News

By Donna Marable

First Baptist Gulf Shores is hopping with excitement this month.  The leaders of the 13-week upcoming Grief Share session have been busy training in anticipation of a great fall and winter!  Director Barb Hough, with the support of the church, has acquired Grief Share National’s all new video products, materials, and tools.

Most everyone has experienced the death of someone – it could be a spouse, child, family member, or friend.  The weight of grief from the loss of a loved one lightens with sharing.  All individuals and their situations are unique, but with sharing in a comfort zone, a common bond and spirit of camaraderie are formed that encourages hope and promotes healing of hearts – – the goal of the program.  The complete materials are available and may be reviewed on Grief Share National’s website:  www.griefshare.org, BUT there is a proven benefit of these small group sessions led by trained facilitators who debrief after each session cooperatively discussing their efforts, feedback, and other details to develop ideas to apply to better help attendees in future meetings.

The last two fall and spring sessions produced participants who claim “they are ALWAYS going to be coming back” . . . they state they love the sessions and many want to give back in various ways – participating, helping where needed, bringing snacks, etc.  There’s an excitement in the air while working together toward a common goal, and many have expressed no notion to give up the weekly meeting.

This seminar is 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. each Thursday at the church, 2200 West 1^st Street, Gulf Shores, Alabama, 36542beginning August 31, 2023, skipping Thanksgiving, and ending November 30^th.  For questions or more information, you may phone the church at (251) 968-7369.  Following this session, there will be another one that runs from January – April 2024 and a fall, 2024 session.  Easy sign-up is available at www.griefshare.org/groups/168158.  The titles of the 13 weeks of videos are at the bottom of this website.  Please consider coming if you wish your heart and hope restored, Director Barb Hough and the crew will be there to welcome you!

By: Stuart Kellogg

It was my first seminary class.  I was jumping into part of the Bible I’d studied least and rarely heard taught from the pulpit or any Sunday School class.  Not only was my first class on the book of Isaiah, the most quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament, but my teacher was one of the world’s foremost experts.  In fact, he would later publish the NIV Commentary on Isaiah.  It was the fall of 1999, and it was like my first time in the deep end of a pool; thrown in with fear and trepidation!  The scales quickly fell from my eyes.   It was as if the doors at the previously closed giant wing of a building were finally opened.  I realized that now I was experiencing all that the architect meant for me to see. Why didn’t I hear more about Isaiah and all the books that make up 70% of the Christian Bible?

Well, for one thing, there is a lot of disturbing material in the Old Testament.  It’s easier to ignore than learn and explain.  Yet, here is God telling us we are so important that He is creating a relationship with us.   It’s explaining why we are called to follow Him.  Why He promised to send the Messiah.  It’s an object lesson in cause and effect, disobedience and consequences, hope and judgment and, of course, love that never dies.  If we don’t understand the Old Testament, we really don’t understand God.

Dr. John Oswalt has taught in seminaries for more than half a century, and is currently the visiting distinguished professor of Old Testament as Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY.  Dr. Oswalt has authored or edited 16 books, including three commentaries on Isaiah and one on Exodus.   At 82 he continues to travel around the world teaching  and lecturing.  He’s also still writing.  His latest book, a commentary on Kings, will be published soon.  Next up: commentaries on Amon and Ezekiel.  Not only was he my Old Testament professor more than two decades ago at Wesley Biblical Seminary,  I also was blessed to be part of the small group he led.

He is fighting a very tough battle, as he patiently and passionately shares the joy of God’s gift to us through the Old Testament.  Far too many leaders in the evangelical church are downplaying the Old Testament in a misguided attempt to make the Christian faith more accessible, easier to defend and appealing.  The fruit of this endeavor is clear to see, as study after study shows the disturbing rate of biblical illiteracy within the church.

Dr. Oswalt likens the Bible to a two story house.  If you don’t have the Old Testament basement and first story, there is nothing upon which the second story, the New Testament, can sit.  “Very clearly, I believe, in the Old Testament we have the revelation of God’s character,” he told me during a recent stop in Baldwin County.  “We have the revelation of the character God wants us to share, and then the hint of how that’s going to be possible. The New Testament is going to make it possible.  The Old Testament and New Testament fit right together and you cannot separate them.  If you do, you will in fact short circuit the New Testament.”

