Daily Deprogramming

In the Bible God is spoken of as bouncing His people upon His knee as a mother, and comforting His own like a mother comforts her little ones. Isaiah 66:11-14  Also He describes Himself as a mother hen calling all her chicks together under her wings and covering them with her feathers so she can protect them.  Matthew 23:27   He has made it simple to understand His loving Heart and deep caring for His children.

When I was a young girl, often my mom would lay down beside me .  She was so comforting.  I knew for sure she loved me.  I would always take her arm and place it under my head and snuggle up close beside her.   She was a wonderful mother! 

The Lord as our Comforter is much like a loving mother in our most  difficult moments  or at any time when we reach out to Him.   It is so simple but profound that the Creator of the Universe and all in it, could love us so dearly.   Just one little nobody is as precious to Him as all the rest put together. 

It is sad that Religious Leaders who want Power and Control over people make it so difficult to know God.  They will pay a great price one day because they have come between His people and Himself.  Today Ardith Keef makes it a burden to lean on the Lord.  You have to jump through all of her hoops  and rules to simply lean on His everlasting Arms.  This is absolutely not the way it is.  He has made it all very simple through the death and resurrection of His Son, and belief upon Jesus Christ’s name.  The curtain was torn in half  (which divided  the people from the Holy of Holies), at the moment of Jesus’ death.  Matthew 27:50-51 JKV  The margin notes say, “The barrier between God and the people was  removed.  Now all people are free to approach God because of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins.”   Heb 9:1-14   God’s arms are since then open wide to the vilest of sinners.

In reality, God hears the tiniest whisper of prayer, He knows what we need before we ever ask, but He loves to hear from His children.  He is the Faithful One.  We are all  unfaithful, needy sinners at best , but  because of His great Love He has cleared the way for us to approach Him long ago at the Cross.  It is not hard to reach Him, to fellowship with Him, to draw near to Him as some would make it out to be.  There are no rules, but there is only one way, through the Blood of Jesus Christ.  He is still the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Jesus was The Way for the evildoer hanging  on the cross next to Him, and He is the Only Way for you and me.

“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:  And He shall thrust out the enemy  from before thee;  and shall say, Destroy them. ”  Deut 33:27   KJV Life Application Bible  The margin notes to this verse say, “Our only true refuge is the eternal God, who always holds out His arms to catch us when the shaky supports we trust in collapse and we fall.  No storm can destroy us when we take refuge in Him.  Because God is our refuge we can dare to be bold.”

Recently I picked up a small paperback book at a used book bin.  The name of it is “Why Me?” written by Lynn B. Daugherty.  It contains “help for victims of child sexual abuse even if they are adults now.”  I have been reading such books to compare the effects of sexual abuse with that of spiritual abuse.  Having experienced both  types of abuse in severe forms , I find the pain of  the spiritual bruising of the soul and spirit  by abusive church leaders and the  emotional suffering of sexual abuse to be very similar in each instance.  My belief  and experience is that when the trust is broken as in the sexual abuse of a family member , especially a parent to a child , it is much the same as having a trusted pastor or church leader betray and do spiritual harm to a person.

In the book stated above,  under the heading of “Trusting”,  it says, “Many victims of child sexual abuse have trouble trusting  people again.   This is especially true for those abused in continuing relationships  or incest.  This is understandable because these victims were hurt by someone they trusted.  Sometimes it takes a very long time to allow yourself to trust others again. Trusting others is always taking a risk.  It is painful to trust someone and then be hurt by that person.”  

Many who have been abused by false authoritatian leaders find it hard to even enter a church again, no matter how kind and loving the people appear to be.  They have been deeply wounded, and it takes time to heal.   But  I have found it is possible to heal with counseling over time.

Not too long ago I had to deal with a sad awakening.  There was a person in my life  whom I should have been able to trust,   who sexually molested myself and others  during all of my childhood .   Throughout my childhood and teenage years,  he and another family member both made my life a living hell with  violent acts of  sexual abuse.  Both of these predators caused me much suffering, shame,  guilt , unspeakable pain, and fear. 

