Connecting
man to man to God
For week of July 13, 2008
Issue 215
“To
him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or
imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him
be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all
generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
CONSIDER
“All
life is holy. If we are truly oriented toward God, then our
slightest activities- shaving, reading the newspaper, putting out
the cat- are a form of prayer.” Wendy Beckett
STUDY:
BIBLE STILL RECOGNIZED AS TOP 'HOLY' BOOK
A
new Barna survey shows that more Americans accept the Bible as
"holy" or "sacred" than they would other
books. Respondents of the survey for The Barna Group identified
around 12 books they thought fit the bill as "sacred
literature" or "holy books." The list included
expected titles such as the Bible and the Koran and others such as
Quiet Strength by football coach Tony Dungy. However, the Bible
stood out by far from other texts with 84% of Americans deeming it
a holy book.
Only 3 books are recognized as holy by at
least 1% of Americans. The Koran trails behind the Bible in 2nd
place with 4%; the Book of Mormon is labeled by 3% as sacred/holy;
and the Torah is deemed holy by 2% of the public.... Read this in
full
at
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=302
SCHOLARS
DOWNPLAY TABLET DEBATE ON MESSIAH, RESURRECTION
An
eclectic Jewish scholar is causing a media stir by claiming that
Jesus and his disciples copied the idea of a messiah rising again
after three days, basing his interpretation of scattered text
found on a so-called ancient tablet. This idea fails to hold up
when compared with the assessment of other biblical scholars --
many who say the relic is too badly preserved to even read.
The
tablet is not a new find but is catching news waves because Israel
Knohl, a professor of Bible studies at Jerusalem's Hebrew
University, was slated to present his interpretation of the text
at a Jerusalem conference marking the 60th anniversary of the
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The three-by-one foot
tablet -- dubbed "Gabriel's Vision" because it contains
apocalyptic text ascribed to the angel -- contains 87 lines of
text on gray-colored stone. It is owned by a collector in Zurich
who said he acquired it from an antiquities dealer in Jordan....
Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080708/scholars-downplay-tablet-debate-on-messiah-resurrection.htm
FLORIDA
EVENT CAUSES RIFT IN CHARISMATIC COMMUNITY
Todd
Bentley believes God acts through him to cure cancer, heal the
deaf and raise the dead. So do hundreds of thousands of people who
have visited his raucous revival meeting, now in its third month
and broadcast nightly from a huge tent in the middle of
Florida.
The 32-year-old Canadian, tattooed to the fingers
and neck, puts a palm to the forehead of the sick, desperate and
faithful. Bentley yells "Bam!" they collapse and he
proclaims them cured. Attendees dance in the aisles, shout to
Heaven, laugh, shake violently and cry.
Such revivals
aren't new, but Bentley's stage show has become a phenomenon in
the religious world -- for both its pull and the criticism it has
attracted -- in just a few months. He claims to have medical proof
of mass healings, but has not produced widely convincing evidence.
His tactics, sometimes violent, have made skeptics even of
Pentecostals who believe in concepts that aren't accepted by all
branches of Christianity such as speaking in tongues, miraculous
healing, and spontaneous twitching from the Holy Spirit.... Read
this in full
at
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Business/Default.aspx?id=175300
CAN
WE AVOID A CHARISMATIC CIVIL WAR?
by
J. Lee Grady
Some leaders say the controversial Lakeland
Revival is forcing us to choose sides. But I don’t believe
God wants to split our movement. It’s been more than 10
years since charismatic prophet Rick Joyner predicted in his
popular book The Final Quest that believers would experience a
Civil War in the church. Joyner’s book, based on a series of
visions he says God showed him, describes in graphic detail a
turbulent conflict that redefines Christianity as we know
it.
Other charismatic leaders have echoed this theme since
Joyner’s book was published in 1996. They have predicted
that our movement will be divided between “Blues”
(those who constantly live in the supernatural realm of dreams,
visions and miracles) and “Grays” (those who rely more
on their intellect), and that the Blues will win and usher in true
revival as champions of the Holy Spirit’s power.
Even
in early 2008, before the Lakeland Revival erupted in Florida in
April, some charismatic prophets were declaring that a great rift
would divide those who believe in “the glory realm”
and those who have a more conservative, left-brained approach to
their faith. When GodTV began its nightly broadcasts of evangelist
Todd Bentley’s healing meetings in Lakeland, the Civil War
prophecies reappeared overnight on hundreds of blogs and e-mail
blasts.... Read this in full
at
http://charismamag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2770
NEITHER
FAITH NOR HEALING
by
William A. Dembski
Todd Bentley's healing ministry has gained
national attention. His daily meetings for the past three months
in Lakeland, Fla., have attracted hundreds of thousands from all
over the world. The press has begun to question Bentley's
legitimacy -- Is his financial accounting above board? Are
miracles really happening? I want here to raise some more personal
concerns.
