Back-Slider Phobia and How to Overcome it

Back-slider phobia is an intense and debilitating fear of coming into face to face contact with someone who slid back out the prison doors of a religious system.

Symptoms include but are not limited to:

• Avoiding areas where the back-slider may show up; If you do come into close contact with a backslider, you may experience unlcear thinking, anxiety, sweating, churning of the stomach, difficulty breathing, and an intense urge to run. Being alone intensifies your symptoms
• Persistant images of the back-slider and an obsession of what you would say and how you would act in the case of an unfortunate encounter
• Secretly scanning their social media sites for evidence of the corruption their new found freedom has caused them
• Unrealistic fears of being poisoned or destroyed by the back slider
• Avoiding any sincere and honest conversation with them unless you feel sure it is only to get them back into the prison
• An addiction to conversations with others about the imagined pitiful condtion of the back slider
• Superstitious beliefs that any misfortune befalling the backslider is God’s punishment for their escape
• Secret and hidden desires to be a brave and genuine, free-flying backslider
• Feeling powerlessness believing that the backslider will overcome you and lead to you to your destruction
• Fear that intimate conversation with a backslider will stir up all those unanswered questions that you put on a back-burner years ago and left there
• Resentment and even hatred towards the backslider due to personal abandonment issues

Things you can do to overcome the Back-slider Phobia

1. Exposure: As with any phobia, you need short periods of exposure. Start by just looking at a picture of them. Notice what comes up. Is it sadness, fear, hatred, anger? Acknowledge those feelings and realize that they are about you and not the back-slider. Gradually work up to exposure, perhaps in a gathering with your safe people. Consistent exposure is pertinent. Try and be in their presence for a few minutes, extending it to longer and longer periods of time, until that uncomfortable, stress-filled feeling over their presence begins to dissipate and you can once again see them as just a human being like you.
2. Own your fears: Realize that your fears over the backslider are rooted in your own insecurities about the prison house you are stuck in and not about where the person you once loved and “fellowshiped” with is or what they are doing today.
3. Give Yourself a Reality Check: Start acknowledging the misfortunes in your own life as part of life and not God’s punishments or tests of your faithfulness.
4. Think Positively: Develop a healthier view of a loving God rather than focusing on a wrathful God. Try and see the good in the backslider instead of looking for evidence of bad.
5. Get in Touch with Yourself: Explore your own insecurities of abandonment- consider seeing a therapist and definitely do some inner child work.
6. Create Healthy Boundaries: Realize that the backslider is exactly where they need to be in their own personal journey and it is not your job to judge them or pray them back to the prison house. They made a choice and so did you.
7. Redirect Your Hatred and Resentment: Make a list of all the things you would change about that person to make them acceptable to you. Next, close your eyes and see those things you would change about them in your own self. Remember how we react to others simply mirrors something that we see in ourselves.
8. Exercise Emotional Intelligence: Try and see things from the backsliders point of view. Understand that they hurt, cry, feel angry and agitated sometimes, they love, feel passion and want to be happy and feel good just like  YOU!
9. Take Responsibility for Your Part: Make a list of the reasons you believe the backslider left the prison house. Did you encourage any of those reasons? Did you play a part in pushing them further away?
10. Challenge the Reality of Your Fear: Realize that you have these fears for a reason. Where did they come from? Are they legitimate fears? How so? You have been made to believe that backsliders are bad people and that they are dangerous and need to be avoided. Challenge this mentality as it really has nothing to do with the love of God as it does with the agendas of the religious affiliation.

Remember that fear is the lowest vibrational emotion that exists.

Irrational fears keep you from the love of God, but perfect love casts out fear.

God does not want us to fear but to love.

God does not want us to judge but to accept.

God does not want us to control but to set people free!

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Don’t Judge Me

Like my new FB page: High Vibes Life

“Don’t judge me” is probably one of the most common phrases thrown out there by humanity. People do not like to be judged by others because they feel like others lack real insight into their own personal situation; and for the most part, this is absolutely true. Even the bible admonishes us about judging in scriptures such as Mathew 7:1 “Judge not, that ye may not be judged” and Romans 14:13 “Let us not therefore judge one another any more.”

