Are you Tired of Being an 'Ex'? There's a Plan.

 

People are looking for answers. One of the key attractions of a cult is certainty, the claim they have all the answers, a plan that is God’s plan. When someone leaves a cult this is one of the hardest things to deal with, letting go of the plan. There is an apparent uncertainty as the plan is taken away and replaced with simple trust in Jesus in a Western Church that often seems to fail in offering focus and direction.

Something I have warned about over the years is the danger of being an ‘ex,’ allowing your past to define you.

Let’s be frank here, the fault lies with the church that fails to have that focus, making some fall back on an identity defined by their past. Focus and direction are there in the Bible but churches can get so caught up in putting on programmes, events that attract unbelievers, serving the wider community, it can forget it’s primary purpose – making disciples. Are your surprised this is the church’s primary purpose? Perhaps you have been told the primary mission of the church is evangelism. Look at Jesus’ words:

‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ (Mt.28:18-20)

Of course, we are called to evangelise, reach the lost. Reachout Trust has the aim of equipping the church to do just that in the arena of cults and false teachers. When the lost are ‘found,’ however, it is not God’s intention that they should sit around being an audience.

There is a Plan

Something I have warned about over the years is the danger of being an ‘ex,’ allowing your past to define you. If you have come to Christ, put your faith in him, you are not an ‘ex-Mormon,’ an ‘ex-Jehovah’s Witness.’ You are not an ex-anything, you are a Christian, a follower of the Way, a disciple of Christ. Realising this will impact everything, from the way you witness to what you see when you read your Bible.

A Christian with a cult background is uniquely placed to understand the dilemma of cult members with questions, this much is obvious. But a person from a cult background who truly realises who they are in Christ is uniquely placed to tell the great good news of Jesus to a cult member, to explain to other Christians ‘what it’s like,’ to share the plan and purpose of God.

When you read the Bible you should see more than proof-texts.

Their emphasis is not on how wrong the cult is, but on how right the gospel is. When they read the Bible they see more than proof-texts, apologetics, they see God’s purposes in the church and in the world. They want to talk abut Jesus not Joseph Smith, talk about the righteousness found only in Christ, not talk about Charles Russell.

However, if they don’t know what the plan is the range of subjects for discussion is often limited to ‘you have the wrong Jesus.’ Confrontation can become the norm, frustration the common experience as cult members push back against our witnessing.

But there’s a plan…In his letter to Rome Paul writes of:

The unrighteousness of the Gentiles (1:18-32)

The unrighteousness of the Jews (2:1-3:8)

The unrighteousness of everyone (3:9-20)

Paul goes on to tell of the work of redemption, of:

‘the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe’ (3:21-26)

This righteousness is available to Jews and Gentiles by faith (3:27-31)

And Abraham is the father of Jews and Gentiles by this same faith (4:1-25)

He assures us that we can have hope:

In Christ’s triumph over Adam’s sin (5:12-21)

In the triumph of grace over the power of sin (6:1-23)

in the triumph of grace over the power of the law (7:1-6)

We know this because of the revelation of God’s purposes:

In his saving promises to Israel (9:1-29)

In the righteousness in his plan for Jews and Gentiles (11:11-32)

This new community of the saved, both Jews and Gentiles, are to be taught (discipled) in:

Total dedication to God (12:1/2)

Expressing the distinctive marks of the Christian community (12:3-13:14)

‘...a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual duty. [No longer] conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewal of [our] minds...discerning what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (mature, or finished)’ (12:1/2)

Living together in peace and mutual respect (14:1-15:13) ...full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another’ (15:14)

We are learning to be a community distinct from the world, schooled in kingdom living, teaching and encouraging one another in God’s perfect ways, with the aim of coming to full maturity in Christ. We are not ‘ex’ anything, we are Christians faithfully walking in God’s purposes for his glory.

If you still think of yourself as an ‘ex,’ if you think of me as an ‘ex,’ adjust your thinking because this is what the Bible tells us to do if we are to walk in God’s ways, be a light to the world, and reach out to the cults. There is so much more in our new identity in Christ and we need to know it and share it.