Then I grew up, married a wonderful man,  and had children of my own.  When I was 35 , I  became a Christian, and  about the same time, so did the older Child Molester.   We were actually baptised together. He was nearly 60 by then.  I could see that the Lord was working in his life, and I  freely forgave him all he had ever done to hurt me.  I began to trust him, and for twelve years in my adulthood  built upon the relationship. 

We shared our testimony in a church, and prayed together  whenever we saw each other. We spent hours talking about the Lord and His Love with tears .  When he died, I truly loved him,  I knew he was still a bit mixed-up , but I could see that  he loved Jesus, I knew his salvation was real, and  I assumed he had been healed of his past abusive behaviors.  Not so!

I was horribly wrong.  Ten years after his death, I found out that he had been sexually molesting a little girl  who was now 18, and the abuse began when she was only six years old.  How many others were damaged  during my father’s life  , even during his new converted life, only God knows.  

The thing that really surprised me was that although I loved the little girl dearly, and agonized over her abuse,  my love for the perpetrator did not change.   I knew that my forgiveness of him was very real.  But I was the wiser for finding out the truth about his secret life.  There was a new understanding that some things never change, and just as an alcoholic never truly gets better, it is the same with an  abusive sexual perpetrator.

So today as I read Ardith Keef’s Daily Devotional , I shudder at  how many child abusers in the form of  ”Authority Figures” are  out there, in the main stream of life,  such as pastors, teachers, and others who appear to be solid and sound  , but have sordid pasts and  even presently are engaged in secret sins that simply haven’t caught up with them yet.   Perhaps someone even well meaningly is enabling them  to cover over their past and present  shameful behaviors by saying smooth spiritual things such as:   “Those who follow hard after Him will be monuments to His faithfulness.  You may not be distracted by the thing that you cannot change.  On the other hand, you must live in the moment.”  Inside the  warped mind  of a sexual abuser these kinds of words could very well be the go-ahead  and a license for a perpetrator who cannot change their hidden behaviors.

Ardith Keef also states, “The Soldier of the Cross will increase in verdure as the years go by.”  Sadly in some cases the deeply spiritual-acting  person secretly increases in vigor,  but  that verdure is dark and secret in nature.  We have all  witnessed  from the media almost daily;  cases of child pornography, child abuse, and other dark, covert sins in the lives of trusted professionals which when brought into the light  was shocking and loathsome.  Even the verse of the day on my own home page could easily  be misconstrued to the  sick psyche  of the spiritual  minded sex offender as a way to simply put their abuse of others on the back burner, and consider it of little or no importance;   “Forgetting what lies behind, we press on to the goal of Christ.” 

Until the sexual offender admits his guilt , comes to terms with his evil deeds,  and does all he can to make things right with his victim or victims, all the Bible verses in the world are not going to help him. They are only a tiny Band-Aid laid over a gaping, infected wound.  The perpetrator  has caused great harm to little children in many cases that will go with them as guilt, pain, shame and fear for the rest of their lives, often crippling them for intimacy throughout their adult years,  and it is not about the poor hurting offender licking his wounds,  it is about his  victim.   In the same way, it is not about the abusive church/cult leader and their emotional distress, it is about the people of God they have hurt and violated.

When one has  covered over a secret life of child abuse , or any other sin,  God will not protect that one from being found out no matter how aged  or “deeply spiritual”  he or she  gets.  ”For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed: neither  hid that shall not be known.”   Luke 12:2   When we repent , the Lord does forgive us our sins, but we still reap what we sow, no matter how old we get. 

Yesterday we remarked that there was no love in Ardith Keef’s writings.  Today she displays the word “love” 12 times in 12 sentences.   However, her use of the word in each sense has no power, no feeling, no life, no Holy Spirit.  Her twelve  words may have the same four letters that spell, “love” , but her words ring empty, hollow, and they don’t resonate no matter how many words she adds containing the four letters of  l-o-v-e.  Her  words, though some are very descriptive and at first sound superficially pretty , are like a sounding gong  because they are only echos of  mimics and simulated , pretended and artfully contrived words about love.   You cannot have Holy Spirit Love (God’s Love)  without Truth.  There is no Truth in a facade.

