[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

NFNL, you seem to have some very strong opinions.

I do have many fond thoughts of the LRC, but the vast majority of them have to do with saints that have nothing to do with WL, or the LSM. These were genuine saints and real experiences of the Lord.

Brothers - all of you - I am honestly sorry if my strong opinions have offended you. Let me please speak as clearly as I might as my intention was not to offend, but rather to enlighten. We are not only to encourage one another, after all, but also to correct that which harms not only only the Body but even it's members.

"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine." 2 Timothy 4:2

I too have fond memories of the saints I met in LSM. We still have a banner picture they made for us when we left Winnipeg hanging in our bedroom. We just had a couple over this past week who came through Calgary to visit and spend time with us. We still pray for them, and they, I am sure, still pray for us. We love them, and I'm not just saying that - I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35

But the point is, we talk on this board about the damaging effects of looking at Scripture through "Lee colored glasses". Filtering everything we read through Lee, we know we wind right back up in the system.... but then we want to be able to read Lee, now that we've got a red flag on his ministry, and somehow gleen 'only the good' from it.... I don't believe it can be done.... and here's why:

Lee taught us that he knew more than any other church leader who came before him, right? Lee believed he couldn't be wrong and he believed he had an answer for everything, correct? Lee taught us to read his material and his material only, to listen to his messages and his messages only, to spend time - as much as humanly possible - in an environment where only what Lee had to say was focused upon and expounded upon again and again... do we agree? What did that produce? What did we become?

1) We started to use Lee's vocabulary. We called ourselves "The Lord's Recovery" - and we believed we were recovered from fallen Christianity. We were set apart and above our fellow saints elsewhere. Some of us believed only we were the Body of Christ. We still use it today here on this board! All this talk of 'releasing messages' instead of 'delivering sermons' - what is that about? I'll tell you: When Lee says 'Release a Message' it means: "Here is what the Lord gave me, and now after I have held it a while for myself, I am going to release it to you." How arrogant! How proud! How wrong! The messages were his, not the Lord's! In short: We became proud.

2) We believed that since Lee had all the answers, we didn't need to read our Bibles for ourselves. We could look to the footnotes and get the answers. We believed that if we discerned something different in the Scriptures from what Lee found, we must be wrong. We quenched the Spirit! Is it any wonder that it can take years to recover from where we were? Sin has consequences, and in quenching the Spirit we sinned deliberately against our God - forsaking Him and His leading for Lee and his. Again: We quenched the Spirit.

3) Lee taught us to pray loudly in his way, not Christ's way. We believed this was the only way to pray. Arrogance! Christ Himself told us exactly how to pray - in secret, so that the Father who hears in secret will reward you - but we made a show of it, praying loud and proud so the other saints could be impressed with how much like Lee we were becoming! We sought approval of men, and not of God.

4) Lee taught us to sit and stand in prayer, but never to kneel... even though one day, every knee will bough. (Romans 14:11 excerpt). How many times did I stand in that meeting Hall, convicted to kneel, but to proud to do so because everyone else in the Hall would have been scandalized? What a fool I was! Forgive me Lord! We forgot that fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (psalm 9:10 & 111:10)... we lost all fear of Him.

5) Lee taught us to despise the cross, it was far too low a gospel. The cross was merely part of a process to make us into Godmen - and nothing more. My daughter was reprimanded for wearing a cross to church - a cross with which she preached that 'low' gospel to her friends at the age of nine... a cross she had asked for, and was proud to wear.

"The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

Again: We despised the cross.

6) Like Lee, we became proud and arrogant towards fellow Christians. We expressed that contempt in our speech and in our actions, refusing to meet with them - which is absolutely against the teaching of the main man upon whom Lee claimed to stand: Watchman Nee (who was a genuine brother in Christ). But what did Christ say about our brothers and sisters?

"Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

“And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalfis welcoming me. But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 18:3-6

"Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations." Romans 14:1

We refused to receive 'weaker members', we held them in contempt and thereby caused many to sin.

7) Lee taught us to that our love for members is for members alone. If you are not a part of our group, you were not to receive our love. That included family members, friends, and those who once were of us but now left.

"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languagesand special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!" 1 Corinthians 1:8

We had no real Love.

...So let's summarize:

LSM made us proud, unloving, bigoted Christians who thought we had it all. We spent our money and our time building a financial giant to churn out more propaganda, and did not learn to go out and preach the gospel. If we did reach out to others, it was to gain them for 'The Recovery' and further divide the Body of Christ. By this we lost our testimony. We quenched the Spirit and began to believe we needed Lee to tell us what to think and believe.

What did we REALLY gain?

In Christ,

NeitherFirstnorLast