MK forum

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The recent posts have hit a nerve.
Throw the Kool Aid out!

I had to defend the fact that we didn't allow our kids
To have Kool Aid in Toddlers one time.
We didn't have it at home
So why have it for all those years in training?
Except to celebrate someone's birthday.
We didn't get thrown out that time.

We HAVE thrown the Kool Aid out.
But there is some residual stomach ache going on.

Yes, Yunker,
Emotional and
Soiritual abuse
Are really bad too.

oops! Spiritual.....

The idea of giving to God is a way of controlling people. Giving to God is limited to giving to a church or mission. Giving to a beggar on the street, a natural disaster victim, the little girl with cancer, or giving a family member help is kind but not giving to God. O how much the church has twisted what Jesus said just by inserting the word "God" and then defining who or what that "God" is.

Most people don't realize that in the old testament many of the sacrifices were shared with the priest but most was eaten by the giver and his family in celebration. Giving doesn't have to hurt the giver. Giving is sharing, that means you get half my cookie but I get the other half. Then we celebrate eating it together. I would love a chocolate chip cookie anyone got one to share? Maybe I should make some then you can come and have some with me. Why do we think it has to hurt?

Great thoughts there Shary! We can all be givers! Even if we don't go to any church at all. And even if we have no "extra" money in the bank!

I don't know about others, but the message I heard behind the "give till it hurts" teaching was that if I sacrificed till it hurt, that was the way I was going to prove my true devotion and obedience to The Almighty. If it didn't hurt, I wasn't trying hard enough.

Wow, that is such a pagan concept: manipulation of a spiritual power by putting oneself through pain. I saw this demonstrated overseas in religious rituals where devotees flog themselves till they are bleeding, or carry heavy, decorated burdens for miles, with hooks in their backs and wires through their cheeks. The more I hurt, the greater the pay-off. God will have to give me what I want now ... look, I'm bleeding for him.

Bemused, I too had my post-earthquake clarity: that moment when I questioned everything I'd been thinking and doing and assuming.

My earthquake occurred when I learned that during the time I was making impressive sacrifices: enduring hardship, danger, sickness and separation in order to provide God's Word to an isolated tribal group, a man who called himself a Christian, a missionary, and a friend had been terrorizing and victimizing innocent, helpless children, including my own. The damage he did, and kept secret, was massive.

What??? I do all this for you, God, and you can't even protect my precious children? The children YOU gave me?? Look at me! I'm bleeding here! What do you have to say for yourself? What are you going to do for me?

Silence. I could not even see his face.

It took me years to rebuild my theology after that.

MY theology. My understanding of who God is and what guarantees he gives. And doesn't give. Theology is how we humans understand and explain God. God, the Great Mystery, who actually can never be fully understood or explained. Aren't we kind of silly.

A little like those Hindu men I watched, dancing in the street in a trance, bleeding and oblivious. They thought they knew what they were doing. And why.

And so did I, so many years ago.

I gave till it hurt. And I didn't get what I wanted.

And that's okay.

Jesus suffered so we wouldn`t have to. He said he came not to condemn but to save and give us life abundantly. It is not up to us at all. God has done it all through His Son. Left us absolutely nothing to do but believe what He says.

Forgot the last line PURE GRACE!!!