This is a response that I gave yesterday to a Sister in the Lord that ask me some general questions about holiness standards and youth, etc. She and I agreed that I should probably share it.
Dear Sister,
I know that I should know who u r because yur picture looks very familiar but please forgive me because I can't place u right now. I get asked questions just like yurs almost every day and my answers always come across arrogant and aggressive sounding and I don't mean it that way. It is just that I know the answers to a lot of these questions but they cut across the grain of what most people have been taught. That's not my fault or my problem but I really do care and that is why my organization is tirelessly trying to do something about it. I hate to even answer yur question because I don't want u to take me wrong as so many have. But let me try.The reason that our churches and each generation get #1 more worldly #2 less outreach minded and #3 more political is because of similar reasons. One of which, and it is one of the biggest if not the biggest reason, is because of the holiness churches' cultic like indoctrination on everything. Our ministers for years have HARPED ON, POUNDED ON, ATTACKED AND SLAMMED all kinds of things from immodesty to homosexuality. From charismaticism to hollywood. But very very few of our ministers TEACH on anything. We are caught up in the hooping, hollering, running, jumping, longhaired, long sleeved, preacher worshipping, catchy titleness, of our ways that we don't take time to TEACH. To teach has become carnal, shallow and dull. Which in turn has made our people carnal, shallow and dull. Many of our people, especially our young people, would live better, if they #1 knew WHY and #2 didn't see such hypocrisy in our doctrines.I hate to b so blunt but when we promote ministries that put side burns on the same doctrinal blasphemy level as adultery...it's no wonder why our children won't listen to us. They are young not stupid. When we preach as if there is a devil in every flat screen....they know better than that. Look at this. Most of our preachers are naming THINGS when they preach. Hair, sleeves, televisions, red bull, abercrombie and fitch, watches, pants. When u do that u can control a generation for a while. But God doesn't want us to control them, he wants us to win them. He doesn't want us to bind them, he wants us to free them. Instead of naming things, we should b naming sins! Lust, pride, jealousy, back bitting, lying, stealing, adultery, fornication, hatred, bitterness, malice, selfishness. These are the things that Jesus, James, John, Peter and Paul preached against. Sins not things. #1 If you name sins then the Holy ghost can work through the conscience the way He is supposed to and #2 It clarifies to the hearer WHY I am supposed to live this way or that and the devil has less of a foot hold in the mind and they don't believe that they are doing something just because they are SUPPOSED TO or are TOLD to. I tell people all the time. The easiest way to get yur doctrine right on any given subject is to #1 forget everything that u ever heard, thought, read or was taught (as much as possible), #2 study that particular topic extensively, using the bible only, and #3 find where that topic crosses the life of Christ and you will end up with two powerful answers. #1 Where we were wrong and #2 what the right answer is. Don't get me wrong. It sounds like I think Holiness is all wrong. Holiness is right. The way we have drifted off to attain it and indoctrinate people with it, is not. We want the easy, lazy way. The way that keeps people ignorant and dependent upon us to tell them what to do and think. It gives us power.But what they need is the harder, deeper way. The way that men are wrong and God is right. We need to teach them, love them, correct them, pray for them and wait for God to change them. That has become the non-holiness way in a lot of circles. God help us.I believe in standards. I love a much more conservative outward standard. I abhor the influence of hollywood, rock no roll, country and western music and pro-sports. But people aren't going to listen when u just tell them "don't do it. We know better. Everything is of the devil unless we put our stamp of approval on it." Also, it is very important for everything that they CAN'T DO that they have something else TO DO. Almost all of the preaching of some of our groups is on what not to do. With little to no preaching on what to do. Young people are full of energy and spit and get up n go. They need things to do that are Godly. This is where fellowship and outreach play such a huge part in the Christian life. Problem is, holiness folks in general have a harder and harder time doing either one. We can't fellowship this group because they are too loose, we won't fellowship that group cause they are too tight. We can't do outreach to these people because they are so bad, we can't help those people because......I know u probably won't believe this, but I am soooooo glad that I am Holiness. But I am Biblical Holiness and I can back up what I live and preach with the bible. And I am happy and not hateful. I enjoy my life and I can be wrong, I can apologize, I can compromise, I can even work with people that don't see it my way, if it furthers the kingdom of heaven.As you can tell this is a huge subject and I have lots to say about it. This is just some brief blatherings off of the top of my head. I hope this helps a little. If not just discard it. If u have any specific questions about anything feel free to ask. I really hope I was not offensive at all. Please pray for us here at HMA. God Bless! Oh, and tell me who u r or where I know u from. Now that I look over this note back to u I wonder if U would mind if I copied and pasted it to my fb page. I won't give any kind of information about u. I just figure that a lot of people have similar questions and this could help a lot of them at the same time. ???
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