• WHAT I HEAR FROM YOU

LUBBOCK, TX. We have been attending services at Vandelia Church of Christ (Lubbock, TX) and have enjoyed the fellowship so far. They seem to be really interested in exploring the scriptures and trying new things. Currently there is an "Ambassador" program, where each Sunday a group of families from Vandelia go and visit a given local Christ-centered church of any denomination – Baptist, Methodist, Christian, etc. We let them know in advance that we wish to come if it is all right with them. Once there we do nothing special other than let them know we support and love them as brothers in Christ. Sometimes a representative from the group is asked to say a few words on behalf of Vandelia. But basically, it is just to let them know we are there for them and share their sorrows and joys. On a somewhat sad note a couple of Churches of Christ that were also visited were not as welcoming as the others that we have visited. –Brian Robinson RICHARDR@asbonlin.com.

PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA: I have visited your site and encourage others to read it. Priscilla Hendricks scilla_za@yahoo.co.uk

BAKERSFIELD, CA. I read and will read again "Free In Christ" because you deal with some of the very issues that I have struggled over for many years. I about had to pick my jaw back up after reading about the Lord’s Supper in Acts. I had never read it like that before but had taken what had been offered in the pulpit and at the table as gospel and fact. Unfortunately for me, I had taken many of these "issues" and made them points of division with other brothers. But over the last few years I have reconsidered many of my "stances on issues," have grown in love to my Lord and those around me. Your book reinforced and encouraged that change. - cajohn03@pacbell.net.

MARION, VA: WOW, what a great place to read. This site is greatly appreciated. -Dreama W. dw@smyth.net

NEUVA VIZCAYA, PHILIPPINES. I am in the Church of Christ for more than 30 years. Reading the book was a "liberating" experience. I must say I do not agree one hundred percent in some areas, but I felt the loosening of pharisaic shackles in church traditions I had embraced all these years. I am a tent-maker preacher ministering to the Bayombong Church of Christ. I earn my daily bread as Professor at the Nueva Vizcaya State Institute of Technology, a state-run institution of higher learning. I am on scholarship leave pursuing my doctorate.

I am interested to have the other books. I have already used some portions of your book, duly acknowledged, in a series of studies on Love which I conducted. I will be a speaker in a Youth Camp a week from now and I will deal on freedom in Christ. Your book came at the right time. -Roberto Brana rjerb10444@yahoo.com (Books of various titles sent free.)

WHEELER_345@HOME.COM I have just this morning finished reading your book, Free In Christ, and I must say THANK YOU! I feel like someone who has been handed the key that they have been searching for many years. Not just handed the key, but told, "Yes, there is a lock that needs to be opened!"

I, like you, have been raised as the "strictest of Pharisees." My father has been a minister in the Church of Christ for nearly 50 years. I have been indoctrinated in our best Christian schools and attend a very "conservative" congregation. I have always endorsed "our" beliefs, but have always had nagging questions. Our inconsistencies and legalisms have always bothered me. Over the last few years, our congregation has become more and more exclusive. I have always felt that "something was not right," but it is hard to figure out what that is when no one wants to admit there even is a problem. Your spirit of love and compassion is wonderful! Your ideas are so simple, yet SO earthshaking to us "traditionalists!" I could barely put your book down. -Signed.

LATINO@TCA.NET: Cecil, I wish I could believe you are spiritually motivated but I cannot. I sense a ton of ego that drives you to the extreme you have gone to in your denouncing and condemning brethren. I can only speak from what would lead me to the extreme you have gone to. -BB

TENNESSEE: Thanks for the "Free In Christ" books you sent me. I read your book many years ago, and struggled with, and delighted in the ramifications that it means. I was so curious, and in such need of a more loving interpretation of our Christian walk, that I subscribed to your newsletter. It was to me very helpful and eye-opening. I wish you were still able to publish it, but mostly I thank you for it.

In time I was able to believe that many of the things that I had been taught, and had accepted, and taught others, was wrong-headed and lacking in love. I began to see why I had struggled with some issues like marriage, divorce, and remarriage. I never had felt good about alternatives and choices we allowed for hurting people in those situations. Eventually, I ordered some books for free distribution from you and again I thank you for them. Most of them were received well and were appreciated, but not all. Now I have finally gained enough courage and faith to use your book in Sunday School. Signed.

