Mal's Meanderings

Keeping Christ Out of the Market Place

2008-11-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

Earlier today I wrote a post about Hiding Christ from new Agers, intended for here. But, because I have too many blogs, as I discuss at MalcolmDow .com, it was posted to A Reasonable Mystic by mistake. I'm interested to see what my readers there make of it. Anyway, here's what should have appeared here:

This morning I was reading "My Prayer Journal" in the Victorian Baptist Witness. Part of the diary for Wednesday and Thursday went as follows:

Something interesting happened today. Saw Greg put 'religion' and 'new age'
books together (in the 'new age' section). He even put the Bibles there! It
really upset me and I was surprised at the intensity of my feelings. ...
...
Well I spoke to Greg and thank you God, he was really cool about it. It
actually opened up some discussion about my faith. And it felt so natural
talking about it. ... he was relieved that I could advise him on what should go
in the 'religion' section and what should go in the 'new age' section (he didn't
mind at all when I said they were very different).

There is so much here that I could comment on - the assumed difference between religion and New Age, for example. But considering that this was an issue of the Witness devoted to exploring being a Christian in a secular workplace, I want to look at where the books should have been placed.

Being married to a librarian myself I can understand the desire to have things in the right place. However, given that New Age would definitely fit the criteria for a religion I expect they wouldn't be far apart. It raises two questionsfor me. Why would we prefer to put Christian books in a place a New Ager might never look? And why put them where a Christian will never encounter the New Age books?

If we are truly interested in ministry in the marketplace, then we must not hide Jesus from those in the market, while at the same time we need to learn how those in the market think if we are to expect to impact their lives.

The depth of the secular/sacred divide for the person writing the diary might be guaged from the intensity of their feelings when the Christian and New Age books were innocently placed side by side. Should we be offended? Can't Jesus take care of himself? Where would he be found - hanging around the church or out in the market?

Lots of questions. I'd like to hear some of your answers.

Gods and men with three sides

2007-12-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

In his opening chapter of Adams vs. God - the Rematch, Phillip Adams quotes Charles de Montesquieu as saying,

If a triangle made a god, it would give him three sides.

This is true, as evidenced by the many god's that humans, religious and otherwise, have created after their own likeness.

However, if the three-sided God pre-existed the creatures (John 1:1-3), and made creatures in his own image (Genesis 1:26), wouldn't they still have three sides?

Adams vs God - the rematch

2007-12-12T04:20:00.000-08:00

I've long enjoyed listening to Phillip Adams interview interesting people on his Australian ABC's Late Night Live program. Given that Adams is an avowed and somewhat evangelical atheist, this may seem strange. However, it is not, and I challenge any Christian with a truly open mind and a love for human kind to read or listen to him and not find something to enjoy or even love.

Yes, he will call you a 'God botherer', but I've been called far worse and lived! However, unlike his firend Richard Dawkins, he will treat you with respect, especially if you are as equally genuine in your beliefs as he is in his.

I've just read the introduction to his new edition of Adams vs God. This is a collection of essays from more than two decades of Adam's jounalism.

From my reading I gain the distinct impression that the sort of religion Adams is so appalled by, any genuine follower of Jesus would also reject, as I do. Let me indulge myself by quoting one passage, from pages xxiv and xxv:

One of the problems with religious upbringing, with childhood indoctrination, is that beliefs are rarely, if ever, tested. To a large extent, most true believers are not entitled to their beliefs because they're entirely unexamined. This is painfully apparent in the letters I receive from Christians. It matters little if they're aggressive or patronising - whether they threaten me with damnation or undertake to pray for me so that I'll be more quickly propelled down the road to Damascus. These correspondents have one thing in common. They know far less about Christianity than the atheist they're writing to. Theirs is a comfortable Sunday school Christianity. They remain in the kindergarten of faith knowing nothing of biblical scholarship, of the history of the Old Testament or the contradictions of the New.

Oddly, their ignorance of their professed faith makes them more confident, or at the very least more complacent. They're true believers in belief, blissfully unaware of the disagreements in the approved gospels let alone the existence of the gospels that were rejected. The essential difference between those who write to admonish and those who write to save is that some believe that every biblical word is holy and beyond challenge whereas others can see that perhaps Noah's ark will not be unearthed on Mount Ararat. But whether they've eaten the three-course meal of Christianity or have chosen to pick at the food, to go on a sort of religious diet and reject the high calories of virgin birth, bodily assumption and eternal damnation, their innocence (a kind word for their ignorance) is astonishing.

I've more sympathy with the unthinking than the half-hearted, whose low-cal version of faith often encroaches upon agnosticism or the turf of the atheist.

Of course, Adams isn't being original here. Jesus got there first in Revelation 3 with his admonition to the church in Laodicea.

