posted
Good plan. I tend to be wary with people who put more emphasis on the “gifts of the Spirit” – tongues, prophecy, healing, etc, than the “fruit of the Spirit” -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22). If the gifts don’t seem to be bearing the fruit, then I think it’s fair to question whether it’s really “of the Spirit.”
If this guy’s preaching is leading you to think deeply about your faith, great. If it’s bringing you closer to God, making you a stronger disciple of Christ, wonderful. Just remember that ultimately you are a follower of Jesus Christ, not of Jesse Duplantis. Listen for God’s voice yourself, don’t just take his word for it.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Never was going to follow him, actually, he had just inspired a good feeling in me and stoked the furnace a bit.
There's one destination, but we've all got to find our own individual paths. Luckily, there's a good guidebook. Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
No thread on Christianity would be complete without one of the Christians referring to C.S. Lewis. It's a Hatrack tradition, right?
Since no one has beat me to the punch, allow me to recommend C.S. Lewis as a good source of sober-minded thinking about Christianity. For the issues that this particular thread has been dealing with, his book Miracles may be a good reference.
Posts: 224 | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I loved C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, as well as most of his other non-fiction and religious fiction. The Problem of Pain was great, and I also enjoyed The Great Divorce, etc.
It is worth noting, however, that one of the ideas I came across in the Narnia Books led to the first crack in my somewhat structured view of How Things Work as far as religion goes.
I have said this before, and I know it's weird, but I'm not a church-goer anymore, largely BECAUSE of the influence of C.S. Lewis' writings.
In The Last Battle, this guy who followed a false god, but did so with a pure heart, ends up in 'heaven'. I thought about it a long time, and it finally made so much sense to me that I couldn't stand to be in a church that believed you have to do X Y and Z just like THIS to get into 'heaven' or to have a relationship with the 'real' god. Which was prettymuch all of them (except Unitarians, I think, and I'm not ready to go that far, either).
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote: Could Satan offer healing on the physical level if he so chose and it served his purposes?
I don't think so, not an actual healing, anyway. The Bible says that God is the healer. But maybe he could be the one who makes you think you are sick in the first place? I KNOW that he can confuse a non-Christian so much that they will think pretty much anything he wants them to, i.e. I'm sick, I'm not sick.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I'm pretty sure he works just as hard at confusing Christians. Just because I'm a Christian doesn't make me immune to temptation or treachery. It just makes me more aware of how thin the path can be at some times and how vast the possibilities are.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Not really important info, but in my time in Guatemala (where I first encountered Charismatics) it was a movement confined solely to the Catholic Church.
It surprised me to see that it wasn't exclusive.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
But the Catholic Church is the dominant denomination in Guatemala, so just about every movement you find there will consist primarily of Catholics, no?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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