People of the Presence - Part 1, Pastor Mark Brand, Antioch Church, January 18, 2015

God is doing a deep work in our hearts at Antioch Church. I started a new series today dealing with the manifest presence of God entitled, "People of the Presence." (Exodus 33:1-17 & Ephesians 2:19-22). To view only the message, click on the video above. To view the entire service, including worship, click on the following link instead: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/57719820.

Zing...! Ouch...! Wow...! (Mark Rutland's response to John MacArthur)

As Starbucks was working its wonder, waking up my body this morning, theological polemics in this article jolted my brain awake...

Post by Mark Brand.

It brought back to mind a snippet I once heard concerning the "Blind Men and the Elephant" poem,

"So oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of elephants they have never seen!"

Here is the text of the poem itself, by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887),

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation Might satisfy his mind.

 The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a WALL!" 

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho, what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a SPEAR!" 

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a SNAKE!" 

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he:
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a TREE!" 

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a FAN!" 

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a ROPE!" 

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

http://tinyurl.com/m3fzhk

HC Family Conversation - Day 3

Emotions are squishy things, hard to wrap your thoughts around sometimes, yet very real and very powerful.

Confusion… Anger… Fear… Sadness… Joy… Faith… Love…

Feelings like these have shaped the flow of human history. Armies have marched, kingdoms have fallen, and continents have been explored all because of ideas...and because of feelings.

Important decisions sometimes provoke intense emotions. Those feelings are real and they are not wrong. As I have contemplated the prospect of selling our church campus over the past several weeks, I have often felt like I was riding an emotional roller coaster!

Through it all, here is what I have come to realize in a new way,

As people of the Spirit, God does not want us to deny our feelings. Neither does He want our lives to be governed by them. He calls us to be Spirit-filled and Spirit-controlled so we can make decisions that are Spirit-led.

The Apostle Paul put it this way,

“…those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ” (Romans 8:14, NIV)

When you receive this email, please pause for a moment and join me in praying these words,

“Heavenly Father, I thank you for the precious gift of your Holy Spirit. May He come and settle my heart by filling me today with His thoughts, His wisdom, His power, and His strength. Lead us your people as we make this decision. Help us to know your will. May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever! Amen!”

Palin the Pentecostal: Journey From Obscurity to Ubiquity

In his interesting piece in the Washington Post last Friday, September 12th, 2008 entitled, "Faith Based Condescension," columnist Michael Gerson takes issue with recent media coverage of Governor Sarah Palin's Pentecostal roots. Early in his article Gerson writes,

"...liberals have been drawn, helpless and mesmerized -- like beetles to the vivid, blue paradise of the bug zapper -- toward criticizing Sarah Palin's religion. Palin's former Pentecostal church is called a "shout-and-holler tabernacle." Reporters press Palin's former pastor to reveal if she has ever spoken in tongues, the way it was once asked if candidates had ever used drugs...Palin sounds most like President Franklin Roosevelt, who prayed on D-Day that, "by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph."

He continues,

"The media treatment of Pentecostalism (Palin's main religious background) and Bible church evangelicalism (her current affiliation) has had the quality of a National Geographic special on a newly discovered Amazon tribe. You might not suspect that Pentecostalism -- grown from the admirable, racially integrated roots of the Los Angeles Azusa Street Revival of 1906 -- is one of the fastest-growing and most influential forms of mainstream Christianity. There are now between 250 million and 500 million Pentecostals in places from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa to rural Alaska....While most religious people in America don't speak in tongues, many pray for healing in times of sickness and trouble, and most are offended when sneering elites attack the religious practices of their friends and neighbors. "

Then he concludes with a trenchant observation,

During the first Pentecost -- the one recorded in Acts -- Christians spoke strange languages in public. Many observers dismissed them as drunk. The critics of religion, as is often the case, did not get the last word.

