My Spiritual Home

My Spiritual Home
Deacon Larry Rieger

I came to the CEC in middle age, forced to leave my prior denomination when they abandoned scriptural authority in pursuit of social relevance.  My journey was one of searching the marketplace for a liturgical church using a traditional Eucharist of the Lord’s presence, with a desire also to find a church where I could enjoy worship music.  I was a lifelong liturgical Christian, and very comfortable with the liturgical framework of the Catholic/Anglican traditions. I was comfortable with the Lutheran service I looked at, but desired weekly Eucharist.  The CEC provided the liturgy and weekly Eucharist, but I was very unfamiliar with, and a little discomforted, by the Charismatic part of worship, which I had experienced in lesser degrees in times I had worshipped with more evangelical friends.  My friends who welcomed me to the CEC assured me I would be more comfortable over time, and I also took a small group teaching in the Charismatic part of worship, and was soon at home.

What I found most appealing about the CEC was that not only did I feel very much at home in a theological orthodox faith well expressed within a familiar and comfortable liturgy, but I found the continued reliance and teaching of Holy Scripture, together with spiritually uplifting praise music filled a spiritual void within me.  Yet even as all my traditional spiritual desires were being met, I was both challenged and intrigued by those around me who were enlivened by the various expressions of the Holy Spirit. I could see others being fulfilled and comforted by the Holy Spirit, but I was not feeling it myself, and I knew that I wanted it and needed it.

I had just been in the CEC for two years when troubled times came to the denomination, and my own small parish, which had more than tripled in size in two years, dissolved.  Again I looked for a new home, but every place I went, there was a sense of something missing. After several years of drifting from denomination to denomination, I was able to meet with some other former members and reconnecting with a CEC bishop, started a new CEC parish, which has now doubled in size in the last two years, and is looking ahead.

Although I am still in a relatively small parish, and have been asked why I don’t move to a larger church with all the facilities and activities, that I would like to see, I would not want to journey away from the CEC again.  There is a rightness to my being part of this group, and a spiritual fullness in our worship and fellowship. In travel to where there is not a local CEC church to worship in, I always find a significant aspect of my worship missing regardless of which other church I visit.  The full three streams of worship which the CEC provides has returned me to the complete authentic worship that characterized the undivided Christian church, and I have found my spiritual home.

Deacon Larry Rieger
Saint Michael and All Angels CEC
Williamsburg, VA

New Wine & The Charismatic Stream

-Sarah Northwood
6/5/2019

“The old wine is good enough” but is it? This is the question that the Lord asked me after I had been walking with Him in what I thought was a strong committed relationship for several years. I want to explain how I related with God, what I realized was missing, and how it has changed the way I live as a Christian now.  

Sarah Northwood

I turned over management of my life to the Lord Jesus Christ 33 years ago. I learned many things about the Lord and the Christian life in a sound Bible believing Evangelical church.  I had come out of a lifestyle of worldly behaviors and foolishness. I was convinced to the point of being willing to be taught and led, however, some of those things I was taught were contrary to the truth. One of those beliefs was the teaching concerning the Holy Spirit.

My church at the time loved the Lord, we sought to “carry our cross daily” we learned to serve our brothers and sisters and reach the lost as we were eager and compelled by Love to “Go therefore and make disciples…” For all those teachings and especially the godly examples of those pastors who were servant-leaders to us, I am grateful. However, much of what we lived out in our Christian lives could be done without the need for the supernatural empowering and direction of the Holy Spirit. 

We applied Biblical principles, we disciplined ourselves to follow those principles rather than our own feelings, and we even shared the gospel with others based on carefully laid out spiritual laws and gospel presentations. We learned to praise God thorough all afflictions, but we were relatively unaware of Spiritual warfare. We didn’t believe that God would do supernatural healing or give prophetic direction. We didn’t learn to “hear God” except through the abundance of counsel (prayers of those around us) or the Scriptures. Believing that God was supernaturally empowering us or leading us or even working a miraculous sign through us was not one of our experiential beliefs. 

A dear friend asked me to join her at a Charismatic healing service. I went with her to make sure that, when He didn’t do what she was seeking, I would encourage her to remain faithful to the Lord.  Trouble is, she got healed that night! This was a little crack in my theological armor, but because it wasn’t in my own experience, I wasn’t persuaded that it really happened. However, God began to reveal many things to me as I became increasingly willing to believe that He was showing me things that I hadn’t been taught. He wanted to show me that He does still use people to heal others- sometimes miraculously! He wanted to show me that He is still giving people prophetic words and revealing words of knowledge to them and speaking through them in a heavenly language. I have been able to follow Him into conversations that, before would have led nowhere only to find that, as He leads it, they are open to words of truth that He provides. I have been led by Him to pray for strangers and see them healed of physical as well as emotional hurts.

All this change wasn’t an easy transition for me, however. I had to be willing to let go of the teaching that didn’t line up.  Instead of believing that the Holy Spirit is not currently doing miracles or healing people, I needed to reevaluate that in light of what God was trying to show me.  This caused a lot of growing pains.

What did I learn? That the old wine isn’t good enough.  There is a joy and an excitement as we are “filled with new wine”. There is an empowerment which comes when a person is yielded to the Spirit and allowing God to supply them with His words, His knowledge, His inspiration, His love and counsel. 

 We can follow the teaching of Jesus Christ as indicated in the Bible, we can mature in our character as we apply those principles to our lives.  We can even lead others to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ without necessarily being “filled with the Spirit”, but we will only be teaching them what we have “learned”- i.e. The lessons and teachings we have given mental ascent to. As for experiential knowledge of God and His presence, and the supernatural gifting that He wants to give His children to equip them for ministry and growth, these are only available as the Holy Spirit fills us and works through us.  This is the Charismatic Stream that creates a distinction between those who “know Him” and those who are in Him. Is it WWJD (What Would Jesus DO?) or WIJD? (What is Jesus Doing) What is He doing through you, not what has he taught you to do. This is the difference between the new wine and the old wine. So, you can ask yourself, “Is the old wine good enough?” New Wine into Old Wineskins is a parable of Jesus. It is found at Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:18-22 and Luke 5:33-39.