“Too often we try to defend and incorporate the Old Testament into Christian faith, and we simply don’t need to do that today.”   — Andy Stanley/Pastor North Point Ministries

One of the more recent dust ups came from megachurch pastor Andy Stanley.  He leads the multi-site nondenominational North Point Ministries in suburban Atlanta.  Not too long ago he advocated that Christians “unhitch” from the Old Testament.  He claimed that since Jesus is the Messiah, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy, there really isn’t any reason to fool with this part of the Bible.  The only thing that mattered was Jesus resurrected.  He said it took the apostles 20 years to “break that habit” of mixing Jesus and Moses.  “Too often we try to defend and incorporate the Old Testament into Christian faith, and we simply don’t need to do that today,” he writes in his book Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World.” 

Stanley’s concern is that the Old Testament is hard to understand and explain.  He says confusion has made people lose their faith because they can’t accept as fact all that is included in the books.  He claims that relying on the Old Testament undermines the credibility of the Christian faith. “Too often we try to defend and incorporate the Old Testament into Christian faith, and we simply don’t need to do that today,” he said during a sermon series several years ago.

The problem with this thinking is that Jesus is not only prophesied throughout the Old Testament (scholarly estimates are between 200-300 times) but He also, of course,  knew the scriptures and frequently quoted them.  In other words, these ancient sacred scriptures were important then, as they are now.

“If you don’t have the Old Testament, you don’t have the God to whom Jesus is reconciling.”  -Dr. John Oswalt/Biblical Scholar

Dr. Oswalt says we need the Old Testament to understand the goal of the Christian life and the reality and importance of this world.  It also “ gives us the full orbed picture of who God is.  Who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?  He is not a little god living under our bed to answer our prayers, which is the case for many New Testament Christians.  So if you don’t have the Old Testament, you don’t have the God to whom Jesus is reconciling.”

Now, one of Pastor Stanley’s points is certainly fair:  there is disturbing material in the Old Testament that skeptics love to bring out as they depict God as this immoral monster.  I faced that onslaught recently when I was the guest on Michael’s Wiseman’s The Bible Says WHAT!? podcast.  He constantly interrupted as I patiently tried to explain why God’s chosen people had to destroy the enemies who wanted to keep Israel from fulfilling God’s ultimate promise.

Dr. Oswalt says this common critique of the Old Testament must be answered.  “The Hebrew people are former slaves….They are going to be very, very susceptible to the sophisticated, elegant Canaanite culture.  If they are not going to be protected from that, the world is going to be lost.  So, again I say first of all, this isn’t going to be, ‘well we’re going to wipe out the Canaanites because we want to put the Hebrew people in there.’  It’s an act of justice and of love for the world.”

There are plenty of other disturbing, hard to understand examples of what seems to us needless violence, as there are plenty of examples of God’s people acting immorally.  There are plenty of examples of just plain confusing scripture.  The answer is not to forget or ignore 70% of the Bible.   It is to delve in, ask questions, get answers and stand firmly behind all of scripture.  As Dr. Oswalt pointed out to me, any Bible story book for children is filled with Old Testament stories.  “So it’s not difficult to teach the Old Testament,  but it does mean you have to spend time learning it, discovering what it’s saying and that’s not easy.  I’m a seminary professor, I’ve spent my life in the theological education racket.  This is too easy to say but I still believe it with all my heart.  Seminaries have to do a better job teaching the Bible so pastors will indeed be the Biblical theologians they are called to be.”

The burden is on those in the pulpit.  And those in the pews.  The Old Testament is a powerful reminder of who God is.  It can’t just be ignored.

