Brainwashing. What is it? (part 2)

brain·wash

ˈbrānˌwôSH,ˈbrānˌwäSH/

verb

gerund or present participle: brainwashing

1. make (someone) adopt radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible pressure

Brainwashing is a very dangerous tool by which groups of people such as those in cults that want to take over their minds and gain control of them.

Other types of organizations that use brainwashing are totalitarian states, prisons and,in governments, and in the media. What? The media? Yes, it happens there to. To mislead the truth and make the truth a lie. 

Brainwashing can also be found in abusive relationships. One partner dominating and taking control of another person's free will is brainwashing.

 And yes, it can be found in religion.

The concept of brainwashing was originally developed in the 1950s to explain how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them. Advocates of the concept also looked at Nazi Germany, at some criminal cases in the United States, and at the actions of human traffickers. The concept of mind control was later applied to explain conversions to some new religious movements and other groups. This resulted in scientific and legal debate;^[7] with Margaret Singer, Philip Zimbardo, and some others in the anti-cult movementpromoting the concept while Eileen Barker, James Richardson, and other scholars, as well as legal experts, rejected at least the popular understanding of brainwashing.^[8]

source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing

And while these different organizations can and do use brainwashing, this particular study is about cults and so that is what I want to focus on today.

I found the below image while preparing this and I wanted to share it because this is what brainwashing ultimately does. It makes a person like a puppet on a string that someone pulls to manipulate us into doing what they want us to do.

How does mind control work? Basically, but not limited to the following:

1. Those in leadership roles are in it for themselves. 
2. Their energies are focused on the inside and not the outside. In other words, they are not caring for the members but on what they can get from them. Be it possessions, money, and power over them.
3. They use deception in the recruitment of members.They pull people in by loving them and making them feel like this is something different. Those that come from backgrounds that did not show real love are especially vulnerable to this kind of manipulations because the person does not know what they are really getting into.
4. People are not allowed to think for themselves. If they do, they can be harshly punished.
5. They alienate members from family and friends. If those people try to get in contact with their loved one, they are lied to.
6. The leader is the only one that hears from God and is given all authority to make decisions for you.
7. 7.If you do not comply you can be humiliated and as stated, disciplined for your sin.
8. You are not allowed to watch tv or read anything outside the cults material. 
9. In some groups that are not communal, which I belonged to, when a member in that group was murdered we were not allowed to know the details that only the leaders knew, we were encouraged not to look at the news reports and we were not to discuss the case with anyone.Not even to the brothers and sisters, as we called each other in this group.To this day, though it happened many years ago I do not really know what happened in that case and have not been able to find anything out about it. 
10. Some cults will acknowledge Jesus Christ but on a limited basis, thus making the leaders above him.And this is truly dangerous.

While these are not the only marks of cults, these are very important ones.There are two other cult-like churches that I will discuss tomorrow. This is an important topic for me because years ago, I was a member of each of these churches. And while they could not be called a full-blown cult, I think if God had allowed them to continue, they might have been eventually. As it were, both churches left in their wake a confused people that truly loved God. And one of them made me wonder for a time if I was even going to heaven. Come back tomorrow for part 3.

                             God bless each and every one of you! Have a wonderful day!

Brainwashed? Cults? How Can I Know? (part one)

Today I want to discuss how to spot a cult and why it is important to avoid them.The problem is a cult usually has just enough of the truth interspersed with a lot of a lie. In fact, cults are the devil's big lie to get people away from following Jesus Christ, who is the Truth. And unfortunately, he has had great success in doing that. And so how can we know what is and isn't a cult?

Some cults are easy to recognize. Take Jim Jones and what happened in his "religious" community in 1978. He led  909 people that day (November 18) to mass murder/suicide. A third of those people were innocent children that had no choice in whether they wanted to be there or not.

But how was he able to get so many people to follow him?

