(RSV) Rev 13:9 If any one has an ear, let him hear:
Welcome to our web site. I am glad that you have come to spend some time with us. Welcome. The bible says "Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you." (Rm 15:7) This attitude has always been of great import to our fellowship: Living Water and something we always tried to extend to any who have visited with us. Welcome to those who are near and those who are far off. I am overjoyed that you have come to check out this site. This is our labor of love, which has taken four years to compile, beginning with learning how to create a website.
This work has come about through interacting with people who were in COBU and praying with and for each other. In our time spent in prayer our Lord Jesus and our heavenly Father have seen fit to visit us and give us some insights to our experience in COBU and granted us a way of escaping the stress and damage to ourselves that he asked us to extend to any and all who are interested enough to ask.
Here you will find various topics that are covered that needed to be addressed. We at Living Water prayer group have been praying and seeking the Lord God and his Christ about the various things that are written on this site. We discuss the nature of COBU, the church of our youth, it's captives who are caught in this system, as well as Stewart Tanner Traill.
Some of the things that are written may be hard to hear, accept, and understand. I just want you to read and consider what is written. Some of the things that are included you may have experienced also, or witnessed, and some things you may never have seen, heard about or experienced at all, but someone else had and that's why it is included.
Our purpose is to shake loose what has been allowed to foul and fester, by the counsel of our Lord and Savior, so that the things that have been hidden may no longer have power over those who have been unable to shake loose their grip on the hearts, minds and souls of those who experienced them. As extensive as each section is, we are sure that there are even more that we have not heard or experienced, that we welcome if you would send them in. There are no strings attached. There is no hidden agenda. There are no meetings to attend. There will be no recriminations. Finally, there is no test to pass or expectations at all. Our website is giving a voice to the things that have been heard from we who experienced Cobu and Stewart Traill's version of what Christianity is all about, which is quite different than the scripture's definition.
This site is designed for those who want to get free from the grip of Stewart Trail and COBU.
If you had anything to do with COBU: past and/or present, this site is for you.
There is a wall of silence, or a code of omerta. Many gross wrongs are going on and no one is talking about it. We have decided to talk about it.
We ask that you read and pray about some of the issues that we raise here.
This site is designed for people who have had anything to do with The Church of Bible Understanding (COBU) or as it was previously named: the Forever Family, directly or indirectly. This site is for those who are living in or living out or for those who have family members or close friends who were involved. If you have not been listened to and desire to be heard, we will hear you without prejudice.
I hope that you stay a while, and browse this entire site before you dismiss it. I feel that it is best not to try to digest this site in one sitting, because it is quite massive, and it may require several sittings to go through all of the files and links that it makes up. There is no particular order.
You will find that we repeat ourselves. Like the apostle Paul said "To write the same things to you is not irksome to me and is safe for you." (Php 3:1) Yet, you will probably find many things that are truly irksome, but our hope is that it stirs you to freedom. We say the same thing in different ways and in different angles to get our point across. Some portions of the site were penned by different authors, at different times, about the same subject. Also, the deception experienced has been deep, wide, high, and low to the point that some have found it very difficult to get over it, or around it, or under it, or especially past it.
Complicated by the ever present, preprogrammed, inability to talk about it.
So we felt the need to go over these things. Let's face it, Stewart Traill did his deception over and over again to the point of ad nauseam. This deception is a difficult nut to crack. COBU was not built in a day or over night, nor should we expect to get over it in a day, or over night.
The Bible sights that he who walks in the light exposes that which walks in the darkness. In COBU, Stewart Traill taught us to, on one hand, associate as those "in the light" and on another hand be associated as those who are "always wrong" and unable to receive the blessings of God.
Unfortunately, Stewart's applications of the scripture were wrong and hurtful to many.
Just because he touted that he had some "nifty ability" to interpret scripture, doesn't mean that he applied the scripture correctly, especially when causing hurt to others, condemning brothers and sisters and will, belittling, and abusing we who were caught in his web.
Stewart Traill was bending the bible to fit his system of falsehood. He wrongly used the word to fit his twisted scheme to get rich, a very different existence than our Savior, who lived and walked among his people in simplicity and would never break a bruised reed or quench a dimly burning wick. (Is 42:3, Mt 12:20) Stewart Traill taught that it was okay to stomp on the people of God and that it was okay for everyone else to do it too.
