17 Sunday Jun 2012
Posted in Illustrations/Cartoons/Etc.
Again, many Father’s Day blessings to you. Father’s Day is a reminder to us all to be thankful for the fathers in our life and for the fathers who have gone on to be with the Lord. There is a list below of scriptures to remind us how much our Heavenly Father loves us as well.
May God richly bless you and your family on this day.
Blessings,
Pastor
19 Saturday May 2012
Posted in Humor/Reaping and Sowing
Tags
altar call, burn, church fellowship, crying, do business with God, eat with my fingers, fingers, Galatians 6:7, hot homemade pickled peppers, hug, men's breakfast, men's choir, pastor, pepper in my eyes, religious experience, serving fork, sniffle, sting, temptation, touched by the Lord, water
I have always enjoyed fellowship meals at church. Several years ago I was attending a men’s breakfast that was being held at our church. People bring a sundry of delicacies to feast upon at such events. On this occasion I spotted some hot, homemade pickled peppers. Yum!
As I was walking through this smorgasbord of delectable delights, I noticed a problem with the peppers. I didn’t have a way to harvest the peppers from the dish. Someone had removed the serving fork. While no one was looking, I snatched several with my fingers. Now, my mother taught me different, but temptation got the better of me that morning. Satisfied with my bounty, I moved along with no one the wiser. By the way, they were just as hot and delicious as I knew they would be. I thought nothing more of the situation.
On this particular Sunday, the men were singing in the choir and I was participating. If there was going to be a men’s breakfast… there was probably going to be a men’s choir. The two usually went hand in hand. After singing a few hymns, there was a call to prayer. Sometime during the prayer I placed my hands over my face to pray. In addition, I moved my thumb and forefinger to the bridge of my nose and pressed against the inside corners of my eyes. This was a subconscious type of manuever I had often done while concentrating on prayer. Little did I know it was an enormous mistake.
My eyes began to sting and water flowed from them like a fire hose. I tried to fight it off by rubbing my eyes again and again. This only turned the stinging into intense burning. I was in agony and the flow of water only increased. I began to sniffle and once again started wiping my eyes. As my concentration began to suffer, I felt my face begin to turn blood-red as if it was being rubbed with sand paper. It was then that I knew my sins had surely found me out. I should have never handled those hot peppers without a serving fork. The tears were now gushing down my face like Niagara Falls.
At this point things began to get out of hand. The men beside me started passing handkerchiefs and patting me on the back like I had lost a member of my family. I was experiencing grief, just not the type they believed. They assumed I was being touched by the Lord or was having a religious experience. I felt like I was locked in some interrogation room under bright lights. What was I gonna do? I was having an experience alright!
The fire only increased. Peppers and eyes do not go together. It couldn’t have been any worse if I had been allergic to them. Nuclear waste couldn’t have burned any worse than those peppers. My ears were now ringing, sweat was pouring off my forehead and I could no longer focus. I wanted to make a dash for the door but I couldn’t see!
When I finally was able to take a peek, I noticed the entire men’s choir was now crying. At first I thought they too had handled those pickled peppers. No, they were crying because I was crying. They thought I was being touched by the Spirit… so they were moved. I couldn’t believe it. The whole choir was tore-up because I handled peppers without a serving fork. Now I really felt like crying.
The men’s choir was supposed to sing a special music selection next. As the men tried to gather themselves to sing the next selected number, the water works were turned on full blast. What started out as a lone contagion quickly grew into a full-blown epidemic. I detected that the men were trying to fight it off. The more they struggled to gather their emotions, the worse it became. It was a useless battle. The battle was over before it began. Sniper fire wouldn’t have made these men crumble any quicker. They melted like butter in a microwave. Have you ever seen 30 burly men all crying at once? I was thankful to have a hymnal in my hand so that I could hide behind it. As I took at peek over the top of my hymnal, as best I could make out over half the church was now beginning to weep and sob. Would this never end?
Without a word being spoken, all the pastor could do was open up the altar for people to come forward and conduct business. They did… it mass! As best as I could see everyone continued to cry, blow their noses, hug, and pray together. To say there wasn’t a “dry eye in the house” was an understatement. What started out as a men’s breakfast turned into a crying fest with people getting right with the Lord. Who knew so many people needed to do business with God?
The one who really needed to confess was me and I wasn’t going to confess anything, especially my sin. At least all of the commotion gave me some ground cover to make a move. I maneuvered my way to the edge of the crowd, hugging and crying all the way. As soon as humanly possible, I darted out the door to the bathroom. As I splashed water across my face… I finally was able to get some relief. Oh, the bliss of something cool on my irritated eyeballs. Thankfully, my pain and suffering was coming to an end.