Statistically speaking, Gerson is quite right. In its press release in October 2006 announcing the publication of the results from its ten country public opinion survey on Pentecostalism entitled,"Spirit and Power," the highly respected and very mainstream Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life noted that at least one quarter of the world's two billion Christians consider themselves Pentecostal or Charismatic, as do 23% of the inhabitants of the United States. The preface to the report points out that Pentecostals/Charismatics rank second only to Roman Catholics in the number of global Christian followers.

I think the actual numbers may be higher. Many Roman Catholics testify to profound Holy Spirit experiences but their numbers are not always included in such summaries. Many U.S. pastors of ostensibly non-Pentecostal/Charismatic churches come from Pentecostal/Charismatic roots but have intentionally "re-branded" themselves and the churches they serve in an effort to sidestep the social stigma and religious prejudice they encountered earlier in their lives. Very often, these leaders continue to lead Spirit-filled lives in private without being publicly identifiable by research methodologies like those used by the Pew Forum.

In any event, even if one accepts the Forum's statistics, it is clear that over the last century Governor Palin's stream of Christian faith has moved from obscurity to ubiquity. Both the Pew Forum and the Religion News Service have recently pointed out that Barak Obama has integrated two openly Pentecostal members into the highest levels of his own campaign: Joshua DuBois as his Religious Outreach Director and Leah Daughtry, CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee. So far, the same members of the media who have publicly scorned Governor Palin's spirituality have been silent about Senator Obama's affiliations. I suspect their attacks are more political in motivation than philosophical, sociological, or theological.

Be that as it may, Governor Palin's recent nomination has not only affected the political debate in our country but has also raised doctrinal issues for certain non-Pentecostal/Charismatic Evangelicals. As David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University asks in his article entitled, "The Palin Predicament," in today's online edition of USA Today,

The GOP’s evangelical base rejoiced when the Alaska governor joined the McCain ticket. But how can the theological vision that women are subservient to men jibe with a Palin vice presidency?

He continues,

It is an uncomfortable fact that many of the theologically conservative Christians who have endorsed Palin's nomination would not be willing to endorse her or any other woman for service as pastor of their church. Women cannot serve as pastors in groups such as the Churches of Christ, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church in America, most non-denominational Bible churches, and an influential advocacy group called the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood(CBMW)...at the local church level many congregations would not accept Palin or any other woman even as associate pastor, or deacon, or youth minister or Sunday school teacher in a gender-mixed classroom. The most conservative would not consider it appropriate for her to stand behind a pulpit and preach a sermon, or teach from the Bible, or lead a praise chorus, or offer a prayer, unless her audience consisted entirely of women or children.

In my view, Dr. Gushee paints with too broad a brush when he asserts elsewhere in his article that only more modern elements within evangelicalism have permitted women to function in leadership positions. From the earliest days of both the classical Pentecostal revival a century ago and the more recent Charismatic renewal, women have been allowed to exercise whatever gifts God granted them within their faith communities. I do agree, however, that the Sarah Palin phenomenon is giving rise to fresh and ardent discussions of many topics theological as well as social and political.


As late as yesterday evening, Sunday, September 15th, the ABC World News broadcast contained a video report entitled, "What Does Palin's Faith Mean for U.S.?" It opened yet another window that people around the nation can look through for a glimpse into one genre of Spirit-filled worship. During that piece, University of Rochester religion professor Anthea Butler notes the connection between a deep, personal work of the Holy Spirit and a greater role for women in all areas of life,

"Sarah Palin, if she was just a plain Evangelical woman, would have a tough time thinking that she could be VP," said University of Rochester religion professor Anthea Butler. "An evangelical woman might have issues with submission. What's gonna happen with my kids? But a Pentecostal woman is saying God is calling me, I'm gonna answer this call."

All of us who exult in genuine moves of God's Spirit and who long to lead other people into such fullness should make it a point to pray during this season that these journalistic forays, however imperfect or polemical they may be, will result in many more people coming into a personal encounter with the Creator who longs to be their Redeemer. I think the Apostle Paul would agree. He wrote to the Corinthian Christians,

"...if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25
NIV)

Let it be, Lord...!
For more online information regarding Pentecostals, including links to many other websites, check out the Pew Forum's page on Pentecostalism.

