March 18, 2010
Dear Reader
This is another piece in a series of writings based on what God is showing me in prayer. What I write may help you in your walk with our Lord. If it does, then Praise Him! If what I write does not apply to you, move on. You are allowed. Some of these writings will hopefully expose the lies we were taught by word and deed, and hopefully the Holy Spirit will show you the truth so that you can be closer to God, without distractions.
Let me also say that I hope you don’t think I am just writing happy talk. For ex-members of Stewart’s cult, these answers may seem simple, even chirpy. Please understand, if you stop and look at what I am saying and then pray about it, I think you will see that “His yoke is easy, His burden is light.” Jesus was not lying when He said this. For current and former cobu, this is still a hard verse to believe. It is precisely for this reason that I am writing now.
I was praying about 4 days ago. It hit me all of a sudden. I can please God. I can please God right now. Why was this amazing to me? Because I was under a pastor who never seemed to convey to anyone that God was pleased with anything we did. We heard the scripture, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” but wasn’t that for the time of the Judgment, after this world passed away? Yes. But what about now. Can we please God now, and more clearly, Does God the Father delight in us now? Yes. We know we can displease Him, some of us were reminded on a daily and weekly basis of that truth. Rare were the times when what we did was commended, although there are examples of this in the bible. But more importantly, did you are I, alone in prayer to God have a sense that we had pleased Our Father that day, that very day and that Our Father was present in our prayer and delighting in one of His children? I will speak for myself. No!
Was I that consistently rotten as a Christian, as one of God’s children? The truth is, that’s not an easy question to answer. You and I both know all the scriptures that tells of what we were like as unsaved people. We also know the scriptures that show us that we still have sinful flesh, and an enemy. There is truly a right way to view ourselves in light of scripture where both our sinfulness and our righteousness can be seen.
I know what you are thinking. Yes, I said our sinfulness and our righteousness. I will explain this a little bit further down the page. Right now, I would like to remind you of the kind of teaching Stewart taught us between Bible studies, the kind of things he used to say that gave some of us our view of what Our Father in Heaven must think of us.
Here is something I wrote an ex-member who believes Stewart was really serving God from 1971-1976 and then backslid:
One of Stewart's most disgusting, satanic, insidious messages, direct and indirect, was the message that "God thinks “you're a gameplayer”....”you gotta get serious!” "God knows yer up to something."....What are you ashamed of?" All the years of all the messages that painted God as a suspicious, mean, God who doesn't "trust" anything his "sneaky" children are doing. Add to this Stewart’s fake x-ray vision...well....Stewart has to know what we are "REALLY UP TO".....always the suspicion....Words like "hiding” and “shame" and “deceitful”.....all together made God, not a loving Father, but a suspicious rule keeper who thinks everyone is cheating. And who could forget the endless meetings where”there had to be divisions so that those who are genuine might be recognized….” Who decided “those who were genuine? Who had the last word? These teachings, if you can call them that, made it difficult for the true sons and daughters of God to be secure in love the Father had given them. How could we, as children, be secure and safe in God when we have been taught that He thinks we're gameplayers, not sincere, not upper orange plus.”
If you stop and think about how many brothers and sisters were “gameplayers”, “deceitful” “hiding” “ashamed,” “proud” “playing the heavy,” wow! Remember the constant hammering the “older” brothers and sisters took and still take. I think the latest thing Stewart said was that some of the brothers and sisters in current cobu were “helping the anti-christ.” Obviously, those who are current members have the worst of Stewart’s sin. I don’t need to detail anymore. Anyone willing to relive Stewart’s treatment of us can cite many more examples than I can.
No doubt you will point to the scriptures that support such behavior from Stewart and us. We were taught wrong. Sure it was the Bible. Plenty of cults use the Bible. Look at the fruit. Look at us, look at current members. Do they even believe that they received the Holy Spirit and are going to be with our Lord in Heaven, because He loves them? Ever wonder, when Jesus used to speak to us through a brother or sister who had the gift of prophecy, ever wonder why the Jesus who spoke to us saying “I love you my children”, ever wonder why that same love never came through Stewart? I’m not talking about the “one or two times Stewart was nice to me.” I have heard these stories making the case for Stewart’s Christianity. I mean the Jesus we prayed to as young Christians and the Jesus who used to speak through the brethren in prophecy, why wasn’t the same in spirit working through Stewart? I intend to write a piece specific to Stewart’s sins against us and what could be the whole truth concerning him. I hope God will show me enough to cause current members to go back to their first Love and demand that Stewart get out of God’s chair. It seems important for current members now to hear this, and ex-members who still dream of recreating the Forever Family.
