Offline to Online

Saturday, 26th July 2008

I have discovered that there are several readers who have been following ROOTSS faithfully, and I thank the Lord for bringing you into my life at this stage of my journey. As I share my reflections with you and in so doing, allow God to use me to minister to you, God has in turn also used you to minister back to me.

These people would include CybeRanger, Angie, Stanley, Geri, Jeffrey, Dragon, Joo and Mango Chin.

Recently, when I was struggling with unforgiveness, another sister wrote me an email which I found to be very sincere and helped me to see things from another perspective. As I felt it would be edifying to other readers, I sought her permission to reproduce it on ROOTSS, which she declined initially because she does not like publicity. Since then, she has written other emails to me which again resonated deeply in my heart, so I persuaded her again.

Well, praise be to God that she has now taken the bold step of faith to go from offline to online (provided her name is withheld), so here is the first series of email correspondence we had. I will refer to her as Bathsarah, which means daughter of Sarah...


From: Bathsarah
Sent: Saturday, 21 June, 2008 12:02 AM
To: mloh77@starhub.net.sg
Subject: The "Quarrel"

Hi,

You do not know me. I chanced upon your blog and have actually took the trouble to read through almost every single post right from the beginning. After that, I have been following your blog too.

First of all, let me introduce myself. As you can see from the email, my name is Bathsarah. I attend NCC and have been there for a little over 10 years now. When I first came across your blog and read the part where you thought about leaving your own church and joining NCC, I almost emailed you to confirm the prompting in your heart at that time that you should stay on at your own church. God forbid everybody should end up in NCC! LOL! We are already more than overflowing and I need some breathing space! *joke* I thought it was wonderful that you thought of staying on and don't mind telling you that at that time, I felt in my spirit that it was the right thing for you to do.

Your recent post on the Hired Hand Mentality was the push factor that prompted me to actually email you. I read it days ago when it first came up but only felt I should write now. Remember, I have read almost every single one of your posts so I sort of have a feel of your style, (loosely speaking) your train of thought and the events that have happened before. The impression that I get is that the antagonism seem to be increasing rather than the grace of God shining through your life.

I understand your enthusiasm about the grace message. But I have to agree with some of the people who commented on that post (too many 'anonymous'; perhaps you should ban 'anonymous') that some of your post, the Hired Hand included, seem more like veiled accusations than anything. Love is not sarcastic. btw. Remember, I come from the Grace camp. I should be jumping up and down for joy for your 'allegiance'.

I wonder what Pastor Prince will say if he had read all your blog entries, especially on those 'arguments' (we shall not debate about the semantics) with your local church. In fact, I am not sure if you are aware of this but there was one Sunday very recently where he spoke out very strongly against church members who engage in flame wars with people from other churches on the blogsphere. In essence, what he said was that no matter how right we are, if we do that, we are hurting the body of Christ. Hurting the body of Christ is something we should never do and he will never endorse.

Discussing/debating/arguing about grace on the turf of the grace camp (for lack of better description) is one thing. We are pretty much used to it. :P To be at another camp and have the audacity to ask the head of that camp to change his house rule is quite another thing. Remember that no matter what, your pastors are still appointed by God. They are answerable to God. It is not our place to touch the Lord's anointed (remember David and Saul). If what your church teaching is not in line with God's Word, then God will deal with it. As Pastor Prince said, He does not need us to steady the ark for Him.

Yes, you may say that the 'head' of the house is God, and not the man of God, but hey, since God appointed that man of God and not you to lead that church, then I guess it is only right for you to submit to his God-given authority. If you really find it hard to do so, instead of staying in strife and discord, perhaps it is better for you AND your church that you move on to somewhere you feel comfortable with. Otherwise, you may be doing more harm than good.

In your posts, you have subtly and not so subtly accuse your church leaders of many things. Remember who is the Accuser of the Brethren? If we accuse our brethren, are we not partaking in the Devil's work?

Legalists expect overnight behavioural modification. Understanding the Grace of God should make us more understanding, more patient,more loving, more accepting.. Pastor always says to give people time to grow and change slowly. I hope you can extend the same grace towards your church leaders. Arguments don't win souls. Love does.