Washington Post Cartoon Mocks Speaking In Tongues

In case you have any question concerning the religious bias of certain, mainstream media outlets concerning the present-day work of the Holy Spirit, take a look at this cartoon which appeared on the Washington Post website... (To view it online, click here.)

On Sarah Palin and Religious Prejudice

In the midst of all of the current controversy regarding John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate in the upcoming Presidential election, one specific development has caught my attention more than any other. Yesterday I noticed that the media "feeding frenzy" began to take a new turn as articles began popping up which highlight the churches she has attended and the shepherds who lead them. These include popular blogs like the Huffington Post and the Daily Kos and historic print publications like Harper's Magazine. News items surfaced which cast both pastors and congregants in a very negative light, asking whether or not someone from a "Pentecostal" or "Charismatic" background is fit to serve our country in such a high office.

Certain of the articles I have read portray attitudes reminiscient of those I encountered toward Christian churches in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain when Pentecostals were considered to be in need of psychiatric treatment. Newsweek's article about Sarah Palin's church was much more irenic in tone, but ended by saying, "Sarah Palin may not call herself a Pentecostal, but she has deep and long experience in Pentecostal churches. And as the race wears on, this biographical fact will likely become another religious Rorschach test--pleasing to some, discomfiting to others."

This is the second time in this election that a candidate's choice of a church home has sparked controversy. Barak Obama's long-term friendship with Pastor Jeremiah Wright turned out to be such a flashpoint that the candidate publically disassociated himself from both the man and his message (Read more about this here). What strikes me as very different this time around is that criticism has moved from controversy surrounding specific, issue-related comments by Rev. Wright to a visceral rejection of such foundational Christian doctrines as eternal punishment for those who reject Christ as Saviour or certain facets of New Testament spirituality clearly depicted in the New Testament Book of Acts as normative for members of the Christian faith.

I suppose none of this should surprise me. The flurry of speculation and observation surrounding Sarah Palin's particular flavor of Christian spirituality appears to be emanating from the same segments of American intelligentsia that have gleefully stooped to holding up a seventeen year old girl's pregnancy as an object for intense public scrutiny, sometimes tinged with ridicule. This is being done while that same young woman is walking through a very difficult time in her life, simply in order to score what the journalists mistakenly believe to be political "points." I for one wholeheartedly commend Governor Palin's daughter for courageously welcoming another precious life into the world instead of killing it for the sake of convenience.

Politics has always been a rough and tumble business and our civic history may be replete with examples of journalistic excess, but in my opinion we have just reached an all-time low. I believe these latest jouralistic extremes bode ill for what lies before us as Christian believers in our nation unless God graciously sends our country a deep spiritual and moral renewal. I also believe it shows the extent to which spiritual forces are at work on many different levels and in many different quarters during this election.

Whatever your political persuasion, I urge you to join me in prayer for the Palin family and for the pastors and churches cited in the aforementioned articles. While I have never met Governor Palin, I have known one of the ministers referenced, Pastor David Pepper from the Church on the Rock in Wasilla, and his family for over thirty-five years. Pastor David and his wife, LaRae, are two of the finest people I have ever met and form a very effective ministry team. I would be honored to call them pastor and consider their flock privileged to have them serve them in that capacity. David and LaRae certainly do not deserve the treatment they are getting in the press.

As all of you who attend Hillcrest Church know well, I do not take public positions regarding political candidates or openly share my personal political opinions or intentions about what I will do when I enter the ballot box. My appeal to you as your pastor is very simple:

1. Be sure to vote! This is an historic election. Be a part of it.
   
2. Find out all that you can about the candidates and their policies. Focus on reputable sources and ignore the gossip and innuendo you hear from others, whatever their political persuasion.
   
3. Prayerfully ask God to help you make the right choice in light of His Word, His character, and His purposes in the earth. Vote your deepest convictions. Pray in faith for His hand to be upon the process, assuring its outcome will be according to whatever He knows is best for our nation.
   
