Part 2 by Cliff Gardener, friend and confidant:
Sometimes those who have seen the need to start a new church are eventually put out because they are too popular with the people and are sensed as a threat to the newly
established leadership. Those people who suffered the broken arm while cranking a Model “T” were forever after cautious and usually reluctant to put their hand on the crank again.
Many traded off the Model “T” for a vehicle that was self-starting by a battery and starter where pushing a button was a lot less dangerous than turning a crank. Many persons who have been broken or run over by religious Christianity simply trade one method for another that looks easier and are like people bouncing off a wall in a large room only to find another wall to bounce off from. They never come to realize that the problem is deeper than just the group they are part of. It has to do with the premise that operates the whole religious system. Some people who have been bouncing around in religious Christianity finally see that trading churches is not the answer, and they begin to search at a deeper level.
They see that what the religious world calls “church” is not the Church at all. These dear people begin to see that the Body of Christ is not divided, and the “Body (of Christ) universal” (which is religion’s way of explaining away its divisions) is not the phantom that religion taught, but it is the reality in which Christ indwells all believers who have trusted in Him to save them.
They also begin to realize that spreading the gospel is not according to some divine, multi-level marketing plan with all the "up-line” or “upper-level” people above them to whom they have to answer. Finally, those who are free from the bondage of religion are set free to be the people God, the Father, intended them to be from the start by Christ who is their life in them. Now they can journey on to the Father’s house, learning Christ in them along the way.
Eventually, as the hurt from religion is healed, they will come to know and to love the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit and flow through life with a renewed mind with them in control. As their lives encounter others, others will see the real Jesus who is alive in these dear brothers and sisters.
Cliff lives in Plainview Tx. with his wife and family. Attends the Christlife fellowship, Dallas Tx.
Sometimes those who have seen the need to start a new church are eventually put out because they are too popular with the people and are sensed as a threat to the newly
established leadership. Those people who suffered the broken arm while cranking a Model “T” were forever after cautious and usually reluctant to put their hand on the crank again.
Many traded off the Model “T” for a vehicle that was self-starting by a battery and starter where pushing a button was a lot less dangerous than turning a crank. Many persons who have been broken or run over by religious Christianity simply trade one method for another that looks easier and are like people bouncing off a wall in a large room only to find another wall to bounce off from. They never come to realize that the problem is deeper than just the group they are part of. It has to do with the premise that operates the whole religious system. Some people who have been bouncing around in religious Christianity finally see that trading churches is not the answer, and they begin to search at a deeper level.
They see that what the religious world calls “church” is not the Church at all. These dear people begin to see that the Body of Christ is not divided, and the “Body (of Christ) universal” (which is religion’s way of explaining away its divisions) is not the phantom that religion taught, but it is the reality in which Christ indwells all believers who have trusted in Him to save them.
They also begin to realize that spreading the gospel is not according to some divine, multi-level marketing plan with all the "up-line” or “upper-level” people above them to whom they have to answer. Finally, those who are free from the bondage of religion are set free to be the people God, the Father, intended them to be from the start by Christ who is their life in them. Now they can journey on to the Father’s house, learning Christ in them along the way.
Eventually, as the hurt from religion is healed, they will come to know and to love the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit and flow through life with a renewed mind with them in control. As their lives encounter others, others will see the real Jesus who is alive in these dear brothers and sisters.
Cliff lives in Plainview Tx. with his wife and family. Attends the Christlife fellowship, Dallas Tx.