Acceptance in the Body

This came up in my list mail and I felt I ought to share it here too.

"When I think of Evangelization and Fundamentalism I think of those who on the one hand teach on solid Bible principles and scholarship (Evangelization) over those who will take Scripture and twist the words found in the Holy Book or will take sections of the Bible out of context to serve their purpose."

May God bless all our understandings and acceptings of each other in the body of Christ.  This topic really touches me.

I understand very well how sad and silly some of the divisions in the church have been. As a family we have encountered many of these sorts of 'hang-ups' that build walls instead of bridges. We have conciously chosen not to close the door ourselves on family. We have also seen God deal with those who would not repent of abusing their brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what their excuse.

I came from a fundamentalist background.  Although family members were Catholic on one side, and I was exposed to the Catholic church, I mostly attended an offshoot of the Church of Christ (they left the main group because they allowed a piano). They were very strict and didn't believe any Christians (Catholic, Baptist, Orthodox etc) who held different opinions were even saved!


I became a Catholic in Texas when I had returned after a divorce to aid an elderly relative facing severe health problems and then death. Sacred Heart reached out to us when we arrived, poor, with my son-in-law in need of fresh work (his union training didn't transfer), and with my daughter carrying my granddaughter. We were very grateful to them and realized they were trying to live their witness. My daughter's non-denominational upbringing left her with doctrinal questions that prevented her from joining me there, but she acknowledged they were believers! She has been very blessed by Mother Angelica's program and Bro. John Michael Talbot's  music too.

My daughter was baptized in a community of serious, very separated (non-Catholic) brothers called Oakleigh. A family of blood ties that took property in the hills of Virginia and ministered to the youth at the nearby college. They prayed long, sang scripture, studied together, spoke in tongues, and preached as led by the spirit. They had left 'the big time' for the personal ministry and did change lives by being there. They also lived their their walk with Jesus by personally attending new believers who were trying to leaving drugs or bad situations with God's help. They established houses for these students and got them to services in town and time out in the countryside. They were reaching for the church of Acts as directly as they could. The healing there were usually the long haul kind and the changed people wanted to help others also. There were some laying on hands and those who responded to it, but never was it taken lightly or for granted. The expectation was for an answer and waiting to see what the answer would be in the case. Oakleigh wasn't perfect but it was real. You met all sorts of Christians there. Some came from mainline denominations, some were Mennonite, some were Catholic, some were Messianic, and some were just Jesus Freaks. What a rich and varied body of believers they were! We fed each other literally and spiritually. Sundays were an all day event(with meals), everybody brought what they could. It felt like coming home every week. There was such a loving spirit from so many believers there that you always hungered for more time with them. The church was surprised when they kept hearing words of going out and becoming scattered seed. All there were in shock to see a change in this peaceful, secure world. The haven was expelling the chicks. Some finished school and feeling called to mend with their root families went home. One youth minister was called back to his Catholic roots. Others had to move for jobs. One of these founding brothers was later martyred abroad while preaching the gospel.

It has been a long time, but we've not seen a church like it since then. I felt I found some of this spirit among my Catholic friends in Texas. My daughter is still looking.

My son-in-law has no church background to speak of; His parents are nominal Missouri Mormons.  He went to a Baptist high school to escape abuse at the public one and made a confession of faith there once but mostly he justed talked to God on his own.

Unfortunately these Baptists were (& are) prejudiced against other races and especially the Jews, which offended him (as he is part Native Am). He could read for himself this wasn't Biblical or loving. Asking about it ended the association for years. When he did visit other churches in his home county he was not well received because of determined slander fomented against his whole family that preceded his arrival.His falling out over the bigotry issue didn't help because others weren't told about it that way. Neither he nor his family are bad people, though they are angry. His father is still very generous to the needy, but the lies put against them have been very bad indeed. Few Christians have ever shown them love. Precious few pray about what they hear before acting on it.

My son-in-law wanted to get information about real Christians and what this life meant, and he was willing to go there but not by playing games.  Unfortunately the social structure in churches the new family went to made some of them more buddy/gossip clubs than any help at all. It was easy for a few hate-mongerers to make any new acquaintances keep their distance. My daughter taught him what she believed, but she seemed to be the only one until I joined them again in Virginia.

The Catholic church here is not very close, so I couldn't help him there, though I enjoyed the fellowship of the lay Carmelites here for awhile myself. (Those meetings are now out of the area).