Stuart Kellogg, is author of The Post Covid Church: An Action Plan to Thrive Not Just Survive, available at amazon.com  He is host of What Now? The Post Covid Church Podcast, available at

https://anchor.fm/stuart-kellogg or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.  You can write him at stuart@thepostcovidchurch.org

Richard Rohr’s Version of the Enneagram

By: Rev. Clete Hux

For many in evangelicalism, the contemplative movement is enhanced by the growing practice of the Enneagram in the church. I know it sounds anti-Catholic, but it is from such background that the contemplative movement has come, and Richard Rohr with the Enneagram is no exception. Rohr has said that “Until someone has had some level of mystical inner spiritual experience, there is no point in asking them to follow in any life changing way the ethical ideas of Jesus or the mystery of the Christian doctrines like the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, Salvation, or Incarnation. We simply don’t have the power to really understand or follow any of Jesus’ ideals such as loving others, forgiving enemies, nonviolence or the humble use of power except in and through a mystical union with God.” 5

To many young evangelical Christians, Rohr has become the new Merton. One of his publishers told Rohr that his single biggest demographic is young evangelicals. Rohr himself was amazed because some of his books were philosophically heavier than that which is typical of young evangelicals! 6

As with other contemplatives, Rohr appears to embrace religious pluralism by championing the idea of a global religion that would unify the world. Basically calling for a religion that needs a new language, he would advocate a one-world religion of mysticism. Using some of the same verbiage of emergent leaders such as Rob Bell and Brian McLaren, Rohr stated “Right now is an emergence…it’s coming from so many different traditions and sources and parts of the world. Maybe it’s an example of the globalization of spirituality.”7

Rohr has promoted new agers such as Marianne Williamson who wrote the very well-known New Age text, A Course in Miracles. This is very understandable because the New Age Movement embraces the same non-dualistic worldview as Rohr. As is pointed out by Peter Jones, this is the same worldview that mystics of all religions embrace and is Eastern in origin, promoting a one is all/all is one worldview. Jones further points out that Rohr, in the fall of 2010, taught a course, “SP761: Action and Contemplation” in the D. Min program at Fuller Theological Seminary.8 Since that time, further penetration of Rohr’s teachings has flooded evangelicalism.

Last year Sean McDowell did an interview with Dr. Chris Berg, a graduate of the Biola/Talbot Apologetics program, who did his doctoral dissertation on the Enneagram. Berg dismissed the belief that the Enneagram came from Christian mystic sources. Instead, he, like others such as Marcia Montenegro, an expert on the occult, show its roots originate with early founders of the New Age Movement which is both pantheistic and panentheistic. In comparing it to the New Age, Berg told McDowell that the advice the Enneagram gives is virtually indistinguishable from advice given by horoscopes, astrology, and numerology. In addition, Berg also shared that Rohr denies a number of essential Christian doctrines such as the Trinity, the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ, and of Jesus as the unique Messiah, instead asserting that all people can attain Christ-consciousness (recognition of one’s own status as being a Christ).9

I mentioned earlier that the biggest danger one is exposed to in mysticism is the subtle erosion of the Creator/creature distinction. Consequently, God is viewed as the oneness of all things and synonymous with or dwelling in all things. This is pantheistic, panentheistic, and pagan, not Christian. Doug Groothuis points out Rohr’s panentheistic error as Rohr takes Col. 3:11 out of context as saying “There Is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything.” Groothuis corrects Rohr’s error by sharing the biblical text in context saying, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” As Groothuis points out, the text refers to the unity that all believers have in Christ, not their deity, because believers are not divine. To assert we are divine would mean that one does not need the wisdom of a transcendent Creator who exists apart from His creation, because you have all the divinity you will ever need already within you. 10

Rohr, like others promoting the Enneagram, presents that there are nine ways people get lost and nine ways back to God. However, in looking at Rohr’s theological and Christological views, one would have to say that Rohr’s view of God and his Cosmic Christ is not that of true Christianity. In her blog, Alisa Childers has recorded Rohr saying that the universe is the body of Christ, that it is the second person of the Trinity in material form.11 Rohr’s views about God and Christ are perhaps the reason he authored books such as Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer and Falling Upward.

Consistent with his panentheism, it would mean that everything exists in God and God exists in everything. As if discounting original sin, his book, Falling Upward, takes on new meaning because he seems to imply that we (humanity) are all an “immaculate conception”.12

What Shall We Say About All This/How Shall We Then Live?

If the teachers of the contemplative movement are consistent with their pantheistic/panentheistic worldview, then there is no need for God or Christ, because we’re all the manifestation of the same. Furthermore, the Enneagram, in being a “road back to God” would become a “road to yourself.” This is mysticism and nothing more than “do it yourself divinity.” It has been said that in the beginning God created man in His image and ever since the fall man has attempted to return the favor. Sometimes the hiss of the serpent from the garden, “thou shall be like God” is loud and becoming louder.

