Don’t Teach Finesse
May 1, 2017 at 2:54 pm | Posted in Biblical Don'ts, Uncategorized | 4 CommentsTags: 1 Timothy 6, Biblical Parenting, Biblical teaching, children's Bible lessons, children's Bible studies, children's ministry, greed, Luke 6, TBN, Word of Faith
Previously I discussed the dangers of teaching the Bible to children the way we would teach fables, and of the danger of teaching them that the Bible is merely a sounding board for our feelings. Now we will see that we must also beware of the temptation to teach obedience to God as though it was part of a reward system, or a quid pro quo bargaining chip.
This is an especially dangerous teaching method because of the way even adults, through the so-called “health and wealth gospel” or the “Word of Faith” movement, have been seduced into this way of thinking: “I’ll obey You, God, but I need You to give me something in return” (good health and money being the two favorites). We see this train of thought subtly insinuated in promises to get blessings for giving, for ministry, even for faithfulness.
The problem is not really in teaching that God blesses, and even honors, faithfulness. The problem is in slapping our definition of “blessing” onto God’s greater and higher definition of blessing. Children who are taught that God is just aching to give them what their flesh craves are susceptible to developing a mentality of “gaming the system” – of trying to bribe or outsmart God.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
I Timothy 6:6-10
A love of money or any material thing (which amounts to the sin of greed) will bring sorrow instead of joy into the hearts of your children. Let’s teach our children that knowing and serving God is a blessing unto itself, and that even poverty and suffering may be counted as true blessings under His promises.
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
Luke 6:20-21
Restless Unbelief
June 15, 2015 at 1:22 pm | Posted in Hebrews | 6 CommentsTags: belief, Canaan, commentary on Hebrews, Hebrews 3, promised land, rest, Sunday School lessons on Hebrews, TBN
Some Christians are like the children of Israel in the wilderness. They struggle with entering in to the rest of assurance, which was foreshadowed in the Old Testament by the promised land of Canaan.
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Hebrews 3:19
True Biblical belief isn’t all about just believing in what God can give you. It’s believing that God is still God – that He’s still in control – when you don’t get what you want. It’s believing that He wants you to do right, and that, if you don’t, He’s going to do something about it, because He loves you.
Many people look at the Old Testament story of Moses in the wilderness, and they think that Canaan is the Old Testament version of Heaven. That’s why some songs talk about crossing over the river Jordan when you die. But Canaan doesn’t represent Heaven. There were battles, and even defeats, over there. Crossing over into Canaan represents the point at which believers – true Christians – by faith receive their spiritual inheritance this side of Heaven. Those who died in the wilderness were still believers and followers of Yahweh, but they kept wandering around in unbelief, and were continually being chastened by their loving Father because they would not “draw near” to God.
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
Hebrews 3:7-11
Let’s draw near to God when times are good – and when times are bad. Let’s not be bold in the sense of demanding, but let’s be bold in the sense of openness and confidence. Entering into our rest doesn’t mean lying around on a cloud all day, playing your harp. It’s not early retirement from the pilgrimage to the Heavenly home. It’s certainly not – despite what you might have heard from the flavor-of-the-month TV preacher – getting a mansion, a Rolls Royce, a bunch of jewelry, and the best plastic surgery. No, entering into your rest is being able to confide in God – because you have drawn near to Him – and you know that He is working things out for your good.
Lord, thank You for those in our lives that we love, and for those that love us. Thank You that You are love. Help our love to bypass the stage of feeling and emotion, and to become active. Help us to be a people that shows love, and make us conscious of opportunities to show love to others. In the name of Christ Jesus I pray. Amen.
