Animal Attack Upon Christian Worshipers

It never ceases to amaze me the constant number of firsts I have in the ministry. Yesterday at the Catoosa County jail, during the ladies’ service I experienced a first in my 16 years gospel ministry. While the whole congregation was standing to sing “Love Lifted Me” I noticed a disturbance on the front row. The woman in focus, eyes closed, hand in the air, deeply inhaling the moment of worship did not notice the spider that had lowered itself down from the ceiling just inches from the side of her face. But the intruder did not go unnoticed by the sister-in-Christ standing behind her who tapped the worshipper on the shoulder and pointed at the eight-legged creature poised to attack.
What happened next might fall into the category of a charismatic spiritual possession; to others it would have been seen as a strange and unholy jig. She bobbed and weaved to get away from the tiny creature, while a flurry of orange correctional institution standard issue flip-flops proceeded to beat the vile creature to death.
Yes indeed, I have dealt with numerous interruptions during worship services outside the stained-glass confines of the conventional church, but this was the first animal (or insect) attack upon the worshippers of God I have ever experienced. With the mangled body of the beast on the floor, we continued to worship the creator of all things concluding that the evil intruder was an emissary of Satan himself.
The lesson gleaned from this incident can be found in the fact that no one (other than the woman who was the focus of the attack performing a contorted fight or flight response) stopped singing. They just kept right on singing “Love Lifted Me”!
So, no matter what tries to land on your shoulder and interrupt your praise of the creator, you just keep going forward for Jesus!

Preaching > Teaching > Reaching
About the Author
Ronnie Brown is the pastor of Faith Community Church in Trenton, Ga and a missionary with Anchored In The Rock Prison Ministry. He is also the producer and host of the Forgotten Podcast and the author of two books based on the same podcast. He and his wife Carey have been married since 1998 and they have four children and one grand child.

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