But the reality is, we all judge. Insomuch as you declare, “do not judge me” you are judging; you have judged those you believe are judging you.

Judge: To form an opinion about something after careful thought; to regard as either good or bad

There really is no escaping judgement- neither giving or receiving it. So what are these scripture in the Bible about? Let us look at the amplified version of Matthew 7:1-2:

Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. ² For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.

A problem arises when we sit on a pedestal, believing ourselves to be more special or deserving than the hypocrite, the murderer, the thief, the adulterous, the one who disobeys… We cease to see our own spiritual infidelities. Our hearts become unrepentant. We forget that we are all made of the same dirt and will all return to that dirt. Thinking we have judged rightly, we will find in the end that we have misjudged our own position before God. This also carries over to putting some people in higher esteem than others.

You see, the one condemned in your eyes, is the one Jesus Christ died for. The one whom you think yourself superior too, this is the one that “God so loved, that he gave his only begotten Son” for. That one that you have disregarded? That is the one that Christ is seeking to save.

Most people believe they are not judging. But let us consider some trigger words. What sort of thoughts come to mind when you read these words. Ponder them each individually and slowly:

Homosexuality. Muslim. Abortion. Christian. Jesus. Buddha. Science. Family. Gandhi. Mother Theresa. Baptism. Salvation. Heaven. Hell.

This list could be infinite. Each word will conjure up something within your heart, and for each word, you have a personal judgement made about it. The problem does not lie in what your personal perception and understanding of these words is. The problem lies when you attach these labels to people and consequently praise or condemn, befriend or avoid them.

One of the most damaging thoughts out there in our time is the thought of “toxic people.” Many quotes are being circulated in our world about staying away from these toxic-humanoids. Yes, you may as well call it something different than human. This thought process is loaded with judgement and condemnation, because as soon as you have labeled somebody “toxic” you have judged them.

Does that mean that staying away from someone that may harm you or pressure you to go against your own conscience is wrong? No! That is healthy. But, remember, those that deserve our attention the least, may need it the most. If we must, for our own safety, put distance between us and another person, do so with love, praying that this person may get the healing and help they so desperately need. But pushing people out of our lives just because they are different, difficult or not what we expected, is harmful.

Life is not easy- no matter who is in it. This life is meant to teach us lessons and lessons are not learned through ease. We all have a powerful inner-critic at work all the time. Let us not be found guilty of strengthening the inner critic of others.

“Don’t judge me until you have walked a mile in my shoes.” 

Too many wear this like a badge of honor, yet do not honor this in others. We cannot sit a critic and condemner and love at the same time.

Most of religion is set up with walls- enclosing people, codes, regulations, laws, hierarchy and tradition inside walls and judging and excluding those who stay without them. There was a letter written to the Galatians dealing with this very thing in chapter 2 we read:

Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there—false ones, really^[b]—who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations. ⁵ But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. . . ¹⁴ When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? . . . And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. . . I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. ¹⁹ For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. ²⁰ My old self has been crucified with Christ.^[e] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Many times those who sit in judgement get angry when you highlight these scriptures, because they have turned the Bible into their God and have dissected its words and created another system of laws which was never the purpose of Christ. His purpose was to come and light the way of every man. His purpose was to turn us away from the incessant struggle of habitual fleshly sins, and to allow his light to come into our hearts and lead and guide us.

“Don’t judge me!”

This is impossible. No matter how you live your life, someone here will judge you and condemn you. But as we allow the light of Christ to illuminate our hearts and draw closer and closer to this unconditional love, we will no longer feel the need to defend ourselves, nor to judge others. God’s grace and love will suffice us!

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Be Still and Know I AM

The entire reason Christ came to earth was to reconcile mankind to God- God wants to completely embrace us in his love and spirit. He wants to immerse you in himself, just as Moses went up alone on that mountain. He met God after being alone for forty years in the desert.
God told Moses, “I Am that I Am.” 

And Christ told us, “I AM the bread of life;” “I AM the truth, the way, the life;” I AM the living water.” 

People have been looking for God in the wrong place. They keep “going to church,” and church keeps dividing and controlling and confusing them.

