Following Christ

Theological Castle vs Life of Struggles

2011-05-30T15:09:00.000+03:00

In the community we lived in a safe theological castle, but the life of most of people consists of various struggles: for job, health, relationships, caring for kids and/or other relatives etc.
We had much free time for Bible talks together and with outside people. The tasks were divided between several brethren, so less burden remained for everyone. We didn't need to deal with people who didn't join our life-style. But in outside life one has to take care for all his/her material needs and those of his/her family, and of cause for the spiritual, mental, emotional and any other need. And in the broken world around us there are many broken people and broken families who do not meet the standards of our community. So one has to and can experience God in the middle of his daily duties and struggles, not first of all via thological discussions. (there should be some Biblical knowledge as well, of cause)
In the desert, Israel had to learn very basic lesson of depending on Jahwe for their food and everything. In usual family life, there may remain not much energy for special Christian meetings or activities (like mission and Bible discussion). The Christianity must be intergrated into the usual life, into the ways we do things. Well, i think the community did not say we were not Christians while we were at work or in university, but they emphasized being together too much. They didn't consider the (outward) diversity of ways one may live with Christ.

Confess your sins... so that you may be healed (James 5:16)

2011-02-09T01:32:00.001+02:00

Confessing of sins has been a question for me as well. To how many people? How detailed? What sins? etc.

"Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective" (Jm 5:13-16)

James says the aim of confession is forgiveness and health. He doesn't call to deal with sins constantly, but in case of sickness. I think 'sickness' needn't be only bodily problem but also mental, emotional or anything that hinders our relationship with God.

What I've heared and read, it's not healthy to dig in our sins constantly nor remember old forgiven sins and worry again about them. But in some cases, e.g if there are emotional wounds or unconfessed sins from the past, it should be healing to bring these into the light, to give them the right judgement, to forgive to your hurters, to ask and accept forgiveness. When it is cleard up, we shouldn't dig any more.
Well it's more complicated with present repeting sins. I don't have a good answer here.

And even we don't look for sins constantly, it's probably sensible to check from time to time various areas of our lives, if these are ok in front of God.

It's also good to remember that Satan can accuse us without a reason, reminding our past sins and failures, to discourage us. He can also make us restless and feeling guilty without a real sin. He wants us to feel hopeless. When the Holy Spirit convicts us in a sin, it is something specific. He calles us to clear it up with God and find peace.

Justfication and sanctification

2011-02-09T00:43:00.001+02:00

Once at a talk about faith and deeds (after the community) I came to conclusion that one can distinguish two terms. All Christians are called saints in the epistles of the NT because we are justified or 'declared righteous' through our initial faith and repentence (change of our minds). On the other hand we still have to become more holy because our sanctification or 'making holy' is a process lasting as long as we live on earth.

Rev 22:11b "and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still."(ASV)

One should avoid both extremes:
a) focusing on salvation: I'm saved and forgiven, I cannot loose it, I don't need to worry about my deeds nor spiritual growth.
b) focusing on good deeds so that it becomes base of salvation.

I think we should believe we are accepted by God because He is gracious. We needn't panic about loosing salvation, but anyway to be aware that if we take God too easlily, it may happen.

We want you to show this same diligence to the very end

2011-02-08T20:22:00.001+02:00

Heb 6:9 "Even though we speak like this, [warn against falling away] dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case — the things that have to do with salvation. 10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."

'Convinced of better things', but anyway, salvation seems to be accompanied by works of love. What to do if I think I don't have these enough in my life? Really, not easy. Right now, I don't manage much more than taking care for my little kids, and even this is far from perfect. I'm not able to add much more deeds to my life, but I can still fight for patience, faith and other good attitudes in everything I do.
2 Pe 1:5-9 "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."

Saved by grace for doing good

2011-01-28T17:04:00.001+02:00

I don't remember significant change in the theory about grace, neither in the community nor after: saved by grace for doing good. We should do what is good and right but we cannot deserve our salvation. Grace contains the power for sanctification, for doing good and avoiding bad.
Concerning feelings, I felt rather expectation to change this or that, and not that much trust, hope, encouragement that GOD should and can change me. But also now it's rather upon myself to find such encouragement.

I agree a commenter that our heart/mind/thinking is what influences our deeds and is important for God, Paul invites us to renew our thinking/mind (Ro 12:2). Right behavior without deeper change ceases when the circumstances change. We can see it from the Old Testamet how much the behavior of Israelites depended on the godliness or ungodliness of their king.

