I have meddled more than I should on Helen’s post so I better bring it to my own blog to explain.
Lilian – I understand perfectly about the gay thing. We should not condemn the gays but the act of homosexuality… but then hor, those church authorities should have a harsher stance. It’s not that we are against the gays, it’s the WOrd of God that does not condone homo activities.
You’re a Roman Catholic, does your church encourage speaking in tongues?I know many non-Charismatic churches are against it
QUESTION : WHY CHRISTIANS HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE 10% OF THEIR SALARY TO THE CHURCH?
Firstly, I butt in because one non-believer brought up the 10% salary contributed to the church. Methodists and other newer churches from the Americas have this because they have no money to run the church. I explained that a church is not a building but the community. So, we naturally need money to maintain buildings, promote goodwill amongst the Christians and hand out helps to the needy. So, if a Christian willingly give 10% of his/her salary, it shows their love for God. Because faith teaches us that whatever we give in sincerity, God will know what to do with us.
Meanwhile, our Catholic churches do not impose this but the parishioners voluntary chip in. We are chipping in millions of Ringgit Malaysia to build a new community centre. All these money are blessings from God and to God we give the glory.
I have one in-law who turned to Christ due to poverty and today, he is blessed abundantly. Seeing the marvels of how Christ has helped his family and how much love the family in serving Christ, I know that God gives abundantly.
So, my opinion is none of us Christians should ever question this. If there are misappropriation of funds, you should know what will happen. It is in the Romans (I think) where a couple did not give back the money they were blessed with and they died a nasty death.
QUESTION : THE GAY CHURCH
I have gay friends and after knowing the circumstances of which they turned to another man for love, I know that it is not for me to question. No doubt I know all about Sodom and Gomorrah, I am not a church elder and I will refrain from commenting. I can tell many Christians that we will be put to shame if only we know the faith these homosexuals have in the Lord. What we can do is to pray for our brethren to lose the lust eventually. It is not wrong to be gay. It is wrong to be lustful. Even for straight persons like us, it is still wrong to be lustful.
QUESTION : DOES ROMAN CATHOLICS ENCOURAGE SPEAKING IN TONGUES?
I cannot speak in tongues. I can only praise and pray in tongues. This does not come to us because we want to. It is part of the gifts of the Holy Spirit when we are baptised with fire. To make sense to non-believers, prayer in tongues is when we are able to speak the languages of the ancient folks. They sound like Hindi when they come out from me. It takes an intense praise and worship session before I can do it. Sometimes, when I am alone, I can pray in tongues whereby I am half-conscious and I really do not know what I am thinking except total surrender. However, time alone is very rare to me and probably I have lost that gift.
My church have a dynamic Shalom Youth Group and another Charismatic Prayers Group. These are people who are gifted with the gift of prophesy and other gifts of the Holy Spirit, including healing. I had attended a few times but I am too afraid of being touched by the Holy Spirit. I had previously expressed it because it takes a lot of my commitment and time, which I can’t afford now as I have small children to attend to.
My conclusion is – It is never good to discuss religion. If all of you notice, I never even find faults with my Muslims brothers when they make fun of my Lord. My reason is – At the end of all the arguments, it is the Almighty God that will be the subject of ridicule. God grants me patience and wisdom and I choose to ignore and turn the other cheek.
I am passionate about this matter because I dislike seeing non-believers or Christians who have strayed from their faith taking advantage whenever there are bloggers who blog about religion to condemn the religion. I am not referring to anyone in particular but this is just a general statement. Remember, God have mercies on those who do not know Christ. But it is a different story altogether for those who choose to turn away from Christ.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
I agree tongues is a gift. It should rightly be given at the absolute discretion of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, there are churches offering classes teaching people how to speak in tongues. I kid you not.
IMHO, I definitely cannot agree tongues should be ‘taught’ by any mortals.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:17 am
helen u serious ka some church teach how to speak in tongue? speaking in tongue is a gift of the Holy Spirit like both of u said. and i agree it should not be taught too, it’s a gift i.e. either you receive it or not. but speaking in tongue is only one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and one should not be discouraged if one do not receive it.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:26 am
helen – I do not know what you mean by taught. But in order for us to get it, we had to go through three days of Life in the Spirit seminar where a lot of things were experienced by us. So, are you being negative that those people who undergo these healing, reconciling and cleansing (of our old baggage of emotions) are going to class? Have you know the Christian faith long enough to be able to differentiate this? Sometimes, it is easy for us, the new converts to get puzzled.
silverstar – Ya, it comes naturally and initially, our mouth feels a bit numb.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
i have been to LSS before and i believe what helen meant is not what we do in LSS, i think she means literally teaching someone to do it like just mimicking those who really speak in tongues, but of course they won’t feel the Holy Spirit in them. those who do really speak in tongue will feel the power of the Holy Spirit.
believe me sometime i do see ppl just trying to mimic speaking in tongue and one can tell the difference.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:44 am
I’ve been to quite a few LSS in the past, some with my mum, some alone. I can still remember a few instances where they would come over and try to call upon the Holy Spirit to bestow the gifts upon us, individually. It does seem that they’re trying to ‘teach’ when they ask me to start off by lala-ing, but I beg to differ.
What they’re trying to do is probably to invoke the hidden gift of tongue that may be in some of us. I’ve seen some people who really, as though by ‘magic’, suddenly pray in tongues as though they’ve been on it forever. We never know until we try, right? So I guess that’s what the organiser or whoever is trying to do =)
ps. I didn’t receive the gift of tongues after all the sessions anyway, but different people have different gifts =)
September 21st, 2007 at 1:50 am
Oh, when I mean hidden, I meant like we’ve already received the gift of tongues, but still haven’t learnt how to use it. Something like that. Think I learned this in one of the seminars.
September 21st, 2007 at 9:23 am
little ray, i can tell you no matter how much la la ing you do if the gift is not for you, no matter how hard you try, you won’t have it but like i said earlier does that mean you r less holier than others who do? or that the Spirit is not in you? no of course not, you said so yourself
and i think when the priest or who ever it is came over to pray over you, they didn’t tell you to la la ing did they? they themselves are the one who la la ing because they are full of the Spirit but our instinct will tell us to follow them but they certainly do not teach u to la la ing, beside when the Spirit gives you the gift, you think you can simply la la ing like singing? with lots of practice? no, i tell you your tongue will go numb and you have no control of it. so for me, i still believe it is not about teaching and learning…..it is like the Grace of God, it is given freely by God, we don’t earn it or practice for it.
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:54 am
silverstar, actually they did ask the participants to la-la along. And I’ve seen friends who had received the gift just from that.
It seemed pretty absurd at first and it doesn’t only occur in one or two seminars, but quite a few to be exact. I’m no expert in this field, so I really dunno why they would want to ask the participants to la-la. Nevertheless, I guess what’s most important is to always be ready to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. There are 7 gifts anyway
September 24th, 2007 at 10:06 am
little ray, maybe at different LSS, different organizer do it differently but at the end of the day, if like you say it worked then Praise be to God, He works in marvelous ways. God Bless