He was a very charismatic leader.and s phony self-proclaimed healer. He was for causes for the elderly,  and poor people. And he brought races together in unity.  So while there were some good things about Jim Jones,  people were attracted to those things and blindly allowed themselves to become a part of his teachings albeit unsuspecting about how their devotion would end up in death.

People down on their luck, so to speak or away from their families due to their need to get away from them and do "their own thing", and /or perhaps needed someone to care and love them was vulnerable to the love they found at Jone's church. They were drawn in, and brainwashed, never knowing how their lives were going to end because frankly, unbeknownst to them, they gave their souls over to the devil. They had given themselves over to a lie. A lie that the devil had orchestrated from the beginning of time.

So how do I know if I or others I know are in a cult?

Cults teach something along the lines of the truth. They identify with some aspects of it. They may or may not include Jesus Christ in their beliefs. He can be who he claims to be, he might be just a great teacher, or he may not be anything at all, in some cults.

Cults do not teach that Jesus is the Way, Truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father, but by me. John 14:6

Cults will induce fear in people. They must follow the teachings to enable them to "get into heaven,"  If they leave the cult, they are going to hell,

Leaders of cults whether man or woman, want total control over the people. They must do whatever they are told to do and not question why. They can be disciplined, sometimes very severely by not conforming to what the leader is telling them to do. The people are not permitted to make their own decisions apart from the cult.

Cult leaders manipulate people into giving them their money and other "worldly goods" because they are a distraction from "their gospel" when in fact, those goods go to the leaders to use for themselves.

And cults will isolate its followers from their own circle of families and friends so that they can maintain control over them at all times. Trying to escape from some cults can be very dangerous to people.

There are other ways that can be identified as being a cult, but these are a few of the main ones. And I want to stress that all cults start off with brainwashing people into doing what they say is right But what exactly is that?

Come back tomorrow for the answer to that question.




Thought or the day:

Thanks for coming to visit today Friends! I pray for you and wish many blessings on you and those around you. Youf life is worth everything to Christ Jesus and I hope you know him!

God is Greater Than Our Giants

Do you have problems so big that they seem to be gigantic and you can't seem to solve them? We know the story of David of the Bible when he killed the giant that was after him The story of it can be found in 1 Samuel 17 but I will give you the highlights of what happened.

. The giant's name was Goliath and he was a warrior. At the time, the Israelites were fighting against the Philistines. But whenever Goliath showed up, the Israelites would run away from him because they were afraid. (He was a mean dude)

Saul was the first king of Israel. He was also a military leader and led the Israelites against the Philistines into battle. 

David was young, and just a boy, but he was not afraid of Goliath because he knew God would protect him. He wanted to go kill him. But because of Davids inexperience and youth, Saul did not want David to go. But David had been a shepherd boy and when lions or bears tried to get to the sheep, David had killed them. He was confident that he could kill Goliath not only because of that but because he trusted God. When he told Saul this, Saul then told him to go. He had given David permission to kill the giant.

 Goliath came after David, but David took a stone and a slingshot and flung the stone at Goliath. The stone hit Goliath in the forehead and down he went. Dead. By just a stone in a slingshot.

                                               Truly, the Lord God was on his side.

We can apply this story to our own lives today. We have problems arise that we just do not know how to solve. And left to nothing but our worry, they can get so big that they do become gigantic. And while a lot of our problems come because of our own sin, they can also come because the devil wants to put obstacles in our way of getting to God.  So what do we do then?

Can you imagine what we could do if we used the weapons that God has given us? Like David, facing his enemy and flinging one stone he took his problem out. With our weapons-prayer and God's word, we too can face our giants and take them out. I know, some times our problems just don't go away quickly. But if we trust God with all our hearts, he will take care of them for us. In his time. After all, as with David, we can say......

                                           Truly, the Lord God is on our side

Cartoon of the day:

Thought for the day 

Thanks for coming by today. I hope you will be back again tomorrow! God bless!

When God Says "No"

Divine Healing? 

Years ago, I was part of a church that taught it. They believed that by going to doctors, you were trusting in a man, and not God for your healing. And that was a sin. I never quite caught on to that teaching. I did try. But what was I to do when my kids were sick? What about my son who at 4 years old needed speech therapy?  My daughter was having some problems in school back then and it was determined she needed glasses. I myself wore glasses and could not see well without them. My husband had a serious drinking problem. Did Divine Healing include his situation? Was I supposed to just pray and forget going to a doctor to get help when we needed it? Well, I found I could not just pray. Not that I shouldn't be doing that as well. But praying and going to the doctors or at the very least, giving medicine to help my kids get over being sick, was how it was for me. And for me, those things finally went hand in hand. Whether or not the church approved. Which they didn't.

God does not always say "yes" to what we ask of him. And for good reason. Because he knows what is best for us. Maybe his answer is no for now, but yes in his timing. Maybe, in the case of healing we won't be healed of something until we pass over into our next life And frankly, that is my own personal belief. Though I do believe that God heals, it may not come while I am alive on this earth.
Is that a sin? I think not. Because people pray all the time for a healing and yet, they don't always get it. And they pass over when it is their time. Despite whether they are sick, or just die of old age.

If  God tells us no, for right now, it may just mean we need to learn something from it. Patience, endurance, learning to be thankful while we are waiting upon him, the contentment that the Apostle Paul spoke of having gone through all the trials that he went through in his ministry.Just learning to put our trust in God. These are all a part of God just not giving us what we want when we want it. To believe any other way, is skipping over it and I believe almost putting God under the bus, so to speak.

And so again, I ask. Is it a sin to believe that when you go to doctors? No. God has given doctors the knowledge and abilities to help people that are in need of medical attention. The fact that medical science that has come so far, where did it come from? I think it is a gift to us from God. That it can relieve suffering that we experience a lot of the time.

It was taught that because Jesus healed everyone that asked it of him, that is why we should all be healed like that today. It is my own personal opinion that the people back in Jesus's day were looking for miracles. They needed them to believe in him.  And they did not have medical science to depend on. Umm.Now there is a thought. Today, we have all his teachings to learn from. Human beings are not perfect. We make mistakes. We live in a time where medical science is needed. And God has ordained it to be the way it is now and he has given man the tools whereby pain and suffering can be dealt with alongside faith and prayer.

I ended up leaving that church after a time. They would only give you so much time in their teachings to "grow" in the way they believed. And after that time was up, they thought nothing of almost calling you out in a public service for the "sin" you committed. Oh, they didn't use my name, but I knew who they were talking about. After I left,  and a couple of years later, the man who founded this particular organization, passed away. From what? He had ulcers on his legs that he did not go to the doctor to get treatment for.and supposedly that was what he died from. I have no idea what the main cause was, if there was one. But I do know whatever it was, he did not get treatment and he died. Maybe he would have anyway with treatment. Or maybe, he would have lived and gotten it under control or maybe God using a doctor would have completely healed this man. Or maybe God would have healed him using his own prayer and faith. The result could have have been any of these. But, the fact of the matter is, it is God's decision alone, how healing comes or doesn't come in this life.

Whatever the case. he and many others have bought into a dangerous teaching and I really do feel for them because in my own belief system, it is just another way that satan has used to blind people of the truth. And that is sad. 


 Scripture of the day


You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. John 8:32




Sad, but true.......

Well, it has been another interesting time. I hope you are getting God's word into your spirit. Have a wonderful day/night. Take care and be blessed.

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

   

Have you ever felt trapped? Trapped in something you are doing and know that it is wrong, but you just can't stop. Sin can be bittersweet in that we start out enjoying it but end up hating it and ourselves because it is wrong.It can become like chains that lock us up and imprison us so that we feel there is no way to break out of them. I think we all have been chained up by our sins at one time or another. We are held captive by the very things we really hate and yet we cannot break loose. 

