday, they'll forgive you for almost anything, especially if you put enough in the waste basket! It doesn't matter what kind of an ungodly cigar-smoking wicked politician you are outside, or a crooked businessman or anything else, if you will just deign to come to their services on Sunday and sit there and look pious and saintly and put enough in the waste basket, then they will just about forgive you for anything! 103. THEY FIGURE, "WELL, HE MUST BE A SAINT, AFTER ALL, HE COMES TO MY CHURCH ON SUNDAY! There must be something good about him, even if he's a crooked politician all week long, or a crooked businessman. He comes and he brings his wife and he brings his children to Sunday School, and he attends church faithfully, he's a faithful supporter." 104. AND THAT'S THEIR ONLY LAW, REALLY, THEIR CARDINAL LAW, IS THE LAW OF FELLOWSHIP. Well, it is one of God's requirements, you might say, it's really more of a manifestation of His Law of Love, that we love each other as Christians and want to be together and fellowship, but it is not the only manifestation and should not be like the churches. * * * * * 108. IT'S LIKE I USED TO TRY TO TELL THOSE CHURCH PEOPLE, I said, "Listen, you call this meeting we're having here tonight or this morning in church service? It's not a service for anybody but the preacher and the song leader and the organist and the choir and the ushers. It's not a service! You're not working, you're just sitting there enjoying it! How can you call it your service for God just because you come to church on Sunday morning? 109. "HOW CAN YOU PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK and GIVE YOURSELF CREDIT FOR SERVING GOD just because you came in here and enjoyed this gorgeous music and this pure pretty pious pulpit platitude and all this beautiful fellowship? How can you call that service for God? This is a part of your enjoyment! This is like sitting down to a spiritual meal and a feast and enjoying it, it's not work!"--Although I must admit, some people figured that going to church was work and they hated it. And I don't much blame some of them, some of those sermons were dead as doornails and dry as crackerdust ten miles from a glass of water! 110. BUT YOU SEE, THEY WENT OVERBOARD ON THE FELLOWSHIP and the separation of the saints from the World to where they got so far separated and so distant from the rest of the World, they couldn't touch'm with a ten-foot pole! There was such a great gulf fixed between'm, they seemed to think they were already in Heaven and the wicked World was already in Hell and they weren't allowed to pass over! 111. I MEAN, TO WALK INTO A BAR, A CHRISTIAN! TO WITNESS! "My God, what will the other church members think of me if they even happen to see me?! I would be disgraced! I would be in contempt of the whole church, they'd probably have a special meeting, call me down for prayer or something"--if it was a very spiritual church. * * * * * 122. WHEREAS THE CHURCHES, THEY'RE LIKE SALT SHAKERS! They keep all the salt inside the salt shaker and they never shake it out. They never get it out and shake it around where it will do any good! Not only that, they've sat around in the salt shaker so long and gotten so stale, they've lost their savour and are good for nothing but to be cast forth and trodden under foot! (Mt.5:13) 123. THEY'VE LOST THEIR SAVING POWER, THEIR WITNESSING POWER, THEIR SHAKE-IT-UP POWER! What God's trying to do with some of these churches is grab that salt shaker and turn it upside-down and shake some of the salt out and get it out where it will do some good! And that's what He used me for a lot in going around to those churches. Boy, I turned them upside-down and shook'm up and shook'm out until the preachers threw me out! * * * * * 126. I FINALLY SHOWED THE CHRISTIANS IN THOSE CHURCHES THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING EVERYBODY COULD DO, there was a job for everybody--and not just in church, and not just on Sunday morning! You can get out all week long--at work or school or play or whatever--and you could witness and you could win souls and you could work for the Lord all day long, every day of the week, just by being a witness of His saving grace. 