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Choir Loft Crazy

I was a young believer. I was Catholic. I was attending Bible study at my local church. The lead teacher chose me to take under his wing as an assistant. He went out of town and left me in charge.

No one showed up at the Bible study. (It happens when the lead teacher is gone.) There was me, another lady and then this other guy that came that had never been there before. (I guess you could say he was "on something," but it wasn't drugs.)

He talked about spiritual things. It was in a crazy sort of way. Since I was a "baby Christian" I didn't know how to deal with it. He told me he wanted to meet with me after the meeting. We did ~ in my car. I finally wriggled away after telling him I would meet with him again. I gave him my phone number. (Oops.) I forgot about it.

Then one day the phone rang. "Mike!" declared the voice on the other end. It gave me chills. "I want to meet with you at the church at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon!" (Yeah, he said that, too, with the exclamation point.) I hung up the phone. I thought about not going. But I did. (I have this loyalty thing and keep my word. Gets me in trouble sometimes.)

It was 3 p.m. EXACTLY on Friday afternoon. I was in the church parking lot. I said to myself, "See. He's not here. I'm going now." That's when I heard it. "Mike!" (He said it with the exclamation point again.) There he was. (Oh no.) He led me to the church choir loft. (You're thinking, "Why did you go? Are you that stupid?")

He talked to me about spiritual things some more ~ about how we were living in the end times. And about how Christ had already returned. (First flag should have gone up. Jesus had come and gone?) And Mary. Mary was very, very important he told me. I was not at peace.

I can't even remember the drive home. What I do remember is my roommate telling me, "Mike, you need to get baptized in the Holy Spirit."

Can't fool me anymore. ;D

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On Sloppy Preaching and Popes

Ex cathedra. It's a term that basically means what the Pope says goes and you don't question it. Uh uh. No way. It's "gospel." And what's crazy about it is it can happen even outside the Vatican with preachers and Christian leaders. People can begin to think that what they say goes and you better not question it. And it may or may not be that their words are offered at "ex cathedra" levels, yet still it's taken as "gospel" by some. And I'm gonna go out on a limb here. (How else do you get any readers?) Here's the limb: There's a lot of sloppy preaching in our day. (I'm so convinced of this.) And I'm not necessarily saying that it's to the point of heresy (though in some cases it comes close), but it's sloppy preaching at the very least. And just because somebody gets in front of you who's sold a lot of books doesn't mean you don't test what they say. (1 John 4:1) Are you hearing me? Of course, the Bereans scrutinized Paul's words to see if they were true. (Acts 17:10-12) Should they not have just accepted it? He was an apostle after all! And don't forget that even the devil can quote Scripture. (Matthew 4:5-6) Many are led astray by false prophets/teachers in the last days. (2 Peter 2:1) It starts with sloppy preaching and Popes?