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Letters November 5, 2007
Be sure to tune in every week to ninetyandnine.com (updated every Monday) to see the happenings in our movement, and to share your thoughts and opinions.
Re: God’s Perfect Will: My New Job Must Be In Milwaukee!
I thank the Lord for Kathie Foster. It is evident she’s a person who seeks the Lord with her whole heart for the will of God to be performed in her life. I came across your site accidentally after performing a search on “God’s Perfect Will.” So I stumbled across her first article and have been looking for the continuation ever since.
God bless you all mightily.
Pamela Wanjiku Neondo, Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa
Re: TV, Devil Horns, Teddy Roosevelt, and Our Real Community Witness
Very well spoken. Thank you for graciously exposing the non-Christian attitudes that the world sees among us and wonders how we can call ourselves followers of Christ. I am confident that Jesus would not be very well pleased if He came back to see the church bickering over details while the world is spinning out of control. More love, more compassion, more grace is what our world needs. Not a church divided by bickering.
Oh wait . . . Jesus is Omnipresent so . . . yeah . . . I guess He does see all this, doesn’t He? Hmmm.
Kris Newman, Minnesota
Re: Exposed
Really, really awesome! Not many people discuss something so simple as honesty anymore! But it is so needed! Again, such a good article.
Amber Newton, Texas
Re: TV, Devil Horns, Teddy Roosevelt, and Our Real Community Witness
Being present at the Tampa General Conference was an experience I will long remember. A number of things caught my attention before, during and after.
Before: I came with several family members, two of whom had never been to a General Conference before. One these is a recent convert, Jewish by birth, now Apostolic by new birth. The other is in the early stages of spiritual growth. There were several others, including small children. Having heard the details of some of the issues at hand, I spent time in prayer that nothing at the conference would hurt or create problems for the new believers and/or the others.
During: Considering the issues, it was remarkable how few ministers came, and how many of those who did come, only stayed for the vote and left immediately afterward. I was pleasantly surprised at the restrained reactions, particularly in the Convention Center. I was thankful for those who conducted themselves in a godly way—both those who were pleased at the outcome and those who were disappointed. It was as if there was a deliberate intent not to make a scene or create a disruption. For the sake of those I came with and others, I was glad and thankful.
Then came those powerful messages on Friday and Saturday evening. Both are memorable and reveal the UPCI at its best. An older man and a younger one—both men of God, both under an unction and anointing, both speaking to the real need of the hour, each from his own unique perspective. One an icon, the other an iconoclast of sorts, but both had the mind of Christ and were following His leading. Of that I have no doubt.
After: They came out of the woodwork, courtesy of 90&9. According to your records, 170 of them, and though they started off as reasonable discourses, they went downhill from there. Disagreements, diatribes, dirty laundry, draining discussions of doubtful disputations facilitated by the wonder that is the internet. This tool enables everyman to have his say, and, as you said, most of them do so anonymously. Fortunately and more importantly, thankfully; those I spoke about earlier are not devotees of internet discussions, so they escaped all the pettiness and vitriol.
90&9 may have closed the discussion on the Internet (rightly so, in my opinion, and not a moment too soon,) but the closing of the Internet chatter did nothing to halt the gathering storm. One thing is sure, when a storm is both brooding and intense, cataclysmic things happen and this storm is still gathering.
If we’re not earnestly praying for our leaders and those who have the spiritual rule over us, our error is grievous indeed. We also need to pray to be delivered from the fringe elements on both sides of the spectrum.
Marjorie Kinnee, Michigan
Re: TV, Devil Horns, Teddy Roosevelt, and Our Real Community Witness
Very nicely put, my brother. I agree completely and am saddened by my brothers’ and sisters’ actions. Especially attacks against Bishop Haney. Keep up the good work. God bless.
Carl L. Pollock, Tennessee
Re: A Creative God Dances to New Creations
This article was very well written and thought out. I agree whole-heartedly with this frame of reference. What some of us don’t realize that some of the songs written in Pentecostal Praise (to name one songbook) were new and novel in the era they were written in also. I’m sure a few of their elders would have preferred to have had more historical songs (such as “Amazing Grace”) sung than the newer songs written without such poetic words.
I like both contemporary and older songs, providing that both tell a story about God or to uplift the soul or spirit. Neither should be sung without the anointing of God. I find that most places hymns are sung they are not sung under the anointing. They are sung as a required part of the song service; they are not relevant to the singer. Therefore, they are not anointed. If your church must have hymns, make sure the person singing them knows what they are singing of. Otherwise, it just comes off as being a boring addition to the song service.
Just my two cents on the subject. The anointing makes the difference either way!
Angela Hodoe, Evangelist wife, Tennessee
Re: TV, Devil Horns, Teddy Roosevelt, and Our Real Community Witness
When I read the description of the Photoshopped picture of Bro. Haney with devil horns and TV screens for eyes, I had the same feeling that I did when I watched that little program they showed us on rock music back in the day at Youth Camp. It would play a harmless segment of 80s rock and then play the same segment backwards and you’d hear bizarre backwards sounds mixed in with demonic sounding commands to take drugs and kill oneself.
I guess maybe my mind associated those two things is because of they both convey the horror of discovering something perverse on the flip side of something seemingly harmless.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s no big deal to be rabidly for or against the resolution that passed. People on both sides of the fence, I’m sure, have valid, heartfelt reasons for feeling the way they do. But there’s something insidious and unsettling about the venom and malice spewed out by people who call themselves Christians who happen to disagree on a non-doctrinal point.
On the surface, zealotry (in certain instances) can seem harmless. But sometimes it can get to a point where it’ll make your stomach turn beneath the surface.
Chantell Smith, Alabama
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© 2007, ninetyandnine.com
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