These quotations are from a discussion by persons who left an abusive
Christian church.
Their insights may be encouraging.
This does not mean you need to return to Jesus. Each can apply this to his or her own situation.
[forum.culteducation.com]
Christian church.
Their insights may be encouraging.
This does not mean you need to return to Jesus. Each can apply this to his or her own situation.
[forum.culteducation.com]
Quote
When I was seeing a psychologist after leaving TLWF, he said something that may be of interest to those of you who have had nightmares about things like earthquakes and tidal waves since leaving TLWF.
He said the subconscious mind does not deal so much in words, but in images. The ocean is a picture of the state of your life. A sunny beach means life is good. Storms and waves indicate turmoil. Huge waves, like a tsunami, indicate the very foundations are being shaken. In my case, I was having nightmares about tidal waves that were higher than skyscrapers and mountains. There was literally nowhere to escape. Somehow, I was able to watch the storms from above, and not be destroyed. Often I just woke up.
The nightmares went from massive storms to medieval sword fights to being hunted by those who wanted to murder me. Eventually that all changed when I began to apply Jesus’ teaching and ignore the teaching of religious leaders. It certainly did not happen overnight, or without me looking to many other things for answers. I can only speak for myself, but there is way more life to Jesus’ teaching than a casual reading would first indicate.
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I still cross paths with current members on a regular basis. For most who have invested decades in the fellowship, it represents little more than a social-gathering organization at this point. The 'word' has been rehashed so many times, with no evidence of fulfillment, that any excitement over it has pretty much run it's course. What they are left with are relationships which now span decades, and few believe they could ever start over finding new ones out in the world.
Most of the fine folks still warming the cheap seats have little or no clue about most of the abuses that have been perpetrated on others. Lifting the skirts on APCO-level abuses would pretty much be discounted as 'fake news'. The river denial runs wide and deep on this issue.
TLW is probably going to continue it's slow decent into oblivion as many simply age-out and die, unless of course, they find success in picking off unsuspecting Catholic youth in Brazil to buttress up their ranks. But the Kool-Aid, as they prepare it, is hard to resist when you are young and clueless. That was our drink of choice when we were young and thirsty. After all, who can resist the promise of being the ones who will save the world?