Spiritual Survival in the 80s 2 — George Verwer

Ephesians chapter 4. What a great book, what a great chapter. I want to speak to you this evening on maintaining spiritual balance. Now, some people don't like the word balance, and if we use the definition that some of them use, then I don't like the word either.

I don't mean by balance, compromise, or just wishy-washiness, or, you know, just sort of the middle of the road. But I mean the kind of balance that the Concord has built into it so that it can go across the Atlantic at such fantastic speed.

To me, balance makes something sharper. I believe with all my heart that as Christians, spiritual balance, maintaining a balance of truth, not compromising truth with error, worldliness with spirituality, no, but letting one truth bring another truth into balance.

And I believe if you see this principle, it will definitely help you in your summer work as different things happen, and you want to know what to say to a young person you're counseling, or how to react to a particularly difficult situation you may be in.

Spiritual Gifts Bring the Church to Maturity

Now, let's look at these words in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 is a good starting place. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting or the bringing into maturity of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, a mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sly or the sly of men and the cunning craftiness by which they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love.".

There's the perfect picture of balance. Speaking the truth in love. "...may grow up into him in all things, who is the head even Christ, from whom the whole body friendly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.".

Vertical and Horizontal Love in Christian Life

The greatest message in the Bible, once we know Christ personally and we've been justified by faith, we know this great salvation, the greatest message next to that in my mind is love. God so loved the world, that's message number one, that he gave his Son.

And when we come to his Son in faith, simple faith, believing, then that vertical love relationship with God is back where it should be. And of course it has to grow. But then we have that challenge of the horizontal relationship with the people around us, and that is such a great challenge.

I had such a blessing today just answering some very difficult letters. One difficult letter from a close friend actually, sort of the spiritual father of this Swedish brother and his wife, I'll never forget when they were in this meeting in Stockholm, they were already living with each other, they were miles away from God, and through the simple proclamation of the Gospel, he came to Christ, and he brought her to an OM conference in Belgium, she came to Christ, and they became dynamic workers and leaders in OM.

Now it's many years later, they wrote me a very difficult letter with some really tough questions, and I've been procrastinating about answering that. But walking along the beach, the Lord just gave me the inspiration to answer that letter, and that's really one of the encouragements for me today, because in my life individual people are important.

And I think that's one of the great motives for the kind of work you're in here. People are important. And you're coming here to give yourself to people. And I hope you're coming here believing that God is going to give you some permanent relationships.

And that starts even this weekend. We don't all know one another here. And perhaps there's someone here you would like to get to know. But maybe there's someone else that would like to get to know you.

Somehow God, even in these next days, just two days together, I believe wants to cement our hearts together. And then He wants to spread that kind of fellowship, that kind of reality, through this camp all summer.

And I believe for that to happen there has to be a spiritual balance. There has to be a balance of truth, as we're exhorted to find here in the book of Ephesians. Now I've written quite a lot on this subject.

I guess I shouldn't say quite a lot, but it's just that there's not that much written on the subject of balance. And some of you have read my book, Revolution of Love and Balance. I don't know where it is buried here under all these books.

It's in a little symbol on the cover. And then in my latest book, No Turning Back, I actually talk more about this, even in the book that's called, by the name Balance. And let me just throw out for you to think about some of the areas where you're going to have to work for balance in your Christian life.

Crisis Conversion and Ongoing Spiritual Growth

The first area, I've already touched on a bit, the balance between the crisis experience and spiritual growth. Now we know that God works at times through a crisis. Let me just take a little survey. How many of you were converted in a way that you more or less at least know what day it was?

You may not have the date, but it was a particular day you can remember and it was somewhat of an emotional experience. It was a crisis experience, whether it was a small crisis or a big crisis. How many of you have had that kind of conversion experience?

Okay, that's about maybe just a little under half. How many of you have had a conversion probably because maybe when you were very young, so you don't remember it very well? Or it was more gradual in the sense that you know you've passed from death to life, but you don't exactly remember some specific crisis event?

How many of you were more in that camp? A few of you are not sure which camp you're in. If you're not converted at all, I'd like to give you priority for personal fellowship after the meeting, but I think most of you, oh Christ, personally, God works in different ways.