I made my way back into church and sat in the back. The service continued on until everyone cried their way to freedom. As we departed, everyone continued to hug and comment that this was the best service in years. People talked about it for weeks and months afterward, far beyond the walls of our church.
I too made a committment that day.. Never again, would I eat with my fingers in the Lord’s House.
Blessings,
Pastor
05 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in The Strange & Unusual Voice of God
Tags
classic ghostly activities, corrie ten boom, counseling, entity, evil spirit, ghost, ghost busting, God's voice, hidden stash, intervention, Lincoln quote, mother and kids, open door for evil spirits, pastor, patience, praise songs, principles, Proverbs 26:2, rededicate, skeptical, spare tire, steering wheel, voyeuristic activities
Back in the 80’s I was fresh out of seminary and had taken a position as pastor at a church. I placed an ad in the local paper stating I did spiritual counseling. It wasn’t long before a middle-age lady made an appointment for counseling. I was excited.
She came alone and began to share her problem. In the past few months she believed some spiritual entity had come to live in her home with her two teenage children. She called it a ghost or spirit. It did all sorts of classic ghostly activities like rattling chains, turning on/off lights, turning on/off the television and opening and closing doors. In addition, she heard it walking around upstairs and heard it making other types of sounds periodically. It never harmed her or her children, just scared them.
I was kind of shocked. I had minored in psychology, received a Master’s Degree in Family Counseling and spent three years working on a Psychology Unit. I dealt with major crises every day. I thought I was ready for any type of psychological problem. Yet this lady walked in and started talking about being bothered by ghosts. To say I was somewhat skeptical was an understatement. Yet, I could feel the Lord telling me to be patient and stick with her.
Since her children were older, I asked her to bring them into the session so that I could talk to them. One was 15 and the other 18. They shared the same stories. Sometimes the events would happen when they were alone and on other occasions the ghostly episodes occurred when they were together. All vouched to the validity of the presence that now lived in their house. Basically she wanted me to get rid of ghost. She did come for “spiritual” counseling, remember.
I really didn’t know where to begin, but since the buck was stopping with me, I took the problem to a pastor’s meeting I attended every week. Thankfully, some of these guys were more seasoned in “ghost busting” than me. Who ya gonna call? They shared two important principles which I have used again and again in my ministry. The first principle they shared was no spirit, principality, or demon comes without being invited in some fashion. In other words, a door has to be opened. A verse of scripture I learned later was Proverbs 26:2 “so the curse causeless shall not come.” So the first thing I needed to do was discover what or who had opened that door. The second principle I will share in a moment.
At least now I had a place to begin. In the next session I told the mother that someone had to open a spiritual door that had given the presence the right to move into her house. As we talked it was soon apparent that neither she nor her children were responsible. She admitted that she was estranged and separated from her husband. The reason for this separation was due to his excessive drinking and “creepy” behavior. He had been accused and arrested of some voyeuristic activities. The mother didn’t feel she could trust him anymore and had kicked him out of the house. I felt in my spirit that he was responsible and must have left some items in the home which opened the spiritual door for this evil spirit. I communicated this information to the mother and told her to search the house for the estranged husband’s stash. They did and reported back nothing could be found. I told them to look again. They did and reported back that nothing was in the home.
Sometimes God’s voice is loud and sometimes “it is a still quiet voice.” I felt the Lord telling me again to have the family search the house one more time. I was hoping I was hearing the Lord’s voice correctly, because this situation was going to get embarrassing if they didn’t find something. They went back to search once more. This time the search was more thorough and the mother discovered the husband’s hidden stash. In the back of their bedroom closet he had carved a hole and had it covered. Inside the hole were several bottles of liquor, pornography magazines and tapes. The Lord was right!
Let me make a parenthetical note here. I have talked with numerous others who have had such items in their homes as well… with no demonic spirits attached. One does not equal the other. The satanic underworld is not vast enough to attach itself to every bottle of alcohol and every work of pornography. In this case these items meant something deeper to the estranged husband. I never talked to the man and never discovered his story. But there was a spirit attached to this man’s hidden stash and probably a spirit was attached to the man himself.
This leads to the second principle the pastors taught me. They encouraged me not to make a big fuss, if possible, when removing the demonic apparition from the home. Some type of intervention had to be made. They suggested instead of making a big production, start small. In other words, don’t escalate things into a battle when you do not have to go in that direction. I felt led to have the family rededicate themselves to the Lord. In addition, I encouraged them to walk through the house singing praise songs to the Lord claiming their house as territory of the Lord. They did and the evil spirit left without further occurrence. Praise the Lord!
At the time I didn’t know that this would be the first of many more such encounters in my life. The voice and leading of God were true and He is always faithful.
Blessings,
Pastor
