My guest for this episode of, ‘Frankly Speaking’ was Tyler Thomas, who’s an Assistant Pastor at the Christ Temple, which is a Pentecostal church in Tiverton, Rhode Island. This was a Skype interview, which took place on 5/11/23.
I had initially heard Pastor Thomas preach about a month earlier during the Easter service at the Sanctuary Pentecostal Church in Hudson NH. This guy’s message titled, ‘Wake Up – The Answer’, was delivered so passionately and enthusiastically that I just had to try to convince him to be a guest on my show.
After a brief introduction, Tyler who was born and raised in Alabama, was asked about the contrast of the folks in Rhode Island versus those from his Home State regarding their willingness to accept the Gospel message of the Bible. There was a Gallup Poll, several years ago, that ranked all the States in the U.S.A. on ‘How Religious they Are’. After a couple of years of polling this question, the New England states, which includes Rhode Island, indicated that it was one of the ‘least religious States’, while Alabama scored among the top. One individual offered a theory via the local Nashua Telegraph (NH) newspaper, that the reason for this might be because the employment situation is much more plentiful in this part of the country versus Alabama thus, the need to believe in God more if the job situation is few and far between. We definitely talked about that.
The discussion shifted to the Asbury Revival, which was at Asbury University (a Methodist school) in Wilmore Kentucky earlier this year. Apparently, there was quite a bit of Internet debate among Christians on whether or not this event that took place over several weeks actually qualified as a, “Revival”. There was reportedly a considerable amount of: praying, singing, worship, praising, testimonies, and even a couple of “Exorcisms”. But some Christian skeptics contended that “time” would be the best gauge on just how significant this event would be in American Christian history.
One individual cited, the ‘Day of Pentecost’ as a typical Revival, although the Bible states on that day, the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven, people from numerous different countries were present, they experienced hearing a new phenomenon called, ‘Speaking in Tongues’, which turned out to be ‘the wonderful words of God’. The Bible goes on to state in the book of Acts, that about 3000 people were added to the Church that day.
The problem with equating this Asbury Revival with the ‘Day of Pentecost’ is God inserted Supernatural, Miraculous, Phenomenon in the latter event, which He doesn’t seem to do now, in this day and time.
We also discussed if Jesus’s comment in the Bible of that, the works that I did you’ll do these works and even greater works – was that a reference to ‘Speaking in Tongues’, which was something Jesus never did. Also, in a fun discussion, we compared which Christian holiday Jesus might view as his ‘Super Bowl’ between: Christmas, Easter, or Pentecost – or would he probably say, every day has its own significance?
Arguably, one of the biggest obstacles for most Christians to overcome – myself included – is the ability to Forgive others who may have messed them over in life, as in Matthew 6:14-15. It just seems like automatic human response to either get revenge or retaliate against someone who hurts us. I had posted a Meme on a Christian Facebook page basically stating that the gauge for a Christian is not about loving Jesus, it’s rather about loving Judas. Jesus is also quoted in the Bible, referring to Judas, that it probably would’ve been better had he never been born, but Jesus did forgive Judas en route to his crucifixion.
In response to my Meme on the same Facebook forum, somebody posted a Meme equating Forgiveness to Forgetting. I brought up the example of a woman who is constantly being beaten by her boyfriend or husband when he keeps apologizing yet, the physical abuse keeps on coming. We talked about exercising the Word of Wisdom, or Discernment to leave a violent situation like that, but forgiving the abuser so you can move on with your own life.
I also mentioned that I was active with the Internet forum, Yelp.com , which if I ever had a bad experience (or even a good experience) with, for example, a mechanic, lawyer, or restaurant, I’d post a comment about it to perhaps prevent someone else from ever getting ripped off by that same establishment I did.
Then we came to Pastor Thomas’s Easter sermon of, ‘Wake Up – The Answer’ which was a shortened, Cliff Notes type version of what he preached about a month earlier in Hudson NH.
One of the most amazing testimonies he presented was when Tyler had the opportunity to spiritually heal, via prayer, his daughter’s Kindergarten teacher from a medical situation she encountered after falling from a ladder at about 10 feet off the ground (see attached photo). The teacher thought that she’d have to be prayed for at the next Sunday church service. But Tyler believed the Lord was telling him that she needed to be prayed for immediately, which is consistent with, 2 Corinthians 4:4, referring to Satan as, ‘the god of this world’ and further states that, Satan had, ‘blinded the minds of those who believed not’.
In other words, if this prayer for healing hadn’t been done immediately, the teacher may have gotten distracted from attending the next church service and continued having the severe pain. Needless to say, the prayer and subsequent healing were a huge success. Please watch Tyler explain it all in the aforementioned video, on what exactly happened for a much more accurate context.
The rest of the sermon was based on Matthew 8:23-27, which the Disciples were out on the Sea during a Horrific storm, and feared they may lose their boat – all while Jesus was sleeping. The Disciples eventually woke up Jesus, who in turn, immediately calmed the storm proving that people needed to turn to Jesus in the midst of trying to solve everything on their own.
If you wish to contact Pastor Thomas, please log onto the Christ Temple church at: ctchurch.faith . Local entertainer Sharon DiFronzo of Screamin’ Heart Records sang the Intro & Outro song for this episode, Comin’ and Goin’ .
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