place of nathan.

Have you ever heard of being slain in the spirit?

As wikipedia puts it, slain in the spirit is “a religious phenomenon in which a person enters a state with loss of all motor control over their body and falls to the floor during an event perceived as a personal encounter with God’s glory and power, usually associated with occasions of public prayer ministry when the laying on of hands is practiced.”

When I was a junior or senior in high school, I went to youth group in Fort Wayne with my best friend. There were about 300 teens there. After service, there was a prayer line, and people were getting slain in the spirit right down the line. I was so excited to experience more of what God had for me. I wanted all God had for me–not just part of it.
As the guy praying–I’ll call him Billy–came to me, he place his hand on my forehead. He prayed for me, and I stood there, ready for an awesome encounter with God. When I didn’t go down, he lightly pushed on my forehead. I realized he was pushing on me, and I didn’t go down, because I wanted God to knock me out, not Billy to push me over. So Billy pushed a little harder. At this point, I was like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ He then stopped pushing and kept praying for me, before he moved on to the next person.
Talk about disappointment!

Notice the wikipedia description said, ‘public prayer ministry’ and ‘laying on of hands’.
my thoughts: 1. why wouldn’t such an intimate experience happen during one-on-one time? 2. why when ‘laying on of hands?’

So then I went to the Bible. I wanted to find evidence of being slain in the spirit. There is pretty much nothing. When there is, it is face-down, not face-up, or it’s a conscious choice to lay down–no references to an uncontrollable loss of motor function when someone touches you in a public setting.
Please take a moment and look at these verses: (note: this is NOT an exhaustive listing) Genesis 17:3, Joshua 5:14, Judges 13:20, 1 Kings 8:10, 11, Ezekiel 1:28, Matthew 17:6, Matthew 28:4, Mark 3:11, Mark 9:20, John 18:6, Acts 9:4-8, Revelation 1:17

I would note that at the time of my experience of not being slain in the spirit, I truly believed it was of God and was biblical. I’m honestly not sure why I believed this, as I’m quite certain my dad (my pastor) never taught me it was, so I’m not sure what gave me the impression it was Godly and biblical.

That’s not to say God couldn’t knock me out if he wanted to, because I am very, very confident God could slay me (or you) in the spirit (or physically) any time He wanted. I just haven’t been able to scripturally support our modern ’slain in the spirit’ ritual.

Thoughts on this?
Do you have any similar experiences to what I experienced in high school?
Have a missed a key scripture indicating a scriptural precedent for being slain in the spirit?

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POO-POO ALERT: In this blog, I tactfully address poo-poo. If you are offended at the mention of poo-poo, stop reading now, please.

In our effort to reduce the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diet (you’d be amazed at how many things have it as an ingredient), Emily and I tried some organic yogurt.

YUCK!

So after we neither one were big fans of the organic ‘yogurt,’ we looked a bit more and found a Yoplait yogurt without , Yo-Plus, which is one of those ‘digestive health’ yogurts which is supposed to help ‘regulate’ you.

Let me tell you, from first-hand experience, these yogurts work! The first week isn’t exactly fun, as the poo-poo is, um…shall we say, ahhh…quite soft?
But after 10 days on the stuff, this does exactly what it is supposed to do. It works very well, and I’m very happy with my poo-poo situation at this point in time.

I plan on continuing to eat the non-high fructose corn syrup, digestive health yougurt. In the words of Rachel Ray, ‘Yum-o!’ (the cherry is my favorite!)

FYI: high-fructose corn syrup is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose, which is then processed to produce a higher concentration of fructose. (Read more about HFCS here.)

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This weekend I played a rough game of flag football, and I’m feeling the pains of my excursion today.
I dove multiple times for flags, and landed on my calf on like four straight plays, leaving my calf muscle bruised, I believe.
I was defending a pass to Dr Chalfant, and went up for a catch, and our shoulders hit hard, leaving pain in my shoulder.
I was defending another guy in the end zone, and after a successful defense, I landed on my back, and he landed on my pelvis, giving me low back pain.
My leg muscles aren’t used to going left-right, up down and diving, so my legs are sore, not to mention my abs and neck.
Pretty much, I’m sore all over.

Despite all my pains today, I wouldn’t trade my game of Flag Football over the weekend. I would do it all over again–and I will!

Have you ever noticed that when we’re doing something we truly love doing, it doesn’t matter how much it hurts, we push through the pain and don’t care about what pain we cause ourselves?
I wonder what our walks with Christ would be like if we approached each day with the same passion and ‘pushing through the pain’.

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The newest version of WordPress, 2.3 (the blogging software which powers this blog) comes out on Monday morning.