Beware the Fiduciary Foundation
February 24, 2015 at 11:57 am | Posted in II Corinthians, The Fives | 5 CommentsTags: 2 Corinthians 5, charismania, Cinco de Mayo devotions, Jesus Christ, Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, TBN, the Holy Spirit, trust, trustees
A fiduciary relationship is one of trust. It involves the giving over of something to someone else to keep safe and to manage well. When a person trusts Christ unto salvation, he receives, at the moment of his regeneration, the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit functions in many different ways as He indwells the bodies of Christian believers, and one of those ways is that He acts as a sort of “earnest payment” which signifies the person’s eternal salvation and future ultimate redemption.
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
II Corinthians 5:5
However, it is important to remember, as believers, that we do not control the Holy Spirit; He is supposed to be in control of us. When we are thinking correctly, and abiding in Christ, the Holy Spirit is in charge of us; we are not in charge of Him.
In today’s climate of pseudo-spiritual religious promotion, it is easy to get mixed up in this regard. If we do not keep our minds saturated with Biblical truth, we will start to think that the Holy Spirit has been given to us “in trust,” and that we need to manage Him properly, but that, if we put Him “to work” (the way a smart financial manager will put your money to work to earn interest), then He can be used to make us wealthy, healthy, influential, comfortable, charismatic, and well-known.
That is the wrong foundation for Holy Spirit-led living, and a Spirit-filled life. The Holy Spirit, and the assurance of His indwelling, is given to us to remind us that we belong to Christ. We have been purchased at the greatest cost, and our lives are themselves now held “in trust” and, if we are to be faithful stewards, they must be managed in such as way as to magnify Jesus and glorify God.
I’m Just Sayin’ 10
March 5, 2013 at 1:43 pm | Posted in I'm Just Sayin' | 10 CommentsTags: big problems, Christian cliches, Joseph M. Scriven, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Psalm 102, Psalm 142, Psalm 55, TBN, Word of Faith
I guess I’m as big a fan of a good Christian cliché as the next fellow, but I’m just sayin’, the theology of some of these trite bumper sticker/coffee mug/Facebook share catchphrases is just awful, and they’re starting to be preached from the pulpit as though they were actually Biblical. “Before you can forgive others, you must first learn to forgive yourself.” Ugh. Puh-leeze. I would expect to see some New Age touchy-feeling Stuart Smalley-type spouting this nonsense, but a professing Christian? You do know you that God alone has the power to forgive sins, right? I’m just sayin’, even the scribes and the Pharisees knew that! You and I have neither the authority nor the ability to “forgive ourselves,” but that’s just one example. I suppose we could overlook some of these dumb expressions (“Let go and let God;” “Christians aren’t perfect, they’re just forgiven”), but it really starts to get old after a while, and the heretical hits just keep on comin’. Here’s the latest that I’ve heard spewed forth from the pulpit as if it were some newly found nugget of wisdom: “Don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big your God is.” Catchy, huh? Someone should embroider a shirt for the family pooch!
Where to begin..? I guess we all have our moments of confusion, but, I’m just sayin’, your “problems” are not sentient beings, and if you find yourself talking to them, someone might question your sanity. You can tell your “problems” all sorts of things about God ’til you’re blue in the face, but despite what you might have seen on TBN, or heard from Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, or Joel and Victoria Osteen, “words of faith” are not magical messages that force God to eradicate the specific problems to which you are “speaking.”
Furthermore, when did it become a bad idea to tell God all about your problems? Isn’t that what many of the Psalms are about?
[A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD.] Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.
Psalm 102:1
He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
Psalm 102:7
[Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave.] I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
Psalm 142:1-2
[To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, [A Psalm] of David.] Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise; Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
Psalm 55:1-3
Poor King David. I guess he just wasn’t spiritual enough to shoot a “word of faith” bullet at his problems and make them disappear. He actually cried out his complaints to the Lord. How passé. No wonder he didn’t have any Twitter followers!
