My friend Dan Bowen, has just alerted me to let me know that back issues of New Wine magazine are now available online. This highly influential magazine began in June 1969 and became a charismatic teaching platform for Bob Mumford, Charles Simpson, Ern Baxter and others. Importantly, New Wine became the example and inspiration from which Restoration magazine was launched – a hugely important magazine that brought vital teaching to the UK church.

Although visually it looks extremely dated and perhaps now looks tired and jaded, it was a remarkable publication that brought massive spiritual life to many individuals and churches across the world.  You can check out the first edition here (link to 5Mb PDF) – including an article by Bernard Mumford. Bob is much more snappy…

If you’re visiting Dan’s blog, make sure you check out his links and materials from the New Frontier’s conference ‘Together on a Mission 2007’. More fantastic and useful resources.

Jesse Phillips, on his excellent Resurgence blog, asks a great question ‘What makes a particular prophecy biblically sound?’

The judging of prophecy is a key aspect of the exercise of this gift, particularly when used in the church gathering.  This works in several ways – the most obvious is to determine whether the word, vision, demonstration or other prophetic expression is from God.  However, more important is the judging – or weighing – in order to determine its significance or practical application.

Certainly from my experience as an elder, this is absolutely key for the life and health of the church. Most people exercising the gift are genuine, Spirit-filled Christians using it to different degrees or ‘measures’ of insight or expression. Judging for correctness is therefore not usually a major issue – but weighing for its impact and influence is very necessary. Therefore in the shared life of the church, a leadership or eldership team needs to be skilled prophetically so as to respond appropriately to words or other revelatory gifts. 

Old Testament Israel required kings and leaders to pick up the words of the prophet and interpret them into their community, leading God’s people very practically into an appropriate response. Similarly, in the present day church, elders too must exerise a weighing of prophetic gift – not as some sort of spiritual censorship (although that is sometimes needed!), but as a way to ensure the word of God is heeded.

There are some very practical ways to do that … perhaps we can get to these in another post?

However, themes of sorcery and heroes, good and evil, adventures of magical discovery and the ever present threat from dark creatures and their manipulative master do not sit comfortably with all Christians.  Books and tales which involve the good and bad guys all using magical items, wielding powerful supernatural forces and drawing on ancient or deep traditions often cause us to question whether we should be reading them.

Still, that’s enough about Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia – what about Harry Potter? Should Christians read J K Rowling’s series of books about the young wizard and his friends? I’m sure the coming weeks will see much debate and many more words added to the discussion about whether children should or shouldn’t read the books or see the films.

Of course, the main accusation is that these books somehow lead young or impressionable readers towards witchcraft or an overfamiliarity with the occult. However, one commentator made perhaps one of my favourite observations:

“…we should be worrying about adults not being able to distinguish between fiction and reality. The kids themselves seem to have a pretty good grasp of it”

Hopefully this distinction will be adequately reflected in any debate…

This clip features a striking piece of music composed by no less than George Harrison.

I hope you enjoy this articles. Please let me know what you think and whether you would welcome seeing any more.

Keynote Guide to Revelation

T Austin Sparkes (The Way of Spiritual Growth)

1. The measure of our ultimate satisfaction to the Lord will be the measure of the fulness of Christ. 2. The measure of our value to others will depend entirely upon our own spiritual measure: not merely upon what we believe, or think, or say.

3. The measure of our own joy and satisfaction will be according to what fulness of Christ we know and live in.

Because these three things constitute the whole nature of, and reason for, our being called “into the fellowship of His (God’s) Son”, the New Testament is ninety percent occupied with the growth and maturity of believers.

Based on an existing translation, the editors have stripped out some of the additions that we normally take for granted. For example:

• Articificial divisions between books are removed (eg between 1 and 2 Samuel etc)
• Summary section or chapter headings are not included
• Chapter and verse numbers are not present
• Footnotes and other additions are removed
• Layout is spaced in a single column rather than forced into the more usual two-column layout

In principle, I think this will be a welcome addition to the choice of bibles available – particularly since it should encourage reading the Scriptures in a fresh way. My only reservation is the choice to use the TNIV (Today’s New International Version) as the text. Personally, I am not a fan of this revision to the NIV and would much rather The Bible Society had used either the original NIV or the ESV.

You can check out the ‘bible without the extras’ at the publisher’s website which even includes some sample bible books for you to try.

However, what is perhaps remarkable is that this is the first product in a decade that the BBFC have rejected! Personally I find that statistic extremely troubling because it means in a ten year period they have accepted and rated everything. I am currently amazed at the sorts of films, games and other media that are placed openly into the consumer market which have overtly pornographic or extremely violent content. I think society should be concerned when films such as Saw, Saw 2, etc are readily available on promotional stands of family shops such as Tesco or Asda.

Before I was fifteen I couldn’t wait to be old enough to watch 15-rated (or AA for those of more than a certain age) movies. Here I am 25 years later and there are quite a few 15-rated films I would not watch myself let alone contemplate for my teenage son!

I think its popularity should be both a concern and an opportunity to the Christian world. It is a concern because it oozes a counterfeit spirituality that seems to be attractive to this post-modern generation.  Worse, it seems to present some of the worst features of Western consumerism and selfishness in a way that appears to make false values not just acceptable but attractive. I have not read more than just excerpts, but it seems to me that plain old-fashioned mammon has simply been given a new set of 21st century clothes.

What is the opportunity? Well, I think one of the reasons this book is so popular is that it seems to provide a ‘hope and faith’ of sorts, albeit seriously misplaced. Clearly it picks up on the innate human desire for spirituality and this is perhaps where Christians can catch the moment. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only ‘secret’ and perhaps we can redirect people’s hunger towards God.

You can catch a good article on this book here courtesy of Christianity Today. It includes the following illuminating quotation from Newsweek:

On an ethical level, The Secret appears deplorable. It concerns itself almost entirely with a narrow range of middle-class concerns—houses, cars, and vacations, followed by health and relationships, with the rest of humanity a very distant sixth. 

All I hope is that the Christian world goes after this with as much vigour as it did with The Da Vinci Code. At least Dan Brown’s book was sold as a work of fiction!

Sorry for being absent for a week or so – now back online and realising quite how easy it is to become internet dependent!

First up and in case you have been following this series, here is the link to pick up the next message in our church’s series from 1 Corinthians. These messages cover teaching from chapters 10, 11 and 12.

If you want to pick up previous posts on the 10:31 All for the glory of God series,  click here.