Tasks of an excluded one

2011-01-24T23:50:00.000+02:00

Anonymous commented:
"I am very astonished about the loss of recognition of my former brothers and about the way many of you speak about the church in this blog and in some other websites, instead of fighting for deep humility and to find out the deep roots and reasons of your sins which led to the exclusion. Only this may help to remain in relation with God. Not the church is guilty but we our self. It is not our task to criticise and accuse the community, although not everything was good. We all where church and responsible at that time. Now, we can have an influence only on our lives! "

Yes, we were all responsible and we should have shared our recognitions already there more clearly, but it wasn't easy, as explained in the previous comments of the linked topic.

Concerning me, there was a time when I was examining myself in front of God and the community's teaching, and repenting as well as I could. I was thinking, praying and reading the Bible much and God clearly supported me during this time. I had also talks with the community. My final conclusion was: I wasn't excluded, first of all, for my selfishness or lack of faith in God, but for my lack of faith in the community. Unfortunately, their main interest was not my relationship with God, but submission to the community. I think most of them sincerely wanted to help me, being convinced this was right in front of God. So it was love, but in my opinion lacking some recognition.

As I realized I could not sincerly agree with the community in some matters in the light of the Bible, I saw it loving (according to community's own measure), to share my recognitions. I wrote to them, but as they think they cannot learn anything from the excluded ones, I decided also to publish my thoughts for those who happen to become open to learn from it.

Unfortunately, I don't have much free time, so I don't manage to write very deeply and exhaustively, but only some thougts.

Another comment:
"My only task I see now as excluded one, is to fight for a deep regret and not to loose the right cognitions and standard, not to fall into grave sins."

Yes, I also think, it is important not to fall into grave sins.

Good and bad side of the community

2011-01-22T19:44:00.001+02:00

To give some balance I try to list what I think was good and what bad in the community.

Good was:

- everyone encouraged and allowed to contribute - teaching that every Christian is called to serve God and people, not just the clergy.
- Bible-study, knowing the right teaching valued and practiced (but probably too strict concerning some details and too demanding for mentally weaker ones)
- meeting often to strengthen, encourage/admonish and serve each other, sharing our lives (but in expense of all other relationships)
- relationships, loving of every brother/sister the same way was valued, building relationship with every brother, not only symphatic ones.

- evangelization encouraged and practiced (the content of message was not always ok: community-centered instead of Jesus-centered)
- devotion, giving all our life (but sometimes extreme)

- discipline, balance between bodily and spiritual: daily walks, rest after work/before common time (only too uniform, for all the same)

...

Bad was:

- discouraging personal time, making too dependant on each other instead of God. (I mean, it was seen negative, when somebody didn't join common activities, but wanted to be alone)
- making our life-style as the only possible for a Christian. Daily meeting and frequent traveling are not affordable in poorer countries and for families with little children. Some may have specific tasks for certain social group (seniors, orphans, homeless, addicts, poor, prisoners, etc). etc.

- extreme, loveless, dependent-making delimitation/separation form all outsiders, including own family. So they cannot experience our love.
- too exhausting schedule. There were changes for better: walks became shorter, WM topics not at night etc.
- activity as the main measure of endeavoring, bodily weakness sometimes mixed up with little endeavoring

Good theory but bad application

- no hierarchy, 'all are brothers', but the special position of GH (rather according to other's words, I don't have much personal experience of it)

- theoretically allowed to marry (theory about marriage probably insufficient because of lack of practical experience), but in practice forbidding marriage -> making the yoke too hard for several + insincerity
- according to the Apologia we were open, but really closed for justified corrections and learning from people outside

- fighting for holiness together, but sometimes too much dealing with sins, calling too many things a sin, not trusting enough one's self-assessment and God's work in the other

"It is better to marry than to be aflame" II

2011-01-14T01:36:00.000+02:00

As the comments show, the question of marriage is not that simple.
I try to explain more my thoughts.
I just combined two facts:
1) rather many sexual, but also other kind of wishes connected to marriage (like having children, having special deep relationship with somebody, etc) in the community. Exclusions and leaving the community because of these.
2) teaching that it is not good to marry
And I tried to show that it is not biblical to forbid marriage.

