GWEN SHAMBLIN WAS A OVERLY SKINNY CULT LEADER

BIBLE VERSE DRAWN TODAY FROM THE SCRIPTURE BOX:  Luke 21:33

"Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."

PRAYER ON CARD FROM SCRIPTURE BOX:  Lord, help me to keep my mind fixed on the true way of salvation.

The true way of salvation is through being born again when we BELIEVE and accept Jesus, the only begotten son of GOD, as our personal savior. 

 

This prayer is appropriate as we watched the docuseries, The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin Lara.  

Gwen Shambin ADDED Lara for her last name after divorcing her husband David and marrying Joe Lara.  She was known as the weight loss guru who died in May 2021 in a airplane crash.  Her personal belief was that you had to be skinny to be holy to get to heaven...which is a lie.  We get to heaven by being born again with a spiritual birth through Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of Almighty God, who died for our sins and after three days in the tomb, Jesus rose from the dead.  

You do not have to clean up your act before God will save you.  He is in the redemption business.  He'll take you right where you are and accept you as you are THEN you will change for the better when being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 

Remnant Church was founded in 1999 by Gwen Shamblin Lara, who created a controversial diet program called the Weigh Down in 1986 intended to “teach people how to stop bowing down to the refrigerator, and how to bow back down to [God].”  

GWEN SHAMBLIN LARA counseled that genetics, metabolism, and behavior modification did not explain why some people were thin while others were overweight. Lara founded the Weigh Down Workshop, a weight-loss program with no food restrictions, exercise regimens, weigh-ins, or calorie-counting in 1986.

Her WEIGHT LOSS information through classes which met in churches became extremely popular in the 1986.  Later she wrote books, made videos and started a church of her own which she was the head minister.  

After she emailed her followers on August 10, 2000 that she believed the doctrine of the Trinity was not biblical, many evangelical churches dropped her program like a hot potato.  Thomas Nelson Publishers canceled the publication of her next book and she was removed from the Women of Faith website.  Some of her staff left.  

I hadn't thought of her in years.  

About two weeks before she died in a airplane crash, she came to my mind.  I wanted to know what had happened to her.  Seeing pictures of her hair piled up on her head similar to the late TBN founder Jan Crouch's, I blinked and said, what has happened to you?  Her make-up was wickedly sloppy.  Skinny as a rail, I seriously thought she'd fall over dead one day.  She starved herself to the size she was and was getting skinnier by the minute.  She needed assistance to walk as her balance wasn't stable. 

I was wondering just how much weight are you suppose to lose in order to qualify as being skinny enough to go to heaven when one dies?  Is this the good works the LORD is talking about?  No.  

In Gwen's world in order to get your prayers answered, you had to go through a number of people before God would hear your prayers.  According to the Bible, we are blessed to be able to enter into the throne room of God through our personal relationship with Christ Jesus being our Savior, not through a hierarchy of people.  Not through asking someone else for permission to enter into prayer so God hears us.  We do not have to ask someone's mother for God to hear our prayers or by weighing oneself on weight scales.  God hears our prayers when we are in a rightful relationship with HIM when we are BORN AGAIN through Jesus.  

How many people believe that you must go through a teacher, preacher, religious figure of hierarchy, a church member or leader, etc. before GOD hears you?  What nonsense to think that you have to pay money to be heard, Pay money to be righteous, Pay money to go to heaven, Pay money to be holy.  What nonsense to think being skinny makes you holy making a way for salvation.  

Gwen became a big figure in the weight loss world years ago as she was considered a Christian that helped many lose weight using the method that you could eat just about anything, but needed to wait until your stomach growled indicating that it was time to eat and eat until you were full then stop eating.  I don't know if she ever indicated how much weight one was to lose before they satisfied God's desire to save them.  

Gwen for the longest time preached that you should not get a divorce yet she would after getting involved with the television actor TARZAN that had a history of a having affairs with older woman that were similar to being like a 'sugar daddy' making him a kept man.  Gwen was still married to her heavy set first husband when she actively had an affair with Tarzan.  She would justify this how?  You Tarzan, me  JANE!  Come, let's dance about my mansion and swing from the chandeliers then make a video about God?

Taking him under her wing, they had a fancy wedding ceremony, began living in a huge mansion together where she flaunted her new husband at her church making youtube videos where one could see how they lived a lavish life together saying GOD IS GOOD!   

Cult leaders do not want you to know that you can have a blessed LIFE without them.  According to them you must include them in your lives giving your financial support to them, work for free for them and volunteer your life away within their reach.  They appreciate your financial support so they can play and be merry. 

SO to focus on the true way for salvation through the LORD JESUS is a wonderful thing.  Staying focused on the way, the truth and the life is a blessing.  Reading a BIBLE for yourself is necessary.  You should.  The Holy Spirit can guide you and help you to understand what you are reading.  Spending time with the LORD is a true blessing.  

Gwen twisted scripture to line her pockets with money and be viewed as a god for power.  She stood on a elevated platform up front of her church and lead so many astray from the truth.  Cult leaders do this.  They are willing.  We don't have to be willing to listen to them.  We have the ability to leave and stay away.  God is good.  Yes HE is.  

You might want to have a come to Jesus meeting with the Lord and ask HIM to open your eyes to the untruths being preached that you think are true, but aren't.  What is a Christian suppose to believe according to the Bible?  