We bring up the Bible, because it was an area that was misrepresented and a stumbling block that has caused many to disregard it entirely, so as not to feel the pricks and poisons that were associated with our studies, to the point that some find it easier to claim atheism than be subject to the blessings and promises of God that had been warped by Stewart Traill. To disconnect God's people from God's Word, or the Word made flesh: Jesus, is especially heinous.
On this site, we look at COBU in a different light. We also take a more critical examination of Stewart Tanner Traill, our former or present mentor, depending on where you happen to be when you are reading this website.
We will take out our magnifying glass and like detectives, we will leave no stone unturned, when it comes to discussing Stewart and his false church of Bible misunderstanding.
We delve into the past, and present of Traill and the church that he built.
We discuss the gross wrongs that were done to the members by him and the gross wrongs that were done to each other, in the name of the Lord Jesus, but in every sense was really done in the name of Stewart Traill.
We were: humiliated, abused, insulted, scoffed at, shamed, dehumanized, lied to, and repeatedly offended, publicly and privately by a man who claimed to be near to God.
We were sacrificed to the idols of Stewart Traill for the love of money, the love of the praise of men, the lust of the flesh, and the list goes on, fill in the blank: that's what our website does.
We opened our ear to this man and did everything that Jesus finds abhorrent. These are abominations, that the Lord Jesus hates. When we went out street preaching, or as the people from Living Water like to call it: 'Arm twisting for Jesus', yet Jesus would never make or force anyone to serve him. Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mt 11:28) Can you see Stewart Traill allowing anyone to rest? Stewart did not teach the actual Jesus of the Bible, therefore it was not Jesus we were preaching.
When we tried to post on other ex-COBU sites that claimed they were set up for former COBU members to vent and heal and pray for one another, we were kicked off without inquiry and without discussion.
We were given a window of time to respond and that window was also broken.
In some instances, posts were removed or censured by the site moderators without any communication at all, breaking the chain of dialog. It turns out that these X-COBU sites are nothing more than little cliques that mirror former COBU days.
Some are going to say, "Why are you looking back? Why don't you move on?"
"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Sir Winston Churchill
Everybody studies or discusses history in some form daily. It was mandatory to study Global and US history in middle and high school. We study Church History, and all sorts of history, but Stewart Traill taught that it was unacceptable to question his gross errors, or to speak of them at all. Professors in colleges are paid big bucks to seek out "what happened" in our past, yet we who sat under a money loving tyrant "aren't allowed" to question our own personal histories! This is ridiculous. We have every right to consider what happened in our own immediate lives!
A brother said to me, when we were talking about COBU, "Why are you looking back? Why don't you just move on? Why are you still a victim? Why not look forward? Get over it. Remember Lot's wife?" I said to this brother,"We have to unlock the past, in order to enter into the future." When he says this, he is showing that he is still under the grip of his former mentor Stewart Tanner Traill, who never wanted anything that opposed his counsel discussed. Some have said that they are afraid to look at what happened to them, because they think they will be swallowed up. You will not be devoured. Do not be afraid to look back. In fact, it is healthy, safe, and freeing.
We have found that it is very freeing to recognize how we were deceived by Stewart Traill, when we read the Bible and it's counsel directly conflicts with what we were taught and embraced under Stewart's tutelage. That some continue to feel obligated to, years after they've "moved on" but still, "feel" was "the right way" "the only way" or "a way they weren't able to conform to" when in truth, it wasn't even God's way, or Jesus' way at all! It was actually Stewart Traill's way to oppress and stress us. Some are still oppressed and stressed by beliefs that have no basis in fact and have nothing to do with following God or following Jesus at all. Our website is about exposing these fallacies.
The other ex-COBU sites do not like the message that we are saying. We won't have to worry about our messages or posts being erased or censured. On the other sites, we feel that our rights have been taken away and violated. There are cases where wrong doers were allowed to hurt others without impunity, and they were not corrected. In many instances they were protected and glorified.
We are telling a story that has not been told. This story must and needs to be told and we are not afraid to tell it.
(RSV) Rev 13:9 If any one has an ear, let him hear: