Gerald Weston penned his latest intro to his weekly member letter. As usual in COGland, the leader has to demonstrate how superior the COG is over other Christians, particularly when it comes to New Year's and Christmas. It is so comforting to know that COG members are so much more enlightened than the worldly Christians and those who celebrate New Year's and party too much (much like some LCG members do at the Feast, but you never hear Weston mention that).
While much of the world is sleeping in this morning after a night of frivolous partying to ring in a new Roman calendar year, we are busy in the office doing the Work to which we’ve been called. Mr. Wallace Smith and I recorded telecasts today, and others are taking care of end-of-year chores. While regular income has been rather anemic for several months, the year has ended with a very strong December and special donations of $20,000 or more have exceeded last year’s. Last week’s Family Weekends were a huge success, giving hundreds of members a welcome relief from the shallow music and worldly celebrations of this time of year.
Shallow music...ROTFLMAO! Take a look at a COG hymnal! War, death, destruction, and taking delight in smashing opponents underfoot.
Weston has also called a fast for January 31. Myanmar brethren are being persecuted while sickness, job loss, and financial difficulties are plaguing the church.
More than one member has asked about a Church-wide fast for our members in Myanmar or due to the general state of the world in which we live. I’m therefore calling for our members to join in a voluntary fast on January 31. We understand that some members, such as those involved in Tomorrow’s World Presentations, will need to choose a day or two before or after due to previously scheduled events, but for the majority of us that Sabbath should work just fine. In addition to the situation in Myanmar, many of our members are suffering from individual trials of sickness, job loss, and/or financial difficulty. Let us beseech our Creator to intervene for His sons and daughters.
LCG is updating its hymnal right now. It will be interesting to see what's added and deleted.
ReplyDeleteAt least LCG ministers were working January 1. Many COG offices close for Xmas and New Year's (COGWA shut down for two full weeks) - giving in to the world, instead of setting a proper example.
I hope they are considering Petra's version of "God Gave Rock n Roll to You!"
Deletecirculation of their magazine keeps dropping - cutting costs cutting interest?
ReplyDeleteIn an attempt to portray themselves as pious and hardworking, they really just come off as morose and whiny.
ReplyDeleteFunny. We didn't even know what a strawman argument was, or how fallacious such arguments are back in the day when Herbie and the boys were busy slinging them around. But, that was part of the methodology they called "proving all things" And, apparently, they are still a thing!
ReplyDeleteFrivolous partying? The ACOGs demand "frivolous partying" as part of their F.O.T. , but begrudge the secular world having their own version of it. For the sake of control, the ACOGs practice narcissistic devaluation (mentally shrinking members), hence their killjoy policies. Which is why they ban birthday parties.
ReplyDelete8:21, just because you have an office open on Dec 25 or Jan 1 doesn't mean you are "doing the Work". The "Work" is not just about shuffling papers, playing with a computer, or doing recordings.
ReplyDelete“This is the work of God: that you believe in the One whom He has sent." (Jn 6:29)
If you believe in the One whom He has sent, you will reach out to your own people instead of ignoring those who need their faith built up.
(Have you noticed how difficult it is to find ministers during these times when you need them?)
Weston, in part, wrote: "...More than one member has asked about a Church-wide fast for our members in Myanmar or due to the general state of the world in which we live. I’m therefore calling for our members to join in a voluntary fast on January 31. ......Let us beseech our Creator to intervene for His sons and daughters...."
ReplyDelete******
What sort of a God does this hireling of the former WCG think He is? Asleep? Lacks eyes and ears? Is unaware of what is happening worldwide?
I suspect that God is taking care of those of His Church, whoever they are, but why would God be so concerned about the "Living" (Dead?) organization, as compared with other manmade groups headed up by other hirelings of the former WCG?
Weren't they/we all taught that God worked through His one servant, HWA, with the church in Philadelphia? What was left? The church of the Laodiceans, and along came another servant selected by HWA: Joseph W. Tkach Sr., who apparently may have been the first and last servant to that era. What's left? Scattered Philadelphians and scattered Laodiceans. Where does Living fit in that?
So, those of the living group, thanks to some member bringing it to Weston's attention, are going to fast for what? To get? Like God is/was unaware?
God has some advice for those who fast and it comes from a prophet He inspired (not a Bob Thiel or a Doug Winnail, Pack, Flurry, Weinland, Franks, Coulter, Thiel (oh, he wasn't a hireling) etc.):
Isaiah 58:3 "Wherefore have we fasted, [say they], and thou seest not? [wherefore] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
:4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as [ye do this] day, to make your voice to be heard on high."
Weston says: "...Let us beseech our Creator to intervene for His sons and daughters..."
When will Weston, Winnail, ...all of those hirelings who fled from the former WCG learn that fasting has another purpose besides beseeching God?
How much growing in grace and knowledge have these hirelings done in the nearly 40 years since HWA died...especially in this area of fasting, which they have all done dozens of times?
Does God want to hear any of it?
Isaiah went on to say:
Isaiah 58:5 "Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? [is it] to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes [under him]? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
:6 [Is] not this the fast that I have chosen?..."
If these hirelings want to participate in fasting, why not read the rest of Isaiah 58, grow in some grace and knowledge in something other than Jesus Christ, and preach/teach that to your followers, but, after so many years since they fled, will they repent and do such a thing and come to appreciate the fast that God had/has in mind?
Time will tell...
John
In my view, it's not honoring the Sabbath to fast on that day. But the ACOGs always choose that day since they can get a good idea as to who is or is not fasting. So it's coercion rather than members having a choice in the matter.
ReplyDeleteThe Coercion Church of Herb.
I know, it should have made sense to fast the next day, when you don't necessarily have to travel and speak. They always choose the Sabbath, when it's interesting that Jesus allowed his hungry disciples to pick and eat grain on the Sabbath in (Matthew 12), that one time. They could mix it up a bit.
DeleteIt's been decades since I participated in any sort of fast. However, if I recall correctly, the reason we fasted on the sabbath, or if we were going the extra mile and making it a two day fast, doing it on the weekend, was that you didn't have the distractions of work or school interfering with the specific purpose of getting close to God. We were not instructed to keep a written journal of the things we realized during a fast, but I did. Getting close to God was defined as understanding and becoming better aligned with, and submissive to the church's teachings and authority, which we believed were based on the teachings of the Bible as interpreted and taught by HWA, and firmly rooted in God. Praying for "the work", the ministers, and the brethren was a key part of it, as opposed to fasting being simply a self-centered activity.
DeleteThis was a natural Judeo/Christian process involving greater awareness of the Creator through denial or suppression of our own physical senses. There were similar experiences practiced by aboriginal peoples, involving ingestion of natural substances, or by the hippies with their psychedelic experiences, in which death of ego and greater realization of one's part in, or place in the universe was the goal. I never participated in those sorts of chemical experience, thinking it would be a false and dangerous version of what we were attempting to experience through fasting and closeness to God, but noted the fact that this type of odyssey is apparently something for which humans are hard-wired, and an attempt to fill some of the voids which we all feel as part of human existence.
Fasting was an activity which falls into the general classification of asceticism, and although I don't believe that it provided any greater or deeper spiritual, awareness, other than superficial connection to a false church concocted by false teachers and false prophets, I do recognize that it imparted skills and strengths that others might not have. Throughout my life, I've had the skill to deny physical needs in order to achieve goals or to complete tasks. That is one of the strengths I would not have had if I had never been sentenced to do 19 years of hard time in Armstrongism. It is one of the lasting effects which partially redeemed those 19 years and elevated them somewhat from being a complete and total waste.
BB