Where twenty years ago Adams thought that religion was in its death throes, he now seems content to hope that it will simply become reduced to some sort of historical hobby. I think that even in this he is being wildly optimistic - the real Jesus is not going to go away. Neither are the opposing forces nor the fakes.

Of course, Adams does know more about Christianity than many Christians, but in common with many of them he also 'knows' and believes a lot about it that is erroneous. Having rejected God on logical grounds at the age of six, it is to be expected that he has not put himself in a position to encounter a great deal of the genuine article since then, but has certainly come across a lot of the sort of Christianity that would cause Jesus to roll over in his grave, in the unlikely event of anyone ever finding one that could hold him.

But Adams is a genuine believer in his own worldview, and if you'll excuse my use of an old cliche, this is one which takes a great deal more faith to hold on to than being a follower of a living person that one has actually met and conversed with.

Besides, according to Adams, and I believe him, we have him to thank for the formation of the Family First party, following the challenge he put to a group of Pentecostal leaders that Jesus was not at all conservative.

And even God was apparently impressed enough by him to strike his plane with lightning twice while flying over the Vatican. At least, that's Adam's interpretation of the event (surprising for an atheist, even if tongue in cheek). Personally I'd advocate a far different supernatural and more troublemaking source for those particular atmospheric volts and amps.

Phillip Adams might feel justified if he included me in his list of the patronising, if he bothered to think of me at all, but that is not how I feel towards him. Yes, I believe he is wrong about many things, but I would not try to change his thinking unless he asked me to. What I will do is to continue to enjoy listening to and reading a very erudite man, and recommend that you do also.

Preparing for the Dissociation Seminar

2007-11-21T01:45:00.000-08:00

This Saturday Di and I are running our first day seminar on ministry to people with dissociation. By dissociation we do not just mean Dissociative identity Disorder (DID, or what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder - MPD). Nor do we mean specifically victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), which seems to be a bit of a focus of some Christian counsellors workingin this area.

Rather, we have learned from our training with Anazao Counselling, and from subsequent experience ministering to others, that almost everybody dissociates to some degree. Not just daydreaming or zoning out, which are actually not varieties of dissociation, but protecting themselves from many difficult childhood experiences by creating alternate parts in their minds.

While preparing the lessons and resource sheets for Saturday's seminar we have been going over case notes about sessions with people we have counselled in this way, and I am once again amazed at what Jesus will do with you when you are willing to get out of your comfort zone and ngage with something new and familiar.

Even more inspiring are the testimonies from people who have received ministry. It takes great courage to open up your very inner being and expose your deepest secrets to someone you might not know well. It might be even harder with people you do know well! This is especially true in the case of dissociation. You may not even know those secrets yourself until a dissociative part gains confidence in that Jesus will protect you and allows you to have the memory and feelings of some event about which you have little or no knowledge.

When I have obtained permission I will share some of these testimonies, but I just want to say now that there are some people around who were once in despair and who are nor rejoicing in their new found freedom and love for Jesus.

Prayer Ministry FAQ

2007-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Because of our involvement in the teaching and practice of prayer ministry or prayer counselling, we recieve questions from many people.

For example, prospective clients want to know what prayer ministry is, why we use it, and how it differs from counselling or other forms of ministry. In particular we are often asked whether we are a 'deliverance ministry'.

Other questions relate to specific practices. Some accuse us of using New Age techniques, or claim that prayer ministry is not needed because it was "all done at the Cross".

Yet others are interested enough to want to know how they too might become trained and get involved in prayer ministry.

To help out we have produced some Frequently Asked Questions pages over at the Prayer Ministries Network website. This is a prelude to a more extensive prayer counselling website we are building, which we will post details about when it is complete.

Why not hop over to the PMN site now and have a look?

Casey Stoner Wins MotoGP World Championship[

2007-09-23T00:44:00.000-07:00

Well done Casey on winning the MotoGP World Championship at Motegi, Japan!

Mick Doohan will be proud to see it come back to Australia.

Congratualtions to you and Adriana and the Stoner and Tuchyna families and all of the Ducati team.

Have fun at Philip Island.

Reverend Fun - Ever Wonder if God Ever Had Second Thoughts?

2007-09-09T03:56:00.000-07:00

(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc -
www.reverendfun.com)

How many blogging pastors are there?

2007-08-30T04:04:00.000-07:00

Darren Rowse, the Problogger, has written an interesting post about how to keep blogging when it feels like nobody is reading your blog. Darren speaks of his time as a pastor learning to preach by speaking to a room full of empty pews.

As a fellow pastor I know that feeling well, and as an aspiring problogger I'm feeling it even more often. However, for me the eye openner came when I started to read the comments to Daren's post. There just seemed to be so many pastors and other church leaders there.

