So, Thanksgiving is over here in the States, and life is ~fairly~ back to normal, so let's go on to Lesson 9, in which Mike & Sue discuss:
A HEBRAIC PERSPECTIVE
Life As A Pilgrimage
The Answered Prayer of The Righteous
The Home, The Basic Spiritual Building Block
Fellowship of Extended Spiritual Family
If profundity comes, please share in the comments. :)
I'll try to keep this short, but you must know what an encouragement your site is to me. Sure, I know that I'm not "the only one" but I still struggle a great deal with church, family and others who want to squeeze me into their mold. The Lord is continuously setting me free from it and my desire is to follow. But the suspicious eyes, the subtle hints and the outright ignorant comments of the deceived/brainwashed fire up a defense mode in me that I must let the Lord have control of. I find myself questioning almost everything held in high regard by most. It's most pitiful when I try to explain my reasons for doing things the way I do. I find myself tip-toeing round and round the Truth. Gentleness is necessary I know - but I am leaning too far on the side of cowardice because I am so very different - I'm questioning myself sometimes. My point is this - seeing that you too are fighting this wickedly constructed system of beliefs, strengthens me. It helps so much to know that I am not the only one who thinks splitting the family when we arrive at church seems, well...divisive and spiritually harmful. This among MANY other practices trouble me. It seems I'm the only one in my church (maybe). I'm 32 years old and my 57 year old preacher informed me that I'm old-fashioned because having a pool table in "children's church" didn't seem right to me. And the crazy thing is - I've visited other churches and the one I'm presently at seems to be the most conservative. I've even considered attending a local Mennonite (service/ gathering?) but I just didn't feel led in this direction and after research didn't feel I squared with some of their teachings, though I respect them.
ReplyDeleteThere is one older couple in my church that try to strongly influence our congregation toward Messianic Judaism (don't know if my terminology is right) because there is so little interest/teaching in the history of our faith. But I sank my teeth into the resources they generously supplied for us. It was discovering missing pieces to a beautiful puzzle. So, I am printing the lessons you've linked and after reading a few I feel sure to be blessed and strengthened by them. But I will have to lag behind.
Thank you for your work and commitment to the Lord.
Please pray that the Lord will strengthen me so that I will stand firm - EVEN if I cannot find another who is seeking the old paths as well.
Oh how I wish you were my neighbor.
Weak, but strong in Him ~ Jamie :)
Hi Jamie and Julie and others--
ReplyDeleteWe too are in the "weird" looking camp. Recently I received some encouaging words from "like-minded" folks that I thought would also be encouraging to share here.
When others ask "why we do or don't do this or that" ...
my friend shared "We start from the perspective that [unfortunately] most folks really don’t want to know the truth, but they’re really just curious. (John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.). And we try to be ever conscious that the “traditions of men” are very strong forces that people unconsciously defend with varying levels of vigor. "
He went on to also say "Plus, we are responsible to walk out what God has called us to walk out, and leave others to do the same.
Most folks really don’t want to know something that may convict them and we “don’t need to cast our pearls before swine”, but I want to be ready with a full answer if “I see that my Father is drawing them” to Truth. "
My husband and I are still very "raw" with all of this and tend to either say too much and cause harm or say too little. It's such a fine line we have to walk, therefore I just want to be in the shadow of His Wing and point others not to me but always and only to Yeshua.
Limping along in my weakness too :)
Amy
Thank you so much for your encouragement and wise advice. I have to constantly be reminded that I was held captive to much of the same things at one time myself---and how prideful of me to think I am not deceived even still in many ways (definitely working on that, though). Amy, you hit the nail on the head---keeping it steady on a fine line is just what we must do. And, we are pretty "raw" as well. Good description.
ReplyDeleteBlessings to you all ~ Jamie
After reading through this lesson, my thoughts have been drawn toward being more diligent about keeping track... recording for myself and the children... my prayer life, and the answers received.
ReplyDeleteThe answers received will be a concrete way of pointing to Yahweh and giving praise to Him, but the unanswered prayers, I have also been led to track.
Yes, unanswered prayer can be just a matter of Yahweh saying, "No", or "Not now", but I have recently been more convicted that they can be a means of pinpointing unconfessed sin in my life, at least for consistently unanswered prayer.
(Mike D. said to Mr.Visionary that, when receiving counsel from someone, he takes into consideration their prayer life...because... he knows that someone with consistently answered prayer has the Father's ear.)
On another note... another thing that we found very difficult was answering the last two questions in this lesson. Discerning why we are involved in the faith communities we are in is an exercise of deep heart searching. We were troubled and frustrated when we finally got honest with ourselves about *why* we were in certain of the faith communities in which we found ourselves. Our experience has shown that the more honest we are in answering, the stronger a conviction is built... and a corresponding amount of grace to obey whatever the conviction is.