In contradiction to what is being taught in the contemplative movement, the biblical worldview of God’s relationship to man and creation is clearly defined by separation, distinction, and duality. We see this from the start: “In the beginning God…”, not in the beginning all is one or all is divine, or all things (good or bad) fit together as one. Furthermore in scripture there is a clearly taught separation of the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, the righteous from the unrighteous, and those saved and from those not saved. This is so because of the separation of Creator and the creature. In the beginning God created us and yes, we’re made in His image. So, by His grace, let us run toward Him. Let us heed His admonition to come reason with Him!

Perhaps those who are drawn to the contemplative movement ought to listen to what A. W. Tozer, who has been looked at as a mystic, had to say: “Some of my friends good-humoredly–and some a little bit severely–have called me ‘mystic.’ Well I’d like to say this about any mysticism I may suppose to have. If an archangel from heaven were to come, and were to start giving me, telling me, teaching me, and giving instruction, I’d ask him for the text. I’d say, ‘Where’s it say that in the Bible? I want to know.’ And I would insist that it was according to the scriptures because I do not believe in any extra-scriptural teachings, nor any anti-scriptural teachings, or any sub-scriptural teachings”. 13

Footnotes:

Tony Campolo, Speaking My Mind (Nashville, TN: W. Publishing Group, 2004), p. 72

1. Basil Pennington, Thomas Merton, My Brother (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1996), pp. 199-200

See: Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (New Directions Books, 1975), pp.234-236.

See: Contemplative Prayer or the Holy Spirit—It Can’t Be Both! – Lighthouse Trails Project

Cac.org/daily-meditations/incarnational-mysticism-2019-07-14/

Kristen Hobby, “What Happens When Religion isn’t Doing it’s Job: an interview with Richard Rohr, OFM” (Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Directions, Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2014), pp. 6-11.

Ibid

(http://www.fulleredu/academics/school-of-theology/dmin/courseschedule.aspx)

See: “Christians and the Enneagram”(An Interview with Dr. Chris Berg) by Sean McDowell, 4/10/2021.

See: A Heretic’s Christ, a False Salvation: A Review of the Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See. By Doug Groothuis

See: alisachilders.com/blog/Richard-rohr-wise-sage-or-false-teacher-the-alisa-childers-podcast-90

Richard Rohr, Falling Upward (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 2011), p.1x.

See: gotquestions.org/Christian-mystics.html.

By: Dawn Hill – The Lovesick Scribe

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. Malachi 3:8,10

It is hard telling how many times I heard offering messages referring to this passage in the Old Testament. You may possibly relate to this. The verses in Malachi would be applied to us today in not bringing our ten percent or tithe into the church. I remember being taught that you were to give your tithe based on your gross income, and that once you stopped robbing God of the tithe, He would open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you could not contain. We were to test God and see if He would not bless us with abundant wealth. We were given multiple opportunities in a single service to give above and beyond the tithe in conferences and when guest speakers came to minister. We even had envelopes with Seed Assignment at the bottom so that you could decree in writing what your money would do as you brought it to the Lord. Leaders would regale the crowd with anecdotal stories of giving and reaping a multiplied harvest of finances and material possessions. I also remember that those who did not tithe or give consistently to the church were not invited to minister the offering message.

Tithing is a hot topic for people, depending on who you ask. Some churches do not have a separate offering message, but those who attend understand the importance of giving to the local church and to others in need. It is not done out of obligation, but out of love for God and love for others. People have done what Scripture says to do, purposing in their hearts what to give and doing so with joy (2 Corinthians 9:7). It is not to say that God does not care for His people. We see in Scripture that He does this very thing and that we are to give. The question arises today as to whether we are commanded to tithe under the New Covenant and if we are promised material blessings.

