WateredGarden - Never condemn yourself for illness. I know it's hard not to sometimes. But first of all God loves you no matter what your physical condition. Second - It doesn't stop you from loving God.
I have heard of people who throw away their insulin "as a sign of their believing." Not good, unless God told you (not your leader) specificly to throw it away, keep using it. God would rather you were alive and taking insulin than, dead. I think part of the problem is TWI didn't really teach trusting God, which is how I would define believing. They taught believing in your believing which is much different. I do believe that Believing equals receiving. But I would qualify it this way Believing (trusting in, and having confidence in God and that He will do what He says) equals Receiving (that which God has specificly promised you) A lot of people try to believing from things that are not promised.
As I look at it, I believe that whether a person receives their healing is just as much a function of the spiritual level of the church as the individual. Which might explain why we saw more healings in the TWI in the early 70's than at the end. Condemning a person for being sick is a sign of spiritually poor church. It causes people to doubt their ability to trust God, and others who look up to these people may say to themselves "If they can't receive their healing, I don't know how I could expect to receive mine." God teaches compassion, not condemnation. Condemnation, in most cases, causes strife, division, and doubt. As Christians we should be helping the sick. Help them keep their homes up, bless them, love them. A church that is doing otherwise, is not living the gospel.
As I read all these stories of people and their treatment in TWI... I couldn't help but have this vivid picture in my mind of Job buried up to his neck in S*H*I*T and had lost everything that ever mattered in his life and his 3 favourite pals looking over him and saying...
What did YOU do wrong Job? You MUST have done something wrong? Look at your life...
Sheesh.. TWI was the miserable comforter ... hahahha and the irony of it all was that they taught the complete opposite. They taught that THEY were the JOB's of this world (or potentially) and his 3 buddies were religion or worse THE DEBBIL!!
couldn't get it more BASS-ACKWARDS if you tried.
figures ... leave it up to TWI to do something like that!
I had a very good friend that was a doctor. He told me that the more he studied the human body, the more apparent it was to him that the body was designed to last a very long time.
I never saw the need to get ministered to for a cold - why bother? My body was going to take care of that just fine. The pressure to get healed quickly came from leadership who were stuck in some wieird set of rules.
A person in our area once said that the unbeliever gets a flat tire, pulls over, gets out of the car changes the tire and goes on his way. The Churchgoer does about the same thing except he says a prayer thanking God that he knew how to change that tire, and he's on his way.
The TWI follower on the other hand, pulls over the car, prays to God for word of knowlege on what he missed and how he was out of fellowship because he should have heard God warn him that the tire was going to go flat so that he could avoid the nail in the road. Then he prays for a person to help him change the tire because he refused to carry a jack in his trunk. (That was believing for a flat, doncha know.) Then when he shows up late to work he tells everyone that will listen that the Devil was trying to stop the move of the Word and that is the real reason he's late.
Some of the posts here are the very reason no one in twi knew I was diabetic: I "witnessed" first hand what happened to those who sought help from the "household". Ironically, I recieved more help & support from "rank unbelievers" to the point that my medication dosage is drastically reduced & I've lost 50 lbs.
As most of you know, I ignored the chronic gut pain while in TWI as best I could. By the time I left the damage had been done and then trying to quit smoking kicked in a very bad Crohn's Disease flare. I knew nothing of the disease, didn't know if you are prone to it and smoke, it's not always good to quit. *sigh* Anyway, they cut out a foot of my small bowel and I still hurt. Took many docs and 5 more years before I found an OB/GYN who knew Crohn's could also affect female parts. She put me in surgery and fixed a bad rectocele and removed my uterus.
So I can prove believing does equal receiving. I believed when I woke up from surgery I'd humor the nurses for awhile with a nicotine patch, then after 6 hours I figured that was enough and informed them I was heading outside to smoke and I had removed the patch and would tape it back on when I came back inside as I always have when I'm stuck in the hospital. Nurse said no way, I'd just had 2 major surgeries at the same time a few hours ago. I said watch me. Husband put me in my wheelchair, I grabbed the morphine drip thingy and down the hall we went.
I believed and I got my smoke, with a morphine drip and push button for instant release on the side. :)
Hahaha, as you can see, after I pushed the button my eyes kinda went from open to slits ....
but DAMN, that smoke tasted good!
....and thus ends the humorous section of this thread for the evening.
Recommended Posts
Keith
WateredGarden - Never condemn yourself for illness. I know it's hard not to sometimes. But first of all God loves you no matter what your physical condition. Second - It doesn't stop you from loving God.
