Beyond The Rim…

After a long and arduous haul, my Knowing God Study Guide (Sections One, Two, and Three) is finally complete and available for use for a complete journey with J. I. Packer through his seminal book, Knowing God. The Section Three PDF was just posted to the Knowing God Study Center.

One more thing crossed off the list of things left undone.

For those of you who do not experience the joys of liturgical worship, each Sunday we pray the classic Anglican prayer of confession where I ask God to forgive me for “things done; and things left undone.” God has always reminded me that he is waiting for me to complete the things undone. Forgiveness does not normally remove the requirement to still do that undone thing.

So, one of the goals I made for myself this year was to try and cross off as many of the undone things from my list as possible and now one more is complete. Praise God!

If you are interested in studying Packer’s book, enjoy the use of the materials. If not, you are missing a life-changing experience…Highly recommended.

Grace and peace.

Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels, on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), French social philosopher. Democracy in America, vol. 2, pt. 1, ch. 5 (1840).

One simple fact that separates Christian belief systems from evolution is the Fall and death, which makes Christianity an anathema to all the arguments that attempt to wrap some form of evolution around Christianity.

The Bible argues that the creation of man was the pinnacle of God’s creative effort. Before the creation of Adam and Eve the rest of creation was complete. The stars and the cosmos, the animals and plants, they were all there. Then God created Adam and after Adam’s naming of the animals, He created Eve.

Death, which is absolutely necessary for evolution, especially considering the time arguments, had not yet entered into the cosmos. Creation had not yet been subjected to futility, but then the fall occurred; Adam and Eve sinned and death entered the created order.

You can deny the Christian worldview and accept the evolutionary one, but without abandoning the Bible and hence the basis for everything Christian, you cannot combine the two in any way, shape, form, or fashion.

Without truth, love is license
Without love, truth is arrogance
With truth and love, the journey begins

I fought long and hard against the Word of Faith movement (Hagen, Copeland, Roberts, et al.) all through the late 70’s and 80’s. It embedded itself in our church through the people who came in during the healing revival and since the Rector was a relatively new Christian (despite seminary, or maybe because of it) he was always one step ahead of the congregation. He eventually fell on his face and the Word of Faith people used the opportunity (they were substantial givers who had “claimed” their success and wealth) to pretty much take over for a while.

I recovered many an injured soul that had been damaged by the fallout when their healing did not materialize, so their faith became suspect. When Joseph Farah wrote “From the Pinnicle of the Temple” there was finally a public stand from someone who could said to be within the circle (he taught at Oral Roberts).

I sometimes referred to it as the Word of Arrogance movement and other times, since there were so many yuppies caught up in it, the Word of Self-Centeredness movement. Believe you me when I say I am initimately aware of that flavor of heresy.

That said, Lakeland is not that type of expression. It may have more in sync with the Emerging movement than anything else. It is sort of like a Christian version of Ozzy Ozborne, but with understandable dialog.

Only God raises from the dead (albeit the Anti-christ may be raised after a mortal head wound by Satanic possession but the jury is still out on that). Mordor seduces, gives mere lipservice to Christ if he is mentioned in a realistic way at all, and elevates itself. It seeks to possess, not point to God in any meaningful way.

This may be a Corinthian revival where the power of God is mixed with excess and error, but Corinth was real and Paul counseled them TWICE for all of us to see and use. I wonder what the first few months years at Corinth were like. The power of God must have been palpable, just like it appears to be in Lakeland. Error and excess are correctable to a right heart and about that only time will tell.

Fasting

On another front, tomorrow I do a lemonade fast day (only drinking lemon enhanced water with a little honey). I plan on fasting every Friday for the near future. I am beginning with food. Later I will add things like audio/video entertainment, the internet, reading of anything outside of the Bible, etc. But for now, it is one step at a time.

Grace and peace.

Part traditional Pentecostal revival (which is how it started), part prayer and praise meeting, part over-the-top healing service, but controversial without a doubt, is the Lakeland Revival centered on Todd Bently.

There are those who argue it is a massive deception, such as the End Time Deception site. Others believe it is the beginning of a massive move of God. My sister has been to Lakeland numerous times and believes it is real. The music ministry leaders from our church took their son who has stage 4 cancer there for several days, and they believe it is real, and believe me, they are well grounded people who love the Lord.

Me? My middle name has always been Thomas (even though it is literally George - slayer of dragons), and I could have been born in Missouri, because I am a skeptical, over test the spirits, going so far as to discern the separation between the bones and marrow kind of guy.

I cannot deny, there is a sense of power to what is happening in Lakeland, even across the computer (You can watch it on God tv every night from 7:30-11 - simple registration required for the best reception) or if you have Direct TV, tune to channel 365. What is happening there, and its growing world-wide reach, dwarfs all of the other things I have seen over the years, and I came to Christ in the midst of a healing revival at a staid Episcopal Church back in 1976. My wife was healed during that revival of a first trimester Rubella exposure and we had the lab results to prove it. However, what is going on in Lakeland is literally becoming a tsunami and that flood is either of God or of deception.

As I work through my attempts at discernment, I am constantly brought back to one section of Luke:

Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest.  And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him,  and said to them, “Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all will be great.”

Now John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.”  Luke 9:47-50

I am also brought up on a short leash by Paul.

Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Philippians 1:15-18

So the question is whether Todd Bently is true, against Christ, or just a person seeking his own gain? Only being against Christ is condemned, that being a person who is a wolf (serpent’s servant) in disguise.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Matthew 7:15-16

While I don’t agree with everything I see and hear, I have not yet seen the wolf or the greedy opportunist, though that lurks in most of us to some degree.

The decision is still out. I have not yet put my hands into his side and sought the purity of Christ. But, I am listening. I am praying. I am seeking to try the spirits. I invite you to join me.

Either Jesus Christ is about to do a work that overshadows anything I have seen in my lifetime, or the spirits of deception are waging one the greatest battles in many an age.

God be praised and to God be the glory. Grace and peace and may the One with Whom we all have to do, grant us wisdom and discernment, strength and mercy. Amen.

The Good Shepherd

From fear of the wolf and the lion
The Good Shepherd frees.
Into pastures of joy and plenty
The Good Shepherd leads.

From wandering and the pain of loneliness
The Good Shepherd consoles.
Into everlasting love and joy
The Good Shepherd enrolls.

You call us friend
Though Creator God.
You call us brethren
Though Lord of All.

We bow,
We bend our knees,
We worship You:
The Good Shepherd of all.

by William Meisheid ©2008

Member of The Church of the Good Shepherd
Ellicott City/Columbia, Maryland