"...elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone..." I Tim. 5:20

[Please note: I removed the video to which I refer in this blog, based on a request from my dear friend, a daughter of the brother of whom I speak in the video. Again, I love that brother and his whole family very much. I just hope that there could be repentance and clearance of sins that stumbled and injured many and that this dear brother could be restored to his vital function.

I am keeping this blog post, and I originally recorded the video, mainly to address the patterns in “The Lord’s Recovery” of unscripturally covering up sins of leading ones and silencing people who come forth and speak out about stumbling behaviors of especially leading ones.

What hurts most about this brother’s story is that his daughter sought help for her dad from “senior coworkers,” and she was threatened that if she speaks about his situation to anyone, including her husband, God would curse her family. Those brothers could’ve helped her family much earlier on, but instead threatened a witness. The brother’s wife also had gone for help and was virtually ignored by church elders.]

I am posting a video this evening, in which I discuss a matter that has affected the Body of Christ for many years, related to a dear brother, but even more, related to a pattern in "The Lord's Recovery" of not following God's Word in dealing with sins, and specifically in dealing with elders who are sinning.

When I was a "first-termer" in the Fulltime Training in Anaheim (FTTA) in 1995, I sought to have a thorough cleansing and dealing with my sins. The Lord, I believe, brought to my memory a day in my senior year in high school, when I went with several of my church friends to the mall, where we also went to a movie. When we returned to our friends' home, the dad, who was also a church elder and a trainer in the FTTA, asked where we had been. Speaking for our group, as the oldest among them, I answered, "The mall." I knew that many parents in "THE church" may not approve of us going to see a movie, so I told a partial truth, a lie by omission. So five or so years later, the Lord touched me to repent to this father of my friends.

Around that time, I was at their house, and asked if I could speak with this brother. I told him about my lying to him. He took it more seriously than I'd expected, and I appreciate that. Sin is serious. He asked if I had repented to the others I had been with, for whom I had spoken, because what I did could have stumbled them.

Now, about 30 years after my conversation with that brother, I am addressing him, but also and mainly the responsible brothers in "The Lord's Recovery." I have come to know, due to parallels in his family's situation and in mine, that the same trainer in the FTTA, father of my friends, elder in the church, a "senior coworker"... was living in gross sins around that time and for many years. I don't speak this to condemn. Christ Jesus died for us. But we should repent, confess our sins, and be forgiven and restored. Otherwise, the whole Body of Christ suffers.

In this video, I speak out about a member of my spiritual family, who has not been shepherded properly to repent and to be restored to the fellowship, but rather his sins that have stumbled many, and his disappearance that grieves even more of us, are all covered up and "not spoken about" (except in small circles). This is contrary to GOD'S Word, which says, "Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism" (I Tim. 5:19-21).

I am just a "little" (53-year-old) sister, but I can't bear the lack of practicing what is in God's Word, in the name of "covering brothers," in "The Lord's Recovery." What about protecting endangered wives? What about comforting heart-broken children and grandchildren? What about loving one another enough to reprove publicly, for there to be public warning and public repentance and full forgiveness and restoration?

There should be no favoritism, no partiality. If you rebuke brothers publicly who are maintaining a clean conscience, speaking truthfully, but whose speaking may tarnish the reputation of an individual or an organization, but you are covering up gross sins of leading brothers, trying to hide the truth, that is partiality.

As long as I am alive, I won't stand by, but I will speak up and speak out the truth... the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. We are ALL affected by lies in our communities and especially in the church (composed of ALL believers), including lies of omission, and by the loss of the function of fellow members who fall into sin or are excommunicated for speaking up about sins that need to be dealt with scripturally.

To the brother I address, and to his family, I hope you receive my words in this public way only from my heart of love and my deep desire for restoration and for preservation of the Lord's testimony and genuine oneness, apart from sin, among ALL His believers, wherever and with whomever we may be practically meeting.

#lordsrecovery  #thelocalchurch  #witnesslee  #cultrecovery