Additionally, there are teachings out there that are frankly manipulative and abusive in belief and practice. One such teaching was stated in late 2021 during a discussion on The Elijah Streams between Steve Schultz and Robin Bullock. Bullock stated that when someone gives the tithe, this money becomes circumcised. He went on to use the analogy of an individual going into a tire store, stating that angels were in the tire store and were sent on assignment for that covenant person who had circumcised their money, getting them the best deal and the best price on a tire. He said the angels would exclaim, “Heads up, boys! Tithe money just walked in the house!” He went on to say that the man working on your car would be led by the angel to choose a tire without a blemish so that you would not be devoured by the enemy in a car accident. This is the power of the tithe, according to Robin Bullock.

When individuals such as atheists and Ex evangelicals caught wind of this video, they shared it and mocked it, with good reason. Some even noted that the person who did not tithe would get the blemished tire and would essentially suffer because of this. What this teaching seems to omit is the sovereignty of God, and it creates an abusive system where people believe they must give in order to be blessed financially and to even avoid calamity. The focus is on temporal blessing, which the world also enjoys, while ignoring spiritual blessings that a believer reaps in giving, such as joy in helping others in need, furthering the ministering of the gospel, and above all, glorifying God.

Should we give of our finances as believers in Christ? Yes, we should. Are we obligated to give ten percent under the New Covenant? No, we are not. Is there anything wrong with giving ten percent? No, some people may even give more, depending on their income. We are instructed to give sacrificially and unbegrudgingly. We are to give with the welfare of others at the forefront while understanding and trusting that God will take care of us. We should certainly use wisdom in our giving and not have greater burdens placed upon us if our family is already burdened in the area of finances. At the same time, we rejoice in the opportunity to give, no matter the amount. Every area of our lives as a believer comes down to a matter of the heart and the transformation God has done in changing our hearts in the things we love. Our affections change, and rather than giving to get something in return, we give out of love for God and love for others.

We are not promised abundant material wealth, but we are rich in spiritual blessings because of Jesus Christ, and that is sufficient. The gospel can be ministered all over the world with the same results: the salvation of souls. This type of message of tithing and circumcising your money to get better material possessions cannot be ministered globally with the same result. It is sad when messages such as Bullock’s bring reproach on the name of Christ and on His Word, but we are presented with opportunities to speak the truth in love and to demonstrate that we understand the value of giving to others so that Christ may be glorified in our conduct and that others may be served. May each of us live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, and may we rejoice at the opportunity to give what we have purposed in our hearts while honoring God and serving others.

https://lovesickscribe.com

By: Eglaide Seiber Barroso

Have you ever experienced a time when you felt the excitement of a life change that will move you to a better and happier life? What about that great expectation of good things happening soon, accelerating your heart from time to time, making you want to jump ahead of GOD to embrace the new season? If you did, you know that with those charged emotions also comes the feeling of being stuck, unable to move, and the unnerving stress that comes when impatience sets in. At this point, we no longer find joy or peace where we are physically placed. According to a Google search, Transition is the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another. As the seasons of life suddenly change in the spiritual realm, a new reality also sets in our souls from where renewal, spiritual growth, and every fiber of our being responds with a command saying, GO, MOVE ON! But we don’t know where we are supposed to move, what the new season looks like, or even how to get there. Therefore, transition opens doors to fear, leading us to insecurities that are connected to failures of past experiences and traumas.

After a long season of medical challenges during these past years, life had become very settled for me. Before this past summer, I was looking forward to my second granddaughter’s first birthday celebration in July because of the opportunity of being together with our blended families. We did have a beautiful and joyful time as a family, leading us to a second family gathering for her baby dedication celebration in September. But by the time I was back home from that second event, my entire body was covered with hives which led me to the local emergency room twice in a week and leaving me without a clear path to the reasons why that was happening to my body, or to how I would heal from such a horrific attack. From there, I began to walk in the dark valley of doubt, unbelief, fear, and shame because of the lies satan was throwing my way. Using the prolonged past season of my physical health trials, he engaged in a barrage of accusations that was coming against a recent promise I received from the LORD. As a result, I became physically and emotionally weary and wondered if my destiny was to live with chronic illnesses.