God said, “I AM that I AM!”

When Christ was conversing with the woman at the well she said to Him concerning the place they were at, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” John 4:20

The woman was opening up a spiritual argument with Christ about where the right place of worship truly was. The Samaritans were divided against the Jews- they had religious division. 
Christ answered her, (21) “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither in THIS mountain, NOR at Jerusalem worship the Father. You do not even know what you are worshiping. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. (23) But the hour comes, AND IS NOW, when the TRUE worshipers shall worship the Father in SPIRIT and in TRUTH. For the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (emphasis mine)
Jesus put to silence her argument and BROKE DOWN HER WALL OF DIVISION! Amen! Essentially he said, neither one is right- THIS WALL HAS GO! This is NOT what God cares about. What God wants is a true worshiper. (someone who worships from their spirit with honesty)

God wants to isolate you as an individual. Christ taught us that the “Kingdom of God is within you.” 

Religion is just division! “Babylon” is symbolic of religious confusion- all religions erected have become a “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. “ Rev. 18:2-3

They worship the “SYSTEM” instead of GOD- as Christ taught at the well. They cease to be intimate with the true God. They are entangled in their doctrines, creeds, rules and regulations and their belief that these things make them SUPERIOR to all else.  And They have made quite a market of the whole religious system.

Christ did not come to establish a “NEW LAW AND ORDER.” Yet that is exactly what so much of religion does. Most of them agree that the OLD LAW was done away with, but they take the New Testament Bible and each religious faction creates a new law and order out of its pages and with the dictate of Judge and Jury, they hammer out the New Testament scriptures as “Thus saith the Lord,” according to their own peculiar interpretation of them. Thus, faction upon faction is formed- Division, fighting and ugliness that Christ himself became martyred by, is created.

This is NOT what Christ died for.

What did Christ come into the world to do? Why did He die such a horrible death? And why did He rise from the dead?

In the simplest, purest form—- LOVE!

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son…”

He gave us Christ, and whoever believes in Him, listens to Him, HEARS him, will not perish, but will have eternal life.
WHY?

“I AM”

“I AM the life.”

Christ came to turn our hearts to God- the children’s hearts back to the Father. He came to reconnect us to the source of eternal life. We, who were/are walking in darkness, He came to connect us to the source of light; I AM

“I AM the light.”

We, who cannot find out way, who feel so lost. He came to reconnect us to the GREAT I AM!

“I AM the way.”

He came to SAVE us! Praise God!

He came to show us the beauty and value of our own soul.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Matt. 10:29-31

God wants to immerse you in his Holy Spirit. He wants to encapsulate you in His love. He wants you to “be still” and to listen to HIM!

Religion will proselyte you and make you one of them. But Christ will clean you up and make you one with HIM!

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A Time to Dance

(Ecclesiastes 3:4)

A time to sing
A time to rejoice
A time to lift up
high your voice

A time to praise
It’s not by chance
God tells us very clearly
There’s a time to dance!

A time to celebrate
A time for fun
A time to laugh
For all the good He’s done

A time to take your love
And with a little Romance
Hold them very close
And take the time to dance

God’s word is very clear
There’s a time to dance
Let that Joy that bubbles up inside
cause your feet to prance

A time to sing
A time to praise
A time to laugh
A time to celebrate
A time of joy our spirits to enhance
God is very clear
There’s a time to dance!

Written by Liz Ann

“You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!” Psalm 30:11

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Becoming a “Member” of Christ

The Bible teaches that God adds the members to his body as it pleases him. (Acts 2:47)  Today’s modern practice of adding and excommunicating members is unbibical and wrong. No man can pluck us out of Christ’s hands. Only our decision to forsake Christ and pursue sin can denote us from this glorious salvation. Some churches will agree, yet still openly request membership of you. Others are still more subtle about it. The will preach fervently against modern day membership practices, yet they still have their personal ways of “adding” and “subtracting” you from the kingdom of God in the eyes of their particular congregation, if you do not submit to their “rules” and ways of living. If you do not honor their king that reigns behind their pulpit, they will denounce you. They will pull your name from off their “phone and address” role. They will warn members to not associate with you. You will not be counted as “saved” among them. And so by their actions, they will attempt to “open and shut” the doors to the kingdom of heaven in your behalf.

