Amen, Vinny!



JulieMelton
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Keep smiling!





>From: Vinny Samarco <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Electronic Church <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Thoughts on our reationship with the Lord
>Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:12:44 -0700
>
>Hi Everyone,
>	I have some thoughts on our relationship with the Lord that I would like 
>to share with you.  I am not writing to step on anyones toes, so-to-speak, 
>but just writing out of the burden I am feeling concerning things sent to 
>the list by all of us.
>	The question is this.  Do you have a first, or second-hand relationship 
>with the Lord?  I have to ask myself the same thing.  Here's why.
>	You know, in this day when we are surrounded and impacted by everything 
>the media says, we can be almost totally influenced by the media-socially, 
>politically, spiritually, and in many other ways.
>	The spiritual food that we feed upon each day, do we get that each day 
>from the spirit of God in ourhearts and through His Word? Or do we become 
>totally dependant on radio broadcasts, tv broadcasts, commercial Christian 
>music, devotionals and sermons written by others?
>	What I have found in my own walk and experience with the Lord is that I 
>can surround myself with so much reading material, spiritual and other, 
>that I can be having a vicarious relationship with what I think is the 
>Lord, through these external things.  By doing this, I could actually be 
>insulating myself from things the Lord might want to speak to me.  He might 
>want to be  telling me to read a certain scripture, speak to a certain 
>person, or obey Him iin acertain thing he wants to deal with me about.  If 
>my head and heart are so full of what others hav written and produced, or 
>sung,I may be inhibiting the Spirit of the Lord from communicating with 
>me-meanwhile thinking I'm ok witht the lord.
>	I am not saying not to read, listen to praise or anything like, but I am 
>sayingthat we need the Lord to govern all these things, so we don't have a 
>substitute relationship with an imaginary god.
>	Remember, Martin Luther fought for our right to hear from God.  
>Theologically, this has been called "the Priesthood of the believer".
>  In the dark   ages the church taught that only the priests could hear 
>from God for the people, and that even if you could read, you were not 
>aloud to read and interpret the bible as God would show you.  This was a 
>gross mis-representation of the spirit of God.  Many people were oppressed 
>for hundreds of years until the reformation.  In the Catholic church, these 
>things began to change after Vatican ii.
>
>	Since this is our privelege and responsibility, we aught to take full 
>advantage of these things, and not allow				 our brains to be so crowded 
>with so many words, that we miss the Lord's leading.
>	On a slightly different subject, the Lord has given all of gifts. For 
>example, Rhonda writes poetry, Julie writes songs.  Phil writes testimonies 
>and intercedes for people.  Others like Vicki, Kathy, Carroll Jennifer and 
>others of you have a ministry of encouragement.  And, of course, Pat has 
>many lovings and squeezings for us all.
>	The Lord has giving all of us a measure of his spirit. Let's allow him to 
>flow throughout and use it to bnuild up those on the list, and those to who 
>we contact.
>
>Vinny
>