FRYDEK-MISTEK, CZECH REPUBLIC: Great stuff to read here. Freedom in Christ is so important. Keep up the good work. God bless you! Yvonne Sramek Yvonka@aol.com

BRET@HTCOMP.NET: I am a christian and my family and I try very hard to follow the word of God and study and go to church. WE are members of Christ’s Church, and as I was reading some of the chapters in your book I had a very big problem with some of the things you are teaching. I believe we should all be sensitive to others and gentle in trying to educate them in the word, but not compromise it to make others happy. Yes we should feel good about what we are doing but not change or twist God’s word to make ourselves or the world feel better about everything. I just get the feeling that many things you suggest stray from the word. Divorce is a big issue, and the marriage bed is to remain undefiled. In the new testament it is clear that you can only divorce and remarry if your spouse has committed adultery. And you may remarry if your spouse dies. We are continually warned not to let false teachings in, no matter how disguised they may be. The Church of Christ has been rigid in the past, but also remembers God’s precious promises. I feel you are further inhibiting God’s work by criticizing people who are trying to closely follow his word. Women in the church is also a point on which we disagree. Etc. -Kristy

MINNESOTA: I want you to know what a continued blessing your monthly e-ministry continues to be, Cecil. Thank you for your faithfulness. -JW

VIRGINIA. Please pray for my husband and me. He is a minister for a local congregation here where the church of Christ is ultra conservative and legalistic. I fear it won’t be long before he will be "labeled." It is sad that others have accepted or confused "restoration doctrine" as New Testament doctrine. We are emailing other ministers and friends your website to view. Again, it is refreshing to see that you and others have taken the time to study the word objectively, not from "restoration smeared glasses." Be encouraged. There are colaborers whom you’ve never met that love and appreciate you. -Signed.

JFRANZ@VIPSCORP.COM. I am blessed with astonishment with your forthright honesty and humility to declare the things you did in this newsletter ("One True Church"). They brought tears of Christ’s love to my eyes to read your words. I will forward this to many who will revel in such openness and display of love for others to declare your mistakes the way you have. This is the only way that can be used to reach others, the truth in spirit and love, not in selfish motivations. The world has seen enough of the selfishness of mankind, and not a single Christian can disguise it from the world, for the world is generally more keenly aware of such tactics and sneers every time they see a Christian being anti-Christ like. -Signed.

PENNSYLVANIA: I was looking up legalism in my search engine and found your site. Do you have any article besides "The isms of Legalism"? It was a good help to me. My fellowship is sinking deeper into legalism. I want to minister to them before we drown. One leader now says we are not to eat with unsaved if asked. Oh well. Hope you can help. -Signed.

IRISMC@BELLSOUTH.NET. You have been such a blessing to me in my walk toward holiness. I’ve always known in my spirit that there was something missing in my conservative Church of Christ background. Even the "mainline" church I attend now has many vestiges of legalism. Our Ladies Class was given over to our minister to teach because we women were teaching about angels and the Holy Spirit. .. Thank you and Leroy Garrett, Edward Fudge, and others for not giving in to legalism and the zest for power to speak in the church. May there always be other voices for the cause of freedom in Christ. It is wonderful to be free!. -Signed.

MEMPHIS, TN: Cecil, Keep up the good work. I am forever a part of this movement, because I am totally FREE IN CHRIST. I will always keep you and Lea in our prayers. -THE HOPE MINISTRIES FAMILY, Kenneth Allen bibleboy42@yahoo.com

AYOHO@CJNETWORKS.COM. If you like, in addition to the books for my own library, I would be most honored to distribute any copies you care to send. I often connect with souls that are frustrated with legalism and authoritarianism from many branches of the Lord’s people and especially those from churches of Christ. I, as you, I’m sure, enjoy brother Fudge’s writings. Those writings as well as yours have helped me to accept anyone who trusts Jesus for the gift of life as my brother who needs encouragement. I will most diligently give any books you send to these precious souls just as I have done with the copies I enjoyed at my time of need. It’s a wonderful thing to see God bring opportunities into our lives. -Signed.

FLORIDA. What a wonderful piece in the latest Freedom’s Ring! Once again, I am humbled by and in awe of (dare I say?) your inspiration. Thank you for sharing those thoughts regarding inspiration of NT Scripture. May all of us revere, honor, and love the Message and not the text that carries the message. willcoxpj@aol.com

SOMERSET, KY: An answer to prayer…after 35 years in the church I have just recently found enlightenment after a careful openminded reading of the entire Bible and an humbling of myself in prayer. The conclusions I was reaching are a mirror of the thoughts that you have expressed in the chapters I have read tonight. I look forward to reading more. Of particular interest was the comment about our need to stay and forbear rather than start a new religious order of "our own kind." donmoss@kih.net.

HOOD RIVER, OR: I have read a couple of your books. Excellent! It is refrshing to see that I am not alone in my way of thinking. I just wish that more people would open to seeing the way of freedom in Christ. -Brent Henderson.

CUSHING, OK: I have read your book, "Free In Christ." It has given me true happiness in knowing that as a Christian growing up in the Church of Christ, I always felt as though we were the modern-day Pharisees. I feel so much better knowing that I am not a sinner for not agreeing with the legalistic system that I was raised in. -Terry Morgan trmorgan@cushingmsk12.ok.us

LUBBOCK, TX: I enjoy reading the things you write and say. The different points of view are often "mind-expanding" but never in contradiction to God’s written word. Thanks. Jimmy Clark jnc65@juno.com

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