4. Intercede before the Lord on behalf of all the candidates and their families. Pray God's protection upon them, that they will speak truthfully in all things, and that anything hidden in their hearts or lives that might disqualify them from public office will be known before Election Day.

Let's believe God together for a better future!

Word & Spirit Telecast - Gifts of the Spirit - August 14, 2008

Word & Spirit Telecast - Gifts of the Spirit - August 13, 2008

Word & Spirit Telecast - Gifts of the Spirit, August 12, 2008

Word & Spirit Telecast - Gifts of the Spirit - July 28, 2008

I continue my new series of telecasts dealing with the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Word & Spirit Telecast - Gifts of the Spirit - July 18, 2008

On this "Word and Spirit" telecast, I began a new series dealing with the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Originally aired on July 18, 2008.

36% of Americans claim to be Pentecostal or Charismatic

According to the Barna research group's recent findings, the number of churches and adherents to Pentecostal perspectives and practices has grown significantly in the past two decades. Today, fully 36% of Americans consider themselves to have been "...filled by the Holy Spirit and believe that the charismatic gifts, such as tongues and healing, are valid and active today." For more insights, click here.

Holy Spirit Fullness - The Gift of Spiritual Language (Speaking in Tongues)

Here is the broadcast Teresa and I hosted for Mike and Hazel Simons this past Monday. During the first hour, we minister to people who are involved in occultic practices. During the second hour, we minister the fullness of the Holy Spirit and share about the importance and role of spiritual language (the gift of tongues).

More Promiseland TV Broadcasts

Here a are a couple of more recent broadcasts from the Promiseland Television Network. In the first, Teresa and I host the Promiseland Live! telecast. In the first half of the broadcast, I share thoughts about the way Jesus delivers us from shame. In the second half of the broadcast, Teresa shares a message about what it means to follow Jesus with all our hearts.



In the second broadcast, I join Mike and Hazel Simons for the last hour and share some thoughts about revival.

When God speaks...

Teresa and I just returned home last night from participating in meetings this week with Dr. David Shibley's apostolic advisory council and during his pastor's forum at the beautiful Big Cedar Lodge in Branson, Missouri.

When I turned on my laptop to begin working this morning, I had not yet had time to read my latest copy of Christianity Today magazine. As I quickly perused the latest posts from a list of blogs I sometimes read, the phrase, "My Conversation with God”: An Anonymous Testimony That Made My Day" from the Charismatica blog by Vineyard Fellowship's Dr. Michael Davis caught my eye. Hats off to him for pointing the way to a great testimony of modern day, direct Holy Spirit leading by an anonymous professor of theology and contributing editor of Christianity Today who had never experienced anything like that until a little over one year ago.

Learning to recognize and respond to the voice of the Holy Spirit when He speaks to our inner being is a very important part of growing in Christ and fulfiling our spiritual destiny. The Apostle Paul put it this way, "...all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." (Romans 8:14, New Living Translation) Many months ago, I posted some rough notes entitled, "How Do I Know It's God? : Evaluating Prophetic Words" on my Lessons in Leadership blog for Christian leaders, listing seven important questions all of us need to ask ourselves as we seek to discern the voice of God guiding us through life.

One of the most important things for us to remember is that God wants to reveal His will to us and has promised to do so if we open our hearts to Him! In fact, the Bible is filled with precious promises from God, assuring those who love Him of His continual guidance. Here are a few worth hiding in your heart, the first three from the writings of the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah,

"²¹ Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”" (Isaiah 30:21, NIV)

"¹⁶ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16, NIV)

"¹⁷ This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go." (Isaiah 48:17, NIV)

One from the Old Testament Book of Psalms,

"⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." (Psalm 32:8, NIV)

And one from the first of three letters from the Apostle John in the New Testament,

"²⁷ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him." (1 John 2:27, NIV)

Calling Upon the Lord - Jim Cymbala

One of the books that has most influenced my life is Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala, Pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. I want to strongly encourage you to take the time to watch a free, online video of him preaching at the Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California pastored by Jack Hayford. Pastor Cymbala's message is entitled, Calling Upon the Name of the Lord. I believe that if you will take the time to watch this clip, it will change your life! Those two churches, by the way, are the ones I admire the most, out of all that I have ever been privileged to visit.

