26. May 2010 by admin.

If you are a church goer like me, you have probably seen some pretty strange things in church.  Some of them are funny, some are sad, and a few things just don’t seem right.  All of how we feel about events that happen in Church are influenced by our own Church backgrounds and experiences.  If you come from a very conservative church experience that looks at any kind of emotional happenings in church as something to be frowned upon then any emotion in church to you might seem wrong.  If on the other hand, you are used to a wild free-for all, then there may be verry little that you see as suspicious behaviors when it comes to emotional things in church.

I was raised with a very pentecostal style background.  It was nothing for me to be in a church service where people were shouting, jumping up and down, shaking and where many other demonstrative activities were taking place in Church.  I can recall much “shouting” and praising going on! 

I have seen people, doing all kinds of things that I will attempt to describe here as if no one has ever experienced them.  Following is a list of them.  I will not try to convince anyone or deny the validity of these experiences at this time.  I will just try to describe and tell you what I think is the common thinking concerning the actions on behalf of those doing them.

1.   Speaking in Unknown Tongues.      A gift of the Holy Spirit, mentioned in Several places in the New Testament.

2.   Speaking in Tongues with Interpretation.  Speaking in a language that is not known but is interpreted by someone who has the Spiritual Gift of Interpreting this utterance by the Holy Spirit giving the person the knowledge of what is being said by the Spirit of God.

3.   Shouting.  Jumping up and down, shaking, moving about as a result of excitement or joy of feeling or sensing that the Lord is there in some special way.

4.  Singing in Tongues.  Very similar to Speaking in unknown tongues. Considered Singing with the Spirit as mentioned in 1. Cor.

5.  Holy Laughter.  Considered an overflow of Joy at the presence of the Lord.  Not forced, just a joyful reaction to God’s presence being experienced or sensed in the service.  Laughter caused by great joy.

6.  Falling Down.  Either as a result of prayer or extacy at the presence of the Lord.  It is considered that someone is overcome with great emotion or that they are “In the Spirit” as was the Apostle Peter was when he “fell into a trance” on the rooftop.  Or like John the Revelator when he was “In the Spirit” and saw visions in the book of Revelation.

Some believe that these happenings should no longer accompany worship by Christians and that a much more reserved manner should be observed when in Church or Prayer.

I will continue with my effort to examine these phenomena in light of scripture and current thought as I continue to blog here.

I am no longer going to promise when the next blog post will be!  Just that they will come.

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19. January 2010 by admin.

As a child growing up, my Father was a Pastor and an Evangelist in what was called the Full Gospel-Pentecostal Movement.    I remember Tent Crusades with my Dad preaching under the tent as many came to the Lord.  I also remember that my mother would bring blankets along and make us a place to rest and sleep under the chairs on the old sawdust floors of the tent.  The Tent Services would last so long that we were allowed as children to sleep on these blankets during Service.

People would be filled with the Spirit and at times, shout all around us.  It was a real interesting time and a lot of fun!

While these tent “Revivals” were going on, many would pray and shout and speak in Charismatic tongues.  There would also be spiritual phenomena such as “Singing in the Spirit”, “Holy Laughter”, and also sometimes falling out in the Spirit, or what some called “being slain in the Spirit”. 

My father had been a drunk before accepting Jesus Christ as His personal Savior.  He struggled with Alcoholism, and tried to quit Smoking which was also considered a sin.  He had no success in his quitting drinking until he went down to the alter one day and received what is still called by those who are part of that Christian group as “Being Filled with the Holy Spirit”.  

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is accompanied by Speaking in Unknown Tongues.

These occurrences were very common in my Childhood and early adulthood.    I am not a novice to such Spiritual phenomena.  I saw a lot of what I believed to be real Godly, Spiritual experiences in my growing up as well as many, many occurrences of what my dad would call “Wild Fire”.  The wild fire is what he called it when people were doing things that were not really considered by him or many other leaders to be real occurrences of Godly, Spiritual Phenomena.  Or what is sometimes called, “A real move of the Holy Spirit”.

In my next post, I will address, is any spiritual phenomena real or is it all delusion. And we will begin to explore some of what the Bible says concerning these things.

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29. October 2009 by admin.

I recently had someone ask me what I consider to be a very important question.   So, over the next few posts I am going to do my best to answer their question as scripturally and completely as I can in a blog.

Why do some people and churches get all emotional even to the point of shouting, and even falling out?�

Asked another way:  Is it even right or scriptural?   And Shouldn’t one show more reverence in the church than to have all that emotional stuff going on?

In order to answer these questions we really have to give a background as to what is actually acceptable to God in worship.  And what are the methods used by God’s people in the Bible during worship.

We will use Scripture as the only “real” authority for the discussions that we have here.  Please feel free to post comments, questions and opinions on my blog page about these posts.

Also, I will try to keep my blog posts short enough to read in one short setting so you do not have to feel like you are sorting through too many things to think about in a single post.

I will also keep the scripture reference as relevant and to the point as I can.   I will only post the most important sections of scripture and leave most references for you to read on your own.

The version of the Bible that you use should be one that you like, can relate to and is easy for your study.

In my posts, I will give my opinion.   I will post about worship and events in the Bible that relate to the topic of  “being slain in the spirit” or falling under the anointing as some prefer to call it.   I will give pros and cons. 

I will tell you why I think sometimes it is legitimate and sometimes why I think it is hype or someone just bowing to the expectations of the crowd and doing what they think they should do at that time.

I may post often so check back, or even better, become a subscriber.  As a Subscriber you will be notified of new posts to this blog.

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