My aim was not giving an exhaustive view about reasons to marry or not to marry.
Marriage doesn't delete all sexual temptations, but can make them easier to bare.
Who marries only because of sex, will probably disappoint soon. Marriage is sharing whole life, not only bed.
Even looking solution for sexual temptations, I would advice an individual to seek to know God, to avoid tempting situations, to focus on thinking and doing what is God's will. But I think we cannot exclude marriage as possible way with God, if somebody wants to marry. Of cause one should look for His leading and good advice also concerning whom to marry, so that it may take place "in the Lord"

There was so much love for the truth

2011-01-01T19:45:00.001+02:00

There was so much love for the truth in the community. Can we imagine that also something bad happened there?
As creatures of the perfect God we long for perfection. We are called to be perfect and holy as God is. But unfortunately we are all still imperfect.. It is sad. It can make me angry sometimes: why we are so weak? But anyway we are only on the way to perfection and sometimes we mistake or sin. We sin as individuals, but as interdependant beings we may mistake also as a community of Christians. It may be hard to believe or accept, but if we look honestly at our community and the fruits of it's practice both inside and outside, I think we have to admit that not all has been holy, loving and merciful.
Concerning an individual I think it was clear, but concerning the community it was taught that we are the church and the church is the pillar of the truth - infallible. Because the Lord is with His church. But why have all forms of the church in the history proved to be imperfect? I suppose because all men except Jesus have been imperfect. Is GH or Josef or anybody else from the community perfect? Of cause not. Everyone can make a mistake and being that much connected to each other the whole community can make a mistake.

Looking for the truth was good, but the truth is not measured by our community's understanding.

"It is better to marry than to be aflame"

2011-01-01T18:11:00.001+02:00

Somebody explained the community's reasons for celibacy (see the comment from 01.01.2011).
I agree there are benefits of staying unmarried as Paul writes.
But Paul also writes:
1Cor7: "1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: "It is well for a man not to touch a woman." 2 But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. .. 5 Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.... 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind... 9 But if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion"
Unfortunately there are many sexual tempations also nowadays, so many in the community - especially brothers - were fighting them and many failed to overcome and had to leave the community. Paul wishes and recommends all to remain free from marriage duties, but he also gives permission to marry, if somebody doesn't control his desires. He says, it is better to marry than to be aflame. It is better to marry than to go to hell. Is is better to control one's desires, but if it takes too much energy, it's better to use the sexuality in the way God designed it to be used: in the marriage.
So the responsible ones in community make the way narrower than Paul, when they don't allow brothers-sisters to marry..

Time for prayer and fellowship

2010-10-15T00:21:00.000+02:00

Even busy with children, I can manage that life only, when I take regularly time for prayer and fellowship with other Christians.

Full of God or full of daily tasks?

2010-04-26T17:00:00.000+03:00

Nine years ago, in the community, I wrote the following encouragement to a sister. What about these thoughts today? How should I practice this now, when I'm always busy with my little kids, instead of the Bible study?

"Isaiah 54:1-5, especially 5a, 'For your Maker is your husband.' First of all we should have relationship with God, he gives everything we need. No human being can give us everything we need. The love of God has been given into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), it means we CAN love others by his power and love. Then we are happy."
Well, this I knew already before meeting the community. And it applies both in marriage or community and without: God should be our first source of strength, not any human being.

"Philippians 3:7-14. Pauls's aim of life was to know the Christ. Seeing God's acting gives us joy. ... Bad desires, thoughts, attitudes come, if we don't endeavor to read the Bible, to think about it and about how to help others spiritually. If we are not full of the Bible, of God, we are empty and try to fulfill ourselves by our wishes. But only God can fulfil us. Our aim shouldn't be just to get free from bad, but to grow in the good, in order to pass on the character of God better and better - first of all the attitude of the Christ and trust in God. He wants to help us to change and to give joy in Him."

Decrease

2010-03-18T14:31:00.003+02:00

Many have been excluded from the community these years and in many towns there is no community any more.
I heard they say the reason of it is lack of love.

Yes, they are right that they are lacking love. Only the solution is not exclusion of even more brothers-sisters, but inclusion of those they have rejected as hopeless, extending their love to those.

Concerning present feelings

2009-08-09T11:56:00.002+03:00

I don't have intensive grief any more (for some years have passed since then), but I still feel something missing in my life.
Do I feel something missing because there I experienced real love and now not?

