No worries. If I occasionally flinch for no reason at least you’ll know why. Ok, maybe that’s not funny. Anyway. My dad was a proud UPC missionary/pastor for years until he failed to adequately toe the line and was booted. Religion bites. I’m just glad I finally found Christ. Without the help of Holiness Standards, *gasp* speaking in tongues OR being baptized in Jesus Name ONLY. Whatever. It would be interesting to hear your UPC stories.

Oh, by saying whilst arguing my own point I made your point for you, am I being found guilty of some variety of ridiculous circular logic! Curses, it’s the female gene, I can’t help myself.

I’m impressed by your courage and I accept your apology. I wouldn’t have spanked so hard if the post had not been anonymous.

I hope you’ll accept my apology for being a bit too harsh. And I hope you’ll stick around.

If you meant by “pentecostal” that your dad was UPC, we might could chew some fat together. They’re just as religious as the Baptists and Methodists and Catholics. Just don’t let men corrupting what God’s doing turn you against the whole idea of what God’s doing, especially when it’s scriptural, as you pointed out here while trying to disprove it. (I aborted the follow up post that I promised because you did all the work for me.)

First off I want to apologize. I was “anonymous” and being more than a little computer stupid I didn’t intend to leave my name off. I lurk here and there and found the link to your blog off of Vox Day. I came back the next day to update with my name and decided not to stick around for a 2nd spanking. Secondly, as the child of a “holy roller” pentecostal preacher who had also spent several years going to a vineyard church during the “refreshing” I’ve seen my fair share of “demonstrative worship”. I have also seen it abused and people being led astray by an emotional/experiential faith that has nothing to do with Christ. All that said, I over-reacted on my own personal soap box and acted like a jerk in your house. My apologies. I still lurk and do appreciate your thoughtful reasoned responses,even if I don’t always agree.

This is a very valid question and you are correct that it is most certainly for another post. I’ll have to give it some thought. I know how I do it, but it’s more of a training thing and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I’m not sure I know how to teach it in a blog post.

I’ll work on it, though. Thanks for bringing it up, Res. It should be addressed.

“Again, you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because some people do it wrong, doesn’t mean it’s not of God.”

So how would Elena, or anybody, know that what they were seeing was for real and not just a show? How should a Christian “test the spirits” so to speak?

Too much of what is passed off as the Holy Spirit is really nothing more than hyped up emotionalism.

I believe that the Christian life is to have both an emotional and intellectual attachment. “Love God with all your heart, soul and mind”, is a command that involves both the intellect and the emotional side of man. I would challenge you to consider that emotional experience and outward expressions in worship aren’t necessarily the same for all people. Just because folks aren’t raising their hands or being slain in the spirit doesn’t mean that they aren’t worshiping God appropriately. Raising hands in worship is never mentioned in the Bible, unless you consider Paul’s command for men to do so as a part of prayer. Just because someone doesn’t do it doesn’t mean anything, the same with all the other “spiritual acts, or gifts of the Holy Spirit” that some are so found of.

It can be very easy to get into the mind set of, “the way we do it at my church or the way I like is the ‘right’ way” thinking. This is a way of passing judgment on other Christian folks without knowing their heart. We are called to worship, not critique the other worshipers. The only time I believe a Christian has a right to be critical of the church’s worship is if they believe the congregation is doing something contrary to Biblical teaching. If this is the case than the person who sees an error has a responsibility to teach the others what they see the Bible as teaching.

I agree with you about chaos. That generally results from people in leadership who do not understand spiritual authority. I’ve mostly seen that in religious settings (the UPC for example). A move of Holy Spirit in a congregation isn’t immune to corruption or distortion by ignorant, fleshly people anymore than anything else in the Word.

Again, you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because some people do it wrong, doesn’t mean it’s not of God.

There is no character limit at this ranch. This ain’t Haloscan. Should we take “novel” to mean it was all fiction?

Just kidding. I’m in a little lighter mood today than I was when I wrote the post and responded to “Anonymous.”

DC, I don’t doubt your own experiences. I do doubt the manifestations that promote chaos rather than unity within a worship time or within the life of a particular church. I agree with Difster that we are filled by the Holy Spirit not to get a good feeling and get excited about worshiping God but to apply that power as God directs us to build up, train up, grow the body of Christ and to be witnesses of God’s manifold grace to lost people. DC, I think you are genuinely trying to edify believers here. We’ll all keep sharpenin’ each other…not to see sparks fly…but to sculpt one another to look more and more like Jesus.