Testing the Spirit

I recently came across a YouTube video of a man named Todd Bentley who is a part of a new "ministry" that is unlike any I've ever seen.

While I was initially shocked by the graphic violence he talks about as being inspired by the Holy Spirit, I ultimately did not feel threatened or disturbed by his claims. In the short video below, Bentley describes tackling, punching and even kicking the faces of people he alleges the Holy Spirit asked him to.

Though I personally don't believe the Holy Spirit is behind this new "movement", I don't have a lot of evidence to prove it is unholy. All I have in my defense is the record of what miracles the Spirit has taken part in as described by scriptures and my own gut feeling. Neither of those defenses are particularly strong when held under scrutiny because many of the miracles that were performed in Jesus' time and during the time of the early church were all without precedent. (I'm sure the whole speaking in tongues thing was pretty strange to those observing for the first time!)

But my comfort is found in Paul's exhortation that as mature Christians, "we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; (Ephesians 4:14)"

New fads of ministry will come and go. Whether they are legitimate or not, we needn't be swayed by what the current crop of popular Christians might be involved in.



Paul says to a young Timothy,

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned {them,} and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

I don't know if the whole Todd Bentley thing is real or not (I suspect it is not) but it doesn't matter to me. According to what Paul says, I am to continue in the things I have learned... things that I am convinced of and have known since childhood. My theology is clear. The scripture that I know is adequate - I don't need a new add-on.

The new trends of the season may be legitimate additions to God's repertoire of ministry techniques, but if all I ever do is hold on to what I already know to be true, then I needn't worry about the latest fads. I don't have to worry I'm missing out on God's "new instructions". I already have His old instructions.

And those will work fine from now until He comes again.

Press on.

Pray for Steven Curtis Chapman

Grammy-winning Christian music artist, Steven Curtis Chapman's adopted Chinese daughter was killed in a car accident when playing in her driveway Wednesday afternoon.

Tragically, she was only five years old. Even more tragically, it was her brother who accidentally hit her with the family SUV when he didn't see her playing in the driveway.

You can read more about the story here. But for now, pray for the Chapman family.

You can visit Maria Sue's official site here.

Dishonest Gain

Today, the New York Post reports that Lindsay Lohan - famous child star turned infamous Hollywood gossip starlett - allegedly stole a fur coat from someone with whom she attended a private birthday party.

You can read the details on your own here, but this story made me consider what the psalmist meant when he said, in Psalm 119:35-37, "Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to dishonest gain."

What is "dishonest gain"? It seems like just a fancy phrase for "stealing". In a sense, that is what it means, but it's more than that. The King James version uses the word, "covetousness"; the New Living Translation says, "love of money"; and the NIV says, "selfish gain". The original Hebrew word, "betsa" has a suggestion of violence in that dishonest gain - almost like the way a raider would plunder a village for spoils.

I'm not sure Lindsay Lohan was exactly "plundering" the coat room when she found someone else's mink coat to take home as hers, but certainly there is a malice present in such an act.
Consider this: You're driving along on a byway and the three lanes begin to merge into two. You follow along with everyone else; courteously allowing every other car to merge systematically, just as is expected of you. Suddenly, a guy speeds down the shoulder and bypasses thirty or so cars and swoops in front of you. Without discussing what our reaction would/should be - that's a topic for another post - isn't it clear that there is dishonest gain with a touch of malice going on here?

Not only did that theoretical guy disregard 30 or so other motorists and their urgency to get where they're going but he broke laws - legally stated laws as well as socially unstated ones - and he endangered other drivers with recklessness. For him to take what clearly did not belong to him was an act of malice. It's an active afront to the other drivers, it's not at all a passive act. When Lindsay took that coat, it wasn't because of an honest mistake. It was because she wanted it and thought she could get away with taking it.

Stealing comes in many forms. From the obvious stealing of a $11,000 coat that doesn't belong to you, to the less obvious avoidance of due process or taking your place in line. But in all cases of stealing, you harm someone else when you take what doesn't belong to you. So, let us echo the Psalmist's plea: incline our hearts to Your testimonies and not to dishonest gain!

American Idol

Christians across the nation were pleasantly surprised on Wednesday when the hit TV reality series, American Idol, concluded their show with a rendition of the the praise song, "Shout to the Lord."

In this day and age, that a secular show with such wide appeal would feature a Christian anthem in it's closing act is no short of miraculous. On top of the fact that American Idol regularly draws 30 million + viewers on a weekly basis, they selected Shout to the Lord to be sung on their mid-season gala show, "Idol Gives Back", their celebrity-studded charity telethon which earned over $60 million in just a few nights. The "Idol Gives Back" episode likely drew millions more viewers than their normal numbers.

One peculiarity that many observers noticed was that Idol replaced the name "Jesus" in the opening verse of the song with "shepherd." To their credit, when they encored the performance on Thursday night's show (that's right! they sang it TWICE in one week! Amazing!), they rightly sang the verse by addressing the praise song to "my Jesus, my savior."

Here is Thursday night's performance with "Jesus":


I may be a little cynical most days, so I doubt myself when I make this speculation, but I wonder if there is a certain element in today's culture that is tired of the removal of God from all thing public and are simply ready for revival.

Pray that it is so!

Here is Wednesday' (inferior) performance with the word "shepherd":