Rod Meredith says LCG members are to continually belittle and degrade themselves

Rod Meredith wrote his last "Passover" letter to his flock recently. He writes that Jesus told everyone that were his followers to wash one another feet, lay down our lives for one another as our ENTIRE way of life, and to take up his cross and carry it proudly.

Then he has to pull his usual "blame the brethren" shtick.  Those lazy LCG members just never quit get it and never fully contribute to "...building the work of God on earth today."

Even most true Christians spend far too much energy trying to “find” their lives rather than consciously “losing” their lives in order to serve God and genuinely serve their fellow human beings. We will try to find excuses for doing what we want to do. We will use our time and energy in ways that do notcontribute to building others spiritually or to building the Work of God on earth today. We will often waste one of the most precious commodities God has given us—time. We must not waste this precious commodity, but rather try to make every day of our life really “count for something” in serving others and helping others grow toward the fullness and the stature of Christ. In that way, we help ourselves at the same time to achieve the same goal.

The ones that seem to be constantly trying to find their lives in the church seem to be COG members and those currently being tormented by legalism.  A follower of Christ, who understands the New Covenant knows that they have been "found."  There is no struggle or time spent on "woe is me, I am never going to make it" conversations in their minds.  Since the church refuses to acknowledge Jesus, it is no wonder Meredith feels this is a constant problem.  He has been struggling all of his life to find the Jesus he refuses to follow.

He then says the following, which seems to be swipe at some in the LCG ministry. They too, never quit get it right, which has been painfully obvious to thousands of members who've suffered and are currently suffering under some of the tyrants.  It is ironic that Meredith states that some leaders "exalt themselves at the expense of others," consider this has been the modus operandi of Meredith for decades.  Look at the trail of destruction and ruined lives that have been left tin his wake over the decades.  His stint as director of the field ministry while in WCG was appalling at the amount of abuse he dished out.  And who can forget his role in the "man power papers!"

Often, without fully realizing it, many of us try to become “leaders” by exalting the self at the expense of others. After describing how the rulers of the Gentiles did this, Jesus said, “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26–28).

When has Rod Meredith EVER been a servant of the brethren?  He has been waited upon, hand and foot, for decades by myriads of church members and employees. He has lived a life of privilege in the church ever since his days in Pasadena.

He also writes:

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were often “competing” with one another and saving for themselves the “best” of everything along the way. However, Jesus Christ commanded: “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11–12).

This sounds exactly like every single COG leader currently running a splinter group today.  Ever single one of the men are "competing" with each other to see who can draw in the most members, raise the most money, or do the most amazing end time work ever. Just look at  Flurry, Pack, Kubik and our resident pissant Thiel; every single one of them have self-appointed themselves as God's mouthpiece  and will do all they can to draw in other COG members to their groups in order to use their tithe money of their own self-indulgent purposes.

Then Meredith makes another weird command for his members to follow.  They are to continually abase themselves.

The above verses are genuinely powerful if we are willing to fully understand them. We must always try to abase the self and do all we can to serve other human beings, as Christ Himself did when He was “made flesh” (John 1:14). Then, and only then, will we be truly “exalted” by God Himself.

a·base

verb

1. behave in a way so as to belittle or degrade (someone).

verb (used with object), abased, abasing.

1.

to reduce or lower, as in rank, office, reputation,or estimation; humble; degrade.

2. Archaic. to lower; put or bring down: 

It is no wonder LCG members have to continually try and find themselves when they are taught to belittle themselves!  "You low life, unworthy, dirty worms, who are clothed in filthy rags, are never good enough for God."  That is the message Rod Meredith has preached for decades.  What more could we expect form a man who does not know Jesus.

Meredith then goes on to claim that the LCG has one of the most HUMBLE ministries that the COG has ever seen in 67 years!  Take that Bob Thiel!

Dear brethren and friends, I hope every one of you can begin to learn this lesson, as we reflect on the Passover and on the entire purpose of God to make us in His image! We have tried to build this attitude within the ministry and leadership of God’s Church as a whole in the Living Church of God. Many of you brethren realize this. In our past association, we had the so-called “super deacons” who would push people around. We would often have ministers who would take care of the self and not try to genuinely help and give and serve their brethren with every fiber of their being. Now, near the end of my life, I am grateful to God to report that we have—in my opinion—one of the most solid, dedicated and humble ministries that I have experienced in 67 years in God’s Church.

