It looks like Mike & I were kind of in the same mind set. I wrote this post on the 14th and scheduled it to post today, the one year anniversary of this blog. I noticed that Mike, too, is noting his one year anniversary (April 13, 2008). Wow Mike, I hadn't relized that we had begun our blogs so close together, just four days apart. Happy anniversary.
It doesn't seem that long ago, but I started this blog one year ago today, April 17, 2008.
I couldn't imagine where I would be right now, with new friends & co-authors, hearing from people who have been helped by this blogs postings.
I started this blog because I was so angry with RW & I wanted to share the truths of the Bible that I had discovered when I began investigating RW's teachings.
I can't help but wonder if RW wasn't placed in my life by God, because before he came on the scene in my family's lives, I was NC mostly by faith, but I really didn't know a whole lot, and couldn't even hold a good NC conversation without getting lost... until RW came on the scene AND ensnared three of my family members.
I had gone to the FOT with my Mother in 2005 where he announced that he had some big revelation or something along that line. So everyone was attentive and held in suspense waiting for him to reveal this big thing.
I can remember sitting there for what seemed a painfully long time trying to understand what he was saying, because really, he wasn't saying anything. He was beating around the bush... I guess testing the waters or something before he spilled it. And finally it came, but he hadn't said it outright yet. I asked myself: "Is he saying what I think he's saying? Is he saying that Jesus was created? Should I get up and walk out on this blasphemy?!" I didn't. I sat there in shock for the remainder of the "service".
I can remember later that evening calling my spouse about what I had heard. I was very concerned about the whole thing, and most disturbing was that my Mother was willing to buy it! It seemed everyone was willing to buy it! My Mother kept asking me questions and saying things as if in hopes that I was believing it too. Like it was some great new truth that had been revealed. Of course, I didn't, not for a nano-second.
When I returned home, I continued to listen to RW every Saturday, but I also began to investigate everything he was teaching. I asked my spouse, who had been NC before we even got involved, questions about scriptures and the answers sounded logical. Then I would ask my Mother about the same scriptures, and her answers sounded logical. This went on for a week, maybe two, when I realized I was getting nowhere and that I was going to the wrong place for answers.
I started telling God that I wanted to know the truth, and I wanted him to understand that I had no preferences. I told him that if we are to keep holy days, no problem. I told him that if we aren’t to keep holy days, again, no problem. I told him that all I wanted was HIS truth. I prayed that most every day for the entire length of my investigation.
I studied, literally, every single day for ten months long into the night and when it was over, I had learned more than I had in all my years. I was amazed at God’s NC! I was amazed at how I hadn’t seen it before. I was amazed at how simple it was to understand – sure some things are confusing, but pretty much, it’s straight-forward. But I guess when you’ve been spoon fed what the scriptures “actually mean” by deceivers, you look at scriptures with the wrong pair of glasses.
I can remember asking my three family members about two scriptures (Is. 48:12, 13 & 16 and Jer. 23:5-6). I only got a response from two. I wanted to know what these scriptures said to them. One brother needed time before he could get back to me. Why would it be so difficult to understand? I’ll tell you. It’s because it said the opposite of what he was taught, and it’s difficult to make a scripture say something it doesn’t. So when Jer. 23 says that Jesus is called Yahweh, (so The Father and the Son are called Yahweh), and Is. 48 says Jesus is the Creator, how do you explain the “true” meaning of the scripture when RW has told you that only the Father is Yahweh and that Jesus had a beginning. All of a sudden, a simple scriptures becomes complicated and confusing.
So I took a lot of the papers I had written in my quest for truth and started this blog on the very day in which RW had said was the beginning of the Final Great Tribulation… in his first time-line, beginning with the one that seems to bother me most: Did Jesus Have A Beginning? Jesus is the center of everything and RW took away His identity, took away His Self-Existence, and turned Him into a created God, when clearly Is. 43:10 says that no God has or ever will be created, and when 1 Tim. 3:16 says that God was manifested in flesh. Of course, you will have to look to your interlinear to see those words (there’s a link on the right to an online one).
And here I am one year later. I’ve since been trying to deal with my anger. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with my anger other than that I have used it incorrectly. Rather that striking out, I can simply present God’s truth with love and kindness. I am, and have been, working on that, and my friend xHWA has been a huge help (I think God sent him my way). He has set the example that I am attempting to incorporate. So, thank you for that xHWA, and thank you God for sending him my way. I can only hope that in some way I have helped him in his journey as well.
I want to say thank you to those of you who have commented and/or e-mailed me to let me know that you have been helped by this blog. I’ve often struggled, wondering if I was doing anyone any good at all, and each time one of you contacted me, I was encouraged. I want to serve God. I want Him to be pleased with me. I hope that in some small way, He is.
I am thankful, grateful, for the help of my blog team, and I pray we will continue to help others in their quest for God’s truth.
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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom.
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Good words! Awesome story! Thank you for sharing it, Seeker.
ReplyDeleteThank for allowing Christ to lead you into sharing your studies and your blog with us. A reward for that faith and kindness is certainly laid up in heaven for you!!
And my deepest prayers to the New Covenant freedom of your loved ones now trapped in Weinland's cult (as I once was).
My good friend, you are a great help and comfort to me! I don't recall if I've ever said that before, but if not then I have been remiss.
I am not worthy of your praise. But it makes me feel good that I am a help to you too. I thank God with you that His grace to me has comforted you.
Right with ya on praying for the success of the contributors to this blog. Luc and Bill have both important gifts to share and it's a blessing to have them. Here's to getting our stride and hopefully sharing freely what Christ gave each of us freely! God bless!
What is interesting to note is that all "Christian" cults diminish Christ in some way.
ReplyDeleteBill Hohmann
Bill. That is so true. It seems that the objective is to displace Jesus even when on the surface the Lord Christ is being spoken of in positive terms, even in praise. But the Jesus spoken of has a voice I don't recognize.
ReplyDeleteI have to say Seeker , you and xHWA seem to keep your anger in check better than I do. I fall bellow the standard you two have set for civility. I may owe you an apology for this. I hope I haven't offended any of your readers. But,if I accuse any one misdeed, I also implicate myself, if this is any consolation.
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