Well, one thing I miss is talking more about the Bible and theological questions instead of earthly daily matters. But only talking shouldn't be the aim, we need also time to practice the love..
I also miss closer sharing of life. But there we all lived in a too uniform way, so it was easier to share - to take part, to understand. It also happened on the cost of all extra-community relationships. We lived in our own world, loving (having time for) those only who were interested in our lifestyle.
To be honest, I also miss nature walks and travelling around easily. That is just what I like, and connected to love only by wish to be together with friends (who like the same). Still, only travelling and walks without spiritual talk or prayer feel somewhat empty.
...
There I received more attention, encouragement-admonishment, I felt more needed. But I had too little time for reflecting individually in front of God.

Briefly, there were some aspects of real love, but the love wasn't perfect there either.

Leaving was like death of a close person

2008-10-08T17:19:00.003+02:00

Unfortunately at least some feelings we had were similar:

http://www.reveal.org/library/psych/ithurts.html

"There is a grieving process to pass through. Whereas most people understand that a person must grieve after a death etc, they find it difficult to understand the same applies in this situation. There is no instant cure for the grief, confusion and pain. Like all grieving periods, time is the healer.

Some feel guilty, or wrong about this grief. They shouldn't -- It IS normal. It is NOT wrong to feel confused, uncertain, disillusioned, guilty, angry, untrusting -- these are all part of the process. In time the negative feelings will be replaced with clear thinking, joy, peace, and trust."

Place for everybody in the car

2008-08-30T16:23:00.008+03:00

Why do little things sometimes hurt so nastily?
I liked to belong to the community as into a big family. We were together our daily free time, we shared our lives with each other, belonged together. We met brothers from other towns at weekends. In winter we often rented some classrooms in a schoolhouse for this. Sunday evening we packed our things, made order after ourselves and drove home. There was a place for everyone in the vans.
Not all was in a good balance there, but I miss especially this belonging into a big family. Everybody was waited to the meetings, everybody was called to take responsibility for our common life and mission, an everyone did it more or less. There was time to talk personally.
Well, this year I have already the second time am frustrated after a period of daily meetings. There was a week-long conference and a two-week course where I was daily together with some people. And after this time, the world outside of our community seems especially individualistic and cold. Everyone returns to his den to his private life or other friends. And I'm again only in two in my immediate family.
Both times, it seems, I expected something according my community's standards. To be a bit longer together, to share still something before the departure.. I forgot I was not any more in the community where knowing each other and sharing is a value in itself..
So this time, the last day of the course we made order in the school we had rented. I had joy to play a bit with a child who felt boring. According to our community, I thought it must be good in the eyes of his parents. As it was the last day, we finished later than usually, I was a bit anxious about an expected meeting with my boss the next day, and hoping to get a lift with the car as it had happened rather often. But it turned out there were six of us for a car with 5 places. And a person who lives nearer to the school than we was invited to the car. Without any explanation for such a choice. My disappointment must have been very clear from my face.. I don't know if they noticed it, but even if they noticed - there was not enough space in the car for all of us. (and it wouldn't have been very nice to let that person alone neither) This was a too sudden end for the two-week work together..
Well, it's their car, not a common van as in the community. Perhaps we even don't win much in time comparing to taking bus. It's matter of relationships, of belonging together, of being attentive to each other. If they had at least given an understandable reason for the choice in the very situation, it could have been easier. I cannot blame them really, it's a clash of different sub-cultures. In the community the vans united us, enabling us to meet brothers in other towns, but outside, cars tend to separate, because there is often not enought space for everyone who might join. :(

Touch no unclean

2008-02-22T17:14:00.003+02:00

Isaiah 52 : 11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. 12 But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

We liked to use the quotation of this verse in the New Testament to invite to come out from the world and avoid unclean, to avoid sinners. But here the next verse sais, "But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you". So we needn't be too much afraid of contacts with unbelievers. The Lord is with his own to guard.

