waysider

Yeah, that's kinda what the postcard is implying.

You didn't answer my question. Why am I not surprised?

I have neither the resources nor the desire to listen to a tape from almost 60 years ago. Please expound on what it said that led you to this conclusion.

Anki Cards

Yeah, sure. It's totally my fault for not telling you to follow the bouncing ball.

I'm gonna take a wild guess here. Is it because they're undocumented and bogus?

Marsha, Marsha, bo-bar-sha Bo-na-na fanna, fo-far-sha Fee-fi-mo-ar-sha Marsha Isn't that wuuuuunderful!?

Revelation, of course.

Enlighten us, oh wise one.

I challenge ANYONE to provide some scriptural justification for excellor sessions. Edit: (I'm getting ready for the sound of crickets chirping.)

Fer cryin' out loud. The whole stinkin' ministry did this stuff.

Good Lord, Mike Do you think you're the only one here who ever led a twig or ran a class?

I was talking about the silent kind of stuff people do while riding the subway, sitting in the dentist's chair and so forth.

I think it's important to note that speaking in tongues, in and of itself, is harmless. If, on the other hand, you have unrealistic expectations of the results it will produce and base your behavior on those expectations, that's another matter entirely.

I must have dozed off. Can you briefly repeat it?

Fun Fact: A session participant who has the ability to spark interest with fiery enthusiasm is known as an "excellorant".

Get The Message!

Well, in retrospect, he wasn't too good at faking those either. Lo Shonta!

It was a ministry wide practice.

Phenomena was often wheeled out as a handy dandy off-ramp, even though Wierwille taught in the Advanced Class that God only used it as a last resort when there was no one "in fellowship" enough to receive revelation. By sheer logic, this alone disqualifies his snowstorm story. Unless, of course, you're open to accepting he was out of fellowship at the time. Not good either way.

The people who witnessed to me proceeded to have a believers meeting right then and there, so I was exposed to it from the start. I had never heard anything about it before that. However, I had taken some acting classes and had heard people imitate foreign languages. I went to a couple of twig fellowships and saw more believers meetings. About a week later, I had a rather emotional personal experience and, while I was by myself, I spoke in tongues out loud. Then, at the next twig meeting, the person leading the meeting asked for someone to speak in tongues and interpret, so I did. It drew some rather puzzled responses. I hadn't had the class yet. I'm not sure if I even had a Bible. I took the class maybe 2 or 3 weeks after that. (It was over 50 years ago, so my memory may be foggy on the details.) I'm currently a casual language learner. It's really opened my eyes to the complexities of human communication. I no longer think of speaking in tongues as anything mystical or spiritual or however you care to phrase it. It's just something you can do if you lower your inhibitions. .

Three things come to mind. 1. "The aim is meant to be on the target, but when we let go of the arrow, it misses the mark. " If, by "aiming for the target", he means having honest intentions, then Wierwille didn't just miss the target, he failed to aim for it. 2. "Even if your acts are sinful and self-focused, the moment you become aware of that and decide to act out of love, faith, humility, generosity, kindness, and a love of God, God transforms your sin into grace." Wierwille lacked self awareness that his acts were sinful. 3. "Is this where the lockbox doctrine originated? That your heart being right before God allows sin to be turned to grace?" No. the lockbox was another way of saying, "This will be our little secret."

It allows the devotee to do, or at least think, what they want without a sense of shame or guilt.

When you live in a world where down is up and up is down, it really doesn't matter.

Yeah, sure. But, if you're spiritually mature, you can renew your mind to it being OK, because we're in the Grace Administration. (Do I need to add this.../s?)