Nope, weren't a bad day. I found out that was typical. It wasn't just him you understand. THese wre Mormon families who entertain professionally. NOne of the others were excited in worship. I could understand one with a bad day, but a dozen or so in a congregation of 150?
Oh, by the way.
I wasn't paying attention and replied to you in the Trinity thread as though you were LDS. Sorry, I used restorationist scriptures. :bonk:
Sorry
So if you think I am imposing don't read any further. Because I have an experience to share on speaking in tongues that is more than some folks can put up with. Though I don't think you are one. I don't know how much to share because I've had so many out of the ordinary experiences some people think I'm nuts. Well, at least no doctor has confirmed it, yet! (Just kidding)
But on the subject of speaking in tongues.
I was led to read the Book of Mormon through a message in tongues 30 years ago. I was in a Pentecostal church and played guitar on the worship team. After a teaching on the subject of God's light through the history of the different denominations; a woman spoke in tongues and the pastor interpreted.
I can still remember parts of it, word for word.
"Behold, I am pouring out a seven-fold spirit throughout the world to gather my people as one. Have I not told you that I have given you every place the soles of your feet touch. Praise me, for I will do it."
There was much more but that's all I remember right now.
The pastor then tied the message to what he had been teaching all morning. I had started with Luther's break from Catholicism, on to Calvinsim, Methodism, the Anabaptists etc. right down to Holy Ghost outpourings of Topeka and Azusa street.
He said what it translated to in very practical terms was that we were a congregation that was getting pretty proud of itself. We thought we had a whole lot more light than the Wesleyan church down the street, or the Baptists. This message, according to the pastor, was to lead us into more of the light of God because we were getting too smug.
He went on to say this, "Tomorrow when you return to work appraach anyone you work with who has professed Christ as Lord and ask them for the reason of their hope, ask them what they believe. You might learn something and grow from the experience.
The next day at work, the very first person I met was one who professed Christ as Lord. But another person I worked with, who attended the same church as me, and heard the same message in tongues, had prejudiced me against him previously. I had been forewarned of his wierd beliefs.
I ignored my friends prejudice and followed the pastor's direction.
I asked Dean what he believed. We only talked for a few moments and I liked what I was hearing because it was a personal testimony of Jesus Christ.
I thought he was a Mormon, but didn't know. So, I asked him. He said he wasn't, instead he was RLDS.
I asked him about the Book of Mormon and he said he didn't have time to talk anymore because we both had work to do.
He said, "Look, I go home for lunch, I've got an extra set of books you can borrow to read. "
I took the books home and starting reading them. There was no one coming around to tell me what they meant. I began reading them totally free of any church influence (Christian or LDS).
On Wednesday night we always had praise , prayer and testimony at our Pentecostal church. People were still abuzz about the message given the previous Sunday morning.
When I got up and testified that I acted on the word in tongues and followed the pastors advice, they thought that was good. When I told them it led me to reading the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants they all freaked out.
By the next Sunday you would have thought I was the devil himself.
People were invisioning Mormon elders coming over and indoctrinating me. Good friends were calling my wife while I was at work and trying to get her to make me stop reading the books.
One day, about three weeks into this scenario my wife confronted me in a very unkind manner.
She said, "Book of Mormon, Book of Mormon, that's all I hear about around here."
She said this because people at church were pressuring her to straighten me out. (They had to save me from the Mormon monsters) I was about to leave for work and I always took reading material because my job often required me driving and having to wait for several hours with nothing to do. I usually took the Bible.
I didn't get upset with her, I thought her comments were not right, but said to myself, "This is your wife, she might be seeing something about you that you can't see."
So, I left the Book of Mormon sitting by the kitchen door and took my Bible instead.
On the job that day I was at the Arizona State UNiversity agricultural farm with a busload of FHA members. There were about fifty buses there from all over the state and we all parked in one of their fields.
I got settled in my bus and was just starting to open the BIble when another bus driver knocked on my bus door.
I was sitting a couple of rows back in passenger seats when he stuck his head in and said, "Whatcha' doin'?"
I didn't have the best attitude and thought, "Oh boy, he probably wants to come in and offer me a cigarette and start cracking off color jokes."
So I figured I'd run him off right away.
"Well, I'm just getting ready to read my Bible.", I said.
He looked kind of dejected and said, "I thought you might be reading the Book of Mormon."
I had to make sure my ears were working right.
"What did you say?"
"Why aren't you reading the Book of Mormon?"
The man was a Native American. He came in and gave a testimony of his love for Jesus Christ and his gratitude that His visit to his ancestors was recorded and brought forth.
That and several other experiences in a short time convinced me of the truth of the book.
It all started with a message in tongues.
And by the way, one of the reasons many Christians didn't like Joseph Smith and the early latter day church was because they spoke in tongues.
BenJosh