127. NOT NECESSARILY A SHINING SAINTLY HOLY PERFECT EXAMPLE of some kind of an angelic saint or something, but you can work alongside'm at the same job or sit alongside'm at the same kind of desk at school or whatever, and still be different, a little bit different, at least. You're happy, you smile more, you shine more, you've got satisfaction in life because you've found the Lover of all lovers, the Lover and Creator of life! 128. YOU'VE GOT A GOAL, YOU'VE GOT AN INTEREST, YOU'VE GOT FULFILMENT, SATISFACTION! You're telling others about the love of God, you're manifesting the love of God, you're obeying the Law of Love, you're loving others, even to the limit or without limit, and it makes you happy. Even if you can't be a saint or even if you can't be some kind of an angel that the church expects you to be, at least you can be a sort of a sinning saint, and most of all, a winning saint, witnessing and winning souls for the Lord. 129. YOU'RE GONNA BE OUT THERE and THEY CAN SEE YOU, FEEL YOU, TOUCH YOU. "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me!" "Why, it's real! Here you are right next to me, even in bed with me, and you really love me, but you love God too! How about that!" That's the kind of love they never heard about before. 130. MY GOD, THE AVERAGE CHURCH MEMBER WOULD NEVER EVEN GO NEAR'M ON THE STREETS! Like the Scribes and the Pharisees, they would pull their garments aside to make sure they didn't even touch'm, much less go to bed with'm! The average church member would never go into their bars or their honky-tonks or their habitats and their dives to witness to'm and win'm and show'm any love. The Holiness and holiest church people avoid the sinners like the plague and wouldn't even go near'm! * * * * * 144. COMMUNIST PEOPLE and GOVERNMENTS ARE FED UP WITH CHURCHIANITY! They're sick of it and they hate it and they know it's not it, and so they try to destroy it. And so they restricted the Christians--at least the church Christians who insisted on going to church--and when they told them that they had to come to work on Sunday, they refused to go to work and went to church instead and of course they got in trouble with the law and the government and thrown in jail and all that sort of thing. * * * * * 158. WELL, I HAVE REALLY MAYBE OVER-WEIGHTED THE SCALE ON THIS SIDE AGAINST THE CHURCHES' IDEALS OF SAINTLINESS to give our own people and the sinner hope that there's a chance for him and hopes for him to be a Christian without being a sinless saint. On the other hand, I think there is probably some good in showing what some exceptional saints have suffered and survived, that it is possible that some can reach and attain such heights. 165. BUT THE CHURCH HAS PUT THE DOORKNOB TOO HIGH to where most people try to stretch and reach for it and are unable to attain it. Even Paul said, "I do not count myself to have attained." (Ph.3:12) He hadn't reached the state of sinless perfection yet himself. He hadn't attained to what kind of a saint he would even like to be. He knew he was still a human. 166. BUT THE CHURCH HAS PUT THE DOORKNOB TOO HIGH and MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYBODY TO REACH except some of the sinless adult saints who claim that they are big enough to do it and seem to be able to do it. But I guess it looks to me like most of us must be children and there are mighty few adults in the church that can reach it and mighty few saints in the church who have attained to that height and had that ability to reach that knob and turn it and open that door to heavenly saintliness and sacrifice and suffering and perfection. The doorknob's just too high for most of us and so many have just given up, quit! * * * * * 185. SO WHAT I'M ASKING YOU IS THIS, IF WE'RE GOING TO BEGIN TO DARE TO SHARE SOME OF THE TRULY SHINING EXAMPLES OF SAINTLINESS, of the great heroes of the church and even modern Christian heroes, are we going to make that the ideal, the goal, as the supposed standard which we all should be able to live up to and eventually attain? Or are we going to merely present this as, 186. "LOOK, YOU THINK YOU HAVE IT BAD? You think you've got it tough? You think you're having a hard time? Well, look at these people! Look what they did! Look what they went through! Look what they suffered and yet they made it. You ought to be thankful you don't have to go through that!" I mean, if anything, reading that kind of stories makes you so thankful that you're not put under that kind of pressure and torture and persecution and trial, that God has made it so easy on most of us so that we can make it. 210. SO MY FINAL OPINION ON THAT IS, LET'S NOT GET BACK INTO THAT SAME RUT THE CHURCH IS IN WHERE THEY HAVE MADE SAINTHOOD IMPOSSIBLE!