Wednesday, May 20, 2009

THE WAY I SEE THINGS


THE WAY I SEE THINGS

What can I say? This is a lizard. but the eyes says it all. Always looking out for it's next meal and for danger of becoming some one Else's next meal.

This last Sunday I had an unexpected surprise at a church I had been attending. Unexpected would be an understatement. After the musical worship segment was completed, you could hear a lady speaking in tongues and crying out loudly near me. I had only heard tongues once before at a Nazarene church during a prayer meeting a few years back. Both instances were discerning for me but this one was different. Rather that exerting a run for the hills emotion, I felt only compassion for her sensing her to be terribly troubled. After a few moments she settled down and the pastor started his sermon after explaining this to the congregation. My conclusion was she may have been from a Holiness or Pentecostal church where this was a normal ritual and did not get the help she needed there. I was confident our prayer team would be able to assist her after the services.

I stayed after the services to see if the prayer team were able to pray with her which they did only to see her go back into tongues again in a rather lengthy diatribe and the language was not discernible. I do pray she was able to get help with her issues. I would be led to believe that in order to speak in tongues one would have to be struck by the Divine spirit and speak in a language that would be interpreted. Hers was only babel to my mind but probably that as all she knew how to speak.

Although I do not subscribe to speaking in tongues, I cannot fault one that does. The only problem I have is if one does it by self inflicted words ( not of the Holy Spirit intervention), one can be inviting dark and sinister motives into their souls with out realizing it. That is what bothers me about tongues. From what I have read, tongues is best done when another is able to interpret the words. Usually in Latin, Old Hebrew verbiage, or saying Hail Marys over and over.
Considering the trying times many are facing, I would imagine many more will be crying out for salvation and relief right in the middle of the service. This may have been just the tip of the ice berg for coming services in any "Body of Christ".

I can only hope that the pastor or congregation can react positively to this occurrence and will give the person the dignity they will deserve with their crisis. Some denominations may look upon this action with scourge and fail in their duties to tend to the one crying out to God for help in their only able way. I would think this may put them or the church in the wrong line come judgement day. Then again, this person may well have went there only to disrupt the worship as if were led by demons or other motives. We may never know if we don't do what the Lord wishes in serving others.

I am sure the Lord will provide us with many surprises and test before the Heavenly Kingdom arrives.

4 comments:

eaglegirl said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
photogr said...

Eaglegirl:

Thanks so much for commenting. I consider it an honor that you droped by. Yep we have been bumping into each other on the blogs. Do enjoy your view on things

I just dropped in on Davids blogs when he posted on Dave's blog about three weeks ago. I found him to be quite well versed on theology as well as the word. Inspirational he is definitely.

I will certainly look for Jack Hayfords book. I have found Half Price books to be a treasure throve for spiritual books as well as my Brother in law in Florida. He is a layman minister and has a large library for reference purposes. Him and I have been debating for quite some time over the years and he is a great source for answers.

After some serious searching and praying, I have accepted the tongues and the gifts to be direct from God and pray that some day I will be blessed with the honor of such gifts. However, I still have to figure out how to deal with it if I ever have a situation like what happened at Vineyard. The next time I will be prepared I pray.

Before I retired I was a photographer and was passionate about Nature which led me to a deeper understanding of Gods works where I mostly stay with now. I also did model portfolios but never liked it.
I switched to digital about three years ago and never looked back to film again. Soo much easier to do darkroom work with digital.

The wife and I also go to Vineyard. This is our 9th week there and like it but it does have it's faults as a mega church. However, any large organization will seem to be slow as far as getting to speak with some one in the higher ranks but I can deal with the politics in that respect.


I have already started serving as a greeter for the 11:40 services but my ambitions as I believe am being led by God is to serve in a ministry group for some reason. Perhaps it is my passion when I speak of the scriptures.

I think the small groups is where one can be of the best advantage as far as getting out the word and experiencing the gifts. We will just have to wait and see where that takes us.

For a church that is non denominational, it does have to have an open door to all faiths that may walk through their doors and embrace those people with love and understanding. However, I would be worried if some one walked in with a box of snakes for worship.

We will never really know when the Lord or the Holly Spirit will touch some one in such a way that they will loose all their inhibitions and speak out Lords words.

I thoroughly enjoyed your visit and I will see you at Vineyard some day.

Peace and take care:

Larry

eaglegirl said...

Just curious, noticed that comments have been deleted.
Last week I tried to get on your blog and it was closed to the public.
I didn't think my comment was offensive, sorry if it was.

photogr said...

Eaglegirl:

No it wasn't. Some how I got hacked and it messed up my computer and websites. So much for Panda Pro security software.

Had to shut down every thing and start all over. Don't know if it came from recently signing up for Face Book or what.

I bought another Laptop and new security software so I should not have any further problems. Still transfering every thing over to the new PC very carefully though.

Thankfully I did save most of my work on an external hard drive that was not hooked up at the time.

One thing I did find out. If you are using high speed internet and leave the modem on all the time, there might be a possibility you could be hacked so I now shut it off as well as the PC when I am not using the PC.

Take care: