We first met at fellowship in Killeen, Texas. I was the Filipino brother that flew his mother in from Chicago. I was in the Marines stationed in San Diego.
We met during a prayer service the first day. I walked into the bathroom as you were walking out, but we paused. I knew it was you who pastored all the other pastors never even meeting you.
I told you of a dream I had that I was vividly in knowing I was dreaming, though I had my own thoughts in that dream. I then told you of an old man following me in the night terrors. It was a cold, cold time. You touched me on the elbow because you knew of who I referred to.
Then you saw the scar on my left wrist and asked how I got it.
You were never rude to me, in fact, you behaved yourself as a man of God around me. I prayed the Our Father during one of the teachings asking God to move majestically throughout the church.
One fault I have of your ministry is the self-righteousness. Well because we do thus and thus and dress as we dress we will and preach against the world, we work for the righteousness of God.
This lacks grace because it doesn’t put grace in the center.
While you preach against the world, Jesus Christ was sent because he loved the world.
This is no regard whether you can use the internet or not or have smartphones, because I know that unwritten rule was to be followed while we were in church.
This is legalism.
Does God make us worship or are we free to worship?
You ought to encourage the congregation to reconcile ties with mother and son not sever them.
What would Jesus do?
As for the State against you and your brethren in the court of law, do this now.
Pray not as the Pharisee who said thank God I am not as the outsiders. I attend church twice a week, pay tithes and so forth- but be the man that beats his chest and say, “Jesus Christ forgive me a sinner,” not looking to heaven.
Work a plea deal if the State allows, to pay back what was taken from the VA. Apologize if any veteran was misled in anyway. Pray.
As for everyone else, does not our Bible the Word of God command us to forgive those who sinned against us? Or else our own sins won’t be forgiven?
Look at what a mere misunderstanding is happening with Russia and Ukraine now. The city they are trying to besiege has not been besieged, how much harder it is to win a brother offended!
But I tell you, love shall conquer and cover a multitude of sins.
Ask yourself this, do I speak with the wisdom of men, or the wisdom of God?
Hey Edgard, that is a really nice story. And it should be told it helps people understand how that they felt something so right and overtime as you grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ you realize that something is amiss. In HOPCC There have always been warning signs.
You can not ask any simple questions on how the church runs financially because you will be labeled as nosy or covetous. Often when you are young and just figuring life out you can meet a person. You are told they are someone and that they are so great. When you are a sincere and good person you can tend to project that onto others you meet. When I first came to church I just loved God and the brethren and you could have literally given me an Alligator and I would have called him My Pastor and i would of loved him and served the Lord us unto God and Honored the alligator just as long as the alligator smiled. This is what happened to me. I did not know how someone I loved trusted and showed great loyalty to would hurt and betray me and the church that I loved.
You have never experienced someone who acts one way around you or a group and then is a complete other person when they walk away like a shapeshifter but for some people it is second nature. manipulators /Actors they know how to play the part.
You saw the red flags of how they deal with people who left the church and how they speak about them or How you simply can't even say someone's name because it will remind others and start mind battles for others. I don't know how long you were in HOPCC but they have a term they use called a Mind Battle and they teach that a mind battle is when the devil is lying to you and you don't know what to believe. You see something in the church that you don't agree with then all of a sudden you are in a mind battle because you don't think that (they) The Leadership or Top Brothers should punish a younger brother and treat him harshly because he didn't call at a certain time and missed a church service or wanted to visit a dying family member. They try to control you like they are your parents and you are 12 years old. Because they want to protect you.
These are red flags of abusive overly controlling behavior and if you have a problem with it you are in a Mind Battle. Just the whole Concept of a mind battle is a complete farce and a mechanism to get you to doubt your own conscience or common sense and ability to think for yourself. They expect full compliance and disclosure of personal affairs but it is a one way street and they are not truthful about their own dealings. That is the greater sin my friend.
By the grace of God in all my years of Hopcc I never subscribe to the mind battle culture. it never made sense to me i wasn't weak minded and the devil just affecting my mind over everything. Hopcc has always been an authoritarian dictatorship and privy to secrecy and it's not right to run a church like a mafia where as you move up in rank and position and just go along with it don't ask questions. Or ever speak up about your convictions
The whole system of HOPCC hierarchy is wrong. It came out of the New Testament Christian Church which was an autocratic mess and Denis started HOPCC as a real estate hustle. If you didn't know that then you were kept out from knowing that by the Mafioso pastoral system that was trying to groom you to become the next simple green project in the church. SIMPLE GREEN IT'S Made of People. But in no disrespect to you. It is better that you don't know the horrors of knowing it's better for your innocence and loving heart that you don't know the financial servitude and black balling methods that the church has enslaved on many. The hundreds of members that have loans taken out in their names that are never going to get paid off. One day you will hear how hundreds of thousands were defrauded by the members inside the church while this whole FBI thing plays out. At the same moment you think they are just caught in a fault. Hey I am all for asking for forgiveness but what about blatant criminal acts.
I actually think it is sweet that you think Rony is just going to humble himself. It actually sounds like a beautiful ending. It's kind of like all the prayerforce magazines with the pretty pictures of daylilies, pictures of families you never see, dying loved ones with a hole in their heart filled with grief because little Edwards pastor doesn't think he is spiritual enough to go home. Also like the pie in the sky articles and the doctrines they display to make you think they are a fundamentalist bible church. HOPCC the organization is a front they are not who they pretend to be. A Lot of the brethren are great people but deceived and oppressed by a corrupt ministry that covers for Rony Denis abuses and criminal methods.
Sorry to be so long but How can a Person be a Man of God and then be lying to the government for years i don't think it can be both a Bishop is to be blameless not shameless
I myself Loved Rony Denis and received him as a brother in Christ not knowing what he really was. I shared intimate stories about my life to him and had the same same warm feelings. But you know that the same self righteousness is a disease. HOPCC they can admit no wrongdoing and they are immune to shame. They only act as if they love you while they are allowed to by the system .This system of Destructive Judgmentalism and legalism . They will never apologize, they will never admit wrong and they will never accept you for being the good loving and compassionate Christian brother that you are. They would tear you apart and not receive your fellowship despite your good intentions if you were there for any length of time after the initial love bombing and you spoke the way you are now they would shame you for being too soft on sin and being Baptist. I understand the man of god thoughts that you think but it is only based on a very limited knowledge of who he is and a lot of man worship atmosphere that has been built up over the years. Please feel free to respond We all have our own experiences and are trying to wrap our minds around all of this.