"Religion is treated as branch of the arts"

2008-01-04T13:12:00.002+02:00

http://followchrist.info/ What Shall We Do? writes:
"The majority of people hold the opinion that there is no absolute truth. In our society, the view that the truth is relative is the predominating ideology. Many people have become accustomed to this stream of thought and think that one's idea of truth is relative and has no validity for others: "What seems good to me is what is right for me!" However, if everything has the same validity, then in the end nothing matters. The standard according to which good and bad, right and wrong are measured is completely missing. Everyone can find something to suit his own personal taste and needs. People paint their own picture of heaven, choosing the colours from a palette of their own desires and wishes, creating their own religion, which seems to fit well enough for the time being... In fact, religion is widely treated as yet another branch of the arts, like the world of fashion in which people shape trends and trends, in turn, shape people. However, God's way is different... "

It is justified to talk against the thinking that everything is subjective. There is God's way to the Heaven and other ways leading elsewhere.
But a problem is that there is a great number of communities who say that just they know the right way and others are in error. Every such congregation emphasizes some aspects of Jesus's teaching (or even the Old Testament teaching) and neglets some other aspects. Usually they procaim and publish what they follow and see important, and they try to hide or whitewash their teachings/practices that are not commonly understood as good.
They may critisize something wrong in other denominations and may give a better example in it themselves - and it is worthy to learn from them. But they may decline to the other extreme of that teaching and this is not good any more. They may also be unaware, unexperienced that some people may get free from a sin easily, other may need to fight for years before final freedom from the same sin. This can cause lack of mercy and patience towards the latter, and they may give up the fight as hopeless too quickly.

Let's read further:
"...He wants to set us free from selfish desires and sexual sins, from vanity and envy, from the feeling of inferiority and pride, from arrogance and the urge to win the favour of other people.
Jesus also wants to set us free from all kinds of deceptive teachings which lead people to concentrate on themselves even more in the effort to save themselves. But He also wants to set us free from wrong ideas which people call Christianity, where people devote vast amounts of time and energy to the cause of social justice but neglect the spiritual fight against sin."
It was good and had some effect to fight against sin, but sometimes we were too much focused on sins and thought too little about social aspects of life.

"Jesus wants to free us from teachings which provide an assurance of God's forgiveness but forget that discipleship is all about following Jesus. He wants to liberate us from doctrines which promise God's grace, but renounce obedience as legalistic. For this reason we seek the truth, searching for God's will in both our lives and teaching."
But it wasn't enough conscious that in spite of the need of obedience, we are forgiven by grace.

Christmas originate from pagan feasts..

2007-12-27T15:06:00.000+02:00

It is known that Christmas originate from pagan feasts that were only given a Christian meaning some centuries after Jesus lived on the earth.

How much these feasts were a worship of Sun or of any other idol, and how much these were just for having fun and feast itself?

As Paul writes the idols are nothing and eating (sacrificed) meat in itself is no problem. Only we should not be a stumbling block for weak brothers who may not have that recognition.
If nowadays, at least in the western countries, Christmas have lost their inner connection to idol worship, it shouldn't be a problem to follow some Christmas traditions of pagan origin, that are not bad in itself? Of cause we should be aware of not worshiping the consumption-idol, but this is valid all the year around not just the Christmas-time.

But the majority just likes the traditions and flows with the stream.. So can we take part in it in a moderate and Christ-centered way or is it that evil and pagan, that true Christians, followers of Christ, should reject the Christmas completely?
Anyway I think Christmas and other feasts are not neccesary, we can have a feast for the Lord in our heart every day.

Danger of False Teachings

2007-12-19T13:30:00.000+02:00

In the community the correct teaching is considered a very important matter.
Really, apostle Paul writes: "Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching, then you will save yourself and those who listen to you" (1 Tim 4:16), and to Galatians (1:9): "If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!"
And Jesus said: "If you continue in My word, {then} you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32)
Who has wrong teaching doesn't even worship God...
Teaching and life are closely connected..
False teachings have bad influence in the congregation and lead away from God..
"Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into {your} house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds." (2 John 9-11)

You can see details in their article.

Surely it is biblical to take care of the right teaching. But our recognition is limited in this world. Not every theological detail is explained unambiguously in the Bible. So where is the border between right and wrong teaching? Especially between teaching that is clearly wrong and leading to condemnation and teaching that is not the most correct theologically, but doesn't affect the salvation that clearly?
E.g, how should we interpret the Bible?
Rejecting big parts of the Bible as non-authentic by liberal theologians, takes away the authority of the Biblical truth and makes the first Christians liers who wrote the Bible as a book of myths. This approach questions many teachings of the Bible. So this must be wrong.
Another extreme is to say the Bible is dictated by God literally and has no errors nor contradictions in it's text. And that it is a book of natural science as well as of history. A known teaching they fight for is the six-day creation of the world... Reading with a critical mind, we can find contradictions in the Bible with the Bible itself and with the natural sciences.
I think a reasonable way is to see the Bible as a library of different kinds of literature, written by men who knew God, about Him and about the history of salvation. Everyone wrote according to his recognition in his time, and the recognition grew, especially after coming of Jesus. It was also the community's view.
If somebody doesn't believe a big part of the Bible, it changes his life a lot. If somebody is convinced that the world is created in six days, and follows some other teachings of the Bible literally, it can lead to some strange restrictions concerning food or clothing or womens' position, but does it hinder to follow the basic teaching of Jesus to love and to be sanctified, to be saved by faith in Him?