In the past, I made it through the infirmities in my body, seeing and feeling the presence of my Heavenly Father holding my hand and assuring me that no evil would overtake me. I had come out of different surgeries and nine weeks of COVID-19, a near-death event, stronger and receiving truth from the LORD about HIS love, protection, and provision for my life. This time wasn’t different, but I had given room to doubt, and discouragement started to dominate my thoughts. As the mental battle fiercely tried to oppress my soul, I began to cry for the LORD’S help once again; that was when the presence of GOD increased, reinforcing me with His Word, reminding me of fulfilled past promises of deliverance and health miracles, and leading me to Christian songs that would take me from day to day. Occasionally, however, I felt as if I was the walking dead. Just doing what was in front of me, ministering to others out of desperation to believe that sooner or later, I would see a breakthrough in my own healing situation. But the long journey walking in the valley of the shadow of death made me forget about the promises of GOD for this new season in my life and how that promise had lifted my spirit with pure joy.

I was brought back on GOD’s path for my life through a personal revival on January 8^th, when the LORD gave me the clear mandate from Isaiah 43:18-19 KJV, ” 18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” After reading these verses, I was free to leave my past tribulations behind and let the LORD Himself dictate every move I needed to make and not miss what HE already had coming into my life. The first thing that happened next was HE moved me to my former Brazilian church and removed everything that was holding me captive to unbelief, doubt, fear, and toxic relationships. However, being obedient to HIS clear directions to move on didn’t change the insecurities that came with transitioning to the new things happening in my life because I had to let go of all the plans and strategies I had made for my future. In order to move on to this new thing HE was doing in me, I was not allowed to take with me the hindrances that belonged to my past. I had to stop going to familiar places and get rid of old clothes and gifts that had become a token of hardship. That also included the people I would have to let go of because they didn’t belong in my future, as they couldn’t see what GOD had for me. They were accustomed to my past failures, the financial lack that had accompanied me for decades, the sorrow that came with every hospitalization for my husband and me, seasons with losses of loved ones, and the grief that accompanied my mother’s death. They couldn’t see me without these events being part of my daily identity. My spiritual and emotional growth had become to them a sign of their own failure because I had moved on from the valley, and they hadn’t, and that was too painful for them to live with. In a subtle way, transitioning to the new me was unfair to them in their eyes and even offensive to them, creating an ill atmosphere where it was hurtful to all.

Realizing that these things were the playing field that filled the mind’s battleground with fear, rejection, and insecurities, the next sixty days were left for me to have a godly ordained and much-needed consecration time to seek the LORD about these things. Alone with GOD, as my husband left for Brazil, the LORD began to reveal to me that I had been a people-pleaser for decades, giving into manipulation, jealousy, competition, and envy, becoming defiled by a deceived covenant of disobedience to the LORD, agreeing with strange spirits and ungodly fire doctrines. HE continued to reveal to me that I had bought the wrong belief that I was responsible for changing people’s mindsets and behavior. HE led me to Revelation 2:20-23 KJV which showed me what had opened the door for witchcraft, fear of abandonment, rejection, judgment, entanglement with co-dependency, and controlling spirits. That the attacks on my body with many health issues were caused by the prolonged emotional stress related to these life events, toxic emotions, and relationships, and that the devil himself had used all possible means to stop the will of GOD for my family life, professional career, ministry, and financial life to become a reality.

As soon I began to walk, obeying what the LORD asked me to do, my life changed from having dark thoughts in my mind to feeling hope again. The New Thing promised by the verse in the book of Isaiah took place in my life on January 14^th with the reality that during this season of transition, the devil had used every hardship from the past seven years to keep me in bondage to his lies and plans.

I also was reminded that the Bible says in Romans 8:28 KJV, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love GOD, to them who are called according to HIS purpose.” To know what that purpose was for this season in my life, I had to choose to walk to a place of freedom, leaving the past behind regardless of the pain that comes with not knowing where GOD was taking me. Having the faith that HE who started this wonderful work in my life is faithful to finish and that HIS plan is to prosper me, not to harm. That decision led me to pure joy and to dance and worship GOD again. I realized I had completely died to what was holding me prisoner of my past. I could feel freedom invading all areas of my life and see the promises of GOD becoming materialized. Today, I can’t not list and account for the true miracles happening in my family life and all around me. Thank you, JESUS, for bringing me to A PLACE OF FREEDOM!