The same is true when it comes to sanctification. When it comes to going on. Quite a few people that I have talked to have had some pretty heavy crisis experiences after their conversion. One of the questions that John, is it? Was going to ask me was about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

That would have been the hottest question of the night because that's a very hot issue and especially among Brethren Assemblies. And I'm sure you are aware of Brethren Assembly history and how many have left the assemblies in the past 10 or 20 years since I've come.

In fact, you probably. Not to do with me. I can't take credit for that. But through the very strong, fast moving force in this country often referred to as the charismatic movement. When that first hit, the Brethren Assemblies were the arch enemies.

Traditionally, Brethren and Pentecostals have not been able to get along at all. Even to this day that controversy rages. There's books on this. And of course the more modern charismatic movement was not the same as the more traditional Pentecostal movement.

So the Brethren didn't know quite how to handle this. And I can remember being in a valedictory meeting with a particular brother who had a baptism in the Holy Spirit experience at university. But it was a traditional Brethren Assembly and he gave his testimony with the terminology that would not blow the roof off the assembly at that particular moment.

And I noticed he's listed in Echoes of Service and is plowing on serving the Lord Jesus. Actually, quite a few young men who experienced that kind of crisis at university, quite a few left the Brethren.

And you'll find them in many different charismatic house groups. Some of the leaders of the famous Bradford charismatic house group which is spread all over the country, very strong. The guru leader of that group, his father was the famous Reginald Wallace.

The son is Arthur Wallace, one of the leaders of the charismatic movement in this country. He moved north and now he's moved south again. Many of the people in these house groups have their roots back in Brethren Assemblies.

Very interesting little study, I won't get into it tonight. Others, though they've had some crisis experience, felt that they should remain within their own assembly. And those people should receive a great reward because it was not always easy.

And they were often misunderstood. I spoke, I think it was a year or two years ago, at the Swanwick Brethren meeting. By the way, that meeting is not even recognized by more tight assemblies. That meeting is an operation of people that are far too open-minded.

But I found, I had very good fellowship there, and I found a lot of the people were struggling with this. It really goes back to this issue. Is it crisis? Is it process? Is there any hope for us if we don't get some major mind-bending crisis experience?

This has been one of my favorite subjects for 28 years. And I stand very firm on this particular issue. That God works in different ways. And that in sanctification, some seem to have a tremendous crisis.

They go on for a while, and then they become worse than they were even before the crisis, sometimes even before they were saved. There's a lot of people like that in Britain today, even overthrown the faith.

Others, because the crisis is followed by a process, they're going on for God today. And they realize it's not just because of the crisis, whatever they may call it. The word, prayer, growth, what we're talking about.

Then there are other people. I've met them, we have them on OM. They have never had any great second blessing experience. This is why OM is a very unique movement that provides us with a lot of interesting research because we have such a wide range of people.

And I have watched these people because I have had in my life too many crises. I've watched these process people. And I will tell you they are some of the most dedicated, spirit-filled Christians I've ever met.

So I can't deny what I've seen in 28 years. God working in different people in different ways. I believe that one of the things God hates the most is lukewarmness and spiritual death. And He will use sometimes almost anything to somehow bring life and reality and vision and love and growth and compassion into the Church.

And I think it's good that today there's more dialogue here in Britain between different kinds of Christians. It's interesting that some of the leaders of the charismatic movement, like for example Michael Harper who was John Stott's curate.

And he and John Stott years ago, as John Stott held the ground on the more traditional teaching on sanctification. And Michael Harper very much charismatic movement and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And they separated and all kinds of things have happened. Michael Harper has just written for one of our leading Christian magazines. And it's interesting what he has said now. He said he's no longer pushing for charismatic renewal and revival and unity.

He's pushing for Christian. But it's interesting to see how people change. Sometimes you look back and you wonder what about all the people who got into extremes in the process. It's so great now. Christian leaders come back into balance.

They say, well, you know, it really wasn't like this. And I know this speaks to me because I know from some of the strong statements I made twenty years ago that some people got astray. And though maybe I have come into more balance and balance is not something you arrive at.

