Draw Us In The Spirit's Tether
I was reading this morning a blog from a woman who is an Episcopal Rector on the Cheyenne Indian Reservation in South Dakota Leave It Where Jesus Flang It. She talks about how the small church she is over has to gather around a small stove in order to stay warm for church. Last night the temperatures dropped down into the low 40's there. She also talks about how water is a precious commodity on the reservation.
The church for the last 100 years has drawn water out of a well and now the government has come in and made them stop. Now many of them live without running water in 2013
One of the churches I serve sits on a bluff overlooking the Missouri --and it had a private water system --its own pump and pipe. And the Federalis came in and cut the line. Can't do that, they said. We've pulled water from the River for 100 years, the church said. Can't do that, they said. Then please hook us up to the public line that serves our houses over there. Can't do that either, they said. Thankfully, we still have an outhouse there that some division or another hasn't tipped over and filled in. I think it's been there 100 years too.
Only two of the churches I serve have BOTH water and power/heat of some sort. Two have no power, one has only a wood stove for heat during the winter. I carry portable kerosene heat --a gift from kirkepiscatoid, for which I remain eternally grateful.
Reading that story about simple people desiring to worship their God around a warm stove and then reading about the putrid expensive monuments to Herbert Armstrong, David C Pack and Gerald Flurry, proves once and for all that Armstrongism is truly an abomination at its basest level.
Pack and Flurry spend hundreds of millions of dollars on mini-me monuments and expensive buildings. They spend millions on TV stations that are not accomplishing anything about reaching people with the message of Jesus. They spends millions on gold, silver and crystal, all because HWA had some too. Members are robbed of hard earned money with multiple tithes and demanded offerings. Extra biblical teachings take precedence over grace. Marriages are destroyed and families are broken up all in the name of Armstrongism.
Now we have Dave Pack taking delight in his god killing three COG leaders. He lusts mightily for the money of these organizations as he walks all over people to get the things he wants with no care at all for the well being of his members. He has ruined his own family where his own kids don't want anything to do with his church.
What kind of an example do these degenerate men set that anyone who has a brain would follow?
Compare them to the "back-woods" Indian reservation pastor (who is also a woman), and you see how much Armstrongism has deviated from the gospel.
Today at church the choir sang a hymn called "Draw Us In The Spirit's Tether". Its words are in direct contrast to the putrid message of Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry.
Dave is wanting hundreds of thousands of COG members to jump ship to him, yet scripture says all one needs is two or three to find God present among them. Armstrongism is not about touching the garmets hem, it is about OWNING the garment and proudly wearing it.
Draw us in the Spirit’s tether;
For when humbly, in thy name,
Two or three are met together,
Thou art in the midst of them:
Alleluya! Alleluya! Touch we now thy garment’s hem.
When the early church started their weekly gathering it was centered around a meal together. People worshiped God by eating together, sharing bread, and by being present with each other. Today, Armstrongism is about destroying families, restricting who eats their bread, and ignore Christ.
As the faithful used to gather
In the name of Christ to sup,
Then with thanks to God the Father
Break the bread and bless the cup,
Alleluya! Alleluya! So knit thou our friendship up.
All of their meals and their lives were directed towards the God they worship, while Armstrongism is centered around men. HWA, Flurry and Pack are talked about incessantly in all their articles, books, and broadcasts, while Jesus is ignored. Pack, Flurry and the rest of the COG's are afraid of Jesus, yet these are people not afraid to glorify their God, unlike most in the COG today.
All our meals and all our living
Make as sacraments of thee,
That by caring, helping, giving,
We may true disciples be.
Alleluya! Alleluya! We will serve thee faithfully.
Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry and the rest of the COG's are doomed to failure. The gospel guarantees it!