So we encouraged him to come with us to to what at first seemed a reasonable Charismatic church in the next county. They refused to counsel or explain anything, although he made his serious requests plain.  They were not willing to pray over him (or my infant grandson) in service and were publicly put off when there was no charismatic display from us.  Spoken to after services they said, basically, we could show up every time the doors opened and contribute on their terms.(?) They invited us once to their ladies bible study but the Holy Spirit warned us not to go.  Then we got to see some of their worse problems and quit going. Eventually that pastor got in trouble for covering for his wild nephew (who led their youth ministry) after a deadly traffic accident. God dealt with them but my son-in-law was left another year wondering if there were any real believers outside of his family. For a while, he wouldn't believe that it was Jesus who had made us so different.

My daughter and I looked to God; prayed; played John Michael Talbot, Lamb, Keith Green, & Michael Card; and wondered at the strong opposition to his appeal.  Later a determined if slightly shocked Black Apostolic minister did meet him at the hospital, counseled him, prayed over him, and later baptized him. He still has problems but at least since them we meet them together with Jesus' help.

My son-in-law has gone through multiple surgeries in the past two years. He has finally had a condition removed that has existed since his early life or perhaps before birth.

The doctors could not identify it until the present.  We talk about Job with a good bit or feeling.  We prayed for his healing for a long time, but certainly weren't willing to deny the problems, which offended the Evangelicals. Their insistence that he deny the problem 'in faith' (and he'd be all better) made him feel like they were calling him crazy. He even told them once that God doesn't like liars and he wasn't going to lie about what he was dealing with.

He has been trying for years to explain it to various doctors and watched them shake their heads about it.  So too his spiritual life, he has had questions about the faith for years but no one seemed concerned enough to just talk to him about Jesus.

There are sitters and 'real church' in most denominations I expect.  It is fantastic when you find a LIVE church like Oakleigh was, but lukewarm, worldly 'churchy' societies can actually impede people finding Christ and can even weaken the faith of believers who go there for prayer support.


We do need to pray for each other's problems. We do need to have faith, but God's answers may not be what we expect - or when we expect.

                         **********

I remember as a small child hearing of the healings Jesus did, so when the family stopped in for refreshment at the old soda fountain I prayed for a man I saw with crutches; I expected with a child's faith to see him walk off with out them. I cried when he didn't. Then I heard a whisper that God would have his heart, and for this one he would die badly if he had gotten that help. He would not understand where it came from. A few years later I saw him again, newly married, he had taken his wife to the soda fountain for lunch. He talked joyfully about their church, the peace he had now in his still new faith, the fine friends and love there. I got to see the answer, and he mentioned his dark moods from the second world war and feeling so free in living that he could not have imagined it existed.

In Christ,
Pat

STANDING TALL

Standing Tall - yes, we have a lot to be proud of. We have accomplished a great deal; we have overcome a lot of the old prejudices and problems. We have more to do, and we need to improve our individual lives and way of life as Americans without giving away those very special things we inherited that set us apart as a country. Our rights and privileges, our freedoms. Our willingness to STAND TOGETHER, to aid our own in needs and crises periods; to really care. We know we must STAND UP to those who make themselves an enemy to our lives and -basically- to life itself. We need to choose carefully what we STAND FOR daily, for we no longer have separate front line.We need to consider what we STAND ON, our combined inheritance. Our everyday representation of the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness should reflect the best values we possess and our willingness to remember the price of their free expression here. Some of our finest possessions are these truths and some of our finest people have lain down to keep them for us. We should STAND WITH THE FALLEN in the gratitude and remember what value they placed on this nation when they gave themselves freely for it. War has never totally ignored the people doing ordinary things in ordinary ways. but now it is without a covering or a place to STAND BEHIND. We all follow the pain and grieving and determine to remember the loss. the painful continuence and to rebuild in time. We will heal, but not forget; we will be able to forgive if that is received, but we will not be dissuaded from the terrible truth of the betrayal of our friendship as a people to peoples. We will not be disheartened nor thrust down by men. or a man. We can bend, bow like a supple tree, and restraighten ourselves. We can do some of our best work on our knees, where we will pray, profess and rededicate ourselves to the TRUTH of God, and rise again to STAND UP AS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE UNITED in our brotherhood, able to work together for our own good and that of the world. We refute the active enemy of our people and give our heartfelt support the those who aid, assist and protect us all, whether known or unknown, seen or never heard widely, whether in uniform or plain street wear and no matter how much we look or sound differently on the surface of our lives. We STAND BEFORE THE FIRE and we plan to pass through together to the better side. Let those who oppose our people or think to oppress us beware; AMERICA IS STILL STANDING TALL.