I hope you don't get offended by my forwardness in emailing you.

Bathsarah


From: Malcolm Loh
Sent: Saturday, 21 June, 2008 6:06 AM
To: Bathsarah
Subject: Re: The "Quarrel"

Hi Bathsarah

Really appreciate your email, as I can see that you have written it out of sincerity.

The frustrations have been building up, and my blog is a means of ventilating. At times, the posts will come across as ungodly and fleshly, but that's my way of being genuine -- I am not a perfect person.

You are so blessed to be in NCC. Many a times, I feel like just giving up and transferring over. I also wish that I could sow into One-North legitimately, but while I remain a PLMC member, that's where my tithe is going.

Please pray for my church and get others to do so as well. Saul/Paul was transformed and I believe deep in my heart that my senior pastor's stand on the grace gospel will one day be changed as well.

Say, is it OK to publish your post on my blog? It will help to keep things in perspective. I will leave out your surname.


From: Bathsarah
Sent: Sunday, 22 June, 2008 6:22 PM
To: mloh77@starhub.net.sg
Subject: The "Quarrel"

Hi Malcolm,

You mean publish my email in entirety? I am not sure I am comfortable with that, mainly because I am extremely uncomfortable with attention. I am not kidding. The thought of it is enough to send my heart racing and my palms sweating. Recently, I met up with an online friend for the first time and trust me, it was a tremendous step of faith. Hope you get what I mean. But I suppose it is ok if you mention about it in your own writing, kind of like summarising the gist.

Since your blog has a following, and has been nominated as 'The Best Christian Blog of the Year', I feel that you should be a little more careful with what you publish. (This is why I prefer LiveJournal as it allows me options to set the privacy setting of individual posts, so some posts are not for public eye.)

I recently studied a little bit on the power of the spoken word and the power of unified speech, mainly based on the teachings of Billye Brim. The Bible has a lot to say regarding the governing of our speech (I guess we can extend to our 'cyber speech' as well). You can catch that series of broadcast from Kenneth Copeland Ministries website :

http://www.kcm.org/media/index.php?p=media

Look for the 'Power of Unified Speech' and 'The Power of the Spoken Word'. Very powerful teaching.

I did my own little study and found this : http://www.jewfaq.org/speech.htm

If nothing else, these are very good for bible knowledge. : )

I can understand your frustration. But I think as it is, it is wonderful you have more in your church who are with you instead of against you. Why not come together in prayer and in love for your church? Do not return evil for evil but return evil for good. Over the years, Pastor Prince received so much persecution for the grace message. Forgive me for being blunt but he would have gotten it worse than what you are getting. But I have never heard a word from his mouth against those people who came against him.

Sure, he has mentioned groups of people in general, e.g. preachers who are preaching legalism in general. But he has never spoken against someone specifically just because that someone did something wrong towards him, especially when it involves another man of God.

I am pretty sure, as human, he would have shared his disappointment and frustration with his close friends and family. But not in the public. I vaguely recall Pastor Mark mentioned that Pastor Prince specially went to bless a particular person's ministry when that person wronged him before.

As for sowing into One North, personally I don't see why you can't sow into One North. I am not saying so just to solicit more funds. First of all, the 10% tithe is for your own local storehouse. You tithe to your own church and rightly so. But there is the offering element that is over and above the 10%. I thought you understood that. Your offering can go anywhere.

For me, I usually give to my church for them to channel to various Kingdom works. Mainly I give to pastors - obeying what the Bible said about giving to those who bring the Word to you - and to missions. I leave the church to channel the funds to the specific pastors or mission work. I do that only because it is the most convenient and also the safest means for sowing my seed. It does not mean that I cannot sow into Kenneth Copeland Ministries, for instance, because I also get some spiritual food from there. So likewise, I don't see why you cannot bring your 10% to your church and sow whatever you like to One North, or to Joseph Prince Ministries.

I also don't see why you can't visit NCC once in a while. So no need to angst over it. : )

Bathsarah