Faith-No faith-Faith

Today's Link
Bears & Belles

Today's Saying
A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. ~Jean de La Fontaine

Today's Picture

Confirmation at St. Mark's

Once upon a time in a little Midwest town a baby was born to a typical Lutheran family. Soon after he was born the baby was Baptized and named James after some relative or another. His parents weren’t much for going to Church but they did see to it that James went to Sunday School and then to Confirmation. He probably would have turned out like many Lutheran youth where Confirmation marks the end of their active Church attendance but something happened to James. He went to Bible Camp. He really didn’t go to learn about God but to chase girls and have fun. Lutheran girls are fun to chase and Bible Camp has lots of fun things to do. However at this particular camp something happened to James. He met Jesus. He met Jesus as a person not as an idea.; The meeting changed his life. It turned it upside down.
You could not keep him out of Church. He joined the high school youth group. He also found a group of kids that had had “ the experience” and met with them regularly. He was fired up for God. It was a wonderful time of singing, praying and growing in the faith.
The only downside is that he began to see that much of the congregation didn’t have “ the experience” . They were not saved. He knew, of course, that we salvation was by grace but he was coming to believe that holiness should follow. One was not saved by good works but if one was saved one should show good works in one’s life. People who didn’t go to Church on a regular basis were not saved.
After graduating from high school he continued to grow in holiness and closeness to God. He attended a local college, met a nice young lady and got married. After college he went to seminary in Chicago.
It was during this two years that the next life changing event happened. He got baptized in the Holy Spirit and he spoke in tongues. Little by little he came to believe this experience was a defining one for one’s Christianity. If you didn’t have “The Baptism” you weren’t in. It became for him the litmus test of true belief.
After two years of seminary he went to Finland to finish his seminary education there. He did this because he heard of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Finland both in the present charismatic movement and in the older Pietistic movement. While he was there two important things happened. He became a Christian Socialist and his wife taught him Spanish.
Completing all of his course work with flying colors he returned to the United States and announced to the Mission Board he was ready to be ordained and called to Latin America or South America. The Board was reluctant to accept his offer. He was anything but mainline Lutheran. He was almost a Pentecostal and to add to it all he was a vocal Socialist . But under pressure from a number of his friends who were ordained pastors his Synod President pushed the Board to ordain and send him. And they did to what they thought would be a perfect match. They sent him to Chili. Chili had a rapidly growing Pentecostal movement and a popularly elected socialist government. It was as if God had set up the call just for him.
At first everything was wonderful. His congregation grew. There were Baptisms in the Spirit. The congregation became known for helping anyone that needed help. They were the very center of God’s love. It was wonderful. It was great.God's Spirit was moving.
To be continued tomorrow

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
Almost all of Pigeon Falls is now searching for Tommy UK and Tammy. Search parties are combing the woods around where Tommy’s crushed cell phone was found. But so far there has been no sign of them nor of a giant spider.
Over at Nancy’s Coffee Shop rumors abound. Some think the demon came back and vaporized them. Some think a giant spider ate them. Some think it has something to do with the man in black who is said to have been seen behind the Town Hall. Some are saying aliens in a spaceship took them away. One rumor is as good as another.
Tammy’s parents are sure she is dead and Tommy as well. But Tommy’s parents said they believed that of Tommy once before and even had a funeral and he wasn’t . In fact he showed up at the funeral. So they should not be so quick to write them off.
Eino thinks that the lack of blood, clothes, or bones rules out having been eaten by a spider. But the DNR man says nobody knows how this spider eats or what would be left. The good sign is they can’t find the spider.
The Tommy Club met without Tammy and Tommy UK and are doing their own search.

Wrap UP

It was a rainy day so I spent a lot of time on the computer. My sister called she is sending me my Aunt Doris's pasty crust receipe. Betty took Maggie for a walk after the rain. I visited all of my links. That took three hours. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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