Pastor Cymbala is hosting a Pastor's and Leader's Prayer Conference at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, April 15-17th. Teresa and I were able to attend this event last year and it blessed us tremendously. I have been dreaming of taking our pastoral staff and their spouses to this year's conference, but we do not have the funds necessary for this trip in our church budget. If this video touches your heart, would you please take a moment to pray and ask God to make a way for our pastors and as many of our church leaders and members as possible to attend? I believe it could revolutionize our church.

Thanks and blessings to you!

Eat Food

Unhappy Meals. That's the title of an article I just stumbled across at the New York Times website. Apart from the fact that in my opinion the Times is the very best newspaper in the world today, albeit with a journalistic bias slightly different than my own, I love the way many of its journalists jump right to the bottom line.

Michael Pollan, who wrote that piece, begins with an incredibly succinct opening paragraph,

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

His second paragraph?

"That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. I hate to give away the game right here at the beginning of a long essay, and I confess that I’m tempted to complicate matters in the interest of keeping things going for a few thousand more words. I’ll try to resist but will go ahead and add a couple more details to flesh out the advice. Like: A little meat won’t kill you, though it’s better approached as a side dish than as a main. And you’re much better off eating whole fresh foods than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to eat “food.” Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat."

Not bad for a stab at summarizing an article that continues for ten more pages...!

Don't worry. I'm not about to go off on a food "rant." About the only thing I know for sure about nutrition and health is that I feel a whole lot better since I lost twenty pounds. The interesting thing, though? I haven't finished reading Michael's article, but I sure intend to. Prose like his has a way of "hooking" me, particularly if I am already interested in the author’s subject. With forty-seven staring me in the face next week and two small children at home to raise, I find myself increasingly motivated to learn everything I can about how to live a long and healthy life.

Coming across those great lines made me wonder, "What is the simplest, clearest thing I could say to someone I was speaking to about Jesus for the very first time? How could I draw them in to further conversation? What felt need could I speak to in their heart that would cause them to want to know more?”

Jesus was a master at great "one-liners." He seemed to know exactly what to say in every situation. Like when he spoke to the Samaritan woman by the well of Sychar.

If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.^[1]

I would have never thought of saying that. Or ever imagined it would be an effective approach. A single sentence, though, resulted in a conversation that changed a woman’s life and profoundly impacted an entire village.

Back in the village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves.^[2]

Jesus told his disciples very clearly what his secret was in such situations,

I’m not making any of this up on my own. The Father who sent me gave me orders, told me what to say and how to say it. And I know exactly what his command produces: real and eternal life. That’s all I have to say.^[3]

I write these words sitting in a Starbucks near the place where my son is in speech therapy. Seated at the table across from me is a young couple I just met from Poland, a country I have visited many times. They are students down the street at UTD. We’ve exchanged a few pleasantries; I even dusted off the few phrases I know in their language. They are studying intensely, quietly, as I pray in my heart, “Father, give me the right words to say…”

Now it's time to pick up my son and head into the appointments I have for the day. Would you join me in breathing a prayer for this precious couple, that wherever they are on their spiritual journey, God would help them take the next step?

Thanks!

P.S. Just chatted some more and found out they are mathematics professors, not students. No wonder they are so serious...!

---

^[1]Eugene H. Peterson, The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2002), Jn 4:10.

^[2]Eugene H. Peterson, The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2002), Jn 4:28.

^[3]Eugene H. Peterson, The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2002), Jn 12:49.

PneumaBlogs

I have just stumbled across a blog by Rich Tatum called Blogrodent : Pentecostal Rumination and Review. I have just begun reading it and have already discovered that, among other things, he has an interesting list of links to other blogs called PneumaBlogs and a call to fellow Pentecostals and Charismatics to begin blogging.