....the saddest story :(
Of those 8 million stories I'm working hard at telling here... there were many, many really sad ones... like hearing about the guy who led me into my own Pentecostal experience.... leaving his wife.... I didn't get that at all... had no place to put it back then.. I mean like I immediately loved this big guy that had invited me to dinner... to a room in his home overnight and then gave me a huge bear hug when I held out my hand to introduce myself.... these things had not happened to me before... and one "needs must be" very, very large human being in order to bear hug someone my size... :)
I had never met him before then... I knew his brother up in Kingston... who had encouraged me to stop by and say hello... since I was traveling to that area in Pennsylvania... amazing experience for me as a young man... not used to this sort of thing... this guy knew absolutely nothing about me except that his brother had told him a was a "new believer"...
I ended up having this marvelous God experience in his home... the one I told you about that my Baptist Pastor was so excited about... remember...? "I don't know whether to pray for you or just feel sorry for you."
I mean this was the real deal... I had just been touched by God... again... in an amazing way. Both he and his wife prayed for me... she had prepared the dinner... she was a very nice lady... I did have a little trouble at the time... observing their very unruly child as he carried on... running around the house "praying in other tongues as the spirit gave him utterance"... I understand this stuff now... it's 40 years down the road... but I didn't back then... and as I said before... I had no place to put his leaving his wife...
But that was nothing compared to the 3 teens who came to our Tuesday Night Rap back in the early 70's... they were from a Pentecostal Youth Group... they wanted desperately to be "Baptized in the Holy Spirit"... they had been tarrying at the altar every week for what seemed like forever to them... and the "Holy Spirit ... never fell on them"... I gave them a very simply teaching on receiving the Baptism of the Spirit by "faith"... they just needed to step out in faith and start praying... they each did... one by one... they were having the time of their life praying tongues... it was awesome... I never saw 3 young people so excited about God ever before ... I was thrilled.... they were thrilled... and God was thrilled... they shared their experience with their Pentecostal pastor who called it heresy... took the experience they had away from them... and sent them back to tarry some more at the altar....until the Holy Spirit fell on them....
Of course... the Holy Spirit never "fell"... one of the three... a really neat young man... was convinced that God was so disappointed in him that He would never ever Baptize him in the Spirit.. he felt he was totally useless to God... he felt ashamed... he felt he could never serve God... and....since serving God was all he had ever wanted to do... he decided to just end it... take his own life... all I could do was weep when I heard this story.
It is the saddest story of them all... and just a part of why I absolutely hate the religious systems of this world... and the bondage that they put people in....
That doesn't mean that there aren't more stories though...
:)
I had never met him before then... I knew his brother up in Kingston... who had encouraged me to stop by and say hello... since I was traveling to that area in Pennsylvania... amazing experience for me as a young man... not used to this sort of thing... this guy knew absolutely nothing about me except that his brother had told him a was a "new believer"...
I ended up having this marvelous God experience in his home... the one I told you about that my Baptist Pastor was so excited about... remember...? "I don't know whether to pray for you or just feel sorry for you."
I mean this was the real deal... I had just been touched by God... again... in an amazing way. Both he and his wife prayed for me... she had prepared the dinner... she was a very nice lady... I did have a little trouble at the time... observing their very unruly child as he carried on... running around the house "praying in other tongues as the spirit gave him utterance"... I understand this stuff now... it's 40 years down the road... but I didn't back then... and as I said before... I had no place to put his leaving his wife...
But that was nothing compared to the 3 teens who came to our Tuesday Night Rap back in the early 70's... they were from a Pentecostal Youth Group... they wanted desperately to be "Baptized in the Holy Spirit"... they had been tarrying at the altar every week for what seemed like forever to them... and the "Holy Spirit ... never fell on them"... I gave them a very simply teaching on receiving the Baptism of the Spirit by "faith"... they just needed to step out in faith and start praying... they each did... one by one... they were having the time of their life praying tongues... it was awesome... I never saw 3 young people so excited about God ever before ... I was thrilled.... they were thrilled... and God was thrilled... they shared their experience with their Pentecostal pastor who called it heresy... took the experience they had away from them... and sent them back to tarry some more at the altar....until the Holy Spirit fell on them....
Of course... the Holy Spirit never "fell"... one of the three... a really neat young man... was convinced that God was so disappointed in him that He would never ever Baptize him in the Spirit.. he felt he was totally useless to God... he felt ashamed... he felt he could never serve God... and....since serving God was all he had ever wanted to do... he decided to just end it... take his own life... all I could do was weep when I heard this story.
It is the saddest story of them all... and just a part of why I absolutely hate the religious systems of this world... and the bondage that they put people in....
That doesn't mean that there aren't more stories though...
:)
