Good morning everyone, hope we are all having a pleasant day? I want to share with us this interesting story of mine, its not complete though, i'll be writing them in episodes.
This is just episode 1, i hope we will all enjoy reading it, its titled THE CHURCH NEXT DOOR
Source
The church next door seemed ordinary, and from the outside it cut no impression I had not seen before, but my findings there changed my life from the way I knew it.
I was about to drive into my compound when I heard a man asking another, “Have you been to that church down the street? It is like Christ himself comes down to worship with them every fellowship day.” The words of that man, whoever he was, somehow burned into my heart the desire to visit the church. Perhaps there was more in play, maybe some force or guilt playing on the edge of my mind made me want to visit the church...
Three weeks after I eavesdropped on the conversation of those men, I finally made it to the church. The very moment I set my feet at the door step of the church, I felt a presence which left me feeling like I had not been to church in a decade; yet I had not missed a church service for the last twelve years. Like everyone else in a new place, I began to assess the church interior decoration. Frankly, it didn’t in any bit look any less impressive than my church. As for the people in the church, they were as much trendy in their dressing as those in my church.
I didn’t see a soul who looked like he had just crawled out from a rabbit hole. On the surface it was just like my church. So what is this unusual feeling…? What is this uniqueness about this church? I asked myself.
It was there for me to sense, yet I could not define it. It seemed to be gently burning into the dark caverns of my soul. Then my attention was drawn to the pulpit, a young lady had just stepped on it and began to sing. Usually in my church, it would take several songs for me to key in into the spirit of the worship and sometimes I just won’t. I would emptily mime the song and give the impression I was enjoying the worship. However, in here, my mouth opened in worship in spite of myself.
My hands seemed to lift of their own accord, even though I didn’t want to, and standing to my feet, my eyes seemed to shut of their own volition and I was gone. When the worship was over, I opened my eyes and realized I had been crying all along. That night I poured out all of my filth and unworthiness at the feet of Christ and spoke in tongues like a blender. I remembered my wife asking me weeks earlier,
“Honey, do you still speak in tongues?”
“I guess if I want to, I would,” was my reply.
She had asked because for a very long time she had not heard me speak in tongues at home or church. Some minutes later the pastor mounted the pulpit and began to preach. It was teaching actually. While he ministered, something divine touched me. It felt as though the bible was being preached for the first time to my hearing in many years.
The words preached were filled with power and so much revelation, that momentarily I thought my mind was spinning.
I moved to the edge of my seat and then slipped off and landed on my knees. One or two faces looked my way; the others were too engrossed in the message to pay attention to me. Down on my knees, I searched my bible frantically to know if really the quotations the pastor read were truly in the bible. Right where I was on my knees, I realized I had been lost for a very long time.
The comparisons between the church and my family church were stark and striking. In my church we knew a lot about Wall Street market reports. Most of us in church knew the names and the stories of the top 20 richest men and women in the world. Our pastor made sure we didn’t forget. He always repeated their names and their stories. We knew about the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, etc. I had seen some of our church leaders zealously searching for the book of Jude in the Old Testament and didn’t even know that there is a book called Philemon in the New Testament. Sadly, we knew a lot about CashFlow Quadrant; Rich Dad, Poor Dad; Eat That Frog; Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and so many others...
WATCH OUT FOR EPISODE II.COMING SOON!!!