Living Church of God: Forgiveness vs Bitterness It's YOUR problem, not their's

Doug Winnail's "sabbath" message this week is about forgiveness.  The person who sent this to me said this was a way of silencing members into never critiquing the LCG leadership and the church.  If you dare critique or question the leaders or the church then you have a bad attitude because you have never forgiven them for any wrongs they have committed.  You are filled with bitterness which means you have allowed Satan to have control of you.  When you have negative emotions and memories they are directly tied into "personal pride."  Remember, REAL Christians forgive (them) though they rarely ever forgive you.  You, on the other hand, are disfellowshipped and marked.

The Power of Forgiveness

One important key for working together in harmony with others is the willingness and the ability to forgive someone for real or perceived words or actions that hurt us—and that is exactly what Christians must learn to do. The Scriptures tell us that we have all sinned, but that we can be forgiven because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who died for our sins (Romans 3:23-26; John 3:16). However, Jesus also taught that we must be ready and willing to forgive others who offend us—or God will not forgive us(Matthew 6:12-15). Forgiving others involves: not holding grudges or harboring bitterness against others, not seeking to get even, and not gossiping or saying negative or derogatory things about others who have made mistakes or hurt us in some way. This is not always easy, especially when memories, emotions and personal pride are involved, but that is what we are admonished to do if we want to be real Christians—because real Christians have learned to forgive. Forgiveness is a powerful tool that makes working together in harmony with others possible, productive and enjoyable!

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail

Dr. Germano: Living University is now a recognized University...but STILL unaccredited

From Dr. Germano

To: Living University Students and Friends 

Greetings everyone, 

Late yesterday afternoon, we were informed that on March 3, 2017, the University Of North Carolina Board of Governors authorized Living University to offer an online associate of arts degree (A.A.) and baccalaureate degree minors in business and communications. We plan to implement these programs this fall semester. These programs are in addition to the University’s authorization as a religious-exempt institution to offer Associate of Theology and Bachelor of Theology degree programs.

This is indeed very good news. In regard to our application, the UNCA staff report to the Board of Governors concludes: “Upon review of the Team of Examiners’ report, and Living University’s response to the recommendations and suggestions of that report, the UNC General Administration staff finds that recommendations have been satisfactorily addressed, and recommends that Living University be licensed to offer the degree programs requested. An appropriate review will be performed within two calendar years of the initiation of the licensed degree programs, by UNC GA, to ascertain the institution’s compliance with the Rules and Standards, including the recommendations contained in the report.”

Living University is now a recognized University. The examiners and the UNCA staff placed a lot of confidence in us and we intend to continue to function with integrity and in good faith and fair dealing with you and everyone whom we serve.

Thank you for your continued support and all you do to help our collective pursuit of achieving excellence in godly education in service to God and His people. Your continued prayers bring about more than we can even fathom.

Warm regards,

MPG

Living University

The Dilemma of God as Healer

From The Progressive Redneck Preacher blog.   The author is a former WCG minister.

As I reflect on the Psalmist’s words, fleshing out who this “Great I AM” is revealed to Moses in Exodus 3-4, I find myself stumbling a bit over this description of Yahweh, whose name is usually translated “The LORD”, but which I render “the Living One” here as an allusion to God’s explanation that Yahweh is the I Am in opposition to gods that are not.  This Living One or One Who is “heals all our diseases”.

I remember as a young boy in the Church of God movement in which I was blessed as a baby and raised, hearing a lot about healing.  Though this particular Church of God movement was not the Pentecostal movement called Church of God, but instead a Church of God group that was a spin-off of the Seventh Day Adventists, boy did they believe in healing.   I was told coming up how daddy and momma tried real hard to become parents to no avail.  And how they went finally, in an act of desperation and faith, came to the preacher at the Church of God and he (yes, these churches only had preachers who were “he’s”: no women preachers since Jesus wasn’t a woman, after all) took healing oil, anointed momma like it says to be anointed in the book of James, and “bam!” next thing we knew my big brother was on the way.   And then, one after another, each of the rest of us four children came into the world.  Growing up with that story of anointing and healing inspired me, especially with a name liked “Micah” taken from the story of the Bible prophet, to see my life as having begun with great purpose.  To see myself, like the Psalmist in Psalm 139, as knit together even in my mother’s womb with potential to be one who, together with God, helped the world become more beautiful and whole. 

Yet I also remember growing up hearing a counter-story.   Each of us, when we got sick, in turn, had the preachers of the church come, take that book of James healing oil and smear it on our foreheads, praying for God’s healing presence to be known.   So many stories were told of how it brought healing and comfort to us.  Daddy told us too, though, how one of us had oil placed on their head, when dealing with meningitis.   Like a snap of the fingers, that meningitis went away.  Yet, years later, this dear little one developed childhood diabetes.  And all the anointing and praying in the world wouldn’t take it away.  Daddy agonized over that.  How could God be healer, if God touched us in so many healing ways through their faith and the preacher’s hands, yet also didn’t heal something as serious as diabetes?

Later, other conditions of all types struck our family and each of us in turn struggled over how to understand God as the Living One “who heals our diseases”.

Read the entire story here:

The Dilemma of God as Healer in a World of Illness, Pain, and Disability