--In fact, where they have made even being a Christian impossible for most of us sinners. Right? But let's keep our cookies on the bottom shelf--I even want to put'm on the floor so that our little babies can crawl around and get into'm and get the nourishment they need! * * * * * 214. (MARIA: WELL, IN VIEW OF ALL THAT, IT'S PROBABLY BETTER TO JUST FORGET IT, forget the great saints and great missionaries.) No, no, no, I wouldn't say that. (Maria: I'd like to say what my impression was upon reading that. I agree with everything you said, it's completely true and it's right and that's the way it is, but just my personal impression--maybe it's because I'm just a little dumb--but when I read those testimonies I didn't get that point out of it. Maybe I was taking it the wrong way, but to me, I thought, 215. ("OH, WELL MOST OF THEM WERE GREAT MISSIONARIES OF THE CHURCH and SORT OF LIKE OUR KIDS!" I sort of identified with them, like our kids have gone through really tough battles and they're going to be going through more as times get harder and the Tribulation, because a lot of our kids are going to go through the Tribulation. But the Lord's going to strengthen them so they may get to the point where they have to go through maybe just as hard times as some of these missionaries went through, but the Lord will give them power for the hour. 216. (I THOUGHT THE KIDS WILL SORT OF IDENTIFY WITH A LOT OF THESE PEOPLE. Not the two that spent 14 years in prison or something, that's really extreme and I agree with that, but the other hardships of these other missionaries, I think some of our kids have even gone through the same type of thing already. 217. (AND WHEN I READ THESE WHEN I WAS LITTLE, I THOUGHT, "WELL, I DON'T KNOW IF I'LL EVER HAVE TO DO THAT OR ATTAIN TO IT," but it gave me hopes that if I ever did have to, there were some people that had gone on before and had gone through the same thing! So therefore, "Well, Lord, now I know somebody else has done it so I can do it if I ever have to!") Amen, Honey! That's a good way to present the positive. * * * * * 227. (MARIA: WELL, JUST BECAUSE MOST OF THEM ARE HYPOCRITICAL DOESN'T MEAN THAT SOME OF THEM HAVEN'T BEEN VERY GOOD EXAMPLES.) Right. This is what we have now gently, gingerly, very prayerfully and hesitantly tried to do. We have gone the full circle in the Revolution and we have come back now to where we feel our people, our Family, our children, our Members are sufficiently established in the faith and strong enough that although they were once extremists like me and couldn't tolerate the church or Christians at all, we're trying now to teach'm that there were some real Christians in the churches, there were some real saints, there were some real Godly people a lot like us who were outstanding witnesses and missionaries for the Lord and lived by faith like us! 228. THERE WAS SOME GOOD IN THE CHURCH and there were a few things in the church which we can emulate and still imitate and a few things about it that were good, like Sunday School, and like the fellowship and the sweet old Gospel hymns of praise to the Lord and the cute little kids choruses and the Bible Pictures and the Vacation Bible School type of training for our children, visual aids, flannelgraphs. We've even gone now to the extremes of puppets and videos and all kinds of audio and visual aids. 229. THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS THE CHURCH HAD WHICH WERE VERY GOOD and which we can dare now to imitate, emulate and even maybe assimilate and absorb and do ourselves without being afraid of becoming like the churches. I've even now gone to this almost final ultimate step which is as close to being churches--and I've even called them churches--of the Local Fellowships, Group Fellowships etc. (Maria: and telling them to invade the churches.) Yes, infiltrate the churches. * * * * * 244. AS LONG AS WE GO INTO THIS WITH OUR EYES OPEN and AWARE OF THE DANGERS and the pitfalls and the bogs and the temptations of it, like the dear pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress, as long as you're aware of the dangers of the church and its teachings and its bad habits and its hypnotism, as long as you're aware of it, well, then there may be a few good things we can find if we pick away carefully through all the trash and all the garbage and all the dangerous sharp tin cans and broken bottles and junk. 245. LET'S HOPE WE CAN PICK OUT A FEW THINGS THAT MIGHT BE REAL JEWELS, precious jewels and precious things and valuables that are worth salvaging from the church and churchianity and church practices. (Maria: Or if we can see that these great men and women of God didn't actually belong to the church, the church didn't possess them, but God possessed them, then they belong to our Family as much as they belong to the church! They belong to our Worldwide Family of God!) Right! 