Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Who Is Being Worshiped?





Most people will never attend a Sunday meeting at Homestead Heritage unless you join. The few times that visitors have attended Sunday meetings, messages were passed to the entire church to refrain from exuberant worship. The meetings with visitors were more scripted to impress the visitor.

The following audio clip is an example of a testimony given during a Sunday meeting sans visitors. It should become apparent why the church was told to behave differently when an "outsider" was among them. I'll transcribe below the section of the clip that I have concerns about. Who is being worshiped here?



This last week I was reading a series of meeting messages [ed. these are transcripts of prior Sunday meetings], and, I'll tell you, there were times when I would be reading along and the word of truth would be coming and it would make me just shake. Amen. At how precious it was what I was reading. Amen. It just hit me over and over again what an incredible truth this was, you know. And, you know, a lot of the meetings - it was some of those meetings on Is Grandpa Saved? and such- and, you know we start out with a question and then "what about this" and somebody says this and somebody else says that, and it's like we're drilling down to something, Amen. Then you hit bedrock! Amen. And a truth is there that you feel just mows down the confusion, the opposition, everything like a sickle bar mower mowing through the field, and all the rats and skunks moving and flying away. I mean, just such power - Amen - to bring such light. What a privilege it was! Amen. What a privilege. Amen. Amen. And it just always hit me that, you know, the very first thing to pop into your head, what really, the bedrock. We had to go somewhere. We had to press somewhere. Amen. And there was just this sense of pressing beyond what was obvious and what could comfortable be apprehended. Amen. Amen. And grabbing hold, reaching for more.
And towards the end, Brother Blair starts really stressing that God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Amen. Amen, And I, every time I'd read one of those, I mean something would hit me and I'd just know that, you know, you don't find beautiful, precious pearls floating around on the surface of the sea. Amen. Somebody had to be diving down - Amen - into the pressure of the depths. There was some kind of sense of reaching beyond what was obvious and apparent and comfortable - Amen - in order to grab hold of these things in order for us to feel what we're feeling. Amen. There was that stretching out. Amen. Amen. And I'm so thankful, you know, for the fruit of Brother Blair's ministry, and how it's manifested itself in others. I'm so thankful for the fruit as I eat those truths and just are amazed by them. But I'm also very thankful for the example -Amen - that it doesn't come easy. Amen. It doesn't come just off the top of your head. It doesn't - it's not just readily apparent. Amen.
As we mow through those confusions - Amen - it's just, it's precious! Amen. It's incredible! Amen. What God has given us! Amen. I mean, we're, God's giving us light to see through the confusion that has the church bound! Amen. Amen, Things that people have grappled with and argued over and all this, and it's getting just mowed down and pushed aside, and something so solid and so incredible is being put in its place. Amen. Amen.  

Apparently, God cannot impart His truths to all of His people through the Holy Spirit. It requires the ministry of one man to bear fruit, because the rest of the church is just confused.

5 comments :

  1. People being worked up into a frenzy by the speaker.

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    Replies
    1. In the rebuke clip: What was this pastor doing when he should have been examining his own heart with humility unto repentance? He was grading the personal worship of others; keeping tabs on them and pretending to stand in the place of the Holy Spirit. A high premium is placed on how others "look" to him during worship. What does he know about what the Lord is doing in their hearts? And their response to "rebuke?" They perform for him. I wonder if he felt better after they got worked up. A Holy Spirit that must be "worked up" is not very powerful. The Holy Spirit moves according to His own will, timing and power and needs no one to work Him up.

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    2. "They perform for him"

      Absolutely. This is what David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen call "performance preoccupation" in their book, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.

      Delete
  2. From the worshiping clip given above from BeenThereDoneThat:

    "this is simple east 14th street stuff"

    amen :)

    ReplyDelete

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