agree with caryle clear hypocrisy

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Sis. Sharon,

I am replying to your posting regarding the UPC.  I will
be making some comments within this reply that will
be directed to a general audience and not necessarily
at you.  I write all this in a loving, yet bold sense
in hope to get a few points across.

On 28 May 1998 21:15:01 -0000 atm@wideworld.net writes:
 
>I have and haveing the exeprience of the lackness of love in the 
>church, I was born again when I was a teenager, I wnet to UPC that
> has cliques I was the outcast. I felt very isolated from everybody else
>because I was handicapped. 

Maybe this is a pet peave of mine, or maybe the comment was 
directed this way...but I fail to see the connection on how one's
experience can negate a whole Organization.  I do not believe
that the UPCI as a whole is the problem.  In your case, Sis Sharon,
it seems to be a isolated incident involving a church in your area
that is within the UPCI.  

It is a sad thing if *any* Apostolic church lacks love.  It is also
very appalling to see a church isolate or judge someone based
on a handicap.  

I have found throughout my years at my church and taking classes
within my university, that sometimes it is not the fact of being 
"unloving" to a person who has a handicap, but being in a 
unfamiliar situation.  Watch people walk down the streets while 
a person with a hanidcap goes by....they will look away, move 
away from them, or even cross the street!  I found with myself
that it was a unfamiliar situation and I had yet to become
comfortable with it.  I took a class this past semester within
my degree program.  It was called Adapted Physical Education.
For the length of the course, I spent two nights a week working 
with a girl who had Transverse Mylitos.  This is a tear within
the spinal cord which by location of the tear, can render a person
without upper body strength, and/or lower body strength.  In this
girls case, she had lost lower body strength and had ot be in a 
wheelchair.  At first, I was scared to death at the thought of
working with her.  As I got to know her and worked with her
week after week, I lost that 'scared' sense, and realized she was
as human as I was, and she could do as much, if not more, than
I could in some instances.   

I said all that to say this...while there will always be cliques, and
always be some unloving people, realize that sometimes there are
people like I was, who, for the lack of better terms, was ignorant.

>I left UPC went over to trinty penencostal when I was in 
>my 20's. I left my first husband and backslidded 

If I may ask, did you know or feel the revelation  of the
Oneness of God before you left for a trinity church or was
it something you had only been taught, and not taken to heart yet.
It is one thing, in my opinion, to leave a church that lacks love, but
to leave the Oneness of God all together seems to be a
serious leap.  

>I know we should not lean on others for our salvation but 
>when u are going a hardship in life that is when u need 
>brothers and sisters to hold u up until u are  strong to stand alone.
>I did not have that support.

Saints should support fellow saints, and encourage them.  I agree
that sometimes, we need their shoulder to lean on.  In a recent
situation I was in, it seemed that nobody cared that I was heart broken
to the point of being depressed and not wanting to even get up in the
mornings.  It was then I found that I could no longer lean on others
and expect them to hold me up all the time.  I had to lean on the Lord
for strength, guidance, and uplift.  Proverbs 3:5-6 is what I read every
day just to remind myself that I had to fully trust in God.

>So I was driven to backslidden.

This might go against some peoples theology, but I do not
believe anyone can drive me to backslide.  When all is said
and done, it comes down to your own decision.  Some churches
do tend to 'let go' of people, but in the end, we have ultimately
let go of our own walk...nobody decided it for us.

>Now I came back in March 1998. I going 
>to a UPC where I live now. I am married also to a 
>wonderful husband.

No matter if it is UPCI, or another Oneness-Apostolic
church, Praise the Lord that you not only got back into
the truth, but you married a wonderful person.

>I can go to any trinty penecostal and recieve love and 
>praying partner and fellowship and able to work for the Lord 
>faster than my home church where I lived. I really need to pray. 

I will step out to say this without hesitation...Going to a church
which teaches anything else but the Bible truth...is a false church.
Sincerity can be flattering, but at the same time, it is not what gets
you to Heaven....only God's saving Grace and His salvation will.

>We need to pray that the Lord will baptize the UPC and all
> of the Others Apostlic churches with his real
>love and teach his children how to care and love each other.

Amen, amen, amen!  While I do believe we as Apostolics *do*
have God's *real* Love, we sometimes lack in fully acknowledging
it and producing it through our own actions.  I will pray, not that
God will baptize the Apostolic churches with His 'real' Love, but
if there is a problem within *any* particular church, that God will
open their eyes to their wicked ways, and the saints will Humble
themselves.
 
It is only by the removing of hard hearts, and scales from eyes, 
that we will see the disdain between those of like faith and pray
that God will forgive us.  Too many Apostolics have a problem
with other Apostolics and/or the fellowships and this to me is
very pathetic to say the least.  I get tired of hearing people complain
about the fellowships and their 'supposal" elitist position.  That
type of person is so centered on others, they become a aggressor
of the situation, and fail to make any progress in their spiritual walk.
They become the self-centered elitist themselves, and stir up
strife.  

Sis Sharon, I will pray for your situation, and pray that God will
open ignorant eyes, such as I had at one time towards people
with handicaps.  I pray that you rely on God and learn that
no matter where you go....sometimes the trouble isn't always
the church or the people you left.   

CD Sterrett

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