I’m just sayin’, are we not commanded to cast our cares upon the Lord, Who cares for us (Psalm 55:22; I Peter 5:7)? Are we not commanded to pray about everything (I Thessalonians 5:17; Philippians 4:6)? One of the worst things you could do would be to get into a pointless conversation with your “problems” when Jesus has poured out His life’s blood to purchase access for you and me directly into the throne room of God. Maybe instead of repeating the chorus to “Lord Prepare Me to be a Sanctuary” 16 times in row until the whole congregation feels light-headed, woozy, and susceptible to silly little Christianized self-help bon mots, we could belt out a hearty verse or two of something a little more didactic… say, I don’t know… “What a Friend We Have in Jesus:”
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Joseph M. Scriven
I don’t how Mr. Scriven felt when his fiance’ died right before his wedding (twice!), but I’m sure glad he was willing to tell God all about his problems rather than telling anything to his problems themselves! I’m just sayin’.
Not Afraid of the Dark
December 6, 2012 at 12:53 pm | Posted in Selected Psalms | 8 CommentsTags: commentary on Psalms, fear of the Lord, overcoming fear, plumbing, prosperity, Psalm 111, Psalm 112, Sunday School lessons on Psalms, TBN
Psalm 112 is a post-exilic Psalm. The Psalms are not, as a rule, “in order,” although there are some exceptions where one Psalm will refer to the next.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
Psalm 111:10
Psalm 111 progressively tells us to remember Who we’re dealing with here, so Psalm 111:10 is an admonition, and the blessings of heeding that admonition – the blessings of obedience – are found in Psalm 112.
Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
Psalm 112:1
Psalm 112 is also in the form of an acrostic. I have to admit that I am a fan of acrostics myself: S.W.I.M. – D.O.C.T.O.R. – N.E.I.G.H.B.O.R. – A.D.V.I.C.E. – P.A.T.C.H. A good acrostic is not merely clever. It is something that helps our memory. Each line in Psalm 112 begins with a successive letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
Psalm 112 is also a good encouragement to have a Godly home. As you can imagine, the emphasis is on the man of the house. At first glance it looks like it is all about health, wealth, success, prosperity, and happiness. I’m surprised it’s not a big hit on TBN, but I suppose the view that “faith” means not having any problems would have to be rejected based on the following verses:
Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.
Psalm 112:4-5 (emphasis added)
Darkness and discretion are two key realities – even for the “upright.” Being right with God is not about never going through trials and difficulties, but in them God in His grace and compassion sends us caution and vigilance so that we might glorify Him.
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.
Psalm 112:7-8
Notice that this passage does not say that those who are favored by God will not hear any evil tidings. It says they will not be afraid of evil tidings. Note that it does not say that he will not be afraid because he doesn’t have any enemies. It says he will not be afraid because his heart is fixed, trusting the Lord. What’s your desire upon your earthly enemies? To see them destroyed? (Old Testament) Or to see them saved? (New Testament)
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.
Psalm 112:10
If you’ve ever had your enemy gnash his teeth at you (or on you – like Stephen), that can be scary, but God says not to melt away – because ultimately He will see to it that they melt away. The wicked shall perish, so let’s pray that God makes the wicked righteous so they won’t have to perish. That’s what He did for me!
Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
Psalm 112:1
We cultivate fear of the Lord, and defeat fear of problems, by getting to know the Lord more and more. We draw closer and closer. When I draw close to God, I bless my family and my generation.
His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Psalm 112:2
Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.
Psalm 112:3-5
When God blesses us financially, He blesses us to be a blessing to others. To use a simple plumbing analogy, we are more like the faucet than the bathtub. If you start thinking of yourself as a bathtub and start to pool up your own blessings, God might very well cut off the water supply.
Warning Sign #8: Regularly Scheduled Miracles
March 28, 2011 at 2:45 pm | Posted in When Good Preachers Go Bad | 17 CommentsTags: 1 Timothy 5, anointings, Bapticostals, Benny Hinn, charismania, Hebrews 11, Ron Phillips, TBN, weekend of miracles, Word of Faith
If your pastor is in the transitional phase of crossing over into the “word of faith” or “prosperity gospel” movements, you may want to consider getting him a notebook for his birthday or pastor appreciation day. I know that does not sound like a very special gift, but it can come in really handy. Just make sure it is fairly thick. He’s going need it to be able to write down and keep up with all his different “anointings.”