Of course, I know a lot of pastors are now using a blog as part of their ministry, as I do. They post sermons and church news for the benefit of their congregation and others. However, these were not just pastors posting on church themes. No, these were pastors and ex-pastors who now post for many other reasons.

I often attend the ordination services for new pastors in my denomination, and am always interested to discover just how many become pastors out of a professional science background, as I did. Well, here's another interesting question - how many professional bloggers enter the "profession" after a career as a minister or pastor?

Any more want to come out of the closet (or is it vestry)?

Are you in a Christendom political party?

2007-08-18T04:03:00.000-07:00

Sad as it may seem, I believe that most Christians are told by their leaders which part of the theological spectrum they are part of, and generally they don't understand what it means, nor do they often care very much. Theology has been made to appear to them like an obscure, esoteric branch of philosophy that is beyond their reach and not very relevant to their lives anyway. As long as they dutifully subscribe to the party line then all will be well with their world. If they should question it too persistently then the accusations of backsliding will flow quickly and frighten them back into the loyal fold.

This is not unlike voting for a particular political party for the important reasons that your parents always did so, or 'everyone' in your town does, or your favourite TV commentator's disparaging comments about the other parties are the funniest or wittiest.

It also reminds me of the Middle Ages when, as long as the priest said the magic words of the Mass at one end of the parish church, the whole town could, at the same time, engage in the village market at the other end, and all was well, and God's wrath was appeased for another day. No-one actually had to take part in the rituals.

The sadnesses in this scenario are immediately obvious to me:

That leaders who 'understand' theology would so easily use it as a means of control and self-agrandisement.
That the average Christian should think so little of the need to actively engage in the discovery of who is this God they 'worship'.

Why is it that when the most important thing in all of our lives is the development of intimacy with Jesus, do we think it is OK to delegate this to someone else? And whose kingdom are we leaders really building? Are we for Paul, or Apollos, or Calvin, or Arminius, or Luther, or ..., or are we for Jesus?

Yes, theological movements do spring up for often good reasons. However, why are we generally so black and white about them? And why, once born, are such movements so hard to kill again? Was Jesus a Calvinist? Was he a dispensationalist? Was he Reformed? Charismatic? Was he even a Christian? (Now there's an oxymoron for you!)

As a Baptist pastor I am almost expected to be of a Reformed doctrinal persuasion. However, the more I learn about what it means to be an intimate follower of Jesus, and one of those favoutites that I'm told my Father God doesn't have, the more some of the tenets of Calvinism make me extremely uneasy. In particular, their implications for the nature and character of God make me shudder. No, I'm afraid that much I once might have admired about Calvin is long gone the way of many other long cherished doctrines and heroes - into the heresy bucket. If someone said about me some of the things some sincere and well-meaning Reformed theologians say about the nature of their God, I would be very upset - and rightly so!

Of course, bucking the status quo is not without cost. For example, I had been considering becoming an editor for Theopedia. However, when I read the statement of faith I would be expected to sign I could not in all conscience do so. Most of it is fine, but not all. This is rather disappointing, because it is a great project, but I guess I'll live. At least I won't be burnt at the stake or put down a hole and pelted with stones!

Lest you also think I am anti-intellectual, or anti-theology, nothing could be more untrue. I love learning, and have invested a large part of myself into theology. I love to teach, and have engaged fully in a career as an academic and researcher, but I am constained at all times to make sure I am teaching life, not death. There are many things in all of the 'isms' and 'ologies' that cause me disquiet, and even horror at times, so much so that I would rather be known as a follower of Jesus than be mis-recognised as one of what has become known today by the title of 'Christian'.

I'm sure I will write more about this, here and elsewhere.

Reverend Fun - I'm Telecommuting Today

2007-07-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc -
www.reverendfun.com)

Recent Beth Tephillah Ministries Seminars

2007-07-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Hearing God's Voice seminar we ran last weekend at Warrnambool was a great time. About 40 turned up for the Friday Night and all day Saturday sessions, where we taught about what it means to hear God's voice, some of the obstacles to hearing and how to overcome them, ways to begin to hear God, dreams and visions, creative imagination, and the nature of prophecy and prophets.

Everyone engaged in the practical exercises, which for some were their first experience at actually recognising that God does speak to them. For others it was reinforcement and the discovery of further ways to hear, and what to do with it when we do.

About half have already indicated their interest in having us return to Warrnambool to do our Intimacy with God seminar later in the year, and we will also repeat Hearing God's Voice for them before their next Restoration course begins in 2008. The material is available online at listening2god.com for anyone to use.

The weekend before this we ran the first Intimacy with God course in Williamstown for about 25 participants, and this was well received. God has been speaking to many across the world about this. It is not new, but seems to have been neglected in our instant, results oriented, modern society. More recent generations of Christians, apart from rejecting that approach to life, are also seeking a more authentic, less control and 'success' dominated way to live as followers of Jesus. They are finding it in some of the older spiritual forms as well as in the fresh revelations that God is giving to his people as time grows short.

