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What I find interesting that a few people have mentioned is that they say"the lord led me out of RF/RCI into XXX group"But, perhaps they said the opposite when they first discovered God.. "I was led to the RCI/RF by God.."Sorry, totally of point, but interesting note..

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I do believe that God lead me to the RCI/RF,  I  saw  the  great change in my sons life, after he joined, but for 5 yrs I resisted. But my son re-introduced me to the bible, which I had'nt read since my youth,  and as I read it, I became convinced that I needed to get down off the fence, and make a commitment, which I eventualy did. I was baptised , and two days later while doing the RF allelujah thing, my tongue tripped, and I was saying something different entirely. My tongue also is Arabic in sound, and developed over the years from those first babble like noises.

Ive stated before that I am now uncertain wether this was God given, or induced, or learned, and I did'nt experience anything supernatural, only a great feeling of being at peace with God.  What did happen, wether from Baptism, or after speaking in tongues I dont know, I was healed from a painful and progressive osteo-arthritus of the knee, immediate, and lasting.  I can see how my life changed from that time, and i was placed on "the way"  When the time was right , I believe God then led me to where I am now, and will continue to lead me and guide me through the Holy Spirit.  Despite all that I've read, and the discussions I've had since leaving RF,  on  speaking in tongues, that tongue I recieved on that day has never left me, but I have put it into perspective now, and I put more value on the fruits of the Spirit, and no longer believe it is the sole evidence of recieving the Spirit, and that Gods Spirtual gifts are given to the Church, to some this, to some that, as the scriptures say, in order to strengthen it.and guide it.

Would God have eventualy drawn me to him, some other way? I guess if I'm written in that book He would have. And I guess if it was His plan and purpose i might be still there, although I'm convinced now that like O>T Isreal, theyve lost the plot, and their days are numbered. And He will lead many more out , and place them in safe places. I pray for that, (in English) but sometimes I also pray in my tongue language. I'ts not a part of the church service where I am now, but there are others there , including leaders ,who have had the same experience, and  also speak in tongues and use it in their prayer time.

God bless

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Reply to : bindiDoes God REALLY come through for you each and EVERY time? Did you or someone else haveanythingto do with correcting a situation that wasn't going right or did you just sit there without doing a single thing and God did all the work?Lets keep in mind that the recent posts on here are about us beingcompletelyhonest. I think if you really take away the Christain facade and are REALLY truthful to yourself and to us, you would have to admit that, no, God doesn't always come through.I spent 16 years being a fervent little law abiding Christian in the RF but God did notalwayscome through for me.Spot on Bindi - being a "fervent

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Hi again Urchin..

Spot on Bindi - being a "fervent little law abiding Christian in the RF"  is exactly what I am NOT talking about.   It's not about Revival - it's about relationship !  

And spot on right back at ya!   You're absolutely right.

I also spent many years doing & saying all the right stuff according to the ' gospel of RF'  but God honoured my prayers anyway!  Get it?  

Yep.. I get it. I'm sorry if I upset you with my post. You seem to be coming across a little defensive. However.. these are words on a screen and you can't always pick the emotion behind them!

 I certainly didn't mean to cause offense. Just curious to know why Christians always give credit to God when often it is they themselves that have done something to change the situation. I don't know if anyone else did, but I watched the Oprah special last night about 'The Secret'. It was an amazing display of how a positive change of mindset can bring about the most incredible changes in a person's life. It was about the 'Laws of Attraction'. What you think, you feel, what you feel gives out a  vibration to the universe and thus attracts the same. If you think negative, you attract negative, think positive, atttract positive. So... my thoughts are this.. It doesn't matter what 'higher power' you believe in, be it God, Buddha, or Moths pink unicorn ( ha! ), if you have a faith which brings about positive energy, you will attract positive things. Like I said, I admire your faith! And I don't believe for one second you are trying to convert anyone. You are just telling us how it is for you! To quote John Lennon... " Whatever gets you through the night.." lol! Urch... I'm on a journey of discovery like everyone else here is. I'm trying to work out my own mind. I'm trying to find what works for me! I'm not knocking anyone here.. I'm just sitting back and taking it all in. Discarding what doesn't work for me  and delving into what does make sense to me. Asking questions, getting answers.