Be warned! And don’t be intimidated! Know who you belong to! Know that Christ too, suffered without the gate. Know that he said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” It matters not what men say or do to you. What matters, is your relationship with the LORD JESUS CHRIST! AMEN!!!

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Why I LOVE Christmas!

Every year at Christmas time I see so much increasing negativity about this holiday season; especially amongst religious people. They get out their research tools and begin to post all the history about the so-called “pagan” beginnings of Christmas and why Christmas is not Jesus’ birthday and how it is a tradition of men and why we as Christians shouldn’t partake of it.

Years ago, when the idea was first introduced to me that as a true Christian I should not celebrate Christmas because God never “ordained” it in the word of God as a holiday, I was troubled about it in my mind. I thought for a long time about it. I prayed over it. I looked around and I saw all the negative aspects that were obvious. Santa Clause was a pagan conceived idea that was a lie told to children every year. People were running around spending money they didn’t have to heap up more toys that their children didn’t need, while other children in the world were starving. Historically Christmas was obviously not a christian holiday but had evolved into one. So really, should we as Christians be celebrating this holiday?

I thought of my little children. They were so excited about Christmas ~the most wonderful time of the year. How would I break the news to them that we would no longer partake of such a wonderful holiday celebration? I already never did teach them that there was a Santa Clause. We celebrated Christmas as a celebration of the birth of Christ.

I made this an earnest matter of prayer to get the mind of God crystal clear; At this time, this is the scriptures he brought me. It is from the book of Esther, at the very end of the story, when the Jews had experienced a great victory over their enemies who had tried to destroy them; They were rejoicing over their victory and here is what they did.

“This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. That is why rural Jews—those living in villages—observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.” Esther 9:15-19

The Jews made a holiday of feasting and giving each other presents to celebrate the victory they had won that day. God had not told them to make this holiday. But they observed it year after year.

“But,” some argue, “we do not even know when Jesus was really born? And God did not tell us to celebrate his birthday.” Well, God did not tell you to celebrate your birthday either, yet most of you do and who cares if we know the exact day he was born or not. Many people throughout have never known their real day of birth but have designated a day to celebrate every year anyhow. It does no harm.

This year God has shown me even more. God has spoken to me in regards to the “pagan” beginnings of Christmas and said, “Every seed is sown in mud.” He also brought to mind the story of Joseph and how his brothers sold him into Egypt out of hatred and jealousy, but in the end of it all, Joseph said, “What you meant for evil, God used for good.”

Many go to great lengths to point out of all the “bad” that comes with Christmas, but what about all the good that comes as well? In this world, in every home, in every neighborhood, distict, town, business, state, culture, religion etc… there is good and there is bad. God has placed us in a world of good and evil and we have a CHOICE ~ to choose the good. To say that Christmas is the cause of all kinds of evil, goes hand in hand with the argument that guns are the cause of crime. It makes no sense. Its not the celebration, but the heart of those who practice it that matters.

I have sung for years at the homes for the elderly and brought the message of Christ to them. I have seen them cry and rejoice and light up as we sing to them the familiar Christmas carols. I see shoe boxes for children being put together in abundance with love and sent all over the world to brighten up little children’s lives. I hear laughter and music and families that come together that may never otherwise see each other, but make that time, because its Christmas. This is just a tiny fraction of what goes on for good in the name of CHRISTmas!

Some will practice with greed and malice and the absence of Christ; But others will lift up the babe, and once again, the beautiful story of the virgin birth will fill the land.

I for one could not even imagine ending the year without the beautiful renewing spirit of Christmas. The spirit of giving, and forgiveness and the good news that a SAVIOR was born into the world. What a dry, empty, end of the year it would be without Christmas~ that one time of year that we hear the carols of ANGELS once again.

Yes, there are a lot of not-so-good things that come with the season as well, but let me end my rejoicing with a quote from the apostle Paul when he was imprisoned for his faith and some were slanderously speaking of the gospel throughout the palace;

“What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” Philippians 1:18

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR ~ GOD BLESS YOU!