It's an ongoing process. I need it every day. I need it every day. But I've often thought back of some that maybe I led astray because of strong statements I made twenty years ago. Peter Maiden was sharing on a tape I was listening to today that he started to preach among the assemblies when he was fifteen.

He was pretty young for preaching. He was known as the young boy preacher of Carlisle. Went around to some of the little assemblies in Cumbria preaching at fifteen and sixteen. And he said on this tape I was listening to today, this message he gave in Kathmandu, actually, in Nepal, that he's become a more careful preacher because back then he would make these, you know, these extreme statements that actually he couldn't always back up.

Maybe from scripture, I don't know. God may give you a crisis. God may give some of these campers who come here this summer a crisis. There's nothing wrong with that. There may be some tears. There may be some repentance.

Isn't there the danger in some of our assemblies that we overreact to what we feel is emotionalism to the point that we're in the deep freeze? And we're afraid of anything that's got a little emotion.

If we see somebody putting their hands up in a meeting, whoo! What's happened to him? And it really gets quite absurd. It really gets quite absurd. And we judge each other by outward appearance. And, you know, some of these young people who come here this summer, they need to meet God in power.

They need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's not just a super special experience, you know, for a few weirdos who stay up all night praying. The fullness of the Holy Spirit, and I think that's a terminology we can agree upon.

And if you read the early Brethren writers, even Darby himself, they talked about the reality of the Holy Spirit. You get that little book on the table, Footprints for Pilgrims, which is a lot of the writings of Darby.

They believed in the fullness and the reality of the Holy Spirit. Darby, the so-called founder of the Brethren movement. No, we don't talk about that very much. It's true. He was one of the founding men.

He was a spirit-filled, soul-winner, wildcat evangelist. He's described going across France, living on pieces of bread. He's described as one who led hundreds and hundreds of souls to Christ as an evangelist in Southern Ireland after his first conversion.

An amazing story. Only later in life, he got more and more into controversy and theology, and then the assemblies, he and Mueller split. The exclusives went one way, and open Brethren under Mueller went another way.

The life story of George Mueller is well worth reading. I think there may be some there on the table. It's quite a challenging history. We don't need to be afraid or ashamed of our roots. Those of us who fellowship in Brethren assemblies, and I do that, though not exclusively, we have tremendous roots.

Tremendous roots. And most of the modern movements today, they have to trace part of their origin back to the early Brethren, especially the House. And they are going to face the same struggles. The struggles they're facing up at Bradford right now, they just had 15 of their churches just pull out on another split.

The struggles they're facing there, it's just history repeating itself. In fact, it has the danger of doing the same thing that exclusive Brethrenism did a hundred or so odd years ago. A very interesting study could be made.

The Holy Spirit, Missions, and Evangelistic Boldness

Yes, God works in different people in different ways. Acts 4 .31, they prayed. The place where they were gathered was shaken. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they went forth and spoke the Word of God with boldness.

People who get extreme seem to say they were filled with the Holy Spirit and went forth and spoke with other tongues. And tongues has become great. It shouldn't be. Even balanced charismatic people would say, that shouldn't be.

There's just so much more that the Holy Spirit wants to do. And so easily that becomes a sidetrack, whatever you may believe or not believe. In Acts 4 .31, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they went forth and spoke the Word of God with boldness.

A true mark of a deep work of the Holy Spirit will be missions and evangelism and church growth and bold proclamation and witness. That is absolutely clear in the Book of Acts. Acts 20 .32 says, I commend you to God in the Word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified.

That's the process. It's interesting that in Ephesians, it says, being filled with the Spirit and then it has a description of the Spirit-filled life. Speaking yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord.

In Colossians it has the same description but it doesn't say, be filled with the Spirit. What does it say? Colossians 3 .16, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Different vocabulary, same reality.

That's why I think when we get to talk about the Holy Spirit, it's good to remember the words of Billy Graham, who in speaking about the Spirit-filled life said, I don't care how you get it, just get it.

Just get it. And you and I should know, must know, it's a command from God, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And if you kneel down by your bed tonight or walk out in this field after this meeting or pray right in here, Lord, fill me afresh with this Holy Spirit and you pray that prayer in sincerity and faith, He will fill you tonight.