I have heard of people who throw away their insulin "as a sign of their believing." Not good, unless God told you (not your leader) specificly to throw it away, keep using it. God would rather you were alive and taking insulin than, dead. I think part of the problem is TWI didn't really teach trusting God, which is how I would define believing. They taught believing in your believing which is much different. I do believe that Believing equals receiving. But I would qualify it this way Believing (trusting in, and having confidence in God and that He will do what He says) equals Receiving (that which God has specificly promised you) A lot of people try to believing from things that are not promised.
As I look at it, I believe that whether a person receives their healing is just as much a function of the spiritual level of the church as the individual. Which might explain why we saw more healings in the TWI in the early 70's than at the end. Condemning a person for being sick is a sign of spiritually poor church. It causes people to doubt their ability to trust God, and others who look up to these people may say to themselves "If they can't receive their healing, I don't know how I could expect to receive mine." God teaches compassion, not condemnation. Condemnation, in most cases, causes strife, division, and doubt. As Christians we should be helping the sick. Help them keep their homes up, bless them, love them. A church that is doing otherwise, is not living the gospel.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Watered Garden
Amen!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
QuietThinker
((((WG))))
'nuff said by me. Just hugs.
~QT
Link to comment
Share on other sites
polar bear
Let's follow some logic here-
Animals get sick=is it their fault.
Plants get diseases=is it their fault.
Humans get sick=is it their fault, did they or their parents do something wrong=Hell NO
Link to comment
Share on other sites
A la prochaine
Oenophile said it right...
sounds like those miserable comforters.
As I read all these stories of people and their treatment in TWI... I couldn't help but have this vivid picture in my mind of Job buried up to his neck in S*H*I*T and had lost everything that ever mattered in his life and his 3 favourite pals looking over him and saying...
What did YOU do wrong Job? You MUST have done something wrong? Look at your life...
Sheesh.. TWI was the miserable comforter ... hahahha and the irony of it all was that they taught the complete opposite. They taught that THEY were the JOB's of this world (or potentially) and his 3 buddies were religion or worse THE DEBBIL!!
couldn't get it more BASS-ACKWARDS if you tried.
figures ... leave it up to TWI to do something like that!
Edited by A la prochaineLink to comment
Share on other sites
doojable
I had a very good friend that was a doctor. He told me that the more he studied the human body, the more apparent it was to him that the body was designed to last a very long time.
I never saw the need to get ministered to for a cold - why bother? My body was going to take care of that just fine. The pressure to get healed quickly came from leadership who were stuck in some wieird set of rules.
A person in our area once said that the unbeliever gets a flat tire, pulls over, gets out of the car changes the tire and goes on his way. The Churchgoer does about the same thing except he says a prayer thanking God that he knew how to change that tire, and he's on his way.
The TWI follower on the other hand, pulls over the car, prays to God for word of knowlege on what he missed and how he was out of fellowship because he should have heard God warn him that the tire was going to go flat so that he could avoid the nail in the road. Then he prays for a person to help him change the tire because he refused to carry a jack in his trunk. (That was believing for a flat, doncha know.) Then when he shows up late to work he tells everyone that will listen that the Devil was trying to stop the move of the Word and that is the real reason he's late.
Come on! This wasn't rocket science!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Weout1200
Some of the posts here are the very reason no one in twi knew I was diabetic: I "witnessed" first hand what happened to those who sought help from the "household". Ironically, I recieved more help & support from "rank unbelievers" to the point that my medication dosage is drastically reduced & I've lost 50 lbs.
(please forgive the wayspeak.)
Edited by Weout1200Link to comment
Share on other sites
BikerBabe
As most of you know, I ignored the chronic gut pain while in TWI as best I could. By the time I left the damage had been done and then trying to quit smoking kicked in a very bad Crohn's Disease flare. I knew nothing of the disease, didn't know if you are prone to it and smoke, it's not always good to quit. *sigh* Anyway, they cut out a foot of my small bowel and I still hurt. Took many docs and 5 more years before I found an OB/GYN who knew Crohn's could also affect female parts. She put me in surgery and fixed a bad rectocele and removed my uterus.
So I can prove believing does equal receiving. I believed when I woke up from surgery I'd humor the nurses for awhile with a nicotine patch, then after 6 hours I figured that was enough and informed them I was heading outside to smoke and I had removed the patch and would tape it back on when I came back inside as I always have when I'm stuck in the hospital. Nurse said no way, I'd just had 2 major surgeries at the same time a few hours ago. I said watch me. Husband put me in my wheelchair, I grabbed the morphine drip thingy and down the hall we went.
I believed and I got my smoke, with a morphine drip and push button for instant release on the side. :)
Hahaha, as you can see, after I pushed the button my eyes kinda went from open to slits ....
but DAMN, that smoke tasted good!
....and thus ends the humorous section of this thread for the evening.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shellon
And then there are the ones who are blamed for being sick after they die.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Suda
(((((Shell))))), those are the sickest incidents of all.
Suda
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.