'Feeling the Holy Spirit'? or is that 'Satan in Disguise'? How do You Know?

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@mythociate (21437)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
October 18, 2017 11:23am CST
I met a good friend yesterday. We were at a TBI support-group meeting, and one of the others there mentioned 'meditation' as a way to help heal the body. This made me want to suggest 'Nichiren Buddhism's chanting-meditation.' "Like the Roman Catholic Christian church has 'sacraments,'" I told the other person, "Nichiren Buddhism has 'long, memorized chants' (Gongyo)." The friend probably overheard me mention the chanting (I recited their main Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo and a few lines of Gongyo) and--with the popular understanding of 'Buddhism as Buddha-Worship'--she started ... well, she said (something like) "you can believe whatever you like, but I don't trust chanting & words I don't understand." ... but it 'felt like' she was accusing me of "worshiping Buddha." I tried to clarify my actual truth there--something like 'no one knows God; the closest thing humans get is his Divine Voice (mixed-in with all the noise of the world)'--but she 'cut me off' with knowledge from her experience with Nichiren Buddhism. But she knew that Nichiren Buddhism was wrong because she never "felt the Holy Spirit" there.... If we had been alone or in a place of debate (rather than -of healing & counseling), I would have responded, 'Oh! You know 'who knows how to make you feel the Holy Spirit? Satan does, and he's had lots of practice!' So how do you know your favorite preacher or -your favorite Scripture-passage isn't just 'Satan in disguise'? Short answer: you don't. To Christians who parrot-up "Well, Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy; Jesus comes that you might have life abundantly!" I respond, 'What if Satan's "casing the joint"---checking out your weakness so he can come back to steal your soul when you're at your weakest?' Then I remember (thanks to a "Pass Along" from my friend http://www.biblestudygreetings.com/scripture-cards.html in Winnsboro, Texas) Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." That's all you can do. Just 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' ever more-and-more-aware of the truth of Matthew 7's "know them by their fruits ... every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit ... Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." The actions that bring forth 'good fruits (without attracting- or bearing the seed of-bad fruit)), do; the actions that kill good fruit or -that plant 'more bad fruit than you can manage,' do not.
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