I have belonged to alot of cults. What can I say ... I guess I am a sucker for them. They are alluring to me. And, though I hate to admit it, I have been a part of heaps of cults.
I bet you did not know that. However it is true, but what am I calling a cult?
Cults are not defined by their system of beliefs. A cult is a cult because of their attitude. The cultish attitude is this: "You have to do things the way that I do it, and you cannot go outside the boundaries that I set up. I strip your freedom from you, and you have to do it the way that I say that you have to do it. God has to work in your life the way that He worked in mine."
Did you know that Jesus Christ was into something completely different? Christianity is about freedom, and those that abide in Christ will find out that as they abide in Christ they are agents of freedom. They will say, that "God will work in your life different then He worked in mine, and I won't strip your freedom from you to make you like me." Instead they celebrate uniqueness, and want God to work within your uniqueness in a special way.
As soon as I fashion a mold for others and try to press them in it so that they become as moldy as me, then I am operating a cult, and am not functioning within Christian freedom.
I can be released from all of the cults that I have found myself a part of, because of freedom. How? By adopting a new attitude: "Thy will be done."
So, I don't want to have plans for you, and how you can wind up like me. I am not particularly concerned about all of that, because I don't know. I don't need a plan, because my plan is to welcome God's will. So going left or going right is not the question for me. My question is to abide or to not abide, and what difference does it make if while abiding I go right or I go left? The point is that I am abiding, so it will go great if I go either way. How can I take a bad step when my steps are wrought in God? How can I think that you can take a bad step if your steps are wrought in God? So I don't want you to follow my steps! I want you to abide in Him and let Him direct your path. I would hope that you find freedom, but I won't twist your arm to make you take it, and neither will God.
Some will say that a life like that won't work, but my answer is "Fine! Alright, but don't drag me into your unbelief." Maybe that is true for you, and the God that you have wouldn't let that work, but I don't want your God.
With plans and goals come all kinds of manipulation, because we have to see that our plan is brought about. But, without a plan, I am free from a cult's mindset. As I remain restfully available, I don't need to fix the world around me, and fix the problems that come against me. Rather I can let problems fix me, and the problems drive me into God's presence.
I am through using the force of my will to manipulate those around me to conform to some notion of fulfillment that I made for them. ... but I might need to remind myself of that tomorrow. ... the cults are calling me.
;-)
I like your definition of "cult". There are some groups in which a strong leader holds them to a uniform standard, and then there are groups where natural social pressures just cause such feelings to develop.
I think the tension between unity and diversity (in a spiritual, chrisitan body) is significant. (We have all "underestimated the fall".) Anyway, one of the challenges in my life is to be part of a close-knit group that pursues him together (unity) while retaining our individuality. It's quite the challenge!
In our natural selves, the one feels like it comes at the expense of the other... but in God, and maybe in time... can we develop and sustain both?
Christ in us is hope for this glory, too.
Pam,
As good as you are in reminding me to give up my plans that every LawHead come to know grace ... ( I think that you put it like this: Making a law out of grace.) ... I could only assume that your ability to identitify it in me, is because of your ability to identify it in yourself.
I don't know why we end up like this, but something happens and then we get into our natural herd instinct, and it is quite vexing to have such plans for everyone else.
Lets keep encouraging each other ... "Thy will be done, Thy will be done." Cuz that sure sets me free, and makes me enjoy this beautiful mess a bit more.
Ripening for the harvest,
trenT
Repent not, and rage with fists toward Heaven, you shall be baptized with fire and death, which is in the lake of sulfur. ~ God [Letters from God and His Christ - Volume 2 ~ Baptism by Fire]