Another example. If the general teaching is that we need help of Jesus for salvation and that we are called to turn from our sins, does it change much in one's good fight for holiness, if he thinks he was born as a sinner or if he thinks he has only an inclination to sin? God's power can overcome both an inclination to sin and the sinful nature. And one can use both as an excuse for his weakness as well. Isn't it more important to cultivate the attitude not to excuse one's sins, but to be sanctified by Jesus.

One more thought. We were expected everyone to know well the correct teachings in a rather high theological level. But what about those who are not that educated to understand the theological-philosophical details? And the psychically ill? If the details of every teaching are the matter of salvation, how can they be saved?

God is Love

2007-11-29T16:12:00.001+02:00

About an article on the community's website God is love.
Even active love as a sign of a Christian is an important topic, it took a long time to write about love for the website.. Does it hint to some lack in our love? Or were we too busy in practice of love in other areas?
God's love is giving. He gave us this life and everything. Even more, he gives us eternal life in his son Jesus. He makes us able to love.
Love is not an intense feeling, but is connected with the decision and will to always want the very best for someone.
Only God's love can fulfill our longing for being loved perfectly.

God's love tells the truth, discloses hypocrisy and all other sin, even when it causes unpleasant feelings. E.g: "God gives us everything we need, and gave us many things and abilities for us to love and do good. When we sin we abuse these good gifts from God, using them for evil, without respecting what they were entrusted to us for. A son who squanders all the inheritance his loving, caring father gave him on evil pleasures dishonours and rejects his father. Likewise we dishonour and reject God when we don't ask God how he wants us to live."
-- we dishonor God when we don't use our abilities for good. Not that pleasant to hear, but also challenging to repent.

But I didn't see in the article the famous passage of love from 1Cor 13 "Love is patient, love is kind, love forgives, love doesn't keep list of wrongs..."

God loves everyone, not just the sympathetic ones. Jesus even told to love our enemies and to pray for persecutors, but I didn't notice that last fact in the article.

Love binds Christians together. Love gives also each other trust and freedom. Love doesn't rule over the other.

The first Christians shared even their properties with each other. Anyway, I suppose Jesus didn't want us to make other dependent on ourselves.

...

"You haven't changed your hateful attitude"

2007-11-04T13:26:00.000+02:00

About the letter to Gottfried H from the Österreichischen Studentenmission (ÖSM)

Kluge publishes a letter from ÖSM to Gottfried from the year 1980, where they ask him not to visit their meetings any more, because of his unchanged hateful attitude towards them. Josef explains the reason of Gottfried's attitude was the fundamentalist view of the ÖSM that ignores the knowledge of science.

I didn't meet G. very often, but from these meetings and from what I heard from others, I would think that he didn't have really good attitude in this matter. And finally, his exclusion from the community had also some connections to his disrespectful ways of talking to brothers! But it took ~20 years for brothers to realize that he would have needed more brotherly correction..

"You Are All Brothers" (Matt 23:8b)

2007-11-04T10:33:00.000+02:00

They, or we, claimed to follow only Christ, no human leader or prophet. We didn't have positions like pastor, priest, bishop, or even elder. As in the Bible time there wasn't one pastor over the flock, but several elders from among them, we were just brothers and sisters. Material tasks were divided according to abilities and time everyone had. Elder and more obedient brothers had tasks of bigger responsibility, but there were no fixed rules who was an 'elder brother'.
Everyone was expected to study the Bible, to share his thoughts and recognitions with others and to evangelize.
* By 'brother' we often didn't mean only males, it's just shorter than 'brothers and sisters', the English translation for German Geschwister and Hungarian testverek. Even English was our common language in my time there, there were only few native English-speakers among us.
* 'Obedient' meant obedient to God, of cause. But in fact, it was mixed with obedience to our community's views.