He will want to write down the dates and times he first received his “preachin’ anointing,” his “speaking-in-tongues anointing,” his “harvest anointing,” his “anointing of increase,” his “anointing of favor,” his “financial anointing,” his “binding and loosing anointing,” his “dreams and visions anointing,” any musical or singing “anointings” he might have received, and many many more. These usually happen during a “vision retreat” where he abandons his family and flock for a few days so he can go somewhere secluded and hear God speak to him audibly in a place where no one else is around to verify it.
Of course, these “lesser anointings” will decrease in importance as he grows in faith. He is really just biding his time until he receives his “healing anointing” and his “miracle-working anointing.” That’s where the real money and fame is, after all. You don’t get much more “anointed” than being able to do a miracle, heal someone from a disease or injury, or even raise the dead.
When your pastor gets to that level of anointedness, look out. It’s time for him to start regularly scheduling the miracles! If you think I’m exaggerating, think again. Even the Apostle Paul and the 1st Century Christians weren’t this anointed. Oh, sure, they did miracles by the power of God. But even they couldn’t make a “miracle reservation” and invite everybody to come “receive their healing” at an appointed time of their own choosing. Look at what Paul told Timothy:
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
I Timothy 5:23
Too bad Benny Hinn wasn’t around back then. (If you type “regularly scheduled miracles” into Google, he is the first name that pops up.) Benny could have pushed Timothy over onstage in front of thousands of spectators and instantly healed his stomach problems without that pesky wine. (Of course, Timothy would have had to pay to park, wait in a long line at a big event center, dodge the numerous offering baskets, and sit through two-plus hours of droning repetitive trance-inducing “praise and worship music.”)
Or how about these poor believers, who suffered not because they didn’t speak the right “words of faith,” but because they did speak faithfully:
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
Hebrews 11:37
Too bad they couldn’t have held on a little longer until the next “weekend of miracles” so a greedy “anointed” faith healer could lay hands on them and convince them that there is guaranteed physical healing in the Atonement.
Does God work miracles today? Without a doubt. Is he doing them at regularly scheduled pre-planned events calculated to bring glory and riches to men? Not likely. If your pastor is getting into this sort of thing, lovingly offer him a ride to the nearest critical care unit, pediatric cancer ward, or severe burn treatment center, so he can really put his “anointing” to use free of charge. Or better yet, take him to the morgue. If he can slap your Aunt Boo-Boo upside the head and heal her ingrown toenail, surely it’s only a difference in degree between that “miracle” and raising the dead. Right?
Warning Sign #7: Playing Politics
July 21, 2010 at 12:17 pm | Posted in When Good Preachers Go Bad | 6 CommentsTags: Bapticostals, charismania, charsmatic theology, prosperity Gospel, prosperity preaching, Ron Phillips, TBN, Word Faith, Word of Faith
Let’s just pretend for a moment that you are the pastor/preacher at a fairly conservative Baptist church. One day, though, you decide you have had enough. Things are getting too boring around here, just trying to obey God’s Word. You have seen something better: the wild, exciting worship that takes place on TBN. You have seen the material wealth and fame of the “Word Faith” preachers, and the size of their congregations, and especially the showy display of their gaudy buildings. Something clicks in your brain, (which you will later claim was a “rhema word from the Holy Ghost”) and you realize that you are never going to be as rich, exciting, or renowned as those TV preachers unless you play down the “Baptist” aspects of your ministry and play up the so-called “Charismatic” or “Pentecostal” features which are part of the background of most of the famous prosperity preachers.
These would be your two main problems:
1. Traditional Baptist theology does not focus primarily on the so-called “sign gifts” of tongues, prophecy, and supernatural healings, but these are the bread-and-butter of Charismatic and Pentecostal fundraising.