On July 3, my wife, three children and I attended
Bentley's "impartation service" in Denton, Texas, north
of Dallas. Why? We have twin 7-year-old boys, one of whom is
autistic (largely nonverbal, still not fully toilet trained,
serious developmental delays). Friends urged that we attend the
meeting for his miraculous healing.
Call us stubborn, but
my wife and I are unimpressed with doctors who see our son's
condition as hopeless. We believe that God still heals and that
His means of healing include conventional medicine, alternative
medicine, prayer, fasting, love, and, yes, miracles. In any case,
we haven't given up on our son's recovery (we still remember the
day when he was developmentally on track). So if God wanted to use
Todd Bentley, we were open to it.... Read this in full
at
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=28460
DRAPER:
HEALING ENTAILS GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY
Healing
lies within the sovereignty of God, and He chooses to heal people
according to His will, former LifeWay Christian Resources
President Jimmy Draper wrote in a series on biblical doctrine last
year. In an article from April 20 titled "Doctrine: Does God
heal today?" Draper made these concluding
points:....
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=28461
MAN
SUES TN CHURCH OVER SPIRIT-INDUCED FALL
A
Tennessee man says he was so consumed by the spirit of God that he
fell and hit his head while worshipping. Now he wants the Lakewind
Church of Knoxville to pay $2.5 million for his medical bills,
lost income, pain, and suffering.
Matt Lincoln says he is
suing after the church's insurance company denied his claim for
medical bills, including two surgeries since the June 2007 injury.
He says he was asking God to have "a real experience"
while praying. Lincoln says he has fallen from the force of the
spirit before but has always been caught by someone.
Lawyers
for the church say other congregants saw him on the floor laughing
after his fall. They say he failed to look out for his own
safety.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=174040
GLOBAL
POPULATION TO HIT 7 BILLION IN 2012
World
population is projected to reach 7 billion only 4 years from now.
The world added its 6 billionth resident in 1999. Today, the
population is approximately 6.7 billion. World population growth
is slowing down -- it took about 12 years for the world population
to rise from 5 billion to 6 billion while the increase from 6 to 7
billion is a 13 year time span.... Read this in full
at
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012112.html
LEADERSHIP
TIPS (BUSINESS, FAMILY, LIFE)
Follow
Rich Wagner on his Family's Bike Tour. Rich, author of The
Expeditionary Man: The Adventure a Man Wants, the Leader His
Family Needs, is cycling across America this month with his 3 sons
(his wife is driving the support van). Read his blog
posts....
http://whythebike.com/blog/
VERSE
TO PONDER
“No
temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is
faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that
you can stand up under it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
CONSIDER
“God
always gives us strength enough, and sense enough, for every thing
that He wants us to do.” John Ruskin (1819-1900)
RENOWNED
FAITH-RELATED PHILANTHROPIST DEAD AT 95
The
adage says that an institution is the lengthening shadow of a man,
but in the case of John Templeton, who died July 8 at the age of
95, the lengthening shadow is the answer his life gave to the
biggest of questions. As the founder of the Templeton Prize, he
combined his lifetime of financial acumen and personal generosity
in an effort to ensure that accomplishments in advancing spiritual
knowledge would receive the kind of worldwide recognition accorded
to advances in medicine, science, peacemaking and other arts
through such vehicles as the Nobel Prize. He devoted energy and
resources to demonstrating that religion and science are not at
odds, that insight into the created order and a yearning for the
Creator could be reconciled in the modern world.
Templeton’s
prize, now widely considered the largest in the world, has been
bestowed on such figures as Dr. Billy Graham, Mother Teresa,
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Chuck Colson. Before the award that
bears his name, however, came a long and meritorious career on
Wall Street, where Templeton turned his business acumen and
willingness to invest in struggling enterprises into the wealth
that fueled his tremendous philanthropy. By all accounts, this
success did not change him, but only enabled him to demonstrate
ever more widely the interest in ideas and in the good of people
that became the hallmarks of his near century of living in this
world....
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/julyweb-only/128-31.0.html
CHRISTIANS
HAVE BEGUN MARKING THE SECOND MILLENNIUM OF ST. PAUL
Christian
denominations are celebrating the Pauline Year, June 29, 2008 -
June 29, 2009. Many adherents plan to retrace Paul's final journey
to Rome as part of the commemoration. Roman Catholic, Protestant,
and Orthodox Christians have agreed to participate in the
programs. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, was converted from
Judaism on the road to Damascus. His evangelisation quest before
he was beheaded in c. AD 67 took in scores of countries in Asia
Minor, Arabia, and present-day Europe. His biblical epistles show
him to be a profound religious thinker with an enduring formative
influence in the development of
Christianity....
http://www.paulineyear.org/
and
http://www.pauline-year.com/
A
GENERATION FORGOT
“It
was my generation, and the generation that preceded me, that
forgot. The younger generation is not primarily to be blamed.