246. THEY BELONG TO THE CHURCH, BUT NOT NECESSARILY THE CHURCHES. Many of them were not even church people. Many of them never had much experience with the church till they came out of their country and came to America etc. and preached in churches as shining examples of sainthood, the church parading them around supposedly as a product of the church, which they were not. 247. THEY WERE NOT CHURCH PRODUCTS AT ALL, they were products of some faithful poor little humble missionaries witnessing out on the field someplace or even reading the Bible, literature, without any human assistance, or even a vision of God. 248. SOME OF THE GREATEST ONES HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CHURCH, at least until later in their experience, in their testimony. And when they saw what churches were like they were so sick and fed up with them they quit'm and went back to their field and their missionary place etc. 249. THEY ONLY WENT TO THE WEST and THE SICKENING CHURCHES LONG ENOUGH TO PREACH TO THEM what they ought to be doing and condemn'm that they're going to be judged by God for their failures! In fact, so much so that obviously the church didn't like'm and sent'm back where they came from! 250. SO I AGREE THAT THEY ARE MARVELLOUS, WONDERFUL SHINING EXAMPLES of faith and service and practice and witness and even suffering, surviving tests for their testimony, and can be an inspiration, I think, to our Family!--If we keep our eyes open, if we don't fall into the trap of falling back into the feeling and the doctrines of the church that this is what you've got to be. 251. IF WE CAN SHOW THAT THESE PEOPLE WERE PRETTY MUCH LIKE US and this is something you already are, in a way, and that there were people like you in the church and in Christianity before you--and even not so long ago much like you--this should encourage you and be an inspiration to you and a blessing to know that there were real Christians like you and even real Christians in the churches who in spite of the churches and everything, they left their church and went to the foreign field and became real missionaries, by faith, forsook all. 252. THEY WENT INTO ALL THE WORLD and PREACHED THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE THEY COULD FIND, they left their churches and they went out there and suffered privation and persecution and forsook all and are much like our own Family. I think that is a good thing to hold before them. And I was certainly inspired by reading these testimonies and thrilled to be amazed and to admire that there could be such marvellous Christians, far beyond my own experience and my own testings of sufferings, I think. * * * * * 255. IT'S GOOD FOR THEM TO SEE THAT THERE ARE OTHERS SORT OF LIKE US and that we're not the only ones. That there are other Christians in the World and have been other Christians in the World who have been like us and who have obeyed the Lord and who've forsaken all and gone into all the World to preach the Gospel to every creature. 256. (MARIA: WE JUST DIDN'T JUMP FROM NEW TESTAMENT TIME and THE 12 DISCIPLES UP TO NOW, but over that long period of time there've been other Christians who really loved Jesus and really lived for the Lord, and still are a few.) Amen! And I, of course, confessed that I am from a third or fourth or more generation of preachers, my family. * * * * * 275. I WAS INSPIRED BY READING THE BOOK REVIEWS OF FAMOUS HEROES OF THE CHURCH and I was inspired by their examples. "True Stories of Great Men and Women of Faith", now that's a good way to put it, not heroes. Hardly anybody can ever hope to be a hero. and he didn't say of the church either, but of faith, that's good. * * * * * 280. WELL, I CERTAINLY KNEW THAT and I SAW THAT, THAT THERE WERE SOME REAL GENUINE CHRISTIANS IN THE CHURCHES, but I wouldn't say that they were any credit to the churches or churchianity or church doctrines or really were a fruit of the church or its products, as much as a fruit of the Word and somebody's witness and God's love. They were real outstanding Christians, I would say, in spite of the churches--not because of churchianity but in spite of it. In fact, they stood out and shone as amazing exceptions to the regular run of Christians, right? (Maria: Yes, definitely!) * * * * * 286. WE'RE NOT TRYING TO GET PEOPLE INTO THE CHURCHES, WE'RE TRYING TO GET PEOPLE OUT OF THE CHURCHES and INTO THE WORLD!--All the World, to preach the Gospel to every creature! Too long the preachers have tried to get people into the churches, and they haven't been too successful at that. It's even harder to get church people out of the churches to witness and win souls and go into all the World as missionaries and preach the Gospel to every creature.
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
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