Hear my testimony:
I went to Russia two summers ago, and God told my mom that I would recieve my prayer language while I was there. He prepared me by making me aware of the fact that there WAS a thing called tongues. I had never heard of it before. My mom didn't tell me this would happen because she didn't want there to be any pressure on me. Our sister-church turned out to be charismatic. I had never seen anything like that before--people went up to the front and recieved healing. I did not actually know that people were speaking in tongues, because I couldn't tell the difference between Russian and tongues during worship. During worship I got frustrated because I didn't know the words to the majority of the songs, so I thought, "I'll just open my mouth and let whatever comes out glorify God." I had no idea that I was praising in tongues.
Obviously, I have not been raised in the charismatic church. Only in the past few months have I really been searching out answers to everything in the charismatic realm. I was extremely curious about everything and have even began to claim healing on friends and family through Jesus' name based on my new knowledge and experience. Praise God! I love having this kind of emotional bond with God.
Sadly, when I look around and ask people questions about pentecostal stuff, I see that the charismatic movement tends to cause a great amount of division in the body of Christ. People will not accept that God will go outside of the box in this kind of way, and if they do, they are somewhat bitter towards those who do not.
That's okay--people are welcome to not share in the blessing of the sign gifts. What matters is that they confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead.
I don't care about the specifics of what you believe, what denomination you are, or how you show your love to God. All I care about is that you focus on Jesus. It's all about Jesus.
I used to let the numerous, diverse denominations really dissilusion me. It scared me that there were so many different beliefs based on the same Bible. Now I look at it positively: we have the freedom to interpret the Bible for ourselves. Imagine if we did not! When we're in heaven we'll probably find out what Christianity was supposed to look like, and I look forward to that. Once again, I'll say that it is all about where you are with JESUS.
What can we draw from the rantings of my adolescent self? Fix your eyes on Jesus. Be blinded by the SON-LIGHT. Respect our denominational differences. If Christians keep being so caught up in making sure that everyone else knows the RIGHT denomination or belief system, how are we going to bring anyone else into the body of Christ?
"Christians, we're all afraid of fire. We prefer to suck on pacifiers. Baby pacifists, we're throwing fits, we don't shake hands, we shake our fists. We're cannibals, we watch our brothers fall. We eat our own the bones and all...finally fell asleep on the plane, to wake to see we're going down in flames."
-Relient K, "Down in Flames"
Let's stop that, NOW.
I went to Russia two summers ago, and God told my mom that I would recieve my prayer language while I was there. He prepared me by making me aware of the fact that there WAS a thing called tongues. I had never heard of it before. My mom didn't tell me this would happen because she didn't want there to be any pressure on me. Our sister-church turned out to be charismatic. I had never seen anything like that before--people went up to the front and recieved healing. I did not actually know that people were speaking in tongues, because I couldn't tell the difference between Russian and tongues during worship. During worship I got frustrated because I didn't know the words to the majority of the songs, so I thought, "I'll just open my mouth and let whatever comes out glorify God." I had no idea that I was praising in tongues.
Obviously, I have not been raised in the charismatic church. Only in the past few months have I really been searching out answers to everything in the charismatic realm. I was extremely curious about everything and have even began to claim healing on friends and family through Jesus' name based on my new knowledge and experience. Praise God! I love having this kind of emotional bond with God.
Sadly, when I look around and ask people questions about pentecostal stuff, I see that the charismatic movement tends to cause a great amount of division in the body of Christ. People will not accept that God will go outside of the box in this kind of way, and if they do, they are somewhat bitter towards those who do not.
That's okay--people are welcome to not share in the blessing of the sign gifts. What matters is that they confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead.
I don't care about the specifics of what you believe, what denomination you are, or how you show your love to God. All I care about is that you focus on Jesus. It's all about Jesus.
I used to let the numerous, diverse denominations really dissilusion me. It scared me that there were so many different beliefs based on the same Bible. Now I look at it positively: we have the freedom to interpret the Bible for ourselves. Imagine if we did not! When we're in heaven we'll probably find out what Christianity was supposed to look like, and I look forward to that. Once again, I'll say that it is all about where you are with JESUS.
What can we draw from the rantings of my adolescent self? Fix your eyes on Jesus. Be blinded by the SON-LIGHT. Respect our denominational differences. If Christians keep being so caught up in making sure that everyone else knows the RIGHT denomination or belief system, how are we going to bring anyone else into the body of Christ?
"Christians, we're all afraid of fire. We prefer to suck on pacifiers. Baby pacifists, we're throwing fits, we don't shake hands, we shake our fists. We're cannibals, we watch our brothers fall. We eat our own the bones and all...finally fell asleep on the plane, to wake to see we're going down in flames."
-Relient K, "Down in Flames"
Let's stop that, NOW.
