Healing

[sfortescue]

Since Matt was nice enough to quote me, and also added an endorsement, I decided to remove the original to reduce redundancy.

 

[Mark C.]

Hi All !
  Steve:  Very good idea re. throwing out all that you were taught in the Assembly and starting over again.  This does not mean that your time in the Assembly was a waste of time, as one certainly can retain an awareness of what to avoid now!
  Matt:  I never thought that Neil Young would be able to instruct me re. the love of God, but it certainly does fit via a little adaption.  It just goes to show that as humans we all share the same needs, but don't recognize that God is the one who can fulfill that need.
  JessicaLopez!  Wow, a movie star used to be in the Assembly and posts here on the BB!
   Your invitation to find healing by learning to enjoy the liberty we have in Christ is a good one, but one that is not so easy for many.  Steve had to make an effort to renew his mind, as he was controlled by his previous instruction to see things in a particular way.  His getting free was accomplished by considerable effort on his part.
  We learn things, not only in a cognitive way, but with our emotions as well.  The way we "felt" about our experience often takes precedence over what the facts were.  To find healing for our emotions takes time and reflection for many.  There are some that can't feel comfortable in any church setting as it now triggers negative emotional responses.
  For those who substituted the love of God, for the love and acceptance of the Group, a great feeling of emptiness will insue.  I have been contacted by ex-Assemblyites who, while knowing the Assembly was off-base, were fighting the emotional desires to return to the group.  One individual, whom I have not heard from in a long time, probably has gone back.  The classic cultic method of "love bombing" of members trying to leave is effective in bringing back, sometimes, the most clear headed member.
  Those seeking healing must realize that they were victims of the manipulation of their emotional life by a false presentation of the Christian life/ relationships.  After we identify the false manipulative way we then need to discover the way to satisfy those needs in the way that Christ has provided.  This is not an easy process for many and we should recognize how difficult it can be for them.
   I am happy that you have found freedom and healing from your Assembly past!    God Bless,  Mark

[Matt]

  Matt:  I never thought that Neil Young would be able to instruct me re. the love of God, but it certainly does fit via a little adaption.  It just goes to show that as humans we all share the same needs, but don't recognize that God is the one who can fulfill that need.
 

What are you trying to say? Why did you address that thought specifically to me?

[Mark C.]

I'm sorry Matt
  I thought that you posted the Neil Young song, but as I read back I discovered it was MGov. that posted it.  
  Please accept my humble apologies

                                God bless,  Mark

[al Hartman]

     Just a note of clarification about Mark's earlier post today.  Mark said:
     "For those who substituted the love of God, for the love and acceptance of the Group, a great feeling of emptiness will insue."  Mark went on to explain his point, but i don't want the opening statement of the paragraph to confuse anyone.
      The Love of God is never going to be a disappointment to anyone.  God IS love, and God DOES love us powerfully and effectually.  "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Romans 8:35, 37
     But some of us, engaged in extracting ourselves from the bondage of false teaching, have run into "linguistic" problems.  That is, we have been taught false meanings for the words of spiritual truth.  The very language of God's truth has been altered in its presentation to us.
     For example, many of us identified the sense of warmth, acceptance and security we felt within the society of the assembly as actually BEING the love of God-- we were "programmed" to think that.  Personally, i have never found a feeling to equal that of an assembly worship.  
     So, in leaving such behind us and attempting to grasp firsthand, perhaps for the first time, the reality of God's love, we may tend to believe that the absence of the familiar feelings mean that we have drifted away from the Light.  Reject that thought!  It is the devil's lie.
     God's Love may or may not be accompanied by feelings.  But what feelings may come to us are incidental to the truth.  The Love of God is FAR greater than a mere fickle feeling-- it is a guaranteed promise.  "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." I John 4:10
     We must, as Stephen suggested (below), start over again to read the word of God for what it truly says and not simply what someone told us it means.  We can ask, and trust, God to show us the truth.  "What shall we then say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us?  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?" Romans 8:31-32

al Hartman

P.S.:  Mark, you have the wrong J-Lo.  The actress is Jennifer;  the Sister is Jessica (who probably gets that a lot).

[Mark C.]

Thanks AL !
  Your clarification of my previous point re. the love of God was right on and I thank you for making it.
  I guess I'm not as up on Hollywood starlets as I should be.  I seem to be apologizing a great deal this weekend!  I'm sorry Ms. Lopez for incorrectly ascribing celebrity status to you.  I assumed it was a "stage name" and it just goes to show that your global moderator is human after all
                               God Bless,  Mark

[Matt]

That was an ok song MGov. Never heard of it before though, probably written before I was born? Well here is something a little more up to date for people of my generation. It reminds me of some of the struggles that people are having finding a place to worship after their assemblies have disbanded (or they decided to leave their assembly):

"Somewhere I Belong" by Linkin Park (on their new cd, meteora, I recommend getting it, it's great)

(When this began)
I had nothing to say
And I get lost in the nothingness inside of me
(I was confused)
And I let it all out to find/
That I’m not the only person with these things in mind
(Inside of me)
But all the vacancy the words revealed
Is the only real thing that I’ve got left to feel
(Nothing to lose)
Just stuck/ hollow and alone
And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own

[Chorus]
I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve felt so long
(Erase all the pain till it’s gone)
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

And I’ve got nothing to say
I can’t believe I didn’t fall right down on my face
(I was confused)
Looking everywhere only to find
That it’s not the way I had imagined it all in my mind
(So what am I)
What do I have but negativity
’Cause I can’t justify the way, everyone is looking at me
(Nothing to lose)
Nothing to gain/ hollow and alone
And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own

[Repeat Chorus]