Even if you were filled last week and the week before or had some great crisis three years ago. It's got to be both crisis and process. Ongoing work. An area where we have to battle for balance is the balance between discipline and liberty.

Discipline, Liberty, and Loving Rules

Some of the young people when they come here, they're going to rebel against the rules. Do you have any rules in this camp? There must be some rules. We need to be able to explain rules to young people.

We need to be able to show them these rules are not to prove whether you're spiritual or not spiritual. These rules are not the Ten Commandments of Brethren Assembly Camp Life. But these rules are a human attempt to put into practice what we find in the Bible in terms of love.

So that we can consider one another. A lot of rules are just rules for trying to be considerate of other people. Maybe you have a rule about noise late at night. We have that on the ship. Not because one of our commandments from the New Testament is thou shalt not make noise after midnight.

But because as we mature more and more we're sensitive to other people and to their needs. And we know that some people if they don't get enough sleep they actually start to come apart and cause other difficulties especially if it's the cook.

And so it's good to have some basic rules. And I believe when we're motivated to love Jesus and we're motivated to love one another these rules whether we like them or not they don't bother us. I'm a more free style individual.

I'm still a bit radical in my approach to certain things. But if I came here by God's grace I'd want to respect your rules and your policies. I'd want to be considerate of others. I actually didn't want to come to a session here at 7 o 'clock.

I had something else planned for 7 o 'clock. But somebody said hey you were really counting on you to come at 7 o 'clock. And those little bells rang in the back of my thick Dutch head. And what I suspected was well I didn't suspect that much.

I thought really when you were finished with your little like prancing out whatever you were doing I thought well you know that's all over. But you know we had a little more after that as well. But I like to receive correction or exhortation and encouragement from other people.

I find God often guides me through other people. And I believe greatly in God's providence. And that has helped me all these years when I've been confused. Why is this happening? Why has this gone wrong?

Romans 8 .28 God's ability to overrule. So I think it is good you have a few rules. And I hope you'll be able to explain them to the campers in a loving... You know I think one of the things that really hinders people sometimes when they come on camps is the dictator types.

The little mini Hitlers that run around with a giant stick. Now probably hopefully you don't have any of those a little too strong perhaps. But really when we do tell people what to do the more compassionate the more considerate we can be.

Even in the way we express ourselves the better it is. Hard hitting organizing types like things organized right. We don't realize it but we hurt people. I never realized it. Well say never that's not a good word but it took me a long time to get in.

How the way I say things. There were times because of the strong temperament I had and because I do so much preaching I thought on the phone I was just coming across with my more or less moderate relaxed voice.

The person on the other end of the phone was blown away. Just blown away. They thought I was angry. If I could reach through the phone wire grab them by the neck pull out their Adam's apple. The way we say things pressure is very important.

And I'll tell you something even more important. You can read it in Calvary Road by Roy Henshaw. If you do say something hurtful and you sense you've hurt someone have the courage even if you're the number one camp leader to go to them and say look I'm sorry I didn't mean it to sound.

People get different ideas of how something should be done. The littlest thing even the cooking of a little special meal the organizing of a little special skit the arranging of a late night film the littlest thing we do sometimes with Christians because we are as Christians at times hypersensitive sensitive it becomes a traumatic affair and people get hurt.

People get hurt. And if you do hurt someone and we all do as human beings if you don't want to ever be hurt you're on the wrong planet. I've heard the Swedes are booking holidays to the moon in 1995 or something.

Maybe you can go to Stockholm and check that out. But as long as you're on this planet you're gonna get hurt. You're gonna get hurt. And if you do hurt in turn hurt somebody to go to them or to write them even how I know or I learned indirectly I have been able to help others.

Liberty and Church Tradition

Though it says in Galatians 5 .13 we are called unto liberty only used after liberty as an occasion to the flesh. And some of the new movements moving around Britain today and there are many of them have overemphasized liberty.

I heard one where they said you know if you feel like playing golf on Sunday morning well you should play golf. Don't be in bondage to going to church on Sunday morning. And almost everything that we've ever sort of considered sacred in our more established churches everything has been questioned.