Psalm 46:1 KJV “GOD is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.” | “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love GOD, to them who are the called according to HIS purpose.” Romans 8:28 KJV

By: LeeAnn Witzigman

“And you will be given a new name by the Lord’s own mouth.  The Lord will hold you in His hand for all to see – a splendid crown in the hand of God.”  Isaiah 62:2-3

This verse made me drop to my knees and rebuke every name that’s ever been attached to me by my own acceptance or without my consent.  As I was peeling off the words from my heart and tossing them into the fire, I was surprised at some of the names that were tucked away.  It wasn’t just a word, but a wound.  And often times, what seemed like a label was really a lie.  And truth be told, the most difficult ones to detach were the titles located in hard to reach places and others that were slippery with pride.  How effortless it’s been to live all these years and hoard the world’s trash inside the most sacred part of me.  But, no longer will the weight of humanity’s unkind speech sink my heart or pollute my soul.

I began reading about some of the people who underwent a name change in the Bible and their stories fascinated me.  They woke up one day as the same person they had always been and by nightfall they were not only renamed, but God had rerouted them deeper into the Kingdom.  Isn’t it just like Him to change the very word with which we identify most … even if we don’t completely understand who that person truly is on every level?  Those documented scriptural accounts created such a hunger inside my heart that I was compelled to ask God for a new name.  And a few days later the words “Your name is Love” were whispered into my heart and the atmosphere of my life changed in a blissful instant.  Heaven’s arrow pierced through the pain of my crippled worldly identity and set my feet firmly on the palm of God’s hand and in the center of His adoring eye.

I believe the name Love is not just for me, but for every daughter of the King.  Being made in God’s own image already grants us heavenly permission to embody His infinite acts of love.  The power of Love makes the entire world tremble and radically transforms death into life.  If we are called Love, we carry the perfume of compassion into every place we enter.   Love stands last in line.  Love plants seeds of hope in every desert and quenches the thirsty landscape with the flowing inner river of God’s living water.  Love beholds visions and cries for dry bones to come to life.  Love lives on Heaven’s timeline and surrenders all for God’s will.  Love is who we really are and the reason we are here now.  There are no words that rival the identity God has designed for you and I.  And honestly, anything that doesn’t come from His hand steals the crown from its rightful place on our heads.

Your name is Love and God has created a view just for you – an awe-inspiring glimpse into the beauty of eternity.

Proverbs 22:1  A good name is to be more desired than great wealth.  Favor is better than silver and gold.

Revelation 2:17  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.

1 Corinthians 16:14  Let all that you do be done in love.

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By: Rev. Clete Hux –

To varying degrees, all human beings seek their own autonomy or independence. This is especially true when it comes to a relationship with God our Creator. Suffice it to say that when we come into this world, we don’t come in running toward God. On the contrary, we come in running away from the God in whose image we are made. Shall we call it escape from reason? Frances Schaeffer did when he talked about a “natural theology” defined as man going his own independent way, not seeking the God of the Bible, nor taking the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice.

What Schaeffer meant by this “natural theology” and independence of man forsaking God is different from the revelation of God in nature. One is man driven. The other is God given. We have the general revelation of God’s existence through creation and conscience which Paul speaks of in the first chapter of Romans. All men are consciously aware of our Creator’s existence. Yet, man’s fallen nature wants to suppress this knowledge. For example, a pickpocket picks pockets, but resents his own pocket being picked. The same suppression goes for the knowledge of God salvifically through the special revelation of His word and His Son. Instead, man would rather seek God on his own terms, making himself the point of reference for life’s interpretation and application.

With this independent bent often being described as a thirst for spirituality, some people will gravitate to occult mysticism in hopes of having an experience with God. What He has provided in His word through a relationship with His Son and the guidance of His Holy Spirit seem never to be enough when confined only to what can be found within the scriptural context of the Bible.

The writer of Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” knew that our tendency is to “lean to our own understanding.” Because of the subjective nature of individual spiritual experiences, we are encouraged to trust in the unchanging God and the objectivity of His word. Church history is replete with people going after experiences outside biblical parameters and our day is no exception.

It has been said that the various charismatic movements over the years are attempts to experience God, and it could be argued that there is both legitimacy and illegitimacy to such. However, we would admit that a relationship with God through His Son’s intervention for us is experiential, yet, grounded in the proper bounds of His word. After all, is not the reason why the Father sent the Son…to pay our sin dept so that we can have an experiential relationship with Him? Of course, it is!