We can learn of HIS ways without listening to overly skinny cult leaders or those that wear bluejeans with cowboy boots singing melodious tunes, those wearing bright red lipstick with bleached blonde hair, those that have had a multitude of cosmetic surgeries and facelifts until they can no longer blink their eyes correctly, those that sometimes wear robes with fish hats on their heads and the list goes on.  It doesn't mean a teacher/preacher is sharing God's truth just because they have charisma and a huge following.  

It isn't the norm today to hear balanced teachings.  The teachings have been polluted with false teachings that twist God's Holy word to line their pockets with filthy lucre.  There is a common theme that all ways lead to GOD and you have to earn your salvation.  Jesus is completely left out of their fairy tales.  It is a lie that our good works gain us entrance into heaven to where we will spend eternity with the great architect of the universe having a planet of our own.   

Holy holy holy, Lord God almighty.  I worship you and know that humans are capable of deceiving others. 

We should heed GOD's warnings.

~d~ 

WITH THIS CHECK I THEE SHRED!

CHECK AFTER CHECK I HAVE SHREDDED.  Going through a storage box that I had canceled checks oh so neatly grouped and paper clipped together.  One after another the miniature shredder has eaten them alive.  So far the earliest check written is dated 1983.  Almost a 40 year old check.

I think to myself and sometimes blurt out loud, do you remember when blah, blah, blah???  Tis funny at times as I go down Memory Lane.  

Each time a check is written it's actually a CONTRACT stating that the person writing the check is good for the amount the check is written for.  When I PAUSE to think what went behind each check...I stop to think of where we were living at the time the check was written, the financial struggles we had after a few job lay offs and when times were tough or sometimes easier.  It's another chink in the chain of events. 

Each piece of paper represents a chunk of our lives, money from our checking accounts, the time that went behind earning the money that was used, places we visited.  Where ever the checks were written entailed time at that location which means I had to physically get there, be there, spend time and return home again unless the check was written at HOME for paying off a debt. Still time was spent doing the books and writing out these expenses.  

Checks for hair appointments, dresses for weddings, vet appointments, school supplies, fund raisers, shoes, jewelry, new car tires, labor for auto work.  Lumberyard checks for house repairs, braces, medical bills too many to count.  Rent, mortgage payments when we lived here, here, here, here, etc.  Puppy supplies, utility bills, furniture, groceries.  On and on we go, where it stopped I finally know....I can praise God that each check written is in the past...all covered.  Paid in full.

There's the check written to pay Uncle Ezra for doing the auto body work on the white Monte Carlo that I put a dent in as I was backing out of the garage hitting the side of the garage door frame when the kids were little.  'Memba that?

Here's a bundle of checks written to my folks when our son stayed behind for his Senior year of High School when we moved to Tulsa from Marion.

These next group of checks are hard for me to swallow.  No need to keep them. These pain me knowing that we were out in the weeds as space cadets.  So many checks were written for when we were charismania groupies supporting so-called elitist christians in get rich quick schemes.  We were in want.  Here a Church, there a church...everywhere a church church...old McDonald had a church...ee I ee I o.  

Hey, look at this one, written when TD ***** was a nobody and we went to listen to him under a tent outside of Wichita as if he were a god.  He is no god, never has been nor will he ever be and went on to become a mega preacher that loves to strut about a stage profusely sweating wiping his brow.  His church was dedicated to Ashtoreth not the Lord Jesus Christ for saving souls and receiving true prosperity.   

I have wiped my hands clean of this ministry and many others.  Shredded those ancient checks and never write another one to them.  Pitch the books, movies, teaching tapes and videos.  It sickens me that our money went toward so many false teachers and not toward our own family ministry.     

Many checks written and cashed for T*N (promotes false teachings/preachers), Benn* Hi** (a fraud who waves his arms and people fall down), *00 Club (lead by a freemason), Jo*ce Me*er (taught that Jesus, the only begotten son of God had to be born again), Ken**** Hag** (false teacher/preacher that liked to laugh and chug about like a train rather than read the Bible at his camp meetings), and many others.  I hadn't believed any of this about these so called christians until years later after having my eyes opened.  I was a naive woman that was looking for more power in my life so I wouldn't get hurt in life.  

I was a hurt puppy already that was greedy, self centered failing to see that I had the power of God already inside of me which is the Holy Spirit.  I could have and should have read the Holy Bible for myself verses being entertained by false teachers/preachers.  Because I had a difficult time reading, it was far more entertaining to attend conferences, watch and listen to hours and hours of programs by false teachers and go to church meetings that promoted them as superior christians. 

I am THANKFUL that GOD opened my eyes and led me out of this abomination.  I had foolishly written so many checks to ministries loaded with false teachers and preachers.  I willingly followed so many thinking I was getting better educated and was pleasing a Holy God.  I was a ignorant mess and very militant about it.     

Today, I can tell others about how easily and willingly I was led astray and how God woke me up. Come out from amongst them and be ye separate.  

When a human fails to see how marvelous it is to go from the darkness into the light when becoming a child of God with Jesus as ones personal savior in which you become a new creation and you think there's got to be more to this than what there is...trouble awaits you.  You can be easily deceived.  When you have no idea what it means to be a child of God or what the Bible actually means using the correct interpretation...you can be deceived and that isn't where you need to be.              

Each piece of paper represents where most of our money went.  Here's to new beginnings, forgiving myself and turning loose of old checks.  The past is in the past.  Bury it and be done?  I learned a valuable lesson.    

SHALL I KEEP THIS CHECK OR SHRED IT?

AND AWAY I GO...joining the Shredded Sisterhood.  I really need to get one of these hats to make a statement.

Are you a shredder?

~d

  

2 Corinthians 5:17

King James Bible
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.