Everything. And I tell you it's not easy for young people today to know what is the truth. A lot of young people are really mixed up. And that's why I feel so strongly about this thing of balance. I don't believe it is a mortal sin that you miss a Sunday morning breaking of bread.

But I think as much as possible we should as it says in Hebrews not forsake him. Not forsake him. Gathering together and worshiping the Lord. And it will be a joy to break bread together here tomorrow morning.

I dare not get into this subject because we don't have time. But I believe we can find a balance between discipline and liberty. Between organization and freedom. I find generally speaking today the greater need is for a little more emphasis on discipline.

Maybe that wasn't true ten years ago. Then another area where we need balance is between zeal and wisdom. I think in the early days of OM we were heavy on zeal and weak on wisdom. I fear now that we may get a little heavy on wisdom with all of our reading and studying and further education and weak on zeal.

Zeal, Wisdom, and Discipleship

And that frightens me. Have you read William McDonald's brilliant book True Discipleship? Almost a Christian classic now in 30 -40 languages. Here was a man reared in the Brethren Assemblies who was the president of the Emmaus Bible School in America but who was able to incorporate into somewhat traditional Brethren Assembly life the very basic principles, radical revolutionary principles that we were putting in practice out on the mission field.

In fact they started a discipleship training school in one of the assemblies in California where they have an OM type of function right within the church. Right within the church. Some people say well man that's the way it should be.

Praise the Lord. And you know we get young people from that church, that assembly almost every single year on OM. They have nights of prayer. They have the most fantastic worship meetings. And people are being converted all the time.

People are being trained and sent out as missionaries all over the world. And it's all still in the traditional more or less Brethren framework. With the old timers happy and with the young people happy and functioning together in unity.

That is no small thing. And that's what God can do when there's spiritual balance. We need zeal. We need wisdom. James 3 .17 emphasizes that wisdom that comes from above. I talk about it in this little book.

And of course zeal is emphasized in many passages I think especially of Romans 12 .11. And then number four the balance between submission and freedom. Submission and freedom. Why have some new groups got into extremes in the area of submission?

Submission and Freedom Under Christian Authority

I think it's because in some churches there has been so little teaching about submission. We read in 1 Thessalonians 5 and we read also in Hebrews that we need to learn how to submit to those who are over us in the Lord.

I learned to submit in an early age. It wasn't easy. I'm speaking now early age as a believer. I went to Moody Bible Institute. The rule book was so thick I couldn't believe it. Very, very strict place at least back in those days.

I was outspoken. I didn't agree with some things there. But I felt somehow from what I saw in scripture that I must submit. You're supposed to have only two practical Christian work assignments. That means twice a week you go out and evangelize.

I didn't realize they were very strict about that because they wanted you to give yourself to study not just being evangelist. I had been involved before I knew what happened in about 5 or 6 different outreaches that I had more or less organized on my own and this was not allowed.

What? Not allowed to evangelize? That's why I came here to Chicago. And I had to submit. And then I didn't read. I didn't read the section about social policy, boy-girl relationships because when I went to Moody I was in one of my long-term bachelor things.

Women got to become spiritual first. And since my life had been quite confused in that area I thought I needed a little bit of a fast. So I didn't read that part of the handbook very well. And then I had that experience which you already have told about.

I went to rent a film and I met this secretary behind the desk who became my wife and actually I ended up breaking the rules. I had to go to the dean this would be like sort of the headmaster the dean and sort of apologized for my breaking of the social rules.

I think it was to do with the time I was supposed to be back at a certain time and I wasn't supposed to be alone in a room outside of the institute with her. She was in sort of a woman's center and I found out later in a fine print I wasn't supposed to be alone in a room with her.

And you know just learning to submit on some rules that I didn't agree with particularly was a great taunting for my spiritual life. We need to learn submission but we also need to see that we are free and I feel that sometimes power assemblies are absolute specialists in intimidation.

You feel intimidated so easily you're not going to enough meetings you're not doing this enough you're not doing that enough and you feel intimidated and there's a lack of freedom and that's not from God that's not from God and you shouldn't feel guilt pains all day if you miss your quiet time have that as your aim.

I know the other extreme where people you know they just say oh that's that's bondage you don't need to have your quiet time every day. That's bondage. I like to go to these people and say look do you do you have breakfast every day.