2. To attract Pentecostals and most Charismatics to see your show, you are going to have to convince them that, although you have been a Baptist, and have preached that salvation is of the Lord, and that once God makes you a new creation in Christ Jesus you are eternally secure, you also somehow believe that you can lose “your” salvation.
How in the world are you going to convince your congregation that you are “going Pentecostal” without looking like a traitor to your former beliefs?
Here’s how: you are going to have to be “political.” Start telling people that you are “too Baptist to be Pentecostal and too Pentecostal to be Baptist,” and that some Baptists were mean to you one time, and didn’t want you to act too freaky in church. This hurt your feelings, but now you realize that they were just being too “by the Book,” and you were trying to “get free in the Holy Spirit!” Of course, you will have to use a lot of smoke and mirrors and a lot of doublespeak.
You will also have to be prepared to look extremely foolish at times: Case in point – in order to avoid the phrase, “once saved always saved” (which most Pentecostals absolutely hate), try referring to “The Gospel According To Jesus,” by John MacArthur. A good politician can use the “Lordship Salvation” teaching of this book to disarm most Pentecostals. Tell them that if you are not “crowning Jesus Lord,” every moment of every day, then you are not “saved.” This should appease them. They will interpret this to mean that you think folks can lose their salvation by sinning. Beware however: a more astute Pentecostal may do a little research and find out that MacArthur also wrote a book called “Charismatic Chaos,” and is perhaps the staunchest “cessationist” around today. [Uh-oh, now you will have to explain how you think MacArthur is right on one point, but is teaching a “lie from the pit of hell” (cessationism) on another point.]
That could be tricky, but it’s all in a week’s work for a Good Preacher Going Bad. Just keep them emotionally charged up with lights, smoke, discordant “worship” music, sowing seeds of faith (a.k.a. giving money), and claimed “healings” (which are supernatural even though they might take a while to “manifest” [wink, wink.]) As a prosperity-preacher-in-the-making, you will be very close at this point to “seeing a move of God” as the “fire falls” and the “latter rain” breaks out “in this place.”
Warning Sign #6: Visualization Techniques
July 2, 2010 at 12:46 pm | Posted in Biblical Eyesight, John, When Good Preachers Go Bad | 16 CommentsTags: Hebrews 2, John 12, John 6, Luke 19, prayer of Jabez, prosperity Gospel, prosperity preachers, TBN, Word of Faith, Zacchaeus
The false teaching of the prosperity gospel is partly about greed. Therefore, if you expect the prosperity preacher to talk about “claiming” and “grabbing” and “seizing” you will not be disappointed. Whether it’s good health, popularity with the world, or just plain old filthy lucre, though, the prosperity preacher knows one thing:
You have to see it before you reach it!
Good Preacher Going Bad
Speaking “words of faith” are all well and good. But if you’ve been speaking to your checkbook, your doctor’s appointment book, and your Facebook for a long time, and you still don’t have as many dollars, healings, or shallow friends as you would like – it just may be that you are not “visualizing” hard enough!
I have heard visualizing techniques attributed to all sorts of Biblical characters – from Abraham to Jabez to David to Zacchaeus. To be fair, Zacchaeus did seem to be a little (no pun intended) bit of a visualizer.
“See there!” says the prosperity preacher, “The Bible does teach that we are supposed to see what we want, and then reach for it!”
Not so fast. Zacchaeus had a desire to see, alright – but a desire to see what… or should I say Whom?
And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.
Luke 19:3, emphasis added
Despite what the prosperity teacher tells you, remember: Our help comes from seeing Jesus – not the personal comforts we can concoct in our own imaginations.