Those who are struggling today, those who are far away and doing
that which is completely contrary to the Christian conscience, are
not first to be blamed. It is my generation, and the generation
that preceded me, who turned away. Today we are left, not only
with a religion and a church without meaning, but... with a
culture without meaning.” Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984),
Death in the City [1969]
RELIGIOUS
AMERICANS: 'MY FAITH ISN'T THE ONLY WAY'
America
remains a deeply religious nation, but a new survey finds most
Americans don't believe their tradition is the only way to eternal
life -- even if the denomination's teachings say otherwise. Among
the more startling numbers in the survey of 35,000 adults,
conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life:
57% of evangelical church attenders say they believe many
religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional
evangelical teaching. In all, 70% of Americans with a religious
affiliation share that view, and 68% say there is more than one
true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.... Read
this in full at
http://religions.pewforum.org/
STUDY
ADDS DOUBT ABOUT PEW POLL'S CLAIMS REGARDING EVANGELICALS'
'UNIVERSALISM'
In
a partial release of a study planned for publishing in full this
fall, LifeWay Research's findings about evangelicals' beliefs
regarding the exclusivity of Christ differed from the recently
published results from a Pew poll.
The Pew findings
indicated widespread agreement with universalism in the U.S., "70%
of Americans with a religious affiliation say that many religions
-- not just their own -- can lead to eternal life." Pew also
indicated 57% of those attending evangelical churches agree that
many religions can lead to eternal life. Only 36% chose the
alternative, "My religion is the one, true faith leading to
eternal life."
The LifeWay study used more specific
wording than Pew's use of "religion" which can be
confused as meaning "denominational affiliation." Asking
Protestant churchgoers whether a person can obtain eternal life
through "religions other than Christianity," LifeWay
found only 31% agreed "strongly" or "somewhat."
Read this in full at
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=28386
A
REAL GOD
“Only
if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle
(as in a real friendship or marriage) will you know that you have
gotten a hold of a real God and not a figment of your
imagination.” - Tim Keller, Belief in God in an Age of
Skepticism
CONSIDER
“Many
are willing that Christ should be something, but few will consent
that Christ should be everything.” Alexander Stuart
VERSE
TO PONDER
“Ah,
Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your
great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you."
Jeremiah 32:17
THIS
WEEK'S HYMN: BY FAITH IN CHRIST I WALK WITH GOD
Words:
John Newton, 1779
Music: Robert H. Earnshaw, 1856-1929
By
faith in Christ I walk with God,
With Heav’n, my
journey’s end, in view;
Supported by His staff and
rod,
My road is safe and pleasant too.
I travel through
a desert wide
Where many round me blindly stray;
But He
vouchsafes to be my Guide,
And will not let me miss my
way.
Though snares and dangers throng my path,
And earth
and hell my course withstand;
I triumph over all by
faith,
Guarded by His almighty hand.
The wilderness
affords no food,
But God for my support prepares;
Provides
me every needful good,
And frees my soul from wants and
cares.
With Him sweet converse I maintain,
Great as He
is I dare be free;
I tell Him all my grief and pain,
And He
reveals His love to me.
Some cordial from His Word He
brings,
Whene’er my feeble spirit faints;
At once my
soul revives and sings,
And yields no more to sad
complaints.
I pity all that worldlings talk
Of pleasures
that will quickly end;
Be this my choice, O Lord, to walk
With
Thee, my Guide, my Guard, my Friend.
>from CyberHymnal
at
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/f/bficiwwg.htm
ON
PRAYER
“Some
people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God.”
Andrew Murray
PRAY
FOR PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS TODAY
http://christiansincrisis.net/
DAILY
BLESSING PACT
Use
the following list as your daily prayer guide. Think of a brother
or situation that applies and lift them up in prayer.
I am
agreeing in prayer with you for God’s blessings to overtake
you!
PERSONAL
Marital harmony
Family unity
Children
saved
Faithful pastor
Spirit-filled church
Real
friendships
Relatives redeemed
Educational
benefits
Recreational time
Fulfilling career
Favor with
God and man
Be in God’s will
FINANCIAL
Better
Jobs
Raises or bonuses
Benefits
Sales &
commissions
Business Growth
Settlements
Estates &
inheritances
Investment increase
Rebates &
returns
Checks in the mail
Gifts & surprises
Money to
be found
Bills decrease while blessings increase
"And
all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou
shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God" (Deut.
28:2).
[As you travel on business or vacation, let me know
if you'd like the church guys to pray for your safety and
spiritual effectiveness. I'll add your name to the list for
the time you'll be away.]
CLASSIFIEDS
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me show you how to earn money as you travel!
FrankColeman.com
It's
as easy as 1-2-3
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InfoPlease Year
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http://www.infoplease.com/yearbyyear.html
Exercises
for happy
feet
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91661083
All
links to websites are provided as a service, and do not imply
endorsement by our church.
(BTW: whenever the URLs in this
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just copy the entire URL (two lines or more) and paste it into a
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enter.)
A flashlight is a case for holding dead
batteries.
Min.
Frank Coleman, Editor
[email protected]
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