The most solid, dedicated and humble splinter group of the mother church ever! Ha Ha Ha!  These same men making up the ministry of the LCG are the very same men who were abusive in the Worldwide Church of God.  Rod Meredith. Richard Ames, and Gerald Weston do not have a humble bone in their bodies!  LCG members who comment here routinely write about the abuses of these three men, in addition to scores of other LCG ministers, including Meredith's own children! Humility has NEVER been an attribute of the Church of God since Herbert Armstrong threw his hissy-fit and apostatized from the Church of God in Oregon.

Meredith then goes on to praise three of LCG's most humble men, Richard Ames, Douglas Winnail, Dexter Wakefield, and Rod McNair.  Rod McNair???????  Seriously?????  

According to Meredith, Rod McNair has done the following:

He has built one of the finest families in the entire Work of God. He sets a superb example in all these ways, and at the same time has attained a spirit of humility, sacrifice and service rather than letting any of this go to his head.

This is the same pig that said that the elderly are possessed by demons and that LCG members should not work in nursing homes.  This is the same man who lied about the Scarbouroughs.  Humble my ass!  Sacrificial?   ROTFLMAO!  Since when has McNair sacrificed anything?  He is one of the pampered elite that thinks he deserves everything, especially RESPECT!

Meredith ends with this:

But if we can keep the attitude of humility and servant leadership—if we can keep the “foot-washing attitude” constantly before us and follow Christ in that way—He will continue to lead and empower this Work in a remarkable way. Then, we can all definitely look forward to Jesus’ words: “Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities” (Luke 19:17). So whether we are over “ten cities,” ten nations, or perhaps even ten galaxies, we will be rewarded forever if we learn the lessons of Passover and the foot washing. So, let us learn to genuinely humble ourselvesand work as a “team” under Jesus Christ to do His Work with love and humility and cooperation until the end of our human lives.

This is never going to happen.  Within a year of Meredith's death the Living Church of God will have major problems.  Humility will never be allowed to surface.  The lowly church members will never have their feet washed by the elite.  Abuses will continue.  Lives will be destroyed and lives will be lost, all because they STILL refuse to follow that most inconvenient dude.

You can read this appalling mess of a message here:  Editorial - The "Foot Washing" Way of Life

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Is Doubt and Faith Compatible?

Is there room for a person of faith to have doubt in their life about God and their spiritual journey, particularly in the Church of God?  Because the church dealt in absolutes and had to have the answer to everything, there was not much room for doubt to find fertile ground to play around in.  Questioning and inquisitiveness were frowned upon.  To do so was to question the leadership of the church, Herbert Armstrong, the ministry, the Bible and ultimately God. To try and solve that "problem" the church had hundreds of books, booklets, articles, and videos explaining everything imaginable.  Because the church was God's specially appointed tool of "truth" it could NOT be questioned. To do so was sin.

As children we were encouraged to be inquisitive and questioning, but as adults we are told to stop doing that.  As a person of faith in the church one must never doubt or be inquisitive, at least in the words of "wisdom" of the leadership.  The problem this creates is that with certainty there is no room for faith to flourish.

At the church I attend I work with new members seeking to join.  We meet for 6 weeks  two hours a week listing to stories of staff telling their journey's of faith and doubt.  Then we break into small groups were we share our personal stories.  Many have come from abusive churches and are seeking a place of refugee.  The interesting thing with so many, including myself, is that in spite of all the spiritual abuse and sometimes physical abuse, there is something that keeps drawing them and myself back to the church.

Here are some screen shots of the meeting we had last week that centered on faith and doubt.  Things like this would NEVER have been encouraged in the Worldwide Church of God, nor will it be in any COG today.

Can you imagine what would've happened to the WCG if we had allowed skepticism?  Most of our baloney dogma would never have been allowed to take root!  Certitude reigned supreme in the church and still does.

This journeying doubt has been a fascinating one to me. I do not need the answers. I seek to understand things, but never to the point I think I have the answer. I tell the people in my groups each class that never should they accept the words of the preacher as the final say on anything.  It should be a jumping off point.  A point to start asking questions and as soon as we think a question is close to being answered we should  have another one.  We will never give them an answer as to how things "should be."  We let them play in the field of questions.

In the COG fear was used as a tool to stop all inquisitiveness.  Fear of disobeying God by doubting, fear of losing ones salvation, fear of never making it to Petra and the ultimate fear tool was blaspheming the holy spirit.  Church of God members have been conditioned to never examine their faith.

“Take faith, for example. For many people in our world, the opposite of faith is doubt. The goal, then, within this understanding, is to eliminate doubt. But faith and doubt aren't opposites. Doubt is often a sign that your faith has a pulse, that it's alive and well and exploring and searching. Faith and doubt aren't opposites, they are, it turns out, excellent dance partners.”
― Rob Bell, What We Talk about When We Talk about God