Thank you Ruth for another conversation peppered with words of love and grace. A healthy church should be open to a lot of conversation about the proper exercise of power in it, and understanding, learning what is spiritual violence, domestic violence, talking about it as a unit of salvation, how to resist violence from the point of view of God's Word. Using the example of Jesus, Paul, David and other authors of the Bible, we see that they did not go to the extremes of denying negative things among them and believers, but showed us a balanced biblical approach in spiritual matters.
Ruth, you have told the truth about many worthy and faithful sisters and dear brothers, including this brother, who were abused in LR. This is of great importance. Now we appreciate them and understand what share of Christ "LR" lost by expelling them and what consequences this led to, first of all, for them. As members of the Body of Christ, we welcome in the Lord all the brothers and sisters who needlessly became victims of abuse in this organization. Will the "responsible" people have the courage to do this? to lose their face for the sake of God and genuine unity in the Body of Christ is most likely unrealistic for them to do. But it is possible to do this for ordinary sheep of the Lord, who are not bound by their position in the "LR" and, knowing the truth, can become accountable to the Lord, and not to the ministry of U. Whether in your heart, mind, spirit, testimony.
And I know there are brothers and sisters in "LR" who understand the situation, but stay in "LR", but do not leave, they have been waiting for something for decades. And they don't need permission from Ron Kangas or the "responsible ones" to call this dear brother, write to him and greet him, invite him to a small house meeting. You are free in Christ to love your brothers as Christ loved you, and so they will know that you are disciples of Christ. This is a commandment of God for God's children.
We even have such a wonderful hymn, the Lord reminded me of it, and I sing it now in my spirit: ...Let everyone know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.❤
Thank you Ruth for another conversation peppered with words of love and grace.
A healthy church should be open to a lot of conversation about the proper exercise of power in it, and understanding, learning what is spiritual violence, domestic violence, talking about it as a unit of salvation, how to resist violence from the point of view of God's Word. Using the example of Jesus, Paul, David and other authors of the Bible, we see that they did not go to the extremes of denying negative things among them and believers, but showed us a balanced biblical approach in spiritual matters.
Ruth, you have told the truth about many worthy and faithful sisters and dear brothers, including this brother, who were abused in LR. This is of great importance. Now we appreciate them and understand what share of Christ "LR" lost by expelling them and what consequences this led to, first of all, for them. As members of the Body of Christ, we welcome in the Lord all the brothers and sisters who needlessly became victims of abuse in this organization. Will the "responsible" people have the courage to do this? to lose their face for the sake of God and genuine unity in the Body of Christ is most likely unrealistic for them to do. But it is possible to do this for ordinary sheep of the Lord, who are not bound by their position in the "LR" and, knowing the truth, can become accountable to the Lord, and not to the ministry of U. Whether in your heart, mind, spirit, testimony.
And I know there are brothers and sisters in "LR" who understand the situation, but stay in "LR", but do not leave, they have been waiting for something for decades.
And they don't need permission from Ron Kangas or the "responsible ones" to call this dear brother, write to him and greet him, invite him to a small house meeting. You are free in Christ to love your brothers as Christ loved you, and so they will know that you are disciples of Christ. This is a commandment of God for God's children.
We even have such a wonderful hymn, the Lord reminded me of it, and I sing it now in my spirit: ...Let everyone know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.❤