A Christmas Poem

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19 Cult Characteristics

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

(Isaiah 58:6)

Someone recently told me that it takes the average person that leaves a cult five years to clear themselves of its fears and distortions. That makes a lot of sense when one has been in something that they have embraced as the epitome of truth and right.  In this day of so much confusion and so much calling from every direction, it behooves us to pay attention to the warning signs and above all, to pray and seek God and ask him to be our light. Don’t allow anyone or anything to destroy that mustard seed of faith God put into your heart. Treasure it. Water it. An above all guard it.

Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
(Proverbs 4:23)

University of California at Berkeley (19 Characteristics)

Recruitment

1. Deception – Group identity and/or true motives are not revealed. The group leaders tell members to withhold truth from outsiders.

2. Emotional Leverage/Love Bombing – Instant friendship, extreme helpfulness, generosity and acceptance…Group recruiters “lovingly” will not take “no” for an answer-invitations impossible to refuse without feeling guilty and/or ungrateful. “Love”, “generosity”, “encouragement” are used to lower defenses and create an ever increasing sense of obligation, debt and guilt.

3. Exploit Personal Crisis – They use an existing crisis as a means of getting you to participate. They exploit vulnerability arising from:

• Broken relationships
• Death in the family
• Loss of job
• Move to new location
• Loneliness/depression
• Guilt/shame
• Stress/fear

4. Crisis Creation – They employ tactics designed to create or deepen confusion, fear, guilt or doubt. i.e. “you aren’t serving God the way He intended.” Questions areas of faith never before examined or explored and attack other faiths specifically.

5. All The Answers – Provide simple answers to the confusion they, themselves, create. Support these answers with material produced or “approved” by the group.

Programming

1. Intense Study – Focus is on group doctrine and writings. Bible, if used at all, is referred to one verse at time to “prove” group teachings.

2. Opposer Warnings – Recruiters are told that “Satan” will cause relatives and friend to say bad things about the group to try to “steal them away from God.” Recruits soon believes group members, alone, are truthful/trustworthy.

3. Guilt and Fear – Group dwells on members’ “sinful nature” (many use public confession). Guilt and fear arising from “failing God” are magnified to manipulate new member.

4. Schedule Control & Fatigue – Study and service become mandatory. New member becomes too busy to question. Family, friends, jobs and hobbies are squeezed out, further isolating the new member.

5. Attack Independent Thought – Critical thinking is discouraged as prideful and sinful, blind acceptance encouraged.

6. Divine Commission – Leader(s) claim new revelation from God, within past 200 years, in which all but their group are rejected by God. They, alone, speak for God.

7. Absolutism – They insist on total, unquestioning obedience and submission to the group, both actions AND thoughts. Group “love” and acceptance becomes dependent upon obedience and submission. Unconditional love…isn’t.

8. Totalism – “Us against them” thinking. Strengthens group identity. Everyone outside of group lumped under one label.

Retention

1. Motive Questioning- When sound evidence against the group is presented, members are taught to question the motivation of the presenter. The verifiable (sound documentation) is ignored because of doubts over the unverifiable (presenter’s motives). See Opposer Warnings (#2 above).

2. Information Control – Group controls what convert may read or hear. They discourage (forbid) contact with ex-members or anything critical of the group. May say it is the same as pornography making it not only sinful and dangerous but shameful as well. Ex-members become feared and avoidance of them becomes a “survival issue.”

3. Isolation, Separation & Alienation – Group becomes substitute family. Members encouraged to drop worldly (non-members) friends. May be told to change jobs, quit school, give up sports, hobbies, etc.

4. Coercion – Disobedience, including even minor disagreement with group doctrine, may result in expulsion and shunning.

5. Phobias – The idea is planted that anyone who leaves goes into a life of depravity and sin, loses their sanity, dies, or will have children die, etc. Constant rumors of bad things happening to people who leave. No one ever leaves for “legitimate reasons.”

6. Striving for the Unreachable – Group membership and service are essential for salvation…”Work your way into God’s favor.” NO matter what you do, it is never enough.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. . . So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. . . Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. . . It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. . .  You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. . . You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. . .  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. . .