Don't misunderstand me, I am also a very positive person and believe that whatever happens in life you just gotta pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep going forward. Certainly we have to take responsibility for our actions and for our own lives and consciously take steps in the right direction, but (for me anyway) that direction is towards God not away from Him.

And that is my point... Positive thinking and appropriate action goes along way!

I am not ashamed to call myself a Christian, in fact I am honoured to

And why should you be??? Don't ever be ashamed of anything that does you only good!

Thanks for your reply Urch!

regards... Bindi

Hi Bindi

I assure you that I didn't get in the slightest bit offended  by anything you said to me.  Moth also apologised to me on the shout box last night.  What's with all the apologies?? I don't take offence at people having opinions - I don't care whether they agree with me or not - I enjoy the communication that we can all have on a level praying (oops) playing field.  I'm quite happy  to agree to disagree on some points - we are all so unique and we certainly don't HAVE to agree on everything.

However, nothing that anyone could ever say to me will EVER change my faith in God. To quote an awesome man of faith ' I will praise God when I'm on the mountain, I will praise God when I'm in the valley, I will praise God always'   This young man is (according to the specialists) dying of a bone-destroying cancer. They have given him no hope whatsoever of survivng and are surprised that he has not died yet. He was diagnosed last October and the disease has certainly rocked his body - BUT NOT HIS FAITH as he continues to preach at Planetshakers and to the youth of Australia. Earlier this year, he got up from his wheelchair and walked across the stage at Planetshakers with 19 broken bones in his body to preach to many thousands of young people. He spoke for around 10 mins and said the above words and then went on to inspire, encourage and lift them to new heights.  He apparently broke more bones while he was preaching but continued on anyway.  His name is Mike Gugglielmucci and his father Danny is the senior pastor at Edge Church. We are all obviously praying for his healing as he continues on living for God and praising His name.  He writes hundreds of songs and he wrote one earlier this year called 'Healer' .  It was the first song I heard when I started going to this church and the words blew me away and still do.  It was almost as though they were written for those of us who had started going there from RF in January - not just about physical healing but emotional healing which we all need when we leave a cult.  I am inspired by his unwavering faith in God to carry him through the valley.

Love to all , Urch 

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Reply to : bindiHi BindiI assure you that Ididn't get in the slightest bit offended by anything you said to me. Moth also apologised to me on the shout box last night. What's with all the apologies?? I don't take offence at people having opinions - I don't care whether they agree with me or not - I enjoy the communication that we can all have on a level praying (oops) playing field.I'm quite happy to agree to disagree on some points -we are all so uniqueand we certainly don't HAVE to agree on everything.However, nothing that anyone could ever say to me will EVER change my faith in God. To quote an awesome man of faith 'I will praise God when I'm on the mountain, I will praise God when I'm in the valley, I will praiseGo

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Hi again urchin..

That certainly was a moving story of faith on that gentlemans part! I hope he does indeed get the healing he requires! Sheesh! I'm flat out trying to get out of bed if my bones are just aching let alone walk across a platform with several broken bones!

I was thinking back to my time in the Rf and the amount of people who got healings. But the number of people wo DIDN'T get healings seemed to far outway. I got healings sometimes, and other times I didn't. Why do you think that is? A very dear, dear man in the RF died about 10 months ago, same time as my father sadly so I got a double whammy! He was the most christian man Ive ever met. In every way. His love for the brethren was very genuine. He was diagnosed with cancer also. He decided to forego treatment and wait on God to heal him. Well, he didn't get healed ( obviously ) and it rocked everyone. So, what makes one dedicated christian get healed and not another? This are my questions. I am well aware that everyone of us has to go at some stage. But why so cruely? This topic of faith and positive thoughts intrigues me. Even with the 'Laws of attraction' theory.. shit still happens to people! I was talking with someone today who is currently seeing a councellor and she said that her councellor told her how she is  helping people who have dedicated their lives to this 'laws of attraction' thing and are eaten up with guilt and condemnation because they are still thinking negative thoughts and feel that they are attracting it also! Reminded me of being in the RF and being eaten up with the same guilt because I felt I didnt have enough faith or wasn't doing everything right! Guess you just got to come to the realization that despite your faith, despite having positive thoughts and all the rest of it... Things are still going to go wrong and not always your way. Anyway... departing for a while because my social science show is on.. Big Brother! Hahaha!