Oh yeah breakfast bondage just to keep that in balance. I have my quiet time and my time with God most days but some days I miss it and on those days I refuse to go through the day with some kind of guilt pain because that is not the purpose of the Christian life I say very quickly I hope you know how to do this Lord I goofed I blew it.

I you know this morning I you know I wasn't organized or I slept in and I just claim your grace right now. The same grace I would have got this morning from your word and from an extra time of prayer.

I claim it right now because the Christian life is not this or that this rule or that rule. It's Jesus living in me and you're with me now even though maybe I didn't get my tremendous grace and blessing.

Why do I say that. I think it brings into balance things I've heard people say when I miss my quiet time everything goes wrong. I think even Billy Graham said that I don't disagree with him much and he was just probably trying to put a point across.

Just like I'm trying to put a point across. And actually both are true. Both are true. If you let your guard down shield of faith spiritual weapons you can get in a lot of trouble. So I don't like to go out without putting my arm around on and then without a prayer in that time of the word.

So it's it's finding the balance. Isn't it submission and freedom. A lot of other areas we can talk about and I hope maybe we can fit in a time of questions and answers on some of these issues. Feel free to put it down in operation.

Feedback that little paper you're going to hand to me at the end. The fifth area where we have to work for balance is between the warfare and the rest of faith. We are in a spiritual warfare. Timothy says we're to be good.

Spiritual Warfare and the Rest of Faith

Paul writes to Timothy and says we're to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. But I was helped by realizing we're in a warfare. But our finger isn't always on the trigger. It has to be the time for refueling.

And Hebrews chapter four speaks a lot about the rest of faith. I talk about that in this little book. The rest of faith. I remember when I was driving a large lorry down to the coast the first OM campaign in Europe 1962 the summer after the Russian fiasco.

And I was really feeling tense. I had headaches. Did you ever get pressure headaches. And I didn't know how to drive very well. We had these ten or twelve old lorries. Most of them we got them from the scrap yard.

One of them had already broken down on the way to Dover. It was all very new. Two, ninety British young people had all signed up over a period of three months to come with an almost totally unknown movement.

And the vehicle I was driving started to backfire. Enormous explosions. I lived in the East End and you know somehow something happened to me on the way to Dover. I can so remember I came into an experience of just deeper trust God this is your work.

Maybe we're not going to make this ferry. Maybe this engine is going to blow up. How will I be able to help by worrying about it by getting tension and pressure and headaches. How will that help the whole campaign this summer.

It won't. You know one of your big enemies this summer in this work right here is going to be worrying worrying about what people think of you worrying about. Maybe you're going to fail in a job that you've been given.

Maybe you've been given a particular responsibility. You're already feeling a little nervous about it. Fear of failure is normal. We all have that fear at times. And I just realized afresh that day this work of OM that I was committed to so much it was not mine and God took it from me.

Cast every care upon him. He cares for you. OM was my care. God took it and that headache went away. And emotionally I was flying and I just stopped and I made a phone call. I forget exactly what happened.

I think an AA man came even though I didn't belong to the AA. I think I had to pay him something. Some little timing mechanism on this old bed through lorry eventually went all over North Africa and we purred on and drove it all the way to Paris.

We're in a warfare but we've got to fight from the right foundation. Do you know that? Rest of faith in your life. It's a beautiful thing. You study Hebrews 4 then number 6 6th area. We've got to wrestle for balance the balance between basic principles of the word of God and particular policies of our particular group or fellowship or church.

Biblical Principles and Group Policies

This is an area where we need discernment and where we need to be able to point out to the young people here that there are certain camp policies that we do and we have here in order that things may be done decently in an order but they're not necessarily biblical principles.

We had a lot of trouble with this and OM in the early days for instance we used to sleep generally on the floor in churches or in tents. By 63 there were 2000 of us. We put most of our money into scriptures.

We had a very low budget. We didn't spend enough probably on food. These were basic policies of OM not biblical principles. But people got mixed up. One girl went back home thinking that sleeping on the floor was the mark of spirituality and she went home and told her mother if she could take the bed out of the bedroom.