(Study and pray over Galatians for a more in-depth understanding of these scriptures)

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Take Religion Out of Me

A few years ago, in response to a visiting ministers message, I began to earnestly pray that God would take any religious spirit out of me that was not of him. The results have been astonishing.

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. 

Christ is teaching us two very important and key things here; 

1. The Kingdom of God is within

2. Do not follow after ones that come to you and say, “Come here or go there to find Christ.”

Yet these very two vital points have been overlooked even I must confess, by myself. I spent almost 20 years serving a religion that had told me I was to find Christ within their system alone, and yet I became further and further away from him and more and more religious and pharisaic and blind until God was able to send a spiritual earthquake into the very core of my soul and I realized as was taught in Revelations:

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelations 3:17-19

Believing I had purchased for myself quite a lofty place in the heavenly realm, I had laid aside the outward garments and jewels, movies and  taken on every rule this system had required of me- teaching me to diligently obey whether or not I understood and that I would be rewarded for my obedience. I was like Saul of old before he became the apostle Paul, zealous of my nation and all its laws, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

But Christ arrested me one day and stripped me of all my self-righteousness and opened my eyes to the hurting, hungry and bleeding souls all around me that were being trampled beneath the feet of the self-righteous. I repented and fled that state.

When I was younger and looking for an honest “church” to worship with, I was studying my Bible and not wanting to be “deceived.” And yet, I still feel I fell victim to just another religious system and the reason is simple- I quit looking within and followed those that said, “low he is here” or “low he is there.” I did not trust myself. Part of that was because of the preaching. Truth was definitely mingled in the message that was preached. But the message was also heavily inundated with fear and threat. I was taught right away that I must always be there to listen to every message- systematic brainwashing.  Then I was taught I should never leave and if I did, I would be better off to go back into sin than to ever go somewhere else looking for God. If  I tried to look for God elsewhere, I would be self-deceived.

These messages locked me into their system and their rules and their leadership which was never to be questioned or criticized. When people left it was because there was something wrong with them and their connection with God. But one day I read somewhere that when a church has a long list of spiritual fatalities, that really is a bad reflection on them, not on the people who left. That was a pivotal, awakening moment for me. Christ said, “Look at the FRUIT Liz. LOOK! Open your eyes!” I began to see things as they really were. This was not God’s special people in all the earth. These rules and regulations were dividing and hurting people and causing prejudices and harm.

One day, God told me it was time to leave. It was very difficult and has not been easy. But I have been blessed and helped all along the way and I have had my faith renewed. My God is within and always has been. I do not have to “go” somewhere to find him. I can “gather” with just one other believer and there he is in the midst of us. “Church” does not have to happen between four designated walls.

“Men choose a religion, but a Christian is chosen by Jesus Christ.” Iranian martyr Mehdi Dibaj

“Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.” Robert Ingersoll

“All religions are the same: religion is basically guilt, with different holidays.” Cathy Ladman

“The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.” Richard Francis Burton

“The Institutional Church (ecclesia) has killed only two kinds of people: Those who do not believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and those who do.” Will Durant

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it with religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal

Since I left the religious sect I was so long tied up in, if I ever had any inclination to return, it has been completely sucked out of me by the treatment of those who were once my allies and friends. Shunning is not fun nor right, especially when one has done no wrong. I have spoken to others who left before me. One woman said she didn’t stop crying for a month because of the way she was shunned by the “church” and another woman said she felt like she had leprosy or something- she felt like she was a disease. Even now, over a year later people from the “church” that run into her act like they do not know how to act around her.

I was so surprised that after almost 20 years of faithful, consistent service, not one person, not even my closest friends, would even call to see how we were doing. It just solidified the message Christ gave to me from Revelations about lukewarmness and indifference.  I was once a part of that and have had to contact other souls I affected and apologize if ever hurt them by my actions.

Today I am free- free to live for Christ according as he leads me on the throne of my heart. That is true freedom- having him back as my Lord and Savior- knowing he will never leave me nor forsake me.