Twelve empty words in a row that spell love are even gaunter, darker, and colder than one , without the power of genuine Holy Spirit Love  and Truth  behind them.  Paul said, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have  not love,  I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.”  1Corinthians 13:1-3

Love is the main fruit of the spirit.  Galations 5:22   This means that if one teaches the scriptures , and you do not see the fruit of Love exhibited in their own life  or ministry ,they do not bring the spirit of God. This is how you can test the spirit of a person or a ministry.  Look below the surface.  Even if they use the letters l-o-v-e twelve times in one short writing , but their life pattern  or ministry shows a lack of love,  beware.  If you see the fruit of  divided churches, broken homes, divorces, shunning people, slander, dividing little siblings from one another , causing harm and affliction to spouses, dishonoring parents,  taking other Christians to court, destroying whole families,  abandoning aging  dying mothers, and the like, do not listen to them. 

The above abuses are nothing to do with love , and are from the opposite realm and kingdom, far away from  God’s Kingdom Of Love.  The Apostle Paul said to the Ephesians, ” LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU WITH VAIN WORDS:  FOR BECAUSE OF THESE THINGS COMETH THE WRATH OF GOD UPON THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE.  BE NOT YE THEREFORE PARTAKERS WITH THEM.”  EPHESIANS 5:6 KJV

Ardith Keef begins her Daily Devotional this way, “The Soldier of the Cross has His agenda as the priority of each day.”

It still surprises me that a person like Ardith Keef  can think that simply because she no longer has any use for a person , and she decides they are no longer of any value to God or the Church, God feels the same way about the person as she does. In effect, she tells God who to love and who to hate.  No dear ones, you  are discarded because you  no longer fit into her agenda.  If  something like this has happened to you, be assured that Almighty God still loves you, and theres a place for you in His Kingdom and at His table.Cult leaders like Ardith Keef are not your judge, He is.  His Son died for you on the Cross.

Over and over again when Ardith Keef  has decided that folks deserved to be cut off from her presence ,and from her little elite group of “Soldiers” , these dear people whom God loves, some young children,  have hobbled  away, hurt, disarmed, harmed emotionally and spiritually, or worse, disillusioned, broken and devastated, trying to pick up the pieces and move on.  Then  she tried to buck up against  a family who  stuck together, and loved the truth more than anything else.  When they finally could see through all her falsehoods, pretenses and into her secret  agenda , they would not bow down any longer  to the Great She Is.  In fact they are willing to sacrifice anything and everything they own for the sake of the Truth.

The Cult leader always has work for their followers.  Some sell flowers to keep busy and get money for their Guru’s. Some sell books and magazines door to door.  Some are told “not to be distracted”, “not to dilute your use of time or the use of your faculties” in order to keep their underlings too busy to think or discern with any real depth.  These use God , the Bible, and a little truth to hold power over their , “peons”  (i.e.  Websters Definition #3, ”foot soldiers”)  , to keep them in line.  

Cult leaders who are abusive  Christian leaders might even tell you something like Ardith Keef says today, “We are to be transformed into His likeness”,  when in actuality they  really have there own agenda, and you are being made more and more like themselves. Like them, you lose your conscience, you become hard and cold, you have no mercy or compassion, and worst of all you lose any resemblence to Love.   Oh, you hear words of scripture , but they are so mixed with the enemy’s hateful agenda that they are powerless. Their only use is to drag you along with the cult leader and keep you ensnared by guilt.

If you read Ardith Keef’s Daily Devotional today, you will find no love or even any kindness there.  It is only a control method and smooth words to snare the simple , and keep those whom she has power over: busy, afraid , and  under her thumb until she wants to use them to boost her own ego.   Ardith Keef like all cult leaders before her has a  secret agenda dear ones, and it is being exposed.  The reason my family was so quickly removed was because I was uncovering something , and anyone who begins to see the truth is immediately excommunicated, because the house of cards called Anchor, run by Ardith Keef, will fall at the slightest breath of Genuine Truth. 