The problem is that mankind is forever devising ways to experience God unsanctioned by the one and only rule of faith and practice, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Instead, the idea of experiencing God has led to many subjective ways of being spiritual, which oftentimes has led to mysticism.

I mentioned occult mysticism, which can be defined as the attempt to obtain power through secret wisdom. This is the point where mysticism and gnosticism meet. This so-called secret occult knowledge has been around a long time through various forms such as Alice Bailey’s Esoteric Astrology (involving the horoscope), Madame Helen Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society, many forms of parapsychology and other secret societies too numerous to count.

In our day we have the whole gamut of the contemplative prayer movement and lately, the Enneagram is spreading into the church. Years ago, while in seminary training, I became curious about Christian mysticism. So, I decided to ask one of my favorite professors, Frank M. Barker, Jr., one of the PCA’s founding fathers. He told me that in his opinion mysticism was nothing more than mythism. I will never forget his statement. With this in mind, let’s look briefly at the worldview of the two topics I mentioned: Contemplative Prayer and Richard Rohr’s version of The Enneagram.

Contemplative Movement

One of the most popular names associated with the contemplative movement is Richard Foster. Although having Quaker roots, which is problematic because of Quakerism’s “inner light” leading some toward neo-orthodoxy believing the Bible becomes the word God when one has a spiritual experience, Foster’s contemplative practices are really indebted to Thomas Merton, a Catholic monk. Merton’s mysticism resources can be found in the Catholic Church, much of the Evangelical Church, the Emergent Church Movement, and the New Age Movement. Indeed, many interfaith dialogues not only are promoting religious pluralism, but using some contemplative practices to do so.

Beyond Foster and Merton, there is Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic priest, touted by Tony Campolo as one of the great Christians of our time.1 Then there is Thomas Keating, another Catholic monk. And, while we’re at it, we need to mention Matthew Fox, former Catholic priest turned Episcopalian with his Creation Spirituality in which he teaches a panentheistic worldview. Panentheism is the belief that “all is in God/God is in all.” It is akin to what is known as Process Theology. A rudimentary illustration: God is in the world the way a soul is in the body and as the world processes, evolves and changes, so does God process, evolve and change. Obviously, this is not the God of Holy Scriptures who does not change regardless of what evolution-minded people might say.

The biggest danger to which one is exposed in the contemplative movement is a subtle erosion of the Creator/creature distinction toward a monistic or “synthesis of all things” understanding. This has much in common with Eastern mysticism that basically teaches all is one and all is divine by nature. Consider what Catholic monk Basil Penninton said in his book, Thomas Merton, My Brother: “The Spirit enlightened him [Merton] in the true synthesis [unity] of all and in the harmony of that huge chorus of living beings. In the midst of it he lived out a vision of the new world, where all divisions have fallen away and the divine goodness is perceived and enjoyed as present in all and through all.” 2

Merton, who is often quoted by Richard Foster, tells about a trip to Asia where he met Chatral [a Tibetan holy man] whom Merton regarded as the greatest Buddhist teacher he had met. In their conversations, Merton found that he agreed with this Buddhist regarding Dzogchen meditation, which promotes a non-dualistic worldview. This relates to the so-called “mindfulness meditation” curricula that exists in some public schools and other venues throughout the country. What I find interesting about Merton’s time with Chatral is that Merton records Chatral being surprised at getting on so well with a Christian, so much so, that Chatral said that something had to be wrong! Chatral was so surprised by their common meditation understanding that he called Merton a natural Buddha. In other words, there was harmonious agreement that their respective meditative practices were the same. Perhaps, this is the reason why Merton said that he would not be able to understand Christian teaching the way he did if it were not in the light of Buddhism.3

Another name is Brennan Manning, who in the past, endorsed Beatrice Bruteau as a “trustworthy guide to contemplative consciousness”. Bruteau founded two different schools of contemplative practices, both incorporating Hindu and Buddhist approaches to spirituality. This is understandable since Bruteau studied with the Ramakrishna order, named after famous Hindu swami Sri Ramakrishna.4

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