So what about our sinfulness and our righteousness and our ability to PLEASE GOD RIGHT NOW? Do you believe that, today, you can actually make choices and take actions that, tonight, when you pray to your Heavenly Father, you will confidently approach the throne of grace and worship the Lord and He will recall your day and delight in you? Yes we are sinful, as long as we have the flesh, yes. But we were made righteous by Jesus dying for us. Through Jesus, God calls me righteous, not a righteousness of my own, but a righteousness Jesus paid for, with which to clothe me and you , a righteousness He died to give us.
He delights in me. I look at sin a whole different way now. I look at sin as the thing that would not please my Father, the thing that would hurt my relationship with Him. Because I value my relationship with Him, “a wise man looks where he is going”, which means, looking ahead and recognizing potential temptation and potential sin and running from, avoiding, leaping over…..many choices to fighting and defeating sin and putting to death what is earthly in me. The problem in COBU is that the very ONE who loves us and is the ONLY One who is able to make us stand as sons and daughters is God the Father and Our Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit. And what were we taught? “God knows what you are “reeeeaaaalllly” UP TO! Years of being told by Stewart that God doesn’t believe us, doesn’t trust us, can’t depend on us, not in these exact words but the message is, God thinks you’re cheating. Really it was what Stewart thought of us and because he sold himself to us as hearing God, God talks to Stewart, well then whatever Stewart says about us is what God really thinks of us.:::Please Tell me, how can any brother or sister in Christ, go to God the Father in prayer and believe that God is on their side, that He wants you to be with Him? HE LOVES YOU. We do the works we do out of love for Him and love for others so that they can know our Loving God.
Can you please God now? Yes! Look at these verses:
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Current and Ex-members..don’t get the kneejerk reaction and clamp onto the part of the verse that says, “it is impossible to please God” Read the whole thing. “Without Faith” and when Jesus saved you , the Holy Spirit gave you a measure of Faith. You have it and you can walk by it. PERIOD! So now you have the possibility and power to Please God! Now as a children of His, “whoever would draw near to God” and because He saved you and put His Spirit inside you, your new creation desires to be with Our Heavenly Father all the time, you believe He exist and more so, you believe and know He is your Father in Heaven and that He rewards those who seek him. Another Scripture “The Lord says “Seek ye my face.” My heart says, “Thy face Lord do I seek,” Hide not thy face from me.” Psalms 28:7….You seek in prayer, you seek His Face, you use the faith He gave you, and He will reward you NOW! What is the reward? So far, for me, it has been Him. I get to be in His presence, He shows me how I can overcome sin. He shows me how to walk wisely through this world and not get entangled. First on the List, I get to be with my Heavenly Father, with no one between us except the Lord Jesus Christ. The condemnation Stewart taught and modeled polluted your thinking. Contrary to the scriptures Stewart USED against us, there remains the truth about God’s steadfast Love that has never ceased to be shown to you all your Christian life.
20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us
CAn you please him today, yes. John wrote present tense, you can please God now, by loving your brethren. The Holy Spirit will show you how.
Col 3:20 Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. That's a now verse. And when Children or we keep His commandments now and obey now, He is pleased with us NOW, He delights in us NOW. You you sense in your spirit, not your feelings, but in your spirit His delight in you?
Psalms 147: 11, "But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in his steadfast love."
Fear the Lord today, worship Him, pray to Him, hope in His Steadfast love today and He will take pleasure in you TODAY!Stewart’s job as a teacher was and is to instruct us in the word how to live according to the will of God. Paul the apostle declared the Whole Council of God to those who desired to live a life for God in Christ, in the Holy Spirit. A teacher points the way. He is accountable to God to instruct others to HIM not themselves. What remains Stewart’s greatest sin is that he has taught the current members, himself, and they rely and trust and to some extent, worship Stewart by their actions. If you look up and study the word Worship, you will find that the current members do worship and serve the Stewart rather than the Creator.
My prayer to God is that Stewart will repent. He himself said at the Grace Meeting that the members needed to “transfer their allegiance from his (Stewart’s) spirit to God’s spirit. Even then Stewart knew that the current members looked to him and not to the Pioneer and Perfecter of our Faith. Stewart took the place of God and did not stop the worship and won’t stop the worship and won’t step down so that the brethren would go back to relying on and trusting and worshipping the One TRUE God, their Father and mine.
Current members on this basis alone should ask God to forgive them for this idolatry and return to worshiping our Father, through Jesus, by His Holy Spirit. Do you fear Stewart more than you fear God?
I will write next about Dependence and Security next. Here’s a Hint:
The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
Are you secure, safe, sure of God’s love? Do you doubt HIS LOVE? Why?
Also to come, “He who endure to the end will be saved,” and how end times scriptures are used by some pastors, teachers, and ex-members to scare brethren into their control.