Before I left , the Isaac House (Ardith’s “Guest House”)   was extremely secretive, and it was like walking on egg shells when I entered, and it was a bizzare environment, with things going on under the surface.   I have experienced this before and it didn’t turn out to be anything good.

So be careful who  you “are standing before in obedience and agreement.”  The Bible says you become the slave of him whom  you obey.  Romans 6:16   “Is there Anyone else ?” , Ardith Keef asks the unwary today.   We say, Yes there is.  He is the enemy of God, satan,  and he is lurking in the shadows like a lion waiting to devour someone.  He uses cult/abusive church  leaders  (false prophets)  who think themselves very wise , to deceive and delude even the Saints of the Most High God.   Matthew 24:24

Be careful friend that the “work to be done”  is not someone’s ploy and strategy to keep you too busy to examine the fruit and test the spirits!  The enemy, the slanderer and the great deceiver,  wants to keep you from knowing the  Genuine Truth and the True Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately there are many who use His Word to promote their unholy agenda.  As we have mentioned often times in our rebuttals,  most of the abusive Christian cult leaders use the Holy Bible.  They use It like they use their members, for their own ends and purposes, all the way from the JW’s to Jim Jones and David Koresh.   They all preach scripture.  The JW’s have millions of members and probably billions of dollars.  Even though it is filled with abuse and ungodly behaviors,  their organization won’t disappear anytime soon.  The little guy’s like Jim Jones and David Koresh have disappeared off the scene due to their unstable self-made kingdoms, false doctrines , and bogus teachings finally imploding violently upon themselves. This often happens with cults.

 My counselor , when realizing I had just left a cult ,told me first of all that it could turn violent. He told me there is usually some kind of sexual perversion or abuse involved as well.  He said that Cult Leaders think themselves above “His Word” or any other laws ,and allow themselves liberties others may not indulge in.

Today Ardith Keef’s first line is, “In war, the first priority is to cut off the enemy’s communication. “  My answer:  Cult leaders  do the same thing when they are confronted, asked questions ,or criticized. They cut off the  communication of  the “offenders” by slander, shunning or any other means available.    ”The first priority”  in God’s war is to know you are on the right side,  His side.

It is easy to picture both David Koresh and Jim Jones keeping out  “the enemy” ,  as does Ardith today, and reigning in their followers by clever spiritual  words like these of  hers, “It is the enemy’s strategy to cripple your prayer life and your taking in God’s fresh revelation of His Word.  We all know it.  We also all  know that it takes an extra effort and determination to be faithful in this area.”    It sounds all good and spiritual, but for cult leaders it is a trap they use to throw guilt trips on people to keep them under control. These smooth, subtle, deeply spiritual words are  used much in the same way  as during a war  when  the enemy’s special forces stealthily sneak in to quietly snare their victims, or take them prisoner.

The  Cult leaders use of spirituality and “His Word” is designed to keep their victims from looking at the  Genuine Truth or discerning  the reality  of their sinful condition, and as a diversion, that they wouldn’t notice  the cult leaders’ spiritual sickness or  insanity.    These cult leaders use His Word to promote their own agenda’s somewhat like a slick , used-car salesman in recruiting and retaining their victims.  Eventually it catches up with them , and their words are of little use when the whole thing , like a house of cards, caves in on top of them.  We all know how Jim Jones and David Koresh ended up.  Because of their unfaithful use of “His Word” and refusing to  humble themselves and admit their sinful condition before God, in the end they  had no Genuine Armor nor did they have God’s Truth.  They had used His Word for their own benefit,  and proved false to it’s power.   They were not on the winning side of Truth.

The problem is  that most of these cult leaders in my opinion are proud, haughty, self-absorbed, and  trusting in their own wisdom and judgment, refusing  to think they could ever be wrong.  Most start out believing  “His Word” is true , but their own arrogance and pride betrays, seduces, deceives, and  finally defeats  them.