I will never know myself until I do this on my own
And I will never feel anything else, until my wounds are healed
I will never be anything till I break away from me
I will break away, I'll find myself today

[Repeat Chorus]

I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m somewhere I belong
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m somewhere I belong
Somewhere I belong

[al Hartman]

Matt,

     i turned 60 last August, and some consider me a dinosaur.  (My kids are still urging me to join the 20th century!)
     But i understand the feelings that the song writer
is describing.  i have been there-- it's a real place.  Thank God for meeting us there and delivering us from it!
     Thanks for sharing it, Matt.

al Hartman

[MGov]

That was an ok song MGov. Never heard of it before though, probably written before I was born? Well here is something a little more up to date for people of my generation. It reminds me of some of the struggles that people are having finding a place to worship after their assemblies have disbanded (or they decided to leave their assembly):

"Somewhere I Belong" by Linkin Park (on their new cd, meteora, I recommend getting it, it's great)

You're right on all two counts:
1.  It was written before you were born; but then I was married before you were born... I'm not as old as Al though.
2.  This song is better, especially on the Healing thread.

Thanks for sharing it with us (did Al already say that? The short term memory goes first.)

I plan to listen to it in the near future.

God bless,
M

[MGov]

Poem taken from Sept 19 devotional reading 'Streams in the Desert'

I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne'er a word said she;
But, oh, the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me.

[Kimberley Tobin]

I just did a search for "Linkin Park" on MSN and was able to watch the video for "Somewhere I Belong" and listen to the whole song.  

Certainly not of my generation (left for you to guess - I too am not as old as Al .)  However, I could relate to the words and for my daughters generation, something they could relate to (I actually cried during the video-but then again, I am a sap  )

Music has been the biggest thing that has helped me heal from having been involved in the Assembly.  I was raised in a very musical family (my mother taught Guitar for 35 years-and I started taking guitar when I was 7) and the lack of quality music that could have ministered to my soul for the 15 years I was involved in the Assembly, left a big hole in my soul.

The contemporary Christian music that is sung in many churches today is both up-lifting and has ministered to my soul greatly.  Most Sundays I am crying through worship, filled with worship for my savior.  Music (done well), in my never to be humble opinion, ministers to the soul in a way that the pompous prayers of the saints and hymns sung like a dirge could never accomplish.  

Does it sound like I have a bias as to the Assembly worship style?  Just my opinion - everyone has their likes and dislikes - some like vanilla and some like chocolate - but it doesn't make one bad and the other good - I'm just glad I don't have to believe "the lie" anymore that was fed to us in the Assembly that the "worldly churches" style of worship was less than spiritual.

[j.lo]

  I hadn't been on-line in a while so I must admit , I did't realize that many saints knew who Jennifer Lopez was, that whole sheltered life thing, so I cracked up over the confusion. I went on a job interview a couple of years ago, the dept. manager took me around the dept. introducing me as Jennifer Lopez when we were about to close and I corrected him I didn't get the job! oh well it was to far to drive to anyways. I go home to mamma and she calls me Jennifer because I have a sister named Jennifer (not Lopez though) so  call me anything, just don't call me Bob. Jessica

[Joe Sperling]

Kimberly---

Thanks for your post. I like the group Linkin Park
very much and I'm an old guy. I wanted to mention
that while in the Assembly George taught that worship
should be "spiritual" and not "soulish". This led to a
mindset of thinking that if you "felt" anything it was soulish.
     I remember George totally shutting down a beautiful song (I've forgotten the title--it wasn't from the Assembly book of hymns). It was a song where the brothers could sing one part and the sisters another. It was absolutely beautiful, but to George it was soulish. He literally stopped the whole Assembly during worship when we started to sing this song and began singing something different. We never sang the song again. I felt that was so amazing because the Spirit should lead the worship, not George.
        When I began to attend Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa we sang many beautiful songs, many of them very emotional. They would often bring me to tears.
         And just what is being "Spiritual"? Some of my most sincere and direct prayers to God have been one's where I simply fell upon my knees and began to weep to God, not the one's where I "sound" so very Spiritual.  EX: "Oh our great exalted and most Heavenly Father who sits in the highest heavens, holier than holy....etc.--not that there is anything wrong with greatly exalting God, but sometimes I think crying to God as a Father from the heart of a little son is far more spiritual than any great exalted prayer. I believe this also applies to music.
          Kimberly---you mentioned learning the guitar. Have you ever heard of a guitar player named Steve Morse? He is one of my favorite guitarists. He mainly plays rock or jazz fusion instrumentals, but he is also great at any style of guitar playing. You should check him out if you love guitar playing.

Take care and God bless you,  Joe

[MGov]

Music has been the biggest thing that has helped me heal from having been involved in the Assembly.  I was raised in a very musical family (my mother taught Guitar for 35 years-and I started taking guitar when I was 7) and the lack of quality music that could have ministered to my soul for the 15 years I was involved in the Assembly, left a big hole in my soul.

If you want quality uplifting music I recommend:
Michael W. Smith's Worship DVD with 5.1 surround sound.

[Kimberley Tobin]

Joe - Thank you for your response.  I played acoustic guitar and I was good at classical, enjoyed people like James Taylor and his ilk.  My mother was in a Bluegrass band and though I didn't enjoy that music, my mother taught me in the folk genre of music.  I was never very progressive in my musical interests, I don't particularly like rock, but again it's just a preferance, I don't think there is anything wrong with the music.  So I took your challenge and looked into Steve Morse and listened to a clip.  Not my cup of tea, though I can appreciate his technique.  Isn't it wonderful to realize that we can have different musical tastes and it doesn't make one right and the other wrong?  I love GRACE!!!!

MGov - I love Michael W. Smith!