Charismatic vs. Reformed

alright. I visited a charismatic church this weekend. everybody knows by now that I'm an unforgiving cynic most of the time. (not always a good thing). but I definitely walked into that building with a mostly open conscience. I wasn't going to condemn something before I experienced it.

well. to say the least, I was uncomfortable. some might say it's because I'm conservative and traditional. others might say I'm close-minded. the people in this church would say that I was refusing the movement and revelation of the Spirit and therefore sinning.

I'm a little conflicted about this church. of course, I would never, ever agree or believe anything that went on in that church (I was happy they sang "How Great Thou Art", though). but am I being too hasty writing them off and condemning them in my heart?

a more specific question, are prophets/prophetesses biblical in today's culture? are they the false leaders that Paul warns us of in the first chapter of Galatians:

"I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospe contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!" Galatians 1:6-9 (NASB).

the comments are open to the public. feel free to express your opinion! just remember to always back it up with at least one source. :)

Weekend Factoid: Mennonite Gaga.

I thought it would be fun to add a "segment" to this blog. every Friday or Saturday (Lord willing), I plan to introduce an interesting, lightweight fact. ranging from everything to a little to do with the topic of biblical thought. just to add some relief from the deep thoughts. let me know in the comments if you readers have any strong opinions about this!

so my first weekend factoid: Gaga and the Mennonites.

I actually got this fact from one of my Mennonite friends/coworkers. he had posted it on his Facebook. apparently, Lady Gaga frequents Lancaster, PA. she uncharacteristically flies under the radar and visits with her boyfriend's high school friends. 

and of course, all of his high school friends are from a Mennonite Bible school in the area. 

not only are they friends, but they are classmates.

yup! Lady Gaga is dating a Mennonite. Taylor Kinney to be exact.

of course, he would be in the more "liberal" circles as a soap-opera actor. but still, a Mennonite. how odd, interesting, and... actually, typical of Lady Gaga.

click here for the article.

have a relaxing, safe weekend!

Disney.

as everyone in the world has already tweeted or Facebook'd, Steve Jobs passed away. God blessed the man with ingenious creativity and originality and a humbler spirit than the majority of prominent Christians. Jobs invented and designed the best operating system so far (yeah, yeah, I use a PC, but let's get real...), and always pursued new and more challenging things.

the only unfortunate thing is that Steve Jobs didn't know it was God who gave him this gift and it was God who could take it away. like most people today, Jobs was stuck in the Disney mentality:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." (Steve Jobs @ his Stanford University commencement address in 1995)

 alas, poor heart. as Shakespeare put it,

"...poor fool, it keeps on the windy side of care."

not much of a compass, really. the heart makes a lousy map. if only Steve Jobs had made God's word his map!

"The law of God is in his heart, his steps do not slip." Psalm 37:31 (NASB).

I am praying for the Jobs family, for his friends and coworkers, and for the company that sells his creations. God is in control!

---

as a side note...........I'd like to point out the difference between true Christians and the demon-possessed slanderers that claim faith in the one true Christ while defying everything Christ-like or Christ-natured. who else could I be speaking of but Westboro Baptist Church.

one of the cult's leaders tweeted an important announcement:

what an absolutely horrible, non-Christian thing to say. and this, of course, is the world's reference for Christians. the Westboro Baptists who claim God hates the world. the "church" has performed similar pickets against grieving families, destroying all witness about the truth of God and His purpose.

Washington Post Blog article: Westboro Church vs. Steve Jobs' funeral

yes, it would have been a beautiful miracle if God had transformed Steve Jobs, and Jobs, in turn, gave God the glory. but he didn't. a picket won't do anything except send people away from the truth.

all this to say... Westboro is a cult. nothing to do with the true God of the Bible.

Lone Ranger.

my dad is still the Lone Ranger's biggest fan. you know, the masked cowboy sheriff, sniffing out crime and hunting the perpetrators down. with the big, white horse named Silver and the Native American sidekick, Tonto. they rode the desert plains together, tracking outlaws. I mean, come on, he had a mask and was possibly the first cowboy to wear spandex instead of cowhide. everyone knows the Lone Ranger.

what made him the Lone Ranger was... well... he was a loner. he wasn't even an official sheriff. the guy was completely independent. even his partner, Tonto, would go and do his own thing. I mean, sure, usually they were together when news of the outlaw gangs came in, but Tonto had his own agendas too. they were free agents, fighting crime where they saw it. no affiliation. no checking in. no really getting to know people.

well. that works for him. but Christians... not so much.

trust me. I tried it alone. no, I didn't go into sex, drugs, and alcohol, but I confess I cussed a lot. under my breath. in my room to myself. which made me an angrier person in a shorter amount of time. swear words tend to have a knack for making a person angry or bitter.

everything also becomes more about myself. over stupid, silly things, too. why should I do the dishes, I'm never home making them dirty. why should I take care of the dog all day, I didn't buy her. why should I pay for the gas that someone else used in my car. why should I apologize, it's not like I'm as bad as him or her.