1Cor 14:24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"
26 What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.... 29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.

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My beginning and way

2007-11-03T22:41:00.001+02:00

As for me, the beginning of my Christianity was in 1995 when the Lord reached me via Bible study with some people of Presbyterian + disciple-making background. So my Christianity has been Bible-study-centered. When i started to believe, I learned about various Christian and "Christian" views from the Internet, books, radio.. Later, in the community, I learned even more, also from talks with brothers-sisters and other people. There I learned also to assess the different views more clearly. And I learned more practical self-denial. I learned about co-operation, complementing each other as members of one body, one family. And now I'm learning how to live up this all outside of that close-knit community.

Gruppenegoismus

2007-11-03T22:34:00.000+02:00

Mr. Kluge describes our arrogant attitude towards denominations and unfortunately it was so. We were much more devoted to the doctrines and to each other than they; we had given up our relationships, possessions, sometimes profession, town, country for living in the community - this was our new family, the God's nation, outside was the world that moves to the condemnation. Inside we were protected from it's evil. Our love to them was expressed by teaching and living the right doctrine..
I think it's right: in the Church we should have protection from the world, Christians should differ from non-Christians and keep themselves pure and holy. We are to assess, warn and encourage each other and unbelievers. But our love should help unbelievers to see the love of Christ in practice. Even we are holy, we are not yet perfect, we ourselves are in a process of sanctification. Many of us were once unbelievers, living in the sins of the world. God has forgiven us and has saved us by grace, so we should be patient with others as He has been with us.. But too often we assumed that we were right because of our greater devotion, correct doctrine, biblical life-style and the Catholics, Baptists and all the others were wrong just because they don't understand or don't practice something as we did. I do think that e.g. Catholics have several false, unbiblical teachings, or that denominations may tolerate some sins too much or to prefer their traditions to the Bible, but i mean: we focused rather on the wrong and weren't ready to learn from outsiders what was good. I suppose it was a way to defend ourselves from outward influence.

Concerning name-calling, I don't remember of hearing of 'Catholic terror organization', but some expressions sounded disrespectful. Well, 'Jehovah false witnesses' seems more justified.. I can recall hearing such expressions only from single older brothers, but generally we were critical towards others.

The same self-defending, opponent-accusing attitude is exemplified by Josef's Apology: he doesn't admit justified criticism but only defends the community. It's not humble enough. It's also a reason why I'm writing this blog: Mr. Kluge has accusing attitude in his description, and Josef is not enough objective either.

The beginning

2007-10-27T10:53:00.000+02:00

When I got to know them in 1999, I asked an older brother about the beginning of their community, and he told me a similar story as it it written in the Apology.. (the Apology is a text by Josef Aufreiter to defend us against a Catholic priest and 'sect-expert' Mr. Kluge who has published a blaming booklet about the community.) It was 'similar' in the sense that the brother told: There were several of us in the beginning, we were looking for the right congregation, and not finding it, we concluded that we were the church.
Josef, in his defense, puts it so: "So at the beginning we also hoped to find a community. What we found however were only individual Christians, but no community. Every "confession" we encountered, whether large or small raised its own traditions above the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles. Biblically based criticism was dismissed (most sharply from the so-called Bible Believers). So we had to face the fact that the assembly of believers didn't exist in our geographic vicinity and that according to Gods will, we ourselves were what we had been searching for in vain, namely the Church of God in Vienna."

That time Gottfried Holic, who is named 'the founder of the group' by Mr. Kluge, was still not excluded and had rather much influence. So it was thought already before the decrease of his influence that he was not the only founder, but that it was God's leading to separate from existing congregations. Generally, there was a custom not to emphasize roles of individuals. Anyway, as much as I know, Gottfried H. played an important role in the community. And it is sad that those who were closer to him, allowed him too much.

Later, i have been told, that in the beginning they didn't meet in a flat. They just went to meetings of congregations, after the 'offical part of the meeting' they continued to talk with those who wanted, until everyone had to go to his home by the last bus or underground train.

Intro

2007-10-27T10:42:00.000+02:00

Hello!

This is an attempt to organize and express my thoughts about a time in my Christian walk, and to correct or comment some information available in the cyberspace about the circle of believers I was together with this time. It was six and a half years. There was much to learn in this community, but also several things that need rethinking and looking for a better solution.