What a ex-Mega Church goers have to say...

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I read with interest the comments of 1 ex-mega church goer named Takumi who commented in an online article. This is what Takumi has to says:

"It is not the amount of money collected that should be under scrutiny, rather the way it is collected. Being from an ex mega-church member, I’ve seen firsthand the methods they employed to achieve their aims.

1) Admonish members who do not tithe as lacking faith, often implying that God is watching and displeased. Works wonders with regards to the faithful and devout.

2) Conduct regular campaigns on top of monthly tithing which ‘encourages’ members to donate beyond their means as a ‘test of faith’. The more you donate beyond your means, the ‘greater’ your faith. You get to go up on stage and be praised and congratulated by the senior pastors and the audience. Works wonders for people with low self esteem.

3) Implying (implicitly or otherwise) that God will repay(in monetary riches or equivalent) manifolds your sacrifice. This is essentially lying as nowhere in the bible does it state that God will financially reward those who donate to the church. The verse that has any remote resemblance goes like this: “for those who have, more will be given.” Those who do not know the true meaning of that verse should leave the church immediately. Craving for monetary riches is completely opposite to what the bible teaches. Anyway this works well for members who are there for the ‘prosperity’ aspect.

4)Using appropriate smoothing music (violins and pianos work best), hypnotic chanting and silent introspective prayers (indoctrination in effect) in harmony with the above tactics can create the essential feel good, faithfulness or guilt associated emotions that can make these members emotionally or psychologically vulnerable to persuasion and/or coercion.
Works well with everyone. It has been proven experimentally that , when we are exposed to certain auditory/visual stimuli, our emotions can be manipulated subconsciously. This method has been routinely employed by politicians, salesmen, hypnotists and of course church pastors.

Add in mass indoctrination, force of habit and peer pressure, you can understand why their members willingly hand out their hard earned money to these pastors without bothering about how it will be spent.

It is a pity that none of these tactics has any legal implications simply because their claims (of god and rewards) are not based on evidence and therefore cannot be challenged."

Takumi commented in an article regarding the investment of City Harvest Church which you can read about Here

A light and messengers of Christ to the world .

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Jesus did not reach out to the people with words but with deeds. It only through our deeds, we know that we have faith in Christ.

Through our deeds, then we are a light to the world and messengers of Christ. Good deeds comes as a result of a total conversion in the heart....to one that is always of love, charity and compassion.

Yes, salvation is by faith but faith that has deeds for “if good deeds do not go with it (faith), it is quite dead”.

Does our Church preach to us about God's love, charity and compassion? I know almost all Churches claimed to do so but does you Church practice what she preaches?

Does your Church do her part in reaching out to the poor and needy by caring for them in terms of providing education, providing shelter (nursing homes, homes) and medical care such as hospitals and hospice?

Because "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me." (MT25:40)

Does your Church lead by example to love God and your neighbour which is the commandments of Jesus ?

Are you living your life as a light and messenger of Christ to the world ?

Are you following Jesus's instructions to go out and spread God’s love by caring and loving people around you as as God loved you ?

God Bless.

What does the Gospels says....??

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What is Jesus really teaching and doing in the 4 Gospels?

Perhaps Paul provided the best summary in 1 Corinthians - Chapter 13:13 when he said “As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love.”

As Jesus Himself said (in MT 22:37-40): “'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.”

Jesus reaches out to everyone (including the tax collectors and prostitutes) especially the poor and needy regardless if they believed in Him. He help and cure them because of his Love for them. Many are converted because they felt loved by Jesus and followed Him.

So, if a Christian is someone who subscribed his faith to “the life and teachings of Jesus”, then Christians must live his life based the 2 commandments for: "Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love." - 1Jn 4:8.

As Christians, we place great importance in God’s Word and keep His commandments close to our hearts. However, words amount to nothing if we do not live by them or if we do not follow God’s will in our daily living. It is easy to profess what we believe in, yet our actions are not always in line with our profession.

Jesus did not reach out to the people with words but with deeds. Through our deeds, then we are a light to the world and messengers of Christ.

Only through our deeds, we know that we have faith in Christ. As James said in James Chapter 2:
17. In the same way faith, if good deeds do not go with it, is quite dead
18. It is by my deeds that I will show you my faith
22. So you can see that his faith was working together with his deeds; his faith became perfect by what he did.
24. You see now that it is by deeds, and not only by believing, that someone is justified.

We are called to remain devoted and faithful to God’s Word in our lives. The Last Judgment account in Mt 25 reminds us that it is our actual deeds of love that matter, not mere words.
In MT 7:21-27 , Jesus also warned us that not all who call “Lord…Lord…” will enter into Heaven. It is not lips service that He wants. He said a true disciple are those who hear the words and act on it. Not those who hear but do nothing.

Why would one who believed in Him and not follow His commandments?