Wednesday's Word - Making It Up as You Go

          Have you heard about what’s going on in Lakeland, Florida? It seems that there’s a revival that’s been going on there called the ‘Florida Outpouring’ that started as something smaller somewhere around April 3rd and continues in an overfilled sports stadium to this day. There have been reports of miraculous healings, signs and wonders, even about 8 or so people raised from the dead. I’m not making this up, honest. So what’s the deal? Is this God doing something special in Florida? How can we know?

          A good place to start is the leader of this ‘revival’ Todd Bentley of the New Apostolic Reformation. This movement has included renewals and revivals in Toronto, the UK and Pensacola. My only concern here today is that we stay grounded in The Scriptures and not allow ourselves to be “wowed” by these types of things, especially in the times that we’re living in.

Here’s the word:

Jeremiah 6: 6 Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'

as far as miracles:

2 Corinthians 11:12 But what I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

          I would expect that these types of events will become more and more common as time goes on, which is why I encourage you to secure yourself in the truth of God’s word and in the strength of a good Bible believing, Bible teaching local body of believers. Continue in your first love, the ancient paths and be careful not to follow those who are making it up as they go.


In Him,
Cros

Wednesday's Word - Sharing Spurgeon

Here's a website I've recently come across http://www.thedailyspurgeon.com/
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an awesome preacher of the word. Here's one excerpt from the site that I really enjoyed...I hope you do also.

Brethren, if you would think for awhile upon the whole work of God, taking in it the Fall as being foreseen and foreknown, until the day when all the chosen seed shall meet around the throne, I think you will be struck with its glory as a whole. It was within the compass of the power of God to make creatures that would love him, to make beings that would be attached to him by the very closest ties; but - I speak with reverence - I do not see how omnipotence itself, apart from the fall and the redemption by the sacrifice of Christ, when he gave himself to die for us; could have made such creatures as the redeemed will be in heaven. Brethren, if we had never fallen and never been redeemed, we could never have sung of redeeming grace and dying love. We could not, and the angels could not; we could not have known the heights and depths, and lengths and breadths of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.

Feasted with heavenly food, we might have admired his bounty, but not as we now do when we eat the flesh of Christ; made to drink the wine pressed from heaven’s own clusters, we might have blessed the giver of the feast, but not as we now can do, when we drink the blood of Jesus as our sweet wine; pure and holy, we could have praised him, and we should have done so, but not as we now can, when we have “washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” There is a nearer relationship now than there could have been in any other way, if God had not taken humanity into alliance with himself, if the Word had not been made flesh and dwelt among us.

From a sermon entitled "Another And A Nobler Exhibition," delivered May 4, 1862

Wednesday's Word - Let Us Pray

      To quote a familiar tune “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love...” You know what? God IS love. The question then becomes “How can we seek God to meet us at our place of need?” In our technologically advanced society, it seems that we’ve departed so much from the fundamentals that if it’s not a website that we can login to and get the ‘quick cliff notes’ it falls even further away, receiving much less than its appropriate attention.
      Tomorrow, May 1st 2008, is the National Day of Prayer. And in light of the problems facing our world, our nation, our communities, our families and our individual selves, it would be a good thing to look at this day in the same way “Resolutionaries” look at January 1st. To start a Prayer Day resolution – to commit to a quiet time of prayer and meditation that last throughout the year.

Here’s the Word:

2 Chronicles 6: 28 – 31 If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, 29 whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house, 30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men, 31 that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

      There it is. If we want God to answer, we really need to be about prayer. Why would we expect God to be serious about our issues if we’re not? Tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer…but what will you do May 2nd. With the speed at which our religious liberties are deteriorating, the day may not be long from now where we will have to think back to when our government 'used to' let us pray.

Oh yeah! The website.
National Day Of Prayer


In Him,
Cros