"laestadian, apostolic, gay, lgbtq, ex-oalc, ex-llc, llc, oalc, bunner" LEARNING TO LIVE FREE: New Friend, New Posts

Sunday, June 05, 2005

New Friend, New Posts

Just returned from a wonderful weekend visiting with an ex-OALCer I met through the internet. We had many stories to share, many victories to celebrate. I'll write more about that later.

There has been a lot of posting on the gender topic. Also, you can click on the title above to review new comments regarding The Village.

Thank you all for your support and for continuing the dialogue. You never know whose heart you touch simply by being yourself.

10 comments:

  1. "many victories to celebrate"

    What kind of victories? Are You today a better human-being version? Upgraded version 2.0 maybe?

    Yours; Vanha Aatami

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear BR Finjemmy a.k.a. Vanha Aatami (translation Old Adam),
    There are many victories to celebrate after you become free in Christ.
    I pray that you will receive them.
    Please move on from the strait gate verse. There are a lot of other verses in the Bible.
    Jesus is the gate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear exoalc!

    This is really interesting question - what kind of victories?

    Could You please answer for your own part?

    Vanha Aatami

    ReplyDelete
  4. LLLreader will tell you about some victories. John 3:36 FOR GOD SENT NOT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEM THE WORLD; BUT THAT THE WORLD, THROUGH HIM, MIGHT BE SAVED. --- To stand alone, step out of fear, and ask Jesus to accept your heart and give yourself completely over to him, and to know you are a child of God. That is victory!! In 1949 the OALC preacher William Eriksson wrote "Man cannot achieve this (salvation)by going directly to God privately; but here is needed such a man as a medium who himself has comprehended living faith". "Some intend to become reconciled with God directly, without mediums; and this goes well so long as one is without conscience". It is victory to know that the word of God speaks directly in opposition to what Eriksson is saying. The Lord is holding out his hand saying, "COME TO ME". Erickson is saying, "You can't go to him without us".

    ReplyDelete
  5. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.
    -2 Corinthians 2:14

    Aaah, victories... I have had to give this one some thought. The victories that I have celebrated in leaving the OALC are numerous, which is a bit ironic when I was so worried that I would be giving up everything.

    1) Friendships. I thought when I left the OALC I would lose all of my friends. The relationships that I had there were so shallow they barely scratched the surface of who I was. They were based on external appearances. I now have so many true friends that I can barely keep up with them all. And there are a handful of people who know me from the inside-out, warts and all. Surprisingly, they still love me. I waited all my life for this kind of intimacy. I also for the first time have it with God. I can finally sing "What a friend we have in Jesus" and truly mean it.

    2)I realize that salvation is free but not cheap. When you have spent your life trying to achieve or earn something that was available as a free gift to all, there is no explaining the peace when you find out His promise was that all who believe and receive can come to Him and drink freely of His love. Even though sometimes I am low on tolerance of those who have not received His grace, I realize that by definition grace is something I have not earned and therefore cannot be proud of. It is a great victory to realize that all over the world, the same merciful and gracious God is available to all who seek. (Acts 17:24-27)

    3) No fear. I have spent my life looking over my shoulder, paralyzed by fear. Fear of people, fear of judgment, fear of condemnation. God has released me to fear only Him, which is an awestruck reverence and a freedom that I have never known. Even though I am surrounded by those who freely judge, I am not under their condemnation and THAT is victory any way you look at it.

    4)My spiritual journey is my own. I seek God and He reveals Himself to me. I do not have to look around at church and examine everyone else's heart. I don't even have to scrutinize the pastor. I have to worship God as an individual and seek Him personally. After being taught to examine and criticize, this is an incredible victory. As you examine my site and the blogs, you will see that many of us have different convictions depending on what God has revealed to us. He is a very personal God and to hear from Him directly is the greatest victory a person can celebrate.

    Rejoice in the Lord always. God wants us to celebrate Him. I encourage you to look up "joy" in your concordance and compare it to the number of times "sorrow" is mentioned. Clearly God's people should not be known as the sorrowful.

    There are other victories, but this is a good list to get started. What do you think, guys?

    PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think you are right on the Money! My every instinct is to be joyous and happy as I live my life. Why would God create me this way if he wanted me to feel sorrowful and wretched all the time? I don't get that line of thinking but I sure am glad to have escaped from it. God created me and sent his son to save me! How great is that?!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1) Friendships.
    2)I realize that salvation is free but not cheap.
    3) No fear.
    4)My spiritual journey is my own.

    Hard for me to understand why You think You get these (only) by leaving, but its my broblem, not your.

    As they say in the U.S.A... "You dont have to shoot the bull to get some milk." In Sweden they have also a vice saying; "Heal your bull, Youll get a bell"

    My sauna is hot, I got to quit this blog. (Nice verse, wasnt it?)

    I wish You all the best!

    FinnJemmy

    ReplyDelete
  8. The wretchedness aspect of OALC was something I always had difficulty with until I compared earthly parenthood to God, our Father. If my kids laid around whining and moaning all the time that they couldn't do anything without my verbal approval first, I'd want to slap them upside the head and say, " Get a Grip! I prepared you for independence, now go and make something of yourself!"

    ReplyDelete
  9. Totally!
    Would you quit whining about being a worm and not a person? Last I checked you were a person, now get off the ground and quit your griping....

    ReplyDelete
  10. I posted these comments on another post and I don't know if anyone is reading archival ones, so I'll add it here.
    For those interested in the early church in America, there is a good chapter (46 pages) in "History of the Finns in Michigan" by Armas Holmio.
    There has been some discussion on line of succession, who was in and who was out, historically. I recall a sermon by Wantaja, a preacher in the Calumet church, who said other groups probably had living faith, and I remember him mentioning the Hugeunots. I don't remember anything else about the sermon except that it was one of the most interesting ones I had ever listened to.
    And someone else brought up OALCers reading romance novels: it struck me as hilarious when I heard that old ladies, not the young chicks, trade those at church! And I'm not talking Harlequin here.

    ReplyDelete