Religious

A group of women from America visited my church during the weekend. There were here to conduct a ladies meeting. Pastor had got inquinted with them when they visited US a couple of months back. One of them came on stage to deliver a song prior to another coming on to give a message. I was totally blown away by her voice and at the same time, experience the power of the Holy Spirit coming down. It was indeed setting the right atmosphere for the message to be delivered.



I admit that I couldn't remember their names. However, it was really good to feel His presence in the sanctuary. Its quite rare at times to experience what spirit filled is eventhough I come from a charismatic church that supposed to be spirit filled. Church have become too structured at times that it is hard for the Spirit to move. Things have become so organised. The number of songs to sing. The amount of time spend for praise and worship. The type of song to sing, 3 praise and 3 worship song. Services to end on time. I still remember the days when things were less organised and timely whereby I could really enjoy being in the presence of God regardless of what time the service ends. Church at times have become a timely activity which seek to make people feel comfortable and happy. It feels religious at times just to attend church every Sunday.

This was the topicthat was shared to us. She came from a background of drunkards. They were from a singing family who used to sing in bars. Ironically, "Amazing Grace" was one of the favourite pieces to present. It all changed when one day, her father decided to go to the church and in the span of 6 weeks, her intire household came to Christ. Its amazing how at times God places a thought to go the church with the intention of getting one saved. I can still remember the day when my family decided to go for a Sunday morning drive and ended up in church. That was how my family and I were saved.

She began to share her experience being a full time leader in church. There was a time when one of the pastor of the church was speaking that Sunday. She had a bad impression of him mainly because of the way he spoke and how he would take a long time just to collect offering. His conduct made her agitated that she was so caught up with Him then what was around her. She was the worship leader for the day and when it was her time to lead the congregration into a time of praise and worship, it was her time now to be in control. As she began to sing the songs, the power of God hit and all of her musician fell on her ground. She didn't even realise they had gone down and continued singing. Even the pianist who came up to take over from the fallen pianist fell as well. She did her thing, heard the sermon and left for home, waiting for her husband to be back. Two hours pass and her husband had not return. He came in thereafter and she asked, "Where were you?". He replied, "I was in church. God visited us." She had missed the visitation of God.

Its ironic how at times we get so caught up with church not knowing that we are. Church have become a place where there are so many activities taking place. Multiple ministries set up that have respective activities that seem to take up a bulk of our time. Even Sundays, the Sabbath are not spared as well. People spend so much time in church that they do not have time for anyone outside of church. Life began to revolve around church and church friends. A circle of supposedly "holy" people. I used to be in that circle until I began to feel tired of being in it. There was much emptiness being in church despite being active in church things. It soon dawn upon me that I wanted to move out as I ventured into being active in CF back in uni. It was a step away from church yet I was still very actively involve in Christian activities. This gave me freedom of mixing with many other people from different church and denomination. It was interesting to know people from other part of Malaysia as well. This soon extended to not only Christian friends but also non-Christians as well. The activities that were planned were catered to the general uni people where we get to interact with many people from different faculties, race and religious belief. It was interesting as it was a different setting altogether from just being in church.

After leaving uni, there is not much involvement in Christian activities, even in church. Am still finding where I intend on venturing or serving in. I do not want to be too religious that I get so absorb in church that I forget being relevant to society as a Christian. I want the freedom to be able to be in His presence without having to be overworked or burden by commitments that will only tired me away. Yet, I still want to be involve in something. I guess one of the negative side of not getting too involved in church is that you become separated a little especially when it comes to finding people to confide in when a dealing with issues pertaining to spirituality. Someone who you can be close and accountable to. I guess that is something I missed or at times feel lose but I believe there were come a day where I will realise that this are all part and parcel of growing in the Lord. Trusting in Him than people.