I think this is a common misunderstanding among Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians. Albeit a well founded misunderstanding, I think this is a misunderstanding all the same. To some degree it comes back to the question of how much are we empowered to do on our own versus how much we are completely reliant on Jesus to do things for us/through us.
You have the man who was lowered into Jesus’ presence by his friends and the text says “Seeing their FAITH, Jesus told the paralytic “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Likewise with the hemorrhaging woman Jesus says “Your faith has healed you.” And with the Roman Centurion Jesus says “Go. As you have believed it, let it be done for you.” The problem with this train of thought is that it becomes exclusive and it then becomes reliant on someone already in agony to receive healing. Read more…
So my buddies at High Calling Blogs (which I’m still trying to ease myself into) recently put a post up about dreams that was inspired by the movie Inception. Great movie, by the way, I was completely blown away.
The thing that the writer and founder Gordon Atkinson says about dreams is that He isn’t sure if God still uses them to speak to us. I totally respect that, it’s hard to wrap your head around it, but I’m writing about a specific aspect of dreams with certain assumptions because of a comment that one of the readers made.
“I have nightmares.” Read more…
Don’t ask me why I’m on a sci-fi binge, I just am. I think I’ve been neglecting my inner geek lately and he’s demanding some attention.
Anyways, I saw someone on Facebook ask the question “ Discuss: What is your conception of the activity of the Holy Spirit in personal faith, in the community of believers, and in responsible living in the world?”
She’s preparing for ordination in a main stream denomination that requires her to come up with the “right” answer. Now I know that Malachi 3 states “I am the LORD and I never change.” Or something like that, but out of curiosity, how do you define “change” for the being who created all things, was, is, and is to come, AND, is everything for every circumstance? How can there be a “right” answer for something like that? Read more…
As always I want to start with a special shout out to Robert who challenge some of the things I said in my post Christians are weird, get over it. This is going to be a series of posts clarifying some of the more controversial issues Christians are arguing about today that have resulted in our misrepresentation. Click for Part One, Part Two, and Part Three of this series.
GROUND RULES FOR COMMENTS: 1) No proselytizing please. The point of these posts are to share information and educate one another on our beliefs not to gain converts. 2) Ephesians 4:29 - Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. IE – be nice. 3) The discussion can go all kinds of places, so let’s make sure we stay on topic. IF I ask that you please don’t reply to a comment it’s because I want to post a more in depth post on it later, not because I think the comment is invalid.
John Wesley
In conclusion, what’s the real point of contention between Christians? Is it the authority of the Papacy? How about the Doctrine of Salvation? I seem to recall a couple of people arguing over the Armenian Heresy at one point, but I don’t have a clue what that is. There is of course the fun argument of Continuation vs Cessation. Or we could go for days talking about Eschatology and the question of Jewish Salvation. Or we could even ignore all that and talk about church in a post-modern world. We could even argue the immediacy of the Kingdom of God and that’s something that I always thought was pretty well wrapped up. Read more…
Christians are weird people. The sooner all of us realize, recognize and embrace this, the sooner we can get on with the real work of the Kingdom. But this isn’t a bad thing. In fact we tend to tout it by proclaiming the new life that we’re living. Christians are proud of our Savior and we strive to take up our cross daily and follow Him. We want our light to shine, we want to proclaim the gospel, we have received so much and been healed of so much the only thing we can think to do is share it.
Read more…
I think this is a common misunderstanding among Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians. Albeit a well founded misunderstanding, I think this is a misunderstanding all the same. To some degree it comes back to the question of how much are we empowered to do on our own versus how much we are completely reliant on Jesus to do things for us/through us.