I’m looking forward to this version because it introduces tagging, and has a cool cloud tag feature, which you’ll see implemented very soon! You have to update your theme manually, or if you’re hosted on WP.com, you’ll automatically see the tag feature.

Sweet. And exciting!

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I think, perhaps, Thomas Gray was right.

I had a renewed since of this as I spend most of this week drinking sub-par coffee. Several years ago, when I was ignorant of ‘good’ coffee, I wouldn’t have known this week’s coffee was sub-par. But I’m not, so I was disappointed at each sip.

Yet disappointed, I kept getting coffee, hoping each time for a different result. Alas, the coffee turned not for the better.

Why is it when we know better, we hope for a result quite unlike what we expect?
In the words of Thomas Gray,

No more;–where ignorance is bliss,
‘Tis folly to be wise.

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I approach pretty much everything with the same thought: There’s got to be a better way.

There has to be a more effective way to Swiffer my floors.
There has to be a quicker route to Cincinnati (and I found it this past week).
There has to be a better way to make orange juice from concentrate.
There has to be a way to more efficiently heat and cool my house.

There has to be a better way…

I’m always looking for a better, more effective, more efficient, quicker way to do everything.

Nor when I’ve found a better way, do I think for one moment it’s the best way. I think to myself, There’s got to be even a better way to do this.

Sometimes this is great, sometimes it is not. Sometimes people don’t understand why I am not happy with doing things the way they’ve always been done.
Tradition is great, but tradition ‘just because’ is just plain stupid, imho. I revert again to: There’s got to be a better way.

And maybe, just perhaps, the old way is the best way. I’m always open to that possibility, but I’ll never stop looking.

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Emily and I arrived back home again about 2 p.m. Thursday. When we turned down our road, it looked like there was MAJOR construction going on at our house! I saw a boom truck, a utility truck, a trailer and a full-size truck.

As we got closer, we realized the first two (boom truck and utility truck) were in the neighbor’s yard trimming back a large walnut tree as it had grown into the power lines.

Our roof is coming along. They are almost finished above the house, with just some loose ends to finish up there, and when I left there about 2:30, the garage was down to the sheathing. So I think they’ll be done with the job tomorrow, if all goes as planned. My grass is taking some damage…which stresses me out, so I’ll be happy when the job is done and I can re-assess how my grass is doing. I’m ready to put down a last batch of fertilizer for the year, so it is great timing.

Back to work…I have a load to get done this week!

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Tonight at the convention, Pastor Paul shared briefly about the difference between conviction and preference.

He noted that convictions should be as short as possible, and rooted in the Bible. And your convictions are just that–yours. Don’t force your convictions (like, you won’t wear a tie, or you won’t do this, or that) onto everyone else. If God told you, that means he told you.

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While Emily and I are in Cincinnati, our home is getting a new roof put on it.

Today the old roof got tore off, and I got a call from Mark, who is doing the roof, to let me know the sheathing (the ‘plywood’ sheets which go on top of the rafters) is old planks (which I knew), and there are some significant gaps between the board (which I also knew). So, we’re really getting a whole new roof this week.

We are looking forward to coming home and seeing our new roof, but most of all, we are looking forward to no more leaks!

Unfortunately for me, a new roof means I won’t be purchasing my long awaited 42″ flat screen television any time soon…

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I am on my computer, set up in Cincinnati for the convention.

Emily and I had a really great time yesterday night and this morning. We went shopping this morning and Emily got a new pair of jeans and a couple shirts. I think she was happy she got to shop.

I forgot my flip flops, and I was missing them, so we looked for new flip flops for myself…we found some at The Gap, but they had either orange or green straps, and I wasn’t really a into the specific color…neutrals are my friend. I really wanted some neutral brown ones, but couldn’t find quite what I was looking for, so we looked at Target and Old Navy, and both of those didn’t have any flip flops left…so I still don’t have any flip flops.

We ate lunch today at Panera, and it was good. This afternoon I’ve spent setting up and doing some importing getting ready. As I’m typing this currently, I’m sitting here in the ballroom and Emily is up in the room, probably watching the Food Network…

More to come…

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This next week, I’m running tech at the CMI National Convention in Cincinnati. The convention starts on Monday night, but Emily and I are leaving Sunday morning and are planning on enjoying a little extra vacation time.

At the convention, I’ll be running tech on videos and lyrics, and will be wired, so I will probably continue to give you updates through the convention.
Speakers at the convention include Mark Gungor of Laugh Your Way America and Mike Cavanaugh of Elim Gospel Church and Elim Fellowship.

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