Jesus said, “By their Fruits, you will know them.” Matthew 7:16

Last week I was driving to Mechanic Falls and heard some preaching by Pastor Charles Stanley.  His subject was the Ancient Stoics.  Their teachings reminded me so much of the direction Ardith Keef’s teachings have been going.  I believe when we get off center spiritually  the enemy misleads us in some direction that he has already established.  He has no creativity and therefore where he  subtly leads is much like something that has already been , probably even a mixture of philosophies perhaps sounding very Christian.

These are just a few Stoic teachings which are much like Ardith Keef’s teachings in my opinion:

The Stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, that a person of moral and intellectual perfection would not have such emotions.

They train their attention to remain in THE present  MOMENT  (similar to some forms of Eastern meditation)

The Philosophy for the Stoic is an active process of constant practice and self reminder.

Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions.

Primary aspect of Stoicism is improving the individuals ethical and moral wellbeing.

Stoics used many of the same terms as the early Christians such as Logos, Virtue, spirit, conscience, inner freedom.  They interposed the term “nature” for God.

Everything is subject to the laws of fate.  (Ardith Keef’s doctrine says that everything that comes, both good and evil comes from God.)

The Stoics did not seek to extinguish emotions, rather they sought to transform them by a resolute (askesis, Greek)  Ascetism , which enables a person  to develop clear judgment and inner calm.

Logic, reflection and concentration were the methods of such  self discipline.

A transformation of the mind and body  by salvation and liberation is taught  by Christians, Stoics, Indian religions, and Yoga

All of the above religions led austere lifestyles , refrained from sensual pleasures and the accumulation of material wealth.

The Stoic finds there is very little that is of much importance.

Stoics are not easily upset because they can put up with much negativity.  It  is as if they were insulated from it.

Stoics have a mood of insensitivity to what is happening around them.  They are psychologically “nearsighted” so to speak.

Stoic’s  are unaffected by things that provoke others.

The Stoic’s blame fate ( Anchor, it’s Gods will ) rather than learn from their mistakes

Stoics see the hand of God (or it’s equivalant) in everything. They do not want to be guilty of opposing His ordained law.  The way to transend this fear is to apply the positive pole of the Complimentary Attitude, attune to the higher qualities and values of life.

I found these  statements on line in the Wikipedia under Stoicism.  One can see how easy it would be  for a Christian when getting offcourse to be moved over into this kind of thinking.  Perhaps maintaining some of the true doctrine , but ending up over the years with a seriously flawed mixture of teachings.

The one who said “I will lift my throne above the heavens, I will be be like the Most High  God,” (Isa 14:13-15) can easily imitate , simulate, or mimic  the truth, deluding the wise,  especially when one refuses to believe they can be deceived.  They end up pridefully thinking they are wise, but tricked all the same into following the philosophies of men , and the teachings of demons

We pray for the leaders and all the  folks at the Anchor Church that they might have their eyes opened , and  be restored to the Truth and the clear, untarnished, doctrine of Gods Word, which is the True Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Fight the good fight with all thy might

Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;

Lay hold on life, and it shall be

Thy joy and crown eternally.

Run the straight race through God’s good grace,

Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face;

Life with it’s way before us lies,

Christ is the path, and Christ the prize.

Cast care aside, lean on thy Guide,

His boundless mercy will provide;

Trust, and thy trusting soul shall prove

Christ is it’s life, and Christ it’s love.

Faint not in fear, His arms are near,

He changeth not, and thou art dear;

Only believe, and thou shalt see

That Christ is all in all to thee.

John S. B. Monsell, 1811-1875

This morning I was reviewing a wonderful book by Corrie Ten Boom, called Jesus Is Victor.  To refresh your memory, she survived 4 years in a German Concentration Camp as punishment for  her families hiding of Jewish people during the Holocaust. She was in her fifties at the time and endured horrendous abuse at the hands of the Nazi’s, freezing cold, hunger, nakedness, bedbugs, lice, seeing her whole family killed, and the loss of countless friends who went to the gas chambers, and much more.