I also turn into Ebenezer Scrooge. clutching my belongings to myself. I bought them, what right have you  to touch them. I'll hunt down a single bottle of nail polish, muttering angry things all the while, whipping myself into a frenzy -- only to find it sitting in my own room. just in a different spot on the shelf.

the good thing is that God instantly convicts me. the bad thing is that this even happens.

and for the most part, it happens when I don't fellowship with the people of God. I have a dear Christian friend on campus. I love it when we can find time to just have breakfast, catch up, and have a truly refreshing talk about life as believers and the challenges we face.

I attend an excellent, firm church. sure, like every church, it has its quirks. but I love meeting with the people in that church. I thank God there is a small group/Bible study on the one evening I have free from work and class. and God uses that fellowship to help me. like a pit-stop halfway through the week-long marathon between Sundays. (which, I mentioned in the previous blog post, are crucial to keeping a believer accountable in their walk).

what I am not saying is that fellowship with believers is an instant magic, like osmosis or diffusion, where Christ-like behavior seeps from one person to the next. no. not at all. think of it more as a refresher. a nice, cold, icy glass of water after a three mile run in 80 degree heat. a beautiful, welcome break. 

as you can see, I'm not the number one Christian. like Paul, I am the least of all, a grateful slave to Christ. I'm not lecturing anyone about hanging out with the right people or spending more time with the good crowd. this blog post is a mere thought after noticing the God-moved change after He urged my heart to get more involved with His people. and what else are we supposed to do with God's life lessons but share them?

Sunday.

there are two kinds of "Sunday" people.

first (and how most Christians are stereotyped) are those who believe and religiously follow the Mosaic Sabbath. this is the implication that all activity separate from worshiping Jesus Christ with fellow believers or in individual quiet is unacceptable and considered a sin. in short, according to God via Moses:

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20:8-11 (NASB).

sounds very reasonable. there is nothing wrong with this view. the only danger, however, is taking it too far into legalism land. for instance, the Jews had long lists of dos and don'ts for the Sabbath day. don't walk more than fifteen steps. don't buy or prepare your food, instead preparing it the day before and eating the leftovers on the Sabbath. in fact, don't even prepare your animals food. don't send them out to pasture, because, well, that requires labor. just make sure you have a day's worth of food for them saved up from the day before. eventually, the Sabbath became more of a ritual instead of a day of celebration among the saints.*

the second are those who basically blend in with everyone else who treats Sunday just like another day of the week. they explain that we, in the new covenant, don't need to follow the intense law of "keeping" a certain day of the week. instead, we worship Christ every day, since He is now the Lord of the Sabbath. we only pick Sunday as a day of worship because it's the "day off" for Christians who have to work during the week and students.

"Now it happened that He was passing through some grainfields on a Sabbath; and His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating the grain. But some of the Pharisees said, 'Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?' And Jesus answering them said, 'Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his companions?' And He was saying to them, 'The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.'" Luke 6:1-5 (NASB).

"But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain." Galatians 4:9-11 (NASB).

again, more biblical backing to this view. however, this view also has to be taken with a grain of salt. after a while, after feeling "liberated" from the burdens of observing the Lord's day, most Christians consider worship in a church setting on Sunday mornings as an option. hey, if you don't make it on Sunday, just go next week. or to a Bible study. or to Sunday evening.

while there is nothing openly or directly wrong with this, there is again a danger. we begin to rearrange our priorities. it's more fun going to Kennywood with my coworkers on a "work outing", but what witness would I be if I chose to skip out on church just to ride a few rides, get nice and sweaty, walk around aimlessly with people I see and joke with at work, and talk about silly, empty, stupid things?

I really wanted to run the Great Race down town. for some insane reason, I like to run, especially with other people. it would have been fun. I would have done a miserable job and come in around 300th place, but still. and then I found out it was on a Sunday morning. 8:00. about an hour and a half before church. if I had lived in Pittsburgh, right down town where it started, this wouldn't have been much of an issue. I run for half an hour, go home, shower, go to church. but I don't live down town. it would have been impossible for me to go to church. what witness would I be if I decided running with a few hundred people I didn't know was more important than fellowship with the two dozen I do know at church?

granted, I would do that on a Tuesday or Thursday or Saturday instead of sitting and reading my Bible, but there is only one day a week that I can actually find 3 to 4 free hours to spend with the people of God. as Christians, we need to be aware of not only the impression it leaves with those who watch us, but also on our walk with Christ. if we spend our normal time with the church, the body of Christ, doing unedifying activities, we will be affected.

what is your priority? or, a more appropriate question, who is your priority? yourself with your personal interests or desires for the day? your family and what they want to do that day? your preconceived ideas of what is important on a Sunday morning instead of church? or is it God and His believers, His church?

"'For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.'" Matthew 18:20 (NASB).