So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
John 6:19, emphasis added
The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
John 12:21, emphasis added
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Hebrews 2:9, emphasis added
Warning Sign #5: Naming Pet Demons
June 18, 2010 at 10:24 am | Posted in Biblical names, When Good Preachers Go Bad | 12 CommentsTags: 2 Peter 2, 2 Timothy 1, Deuteronomy 29, Jezebel, leviathan, prosperity preaching, Revelation 2, Revelation 8, TBN, Word of Faith
The idea that our loving Lord could allow something “bad” like poverty or sickness or persecution into the life a Christian is especially abhorrent to a prosperity preacher. But railing against politicians, doctors, and “dead religious Pharisees” can only get you so far. When you really want to drive your congregation into a frenzy and get them hyped up into a display of emotionalism, you’ve got to portray yourself as a big bad demon-fighter. And what “spiritual warrior” worth his salt isn’t even on a first name basis with his enemies?
Therefore, beware of this kind of blustering and showmanship:
I call you out, Spirit of Jezebel! I’m gonna send you back to the pit, Spirit of Leviathan! We hate you, Spirit of Wormwood!
Good Preacher Going Bad
Now, I know what you’re thinking: These names – Jezebel, Leviathan, and Wormwood – are in the Bible (Revelation 2:20; Isaiah 27:1; Deuteronomy 29:18, Revelation 8:11). However, nowhere does Scripture explicitly state that these are the names of specific demons that today attack our finances, our relationships, our physical bodies, or our desire for exuberant worship. That type of preaching is fanciful at best and misleading at worst.
However, don’t try to tell this to the demon-fighting prosperity preacher! He’s already on to your type. You are one of those who has a “spirit of fear” or a “spirit of intimidation.” After all, God hasn’t given us the “spirit of fear,” according to II Timothy 1:7. This is the “you-are-just-scared-of-a-move-of-the-Holy-Ghost” card that the prosperity preacher loves to play when questioned about Biblical accuracy. Please note however that the rest of II Timothy 1:7 reads, “but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,” so the “spirit of fear” is not the name of some devilish imp lurking around underneath the discarded hymn books. It is simply the carnal default position of our flesh nature when we are not being led by – and bearing the fruit of – the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, when Michal got huffy about David’s public display of dancing (II Samuel 6), there is no Bible verse that says she was possessed by the “Spirit of Intimidation.”
Beware of the preacher who is more comfortable railing against principalities and powers than he is dealing with sin in the camp and in his own life.
The Deep End 
And Sometimes Y
June 10, 2019 at 1:17 pm | Posted in Luke | 1 CommentTags: charismania, commentary on Luke, Jonah, Luke 11, Satan, Satan's tactics, signs and wonders, Sunday School lessons on Luke, TBN, Word Faith movement
In elementary English, children learn that the vowels are A, E, I, O, U… “and sometimes Y.” In a previous lesson I looked at the “vowels of hell.” In addition to the devil’s “kingdom” being a.ctual, e.nergetic, i.ntelligent, o.rganized, and u.nited, I will now add that it is “sometimes y.oked.”
Yoked means attached. The kingdom of Satan is sometimes attached to a lost person (possession), or, as pointed out by Jesus, in some cases it is attached to a “movement.”
Luke 11:29
The sign of Jonah was that he was swallowed by a fish or a whale, and vomited up on dry land. When he preached, people repented. Jesus told the crowd that their generation was evil because they were seeking signs when the greater-than-Jonah was right there in front of them!
Luke 11:30
Jonah was “buried” and “resurrected,” in a sense, but Jesus is greater. He actually died and actually come back to life.
Luke 11:32
There is a “movement” today which is sometimes (“sometimes Y”) yoked with satanic influence. This movement says that you don’t need to accept that Jesus is real unless you are seeing signs and wonders. Those of us who recognize this error in the charismatic and the “Word Faith” prosperity movement have to be careful, too, though, that we don’t fall prey to Satan’s influence in more subtle ways:
-“I lost my job, so what’s the point of continuing to go to church?”
-“I’ll start praying, but I better see some results.”
Let’s not be part of what Jesus called a “wicked” generation.