Regards... Bindi

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Reply to : Sea UrchinReply to : bindiHi BindiI assure you that Ididn't get in the slightest bit offended by anything you said to me. Moth also apologised to me on the shout box last night. What's with all the apologies?? I don't take offence at people having opinions - I don't care whether they agree with me or not - I enjoy the communication that we can all have on a level praying (oops) playing field.I'm quite happy to agree to disagree on some points -we are all so uniqueand we certainly don't HAVE to agree on everything.However, nothing that anyone could ever say to me will EVER change my faith in God. To quote an awesome man of faith 'I will praise God when I'm on the mountain, I will praise God when I'm in the valley, I will praiseGoHi again urchin..That

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889148/site/newsweek/page/3/

God debate Sam Harris chats with Pastor Warren

Let me respond to this notion of answered prayer, because this is a classic sampling error, to use a statistical phrase. We know that human beings have a terrible sense of probability. There are many things we believe that confirm our prejudices about the world, and we believe this only by noticing the confirmations, and not keeping track of the disconfirmations. You could prove to the satisfaction of every scientist that intercessory prayer works if you set up a simple experiment. Get a billion Christians to pray for a single amputee. Get them to pray that God regrow that missing limb. This happens to salamanders every day, presumably without prayer; this is within the capacity of God. [Warren is laughing.] I find it interesting that people of faith only tend to pray for conditions that are self-limiting.

Let's talk about tongues, baby

let's talk about you and me

Let's talk about all the good things

and the bad things that may be

let's talk about tongues...

That was the musical introduction to today's talk on tongues set to the music from the beloved pop song, 'let's talk bout sex'. Of course tongues has nothing to do with sex unless you are a cunning-linguist and if that were actually the 'gift' given at the day of penteconst then we've truly been missing out on something special. Because apparently that is a gift that no man understands... unless gifted.

Anyway, that's a subject I would only continue further if Shiner was here. I was moved to ponder the concept of confusing languages and I think I mentioned earlier my confusion that God rewarded his people of the new testament a language that was confusing to man because only God understood it, yet punished his Old testament people by giving them languages that couldn't be understood by each other.

That lead me to explore the following concepts... which are sort of... confusing.

GE 11:9 At Babel, the Lord confused the language of the whole world.
1CO 14:33 Paul says that God is not the author of confusion.

GE 10:5, 20, 31 There were many languages before the Tower of Babel.
GE 11:1 There was only one language before the Tower of Babel.

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Let's talk about tongues, babylet's talk about you and meLet's talk about all the good thingsand the bad things that may belet's talk about tongues...That was the musical introduction to today's talk on tongues set to the music from the beloved pop song, 'let's talk bout sex'. Of course tongues has nothing to do with sex unless you are acunning-linguistand if that were actually the 'gift' given at the day of penteconst then we've truly been missing out on something special. Because apparently that is a gift that no man understands... unless gifted.Anyway, that's a subject I would only continue further if Shiner was here. I was moved to ponder the concept of

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Hahahahaha! Actually Mothman... I have to correct you there. Tongues has a lot to do with sex if you really think about it. But we wont go there will we???!!!!  Ummm Arrr... am I bad? LOL! Sorry.. just COULDN'T resist this post!

Oh.. by the way.. those thoughts must be from the 'devil' side!

I'll probably delete this post in time ( when the 'angel' side of me kicks back in ) and I don't think its so funny and I'm embarressed, but for now... Have a laugh!