There was a story where she was trying to smuggle a Bible into the camp.  Everyone was being searched. And she was in line after line as the people were being searched.  She says at one point , “All I needed was an Angel to shield me, so I prayed,”  “Lord, make your Angels untransparent.”  She says “How unorthodox you can pray when you are in great need. But God did not mind, He did it!”    The woman ahead of her was searched and her sister was searched behind her several times in sveral lines , but Corrie was not searched and used that Bible to hold Bible Studies and lead people to Christ.

After all she endured, Corrie believed Jesus was Victor.  She went on to travel all over the world and evangelize and wrote countless books about her experiences  and her love for Jesus Christ, one of which was Jesus is Victor.    

Not only is He Victor, but so much else. The Bible says,  He is Love, He is Light, He is Life, He is Truth, He is Faithful and True, He is Mighty, He is Almighty, He is Merciful,  He is Compassionate, He is our High Priest, He is the Bread of Life, He is the Door of the Sheep, He is the Great Shepherd, He is the Great Physician, He is the Lamb of God, He is the Lion of Judah, He is our Friend, He is our Brother, He is our Savior,  He is The Lover of our Soul, He is Lord! He is God!   “If”  this incredible amazing ”God is for us who can be against us!  Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine , or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  In all these things we are more than conquerers through Him that loved us. “ Romans 8:31-37………………

Down through the ages and even today, there have been countess Christians who , faithful to Him and His cause have died by the sword, they have been tortured, hung, burned at the stake, sawn in half, beaten, imprisoned, they have been thrown to the lions,  they have had to watch their children be eaten by lions, They have been shot,  drowned, starved, at the words and testimony of false witnesses and the hands of betrayers and even  false Christians, but died knowing Jesus is Victor, filled with Hope because they knew Jesus lives.  They must have thought of the verse, “We will not fear, what can man do to us?” Hebrews 13:6

One thing I know is that Jesus Christ Won on Calvary and He said “It is finished.”  Because of this we need not fear whatever the enemy sends our way.  Whether we win or appear to lose the small battles of life, God has already won the War.   Whatever little things we endure for the cause of Christ will be Glory for us at His appearing. The battle is not with flesh and blood ,but with the powers and principalities of darkness, and they have already been defeated! 

Hallelujah!  Come Lord Jesus!  Jesus is Victor!

These words from the Song of Solomon left a lasting imprint upon my heart at the time when the Lord was wooing me to Himself almost 30 years ago. I believe they are a picture of His love for His church, His bride:

“Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm;  for love is strong as death;  jealousy is cruel as the grave the coals thereof are coals of fire, which has a most vehement (intense, ardent, impassioned)flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it;  If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be uttery contemned.” (despised or scorned) Song of Solomon 8:6-7

I love the margin notes in my KJV Bible regarding the above verses:  “Love is as strong as death;  it cannot be killed by time or disaster;  and it cannot be bought for any price, because it is freely given.  Love is priceless, and even the richest king cannot buy it. ”

When I was first saved, there was a fire in my heart for Christ.  I knew finally that He was for real. I knew there was hope to see my long dead mother again as well as my eight year old daughter who had died tragically. I could sense His presence, with a closeness that is unexplained ,and a fire burned within me to know Him, to serve Him and to be with Him in Heaven one day.

For twenty years I served diligently; I “saw the need and responded.”  For twenty years I got  more and more off course.  I followed what I thought was truth, but it turned out to be a dead end , and following after  the wind.   The embers of the fire, though dimmed,  never went out in my soul and it took the stiff wind of disaster  and sorrow to change my course, so the Holy Spirit could blow upon the flames and get them burning bright and hot again.  “A dimmed wick He will not extinguish.” Isa 42:43   David said “He restoreth my soul” and He has restored the brightness , and the heart  dedication as the flame burns hotter and stronger than ever.  He is ever Faithful and True to His own.  Praise His Holy Name! 

