Coming out of Religion leaves a lot of spiritual scar tissue as we get our healing from our FATHER. Religion leaves many wounds that need tender loving care, not judgment and pointing of the finger with accusations and assumptions of one another. We are to edify and build each other up in love at all times. We are not to be reminding each other of sins, but of our imputed righteousness in CHRIST. <3 <3 <3 So let's stop putting salt on open wounds and producing more pain in another with our words. Words run deep and take root. Let's not be a part of the root of bitterness, but a root of encouragement to one another. Valerie Baard

Your old church is not EVIL and it is not WRONG for those who are still there. It is a part of their journey and their experience. YOU are NOT called to point out all of the negative things about it and lead an exodus. You are not Moses. lol Walk away quietly. When asked, tell people your “season ended.” Let them SEE what YOU SAW in their own TIMING. It will mean SO MUCH MORE to them if they do.
ENJOY this part of your journey. Carry NO REGRETS for the places you were called TO and FROM. ALL THINGS and ALL PLACES and ALL PEOPLE in your past are teachers, guides, examples and lessons you needed. Everything is as it should be. Live in THIS moment of THIS day and REJOICE in LOVE, NOW!!!

When we find ourselves involved in a controversial topic of some importance, we need to make sure that we are representing the One Who will make the entire undertaking a divinely productive one: after all we’re dealing with things of the spirit, n’est pas? For example, I am a firm believer in the fact that Jesus’ work is completely done, so it would be futile for me to beg him to have mercy on me and send me his favor when it’s already been done. And yet, I have no qualms about praying the prayer of desperation when I need an immediate answer: “Jesus help!” The way tends to open up and answers tend to flood in. WE HAVE GOT TO REMEMBER THAT WE’RE DEALING WITH THINGS OF THE SPIRIT. Our anointed nature must surely kick in and we are fully equipped to address such seemingly contradictory issues as:
(A) Doesn’t God want one thing and one thing only: that we believe on him?
(B) What about the billions of people who are not capable of knowing God, due to geography, religion, education, financial status?
We absolutely must turn to the mind of God to reveal to us what He wants us to know. I know the human answers to both questions but now I want to know what God has implanted in my heart that I haven’t been able to pull up yet.

Did you make a mistake already today? Think unloving thoughts? Wallow in self-pity? Look down upon anyone? Dwell in fear and doubt a lil bit? Already?? Today? . YOU GOTTA LEARN TO FORGET IT !!!!!
IT’S NOTHING !!! . NO THING, MIND, NOR POWER !!! . ZILCH !!! . ZIP !!! ZERO !!!!! . You can even say to that ‘mistake’ that ‘you’ made: HAH !! Grace has just used you for a major Victory!!

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, O HUMAN
When you say this illness cannot be
Because I am the very image
And likeness of God
To which you add without pause
I have had it a long time
My mother had it
And so did my grandfather.
And this sickness is devastating
Debilitating, incurable?
God will heal me
But I need more faith
He is all-powerful
But my case is different.
WHY DON’T YOU BELIEVE YOUR OWN DENUNCIATIONS?

Unconscious Idolatry:

There is a type of unbelief that functions very similarly to belief. What I mean by that is that we often claim to not believe certain things, but then live as though we do.

It is one thing to wage war with ideas and beliefs that enslave people, and that is obviously necessary, but what we often end up doing is treating these things like they have some sort of being or ontology of their own. We then live our lives fighting these things as concrete objects that have both an existence and subsistence, as opposed to being mere ideas that gain their existence and subsistence only through those who hold them. When we do this, we sort of fall prey to a subtle form of idolatry, an unconscious polytheism in which we understand our Christianity in terms of a protest against a literal evil, with a being all its own, instead of mere ideas that harass and afflict real people. Our Christianity, then, becomes more about fighting evil than rescuing people from ideas that lead to evil, and accidentally, therefore, becomes another vehicle through which ideas with no existence of their own come to gain an existence.

In this sense, while we claim to not believe in the things we live combating, the very fact that we live to combat them shows how much they actually animate our lives. That being the case, our unbelief functions very much the same as belief. It determines our actions, dictates our values, and generally leads us around like a dog on a leash. The insubstantial, a mere idea, comes to exist in the world in the form of our heated opposition to it. We treat it like it has an existence, and so it comes to possess one.

This is a form of idolatry that is, perhaps, the most difficult to discern and detect, for it masquerades as anti-idolatry, or a disbelief in idols. The fact that it makes so much of them, however, reveals that it exists in the same universe as them, making it part of the very same system.

“Children, keep yourselves from idols,” even those difficult to detects types who call you to wage war with them as though they existed. To me, the most effective way to destroy an idol is to dismiss it, and to show others how easily dismissible it is. The more we engage it as though it were a living thing, however, the more it actually becomes one. Those who worship it become incensed at our attacks, and simply dig their heels in, often becoming more radicalized and fundamentalist than they were before.

While it is the opposite of our intentions, we often find ourselves chiseling the very idol we meant to smash with the very hammer with which we meant to smash it.
Jeff Turner

When people focus on something, they attract it into their lives. People who focus on spiritual warfare actually attract battles, and then they think the battles are proof that their theology is correct, when they actually created the situation in the first place. That’s my take. (Martin Trench)

HAS GOD EVER USED YOU BIG TIME ?
There was one perfect person for the job …
The job involved letting another future saint
seemingly dump on you?
misuse you?
even abuse you?
And it really did hurt?
Until pride got kicked out?
Jealousy too?
WHY DOES THAT PERSON GET TO SKATE
on your stuff?
Shouldn’t he be brought to his knees?
And not you?
But you keep trusting God,
Right?
And, strangely enough,
In spite of all that’s been done to you,
You’re victorious!
You have soaked up into the flesh…
All that wrong activity
And, like Jesus, dissolved it all
Into its native nothingness.
God bless you!

Just a thought: When Jesus “despised the shame” he didn’t despise the people … no, not ANY of them.
..
HOW IN THE WORLD WAS JESUS ABLE TO ENDURE ALL THE SUFFERING ? . HE LOOKED PAST IT TO THE – JOY – HE WAS ABOUT TO ACCOMPLISH !! . YES, HE LOVES US THAT MUCH !!
Hebrews 12:2 KJV
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.