Many religious people read Matt 24 like this,

Enter in thou good and faithful servant

for you went to church four times a week

you paid your tithes of all that you had

you always wore a skirt and you never wore jewelry

You never questioned the pastor and always obeyed him

Instead of what he really said,

For I was hungry, and you fed me

I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink

I was a stranger and you took me in

I was naked and you clothed me

I was sick and you visited me

I was in prison and you came to me

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one

of the least of these my brethren,

ye have done it unto me.

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New Wine

“[No] one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.”

(Luke 5)

“They say the old wine is better” – Jesus said this after preaching from a boat, touching a man with leprosy, telling a man his sins were forgiven, sitting down to eat and drink with a roomful of tax collectors and sinners, and being questioned and ridiculed every step of the way because it was not according to the “customs of the day.”

Sermons were supposed to be preached in temples by “anointed men of God.” People with leprosy were to be kept far away from. No one but God had the right to pardon someones sins. The righteous were not mingle with sinners and furthermore, they usually spent their time fasting and praying, not eating and drinking.

Earlier in this chapter we read that Jesus went out alone in the wilderness and took time to pray. There, all alone with God, Jesus was given new wine to drink and new wine to share when he came back into the crowds. He had something fresh and life-changing.

If all you are drinking is the “old wine,” then all you will be doing is complaining whenever you see the new wine being poured out; you will be blinded to all the good the new and fresh wine is doing.  You will have one solo message; “THE OLD IS BETTER” and all around your eyes will only see that the old is not being adhered to- the old ways of doing things, the old religious systems.

Go, take some wilderness time with God alone, and let him pour forth some new wine into your soul! Let him give you something new and fresh- something relevant for today’s needs. Get out of your religious rut and back into the leading of the Holy Spirit. Let go of the old so God can bless you with something new!!!

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Let Us Reason Together

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD .  .  .

Isaiah 1:18

Yesterday in my Psychology class we were discussing nonscientific sources of data- information that has no sound basis to build on or to make concrete decisions or come to absolute conclusions upon. There were three sources that were mentioned:

1. Method of Tenacity– holding firmly onto something such as a superstition or belief even though it has been proven to be inaccurate or untrue. This sort of tenacity is strong in family traditions and religious sects.
2. Method of intuition– believing something is true just because you have a “feeling.”
3. Method of authority– Getting information from an “expert.”

The third reason particularly caught my attention because of the reasons he brought to light about why this is not a secure source of scientific data. The reasons he gave caused me to think about authority figures in dogmatic church systems. First he said authorities can be biased. Second, authorities may reflect personal opinions. Third, authorities may not have the necessary credentials; They may not truly be an expert in the particular field that you are seeking help in. Just because they are an “authority” does not mean they know everything and can help with every situation. And the fourth really stuck out to me;  People may accept what authorities say without evidence.  Wow! How true that last statement is! How powerful! How careful we must be.

When we look back on history, do we not see untold, catastrophic and horrific atrocities that have been done by multitudes of people that were swayed by those in “authority”- just accepting what they said about others without evidence? And we still see it going on today. Men and women in authority are very accountable for how they sway the people. They will give an account for souls that have been wrongly vilified in the minds of people.

With every passing year we see knowledge abounding. Christ said it would be so in the last days. Christ gave us his word and his Spirit to guide us. He told us;

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.  Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.  Matt. 23: 8-10

When we cease to seek Christ for ourselves each day and to listen for Gods still small voice within our heart, we will do one of two things; we will either go back to sinful ways or we will default to religious practices. We will go to church and simply “obey all the commands of those in authority,” believing that is our proof of salvation.  But our true connection will be gone and we will fall into a spiritual slumber.

One night I was driving home from a friends house. It was very late, past midnight, and I was following my husband who had come later in his truck. I was so tired I was not paying attention. I trusted my husbands lead and blindly followed him down the roads. suddenly I was jerked out of my sleepy stupor by several vehicle headlights coming straight towards me. My husband had made a left turn right into oncoming traffic and I blindly followed him into it. Luckily I was able to jump the island to the right side of the road and we made it out safely. But I never forgot how God spoke to my heart that night:

“Remember Liz, don’t ever just follow anybody blindly. Stay awake. Listen to my Holy Spirit. Follow me. I am the LORD!”

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