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A good point was made about TWI sorta eliminating God in the process of things - I see something very similar with the health & wealth/the power of believing fans focusing on any mention of faith, believing, fear, or doubt of someone in such accounts – to the exclusion of God. Like so many things in Scripture it seems that faith begins and ends with God – an interesting circle – God being not only the source of our faith but the object of our faith as well. Faith is indeed a mysterious thing – but if I was pressed to give a simple description I'd say faith is simply what connects us to God. I talked earlier about one's mental map of life – something we all make in our heads – in an effort to interpret reality and negotiate through it. Basically this mental map of life is nothing more than how we think life works. I think you and I "see" it different on how you received a free car. Your focus is more on what YOU did, YOU confessing what YOU want, YOU prayed, YOU expected, YOU believed God to bring it to pass. Me? I was struck by the generosity of the guy who gave you the car. I remember this about the TWI mindset – especially in reference to believing. There was something so proud and dishonest about it. I was a WOW too. Funny this vicious circle TWI doctrines get you stuck in. A typical WOW – dirt poor cuz we're supposed to work only so many hours – gotta have time for doing ministry stuff ya know and gotta abundant share from what few bucks I do have. And there's the fine art of begging we learned in the ministry – only it's not begging it's believing. We're too proud to beg – we don't need to beg – we're believing for abundance dontcha know. way-folks need to get honest & humble – the TWI map of how reality works is a joke! The ministry sucked up our time, energy & money and in return gave us a pacifier – a sugar daddy god - a god who was nothing more than a genie-in-the-PFAL book. As to your comments suggesting folks are rejecting something good because of a bad experience with TWI – throwing out the baby with the bathwater - I just wanted to address this by elaborating on what I said in post # 5. I don't like confrontation and lately have tended to soften things a bit. Anyway – you know the part where I talked about my initial Grease Spot experience of shock & denial and becoming aware of a TWI mindset that lingers on long after leaving. That was for your benefit. I suggest you spend more time in the About the Way forum. What is considered the baby and what is considered the bathwater is a matter of opinion. Some of what you think is so important and so right may be exactly the opposite for another person. I'm a Christian and happen to believe God, Jesus and the Bible are real also. But you know, that Bible thumping and putting your viewpoint up front like it's some kind of standard or litmus test for who are real Christians - all I can think is you may have left TWI but TWI hasn't left you. Now, Grease Spot is not a Christian website – but I believe a valuable service is provided here: telling the other side of the story about a supposedly "Christian" organization [TWI] and helping former followers recover from TWI's spiritual, mental, physical, sexual, and financial abuse. The fact that there's so much uncomfortable crap discussed in About the Way forum should give you some idea of how utterly toxic the doctrines & practices of TWI are. Yup - it does have an effect on human beings ya know.. .It's no joy ride to read these threads and hear about the dark side of vp – it totally contradicts the man of god persona that the ministry pushed - but it's the other side of the story - the REAL story. The wolf in a sheep suit story that you've been skipping over in the Bible. It's the truth of how YOU HAVE BEEN DECEIVED - poisoned with toxic doctrines - blind to the fact that you're still wearing PFAL-colored glasses. Read, read, read those threads – think about the money you gave, the time and energy you spent to support and perpetuate a parasitic system of abuse – the real legacy of vp. There's the charming memory you have of victor paul wierwille - on stage working the crowd - - but then you read the threads by posters who are familiar with the back stage wierwille.There's 2 wierwilles - one is a facade and one is the truth. One is the wolf with the sheep suit on - the other is the predator exposed.

Appreciate the article and the perspective that was given. For me, personally, any nostalgia I had after leaving was the "good times" I had with people...and the relationships. The so called "family" that was now missing. I longed for that many times over. It's difficult to "let go" of something when you see nothing to takes it's place. It's painful even. Now, after being out of TWI for 22 years my life is totally different, totally satisfying, and I don't long for anything in the past that I had in TWI. Today, My life is full and it could noy have come from anyone but God. As far as the research goes....I didn't buy a lot of it when I was in....Red flags would go up all the time when I would hear something being taught and I'd go...What? But what did I know? I hadn't researched all those years that we were told that TWI had done....so of course, I threw out my gut feeling about it all. Now, I've pretty much thrown all of it out.... Research? What I am glad of is...I know how to use a concordance, interlinears, bible dictionaries and all the other research sources that I was introduced to in TWI. I know that there are such a thing as figures of speech and orientalisms. I learned the value of reading and believing the Bible. These are the things I gleaned.... Since out, I've learned "Go to God for yourself"...... This post probably isn't exactly on the money for the topic, but thought I'd share my thoughts.