But Praise God we don't have to stay chained up to those things that we hate. They only are enjoyable for a season.Hebrews 11:25. But Jesus came to set the captives free. Luke 4:18. We must be willing. We must repent. We must let God take hold of our bodies, minds, and spirits to be set free. And he wants to do that. All we need to do is confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and ask him to forgive us from all unrighteousness. And when we do that, we are washed white as snow. Isiah 1:18. 

The temptations for sin may still be there but that is why prayer and learning God's word will help us to keep us from going back to the chains of sin. God's word is more powerful than a two-edged sword. And learning it helps us in avoiding the very things we hate. 

AMAZING GRACE (MY SINS ARE GONE)

by Chris Tomlin

Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

[2x]
My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, Who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.
Will be forever mine.
You are forever mine.

To hear this song, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MZgXXUW08Q

You will be blessed because God's grace is so amazing to free us from all unrighteousness. No matter what it is. 

        If you are bound up in the chains of some sin/s that you cannot get free of, I pray you will ask Christ to forgive you of it and he will. He is waiting on YOU!

Friends, I hope you will take to heart God's grace. He loves you so much and wants only his very best for you. Until tomorrow, be blessed and pass a blessing on to someone that needs it. You may be the only one that does in that person's life!

    

                   

What happens when we humble ourselves before God?

President Trump's slogan has been "We will make America great again."  Do you believe that is possible? There is so much wrong with this world. With this people. Doesn't his slogan seem a little extreme in this day and age? Gone are the days when the family has centered around God instead of the tv set or the game boy.( For a good part of it anyway.) Public schools have done away with prayer. Parents do not discipline their children anymore and so we have raised a generation of whiny kids that are lazy and yet entitled.Not to mention those that run their homes instead of their parents running it.I am not speaking of every family situation or every kid. However, Godly principals have really gone by the wayside.There is violence in all forms. Conflict and down right fraud in the government. People that defraud other people. The list is endless. And it seems that there is no hope for making America great again. And yet, because of God's promise in 2 Chronicles, we can have hope. And it starts in the heart of Christians.Maybe you have heard the term "America is going to hell in a handbasket." Indeed it is.And too many people are going to go right along with it. We must be willing to spend time with God to seek him. To pray for our leaders. To pray for our families, especially those that do not know Christ. To take care of our own sin before a holy God. And if all Christians would take the time to do this, I believe that yes, we can make America great again and only then will it happen. America needs to get back to its Godly roots. And when we do, God will heal our land.As I said, it starts with you and it starts with me. Take time to seek God. Humble yourself before him before it is too late. It is America's only hope









                                                          Joke of the day

                        Thanks for coming by today Friends. Have a blessed Lord's Day and pass your blessings on!

When God Closes the Door

When I look back to the days before I was married, and not where I should have been with God, it makes me thankful that while I was in that time-God still had my back. I left home at 18 and got a job and rented a room in another city than where my parent's lived. It was great to finally be on my own and do what I wanted to do without them looking over my shoulder. Or so I thought at that time.I dated several guys that year and when I think of them now, I shake my head at just how gullible I had been. Granted, that year was a learning experience. And I can say with all honesty, that I am glad that I had it. But I  could have ended up in place that would have must worse than anything I can imagine. And I know it was the prayers of my dad that kept me safe from what could have been. God closed the door to the guys that I had dated during that time and brought along the man that I ended up marrying, I do believe. Oh, not that things with him were so rosy either. We went through many hard times for the next several years after we were married. But God knew what was best for us both. That we needed the kind of mate that would draw out the best in both of us, Even if it was not right away. And believe me when I say, God is still working on that part of us.However, those bad times we had, made us stronger people in the long run. He did close the doors to those other guys because he knew I was worth so much more than what I would have been, with any of them. And I will always be thankful for that. If he closes the door for you, it is because you are worth more to him instead of letting you settle for less. He has a plan and a purpose far greater than you may ever know. So don't live your life in regret for any door he closes. He loves you and has your best interest at heart. And he may save you from more pain than you can imagine.

Scripture for the day:

 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10

                                                                  Cartoon of the day

May the Lord bless you, and keep you and give you peace today!