What are you reading currently?

[mizpeh]

I've recently finished a couple of books by Jack Deere and another book called "Take Your Glory, Lord". I enjoyed all of them.

[mizpeh]

Originally Posted by Sam

I recently finished reading “Nine O’clock In The Morning” by Dennis J. Bennett, copyright 1970.

Dennis J. Bennett (born 10/28/17, died 11/1/91) was an Episcopal clergyman prominently identified with the Charismatic Renewal from the beginning. He was pastor of the St. Mark Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, CA., a congregation of about 2600, and in 1959 and early 1960, he and several others in the church were baptized in the Holy Spirit. The group of Spirit-filled believers in the congregation grew and and there was some division among church members over the experience. On April 3, 1960, Pastor Bennett announced his experience in a sermon to the congregation and later resigned his position as pastor. He then moved to St. Luke’s in Seattle and from there traveled nationally and internationally teaching on and ministering the Holy Spirit. At the time the book was written he estimated that between 8 and 10 thousand people had received the Holy Ghost Baptism through meetings in the Seattle area. The April 3, 1960 date is usually considered the beginning of the Charismatic Renewal so next month will be a 50 year anniversary.

The book starts out on his day off when a fellow Episcopal priest named Frank visited him and expressed concern about a couple of members in his (Frank’s) church. When Father Bennett asked him why he is concerned about his members, the priest says that, although they had been members of the church when he first came as pastor, they recently started coming to church on a regular basis, and seemed to be "enjoying" their religion. When asked, they explained that the reason for the big change in them is that they had recently been baptized in the Holy Spirit and had spoken with tongues.

Well, Father Bennett becomes intrigued and starts visiting with them and then attending some prayer meetings, talking to people, and investigating by reading the Bible. After about three months of cautiously looking on, he is told that if he wants to be baptized in the Spirit, all he has to do is ask for the experience. On a Saturday afternoon, Father Bennett and another priest from his diocese (not Frank) were in the couple’s home and it happened.

Here’s how the book describes the event on pages 20 and 21.

John came across the room and laid his hands first on my head, and then on my friend’s. He began to pray, very quietly, and I recognized the same thing as when Bud had prayed with me a few days before: he was speaking a language that I did not understand, and speaking it very fluently. He wasn’t a bit “worked up” about it either. Then he prayed in English for Jesus to baptize me in the Holy Spirit.

I began to pray, as he told me, and I prayed very quietly, too. I was not about to get even a little bit excited! I was simply following instructions. I suppose I must have prayed out loud for about twenty minutes --at least it seemed to be a log time-- and was just about to give up when a very strange thing happened. My tongue tripped, just as it might when you are trying to recite a tongue twister, and I began to speak in a new language!

Right away I recognized several things: first, it wasn’t some kind of psychological trick or compulsion. There was nothing compulsive about it. I was allowing these new words to come to my lips and was speaking them out of my own volition, without in any way being forced to do it. I wasn’t “carried away” in any sense of the word, but was fully in possession of my wits and my willpower. I spoke the new language because it was interesting to speak a language I had never learned, even though I didn’t know what I was saying. I had taken quite a while to learn a small amount of German and French, but here was a language “for free”! Secondly, it was a real language, not some kind of “baby-talk.” It had grammar and syntax: it had inflection and expression --and it was rather beautiful! I went on allowing these new words to come to my lips for about five minutes, then said to my friends: “Well, that must be what you mean by ‘speaking in tongues’ --but what is it all about? I don’t feel anything?”

They said joyfully, “Praise the Lord!”

This seemed a bit irrelevant and was a little strong for my constitution. It bordered on the fanatical for such a thing to be said by Episcopalians on a fine Saturday afternoon sitting right in the front room of their own home.

Did you like the book, Sam?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by mizpeh

Did you like the book, Sam?

Yes.
I started reading it several years ago but only got through about one chapter. Then it just became part of my library which contains hundreds of books that I have only partially read. Then I recently read something somewhere about April 30, 2010 being the 50th anniversary of Father Dennis Bennett's announcement of having received the Holy Ghost Baptism and I dug the book out and read it through.

I'm also on a forum called Apostolic Forum
http://apostolicforum.ning.com/main/...ment%3A2971%26
and have recently started a group there on Church History so I have posted a couple things about Dennis Bennett there.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by mizpeh

Did you like the book, Sam?

Yes, I like some of that Apostolic/Pentecostal/Charismatic history stuff.

I remember the nineteen sixties and the Charismatic Renewal Movement and I also remember the Jesus People. I and some others in the established Apostolic Churches had some problems with all these folks receiving the Holy Ghost Baptism and speaking with tongues. Because they did not look like us or believe like us, some of us wondered if they had the "real" Holy Ghost. It was as though we thought we had an exclusive franchise on God and people had to come to us to receive Him. How dare they avoid us and go directly to Him and receive from Him?

It took me a while but I've changed my mind on that many years ago.

[*AQuietPlace*]

The Prodigal God
Pagan Christianity

[Nitehawk013]

I am about to order Pagan Christianity.

I am going to re-read "The War Against Men" soon inpreperation for a sermon. The book focusses on how society in America now tears down the strong male role by mocking it and demeaning it. It makes it a joke or outdated cheauvenist ideal to be a strong man who leads his home. The result is the effiminate, weak structure of so many families and the increasing number of sissified children among many other really bad byproducts.

[mizpeh]

Originally Posted by *AQuietPlace*

The Prodigal God
Pagan Christianity

I have Pagan Christianity but it's way down on my reading list.

[Sam]

I just read "Receive Ye The Holy Ghost" copyright 2003 by the late A.A. Allen (1911 - 1970). He was an Assembly of God minister who had a ministry of healing. It is a short book (just 23 pages) and was probably transcribed from one of his sermons.

A.A. Allen, Jack Coe, Glenn Thompson, and C.M. Ward were instrumental in leading me into more light as a young Christian back in the nineteen fifties through their radio programs and their writings.

[viggie]

Just finished "A Woman After God's Own Heart" and was thoroughly impressed. It was a library copy so I didn't get a chance to really take my time and read all the references. But I've already ordered a set with the workbook so I can go through it again.

[MissBrattified]

The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten

(borrowed from P, Margie. )