I agree with Ardith Keef today that you don’t “need to feel divine energy.” or “physical energy.” But you do need to be on the right course and heading in the right direction.   Otherwise the  Holy Spirit’s fire is  quenched to a tiny flicker, you work and work and you wonder what is wrong?  If you are struggling to serve Him and feel like your fire is almost out, perhaps “your priority is your own agenda” or someone elses,  ”and not His.”

Today Ardith seems to have  widened out a bit and leads her followers to a “Global Vision”. She tells them they “are responsible for the world in one way or another.”   However ,one might wonder if it is just another ploy to keep her followers in line .   Laying on them “the responsibility for the conditions of the world”,  is another way for her to say, “Look away from yourself and serve.”  Her statement today “In God’s economy there is no such thing as a problem”,  when describing the lives of people who are hungry, needy, ill, discouraged, elderly and dying,  abandoned orphans, and there being a need to help them , doesn’t make any sense.  In Heaven there are no problems, here on earth the world is groaning, and full of woe.

There is an old saying, “Charity begins at home.”  At the Anchor Mission Fellowship  Church time and time again people desert their loved ones to go to the mission field.  This is not to say there is no need, or calling  for missionaries or true leaders to rise to the occasion , to leave all and go where the need in great, of course there is The Great Commission.   However when people break up marriages and divide children from parents to go to the “mission field” with another woman or man to obey the “Great Commission”   there is something very wrong and there is little if any fruit from these fiasco’s.

Bill Keef wanted to go to Russia for missions.His family stood in his way. His wife did not want to go there with their 4 children (so Ardith Keef says) so Ardith Keef counseled the woman  , and then all hell broke loose and the family was destroyed and Ardith Keef  married the man.  Turns out he probably has visited Russia 3 times in 14 years for short 1 week visits. Once he got all the way to NY and was afraid to fly.  The church over there has broken up.  The false leaders here were responsible ,and even put the pastor’s  young family out of their home.  This is horrible fruit, and the fruit of one person’s narrow minded, tunnel vision.

I love the meaning of Tunnel Vision when likened to the AMF Fiasco.: “Loss of peripheral vision, with retention of central vision resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like field of vision.  Patients can only see objects from within a certain field.” 

Causes of Tunnel Vision:  “Blood loss to the brain , Contaminated air” Tunnel vision is also described as “an extremely narrow point of view resulting from concentration on only one aspect of a subject or situation.”   Wikipedia and the Online Dictionary

When one person controls  and determines all of the group  doctrines, teachings, thoughts, intentions, interpretation of scripture, hymns sung, books read, blatantly or by manipulation there is bound to be a serious case of Tunnel Vision in the whole church.   It wouldn’t be quite so serious if whole famiies were not abused, broken up, and churches divided and individuals whom Christ died for , harmed spiritually and emotionally. Some  of the innocent people who have suffered from the Anchor Church Tunnel Vision syndrome,  continue to be  affected  greatly , and are still in severe pain. 

Fathers and mothers need to take care of their children and the marriage God has given them first. The Word of God says “A man who doesn’t take care of his own family is worse than a man without faith.” 1Tim 5:8  The marriage bond is sacred to God.  It is a covenant that God holds you to. In fact if one divorces without the proper grounds , he or she commits adultery when remarrying.  When a leader has been married 5 or 6 times and three times to Christians who are still alive,  this person is a false leader according to God’s word. They are certainly not appointed by God in the capacity of overseer of any kind. 1Tim 3:2  When a charismatic leader who is narrowminded tells you it’s God’s will to leave your mate and children to enter the mission field, beware!  The enemy has control.  The fruit will become manifest and it will not be pretty!

The Tunnel Vision  here spoken of is revealed to come from one person’s concentration on one subject, Power and Control over others at any cost!  To these kinds of leaders and their poor duped followers, I can only say as does Ardith Keef today, “The Lover of your soul wants to lead you into freedom and delight.” All things are possible with Him.