Quotes to Ponder

[Ken Fuller]

"Don't insert a question mark where God has placed a period"

(church sign this past weekend)

[psalm51]

"The quality of mercy is not strained.  
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven...
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice."
                              William Shakespeare, from the
                             The Merchant of Venice

[H]

"Characteristic of the cult (from Hare Krishna to the "Moonies" to EST to Scientology to the Manson Family) is the dominance of the guru, or Maximum Leader, who is also the creator and ultimate interpreter of a given creed to which the acolyte must be unswervingly loyal. The major if not the only qualification for membership and advancement in the cult is absolute loyalty to and adoration of the guru, and absolute and unquestioning obedience to his commands. The lives of the members are dominated by the guru’s influence and presence. If the cult grows beyond a few members, it naturally becomes hierarchically structured, if only because the guru cannot spend his time indoctrinating and watching over every disciple. Top positions in the hierarchy are generally filled by the original handful of disciples, who come to assume these positions by virtue of their longer stint of loyal and devoted service. Sometimes the top leadership may be related to each other, a useful occurrence which can strengthen intra-cult loyalty through the familial bond.

The goals of the cult leadership are money and power. Power is achieved over the minds of the disciples through inducing them to accept without question the guru and his creed. This devotion is enforced through psychological sanctions. For once the acolyte is imbued with the view that approval of, and communication with, the guru are essential to his life, then the implicit and explicit threat of excommunication – of removal from the direct or indirect presence of the guru – creates a powerful psychological sanction for the "enforcement" of loyalty and obedience. Money flows upward from the members through the hierarchy, either in the form of volunteer labor service contributed by the members, or through cash payments."

Taken from "The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult" by Murray Rothbard

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html

[psalm51]

"He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it."    Plato

[psalm51]

"The art of leadership...consists in consolidating the attention of the people against a single adversary and taking care that nothing will split up that attention."    Adolf Hitler

[psalm51]

This is especially for gracetruth:
"The surest way to be deceived is to think oneself more clever than others.   French proverb

"Let no man deceive you with vain words."  Eph. 5:6

"Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.   La Rochefoucauld

Be careful, gracetruth. If you are still defending George after what has transpired, you are in a very dangerous position. Whole assemblies have shut down, many leaders have stepped down and/or out...this is fact, not delusion. These people accepted the hard and difficult-to-swallow truth. They came face to face with their "errors of judgment" and it has changed their lives. Can you face the hard questions and the even harder answers? I hope so.
Your spiritual health depends on it.
Pat

[gracetruth]

1Co 1:11  For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of Fullerton, that there are contentions among you.
1Co 1:12  But I say this, that every one of you says, I am of Geftakyan, and I of Tr0ckman, and I of Zach, and I of Christ.
1Co 1:13  Is Christ divided? Was George crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of George?

Eph 4:20  But you have not so learned Christ

Mat 16:23  for thy mind is not on the things that are of God, but on the things that are of men.

Col 3:1  If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

[psalm51]

1Co 1:11  For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of Fullerton, that there are contentions among you.
1Co 1:12  But I say this, that every one of you says, I am of Geftakyan, and I of Tr0ckman, and I of Zach, and I of Christ.
1Co 1:13  Is Christ divided? Was George crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of George?

WOW!  I don't think we're in the KJV anymore.

[Joe Sperling]

"I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member"

--Groucho Marx

"Please cut that pizza into 4 slices 'cause I don't
think I can eat eight"

--Yogi Berra

[psalm51]

"I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face.  Don't trust that conventional idea.  Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance, any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it."   Charles Dickens

[psalm51]

"This is the final test of a gentleman (or woman): his respect for those who can be of no possible value to him."   William Lyon Phelps  

[Arlene]

"...those who have been playing God, manipulating situations or people, need to abdicate their man-made kingdoms--whether one individual or many persons are involved. Jesus said, 'The rulers of the Gentiles [pagans] lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.⁹'--but His people are not to be like that.' "

--Florence Bulle, from her book, The Many Faces of Deception (p. 98)

⁹-Mt 20:25(NASB)

[Bill and Karen W.]

I should not base my conduct toward you on how valuable you are to me, nor on any intrinsic value found in our humanity, but on--HOW BELOVED YOU ARE TO  GOD!               (UNKNOWN)

[Bill and Karen W.]

Let it not be said that I have separated someone from the love of God by my actions and attitudes toward that person.    (UNKNOWN)

[Arlene]

"There are two ways of spreading light:
  to be the candles or the mirror that reflects it."
Gerhard Tersteegen    
"A Mother's Heart"