Ferd, being the "backslider" and privately agreeing with your detractors that you aren't where you should be is one thing. It isn't the same as feeling you are doing the right thing for you and your family and still having pretty much the same measure of angst, criticism and even hostility pointed your direction as a backslider. That can be immeasurably painful, and feel rather hopeless--when no one can be convinced that you're okay with God, and you know you're right in His hand.
Romans 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; Romans 5:4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
Trials work patience, and being patient eventually becomes an experience, and through that experience--which we survive--we learn that there is hope. Share that hope with other people.
It can be surprising when people who you thought would be your friends no matter what turn their backs over trivial issues. Yes, you've seen it happen to others, so you should have known--but you really didn't think they'd do it to YOU. That's where the shock and dismay comes in--finding out they didn't really love you better than the person they disfellowshipped a year before, and the other one that they stopped speaking to the year before that.
MrsBratt, by "backslider" I mean the same thing that is the context given here.
that is why I put it in "". Oh the stories I could tell... You dont need to explain to me what happens trust me...
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
MrsBratt, by "backslider" I mean the same thing that is the context given here.
that is why I put it in "". Oh the stories I could tell... You dont need to explain to me what happens trust me...
What would you have thought if someone had written a post similar to the one you wrote yesterday when you were called "backslider"?
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His banner over me is LOVE.... My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
To be a servant of God, it will cost us our total commitment to God, and God alone. His burden must be our burden... Sis Alvear
I guess a some of us need to pray through and remember, God doesnt need a police force! And this is between this person and God where he goes and why.
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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 KJV
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 KJV
So my wife and I have decided to look into possibly attending a different church. We have always gone to an oneness UPC church and now we have decided to check things out at a different church. The church we have visited and are interested in preaches acts 2:38 and has had wonderful services every time we have visited. The church preaches the same message our church does but doesn’t seem to focus on the traditions our church focuses on. They seem to really love one another and are very welcoming when we visit.
MY pastor is aware of this decision and gave us his blessing to search for what it is we think we need. I have always been active in my church and have held positions and have always respected the rules because I was in leadership. I have decided I can’t do it anymore and I needed be true to who I am and my wife feels the same so this is the reason for our search.
Members of our current church heard we visited this other church and they are now praying for our salvation and have labeled us as backslidden and their faith in us has diminished..This was in an email I received from one of them.
How can this be?? I can’t believe people have this mentality.
Im writing this hear because I don’t in anyway want to offend those that go to my church or disrespect my Pastor but Im so confused...why on earth would people think this? DO we (UPC) tradition holders really think we are the only heaven bound people out there? Like I said we were just visiting and looking around with the POSSIBILITY of leaving but now why would we stay?
Its hurts to think people who have been friends with for so many years could turn their back on us so fast. I in no way would condemn them for holding certain traditions and staying where they are so what gives them the right to do it to me?
Anyway guess I just had to get it off my chest so I didn’t regret calling or emailing someone!...
don't apply that to the UPC. It's not the UPC. There is a non-UPC Oneness church in this area. They have people that won't ever go that church again until the pastor retires....yet they won't dare set foot in our church because of the psychological control he has had over them...He says he would rather his members backslide than to go to our church and if you do you are backslidden. Again They are NOT UPC but we are
__________________ Let it be understood that Apostolic Friends Forum is an Apostolic Forum.
Apostolic is defined on AFF as:
There is One God. This one God reveals Himself distinctly as Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The Son is God himself in a human form or "God manifested in the flesh" (1Tim 3:16)
Every sinner must repent of their sins.
That Jesus name baptism is the only biblical mode of water baptism.
That the Holy Ghost is for today and is received by faith with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues.
The saint will go on to strive to live a holy life, pleasing to God.
19, I've seen and lived through things similar to what you're describing. People do have a poor mentality sometimes. All we can do is keep our attitudes right and do what God wants us to do. There are many people who stop going to church entirely who have the same question: Why would we stay? The good news is that when we go through these things and are later asked this question, we may have an answer, or at least a more compassionate response.
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What we make of the Bible will never be as great a thing as what the Bible will - if we let it - make of us.~Rich Mullins
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.~Galileo Galilei
don't apply that to the UPC. It's not the UPC. There is a non-UPC Oneness church in this area. They have people that won't ever go that church again until the pastor retires....yet they won't dare set foot in our church because of the psychological control he has had over them...He says he would rather his members backslide than to go to our church and if you do you are backslidden. Again They are NOT UPC but we are
Well since I go to a UPC church it would only make sense for me to speak about MY UPC church...Obviously not all are the same.
When I first came to the Lord back in the Dark Ages (Pre-Internet), I was told about God's Unconditional Love and favor. Wow, what a concept. God loved me no matter what. And, since God's people had Him in their hearts, the love they had was unconditional too, right? Well, no, I found very quickly in life that wasn't necessarilly the case. Peoples love and acceptance wasn't as pure as God's. Their love was extended only so far as when I was faithful to my church, submitted to authority, obeyed the rules and so on. Their love had boundaries. Cross those boundaries and I was in the abyss. The right hand of fellowship was withdrawn, and I was cut off to whither on the vine. I, who had helped build that church from scratch, was actually referred to as a Judas, a traitor, a betrayer of the Lord, simply because I moved to another church that, incidentally, preached the same doctrine, held to the same standards, etc.
So, it happens. Just be led of the Lord and follow here He leads.
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"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him...." -Psa. 37:7
Waiting for the Lord is easy... Waiting patiently? Not so much.
My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. 
Hybrid Mode