The Intimacy with God material will also be put online at intimacywithgod.net when time permits. Watch for it.

Our next seminar at Williamstown will be on the 8th of September and looks at Generational Healing.

Is Richard Dawkins a Level Five Atheist?

2007-07-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Perhaps Richard Dawkins is at least a level five atheist (see previous post - Level Five Agnostic). This quote from a book review by Fr Frank Brenan SJ would seem to indicate this:

Dawkins claims that moderation in faith fosters fanaticism: �even mild and
moderate religion helps to provide the climate of faith in which extremism
naturally flourishes�. Dawkins� �take home message is that we should blame
religion itself, not religious extremism � as though that were some kind of
perversion of real, decent religion�. The same argument would not be put for
scientific inquiry. Imagine a call to ban all scientific inquiry because those
who engage in responsible scientific inquiry may be providing the opportunity
for fanatics to harness science for their own purposes. Dawkins and his ilk
think religious belief of any kind is meaningless, infantile and demeaning, so
nothing is lost by agitating in the most illiberal way for the suppression
of all religion and not just religious extremism which causes harm to others.

Makes sense to me. What do you think? Comments please.

Reverend Fun - Level Five Agnostic

2007-07-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc -
www.reverendfun.com)

Now let us turn on our phones and browse to John chapter 3

2007-06-07T22:50:00.000-07:00

How many times have you heard a mobile phone ring during a church meeting and wished that people would show a bit more courtesy about turning them off? Well, all of that is about to change.

No, not because someone has invented an effective phone blocker, or that everyone in church has been struck by an attack of consideration for others. No! Now we'll be asked to keep our phones on, because we need them to participate in the service!

I was alerted to this revelation (or is that 'revelution'?) by a post on Dean Peters' Heal Your Church Web Site - Pastors preach: turn on & tune in � to your Blackberry. Apparently a pastor informed his congregation:

��Please bring your cell phone with you to the service this Sunday. Yes, you
read that right. I, the President of the �I hate cell phones going off in church
club,� am inviting you to bring that blasted thing to church this
Sunday. At the end of the teaching on prayer this weekend I am going to
devote about 7 minutes to answering questions on the topic and the way you will
pass on your questions is by texting them to a number you will receive during
the service. We will of course all have our phones on SILENT won�t we!��

So now, instead of counting the number of colours in the stained glass windows during a boring sermon, you'll be able to surf the web on your phone, or even play solitaire, and everyone will think you are tuned in to what is going on.

Really though, some are finding it's easier to surf to a Bible gateway than to carry a heavy book around anyway.

Casey Stoner takes pole in Italian MotoGP on his Ducati

2007-06-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

Congratulation to young Australian Casey Stoner for his first pole position in the MotoGP Motorcycle World Championship. Casey has qualified first ahead of fellow Aussie Chris Vermeulen and Casey's main rival, the Yamaha rider with the home track advantage, Italian Valentino Rossi.

While the fact that Casey's 800cc Ducati Desmosedici is by far the fastest bike on the track, what is really impressive about his performance, which has him leading the World Championship by a healthy margin, is that Casey does so well in heavy rain against much older and more experienced riders. The calmness, coolness and maturity displayed by this young Christian man does all of us, but especially his family and new wife Adriana, proud.

We'll be watching the race with fascination tonight Casey. Well done!

Brian McLaren Trilogy - A Real Bargain

2007-05-10T04:48:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to buy emerging church author Brian McLaren's classic trilogy A New Kind of Christian, The Story We Find Ourselves In, and The Last Word and the Word After That, for some time. Apart from it being difficult to get them all in Australia, they are expensive at $32.95 each from Koorong.

Amazon.com have all three books in a boxed set for US$19.75. Check it out here:
McLaren Boxed Set (A New Kind of Christian; The Story We Find Ourselves In; The Last Word and the Word After That) (Hardcover).

The great thing about this, apart from the US$46.09 saving, is that it ships as one item instead of three, so you save another US$9.98 on postage. With the Aussie dollar over US$0.83 at present this works out pretty reasonable.

Poems of Cameron M. Semmens

2007-05-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

How�s this for a briliant commentary?

a current-er prayer

Our media,
whose art is manipulation
hollow be thy game.
Thy cameras come, it will be done
on Nine as it is on Seven.
Give us this day our daily sensation,
and feed us our fears
as we feed the fear of others.
Lead us on with misinformation
and deliver us from thinking.
For thine is the king-maker
with the power of the story,
forever and ever,
amoral.

If you want to see more of poet and performer Cameron Semmens� writings, or Cameron himself, then check out his website.

Blogging for God

2007-04-25T22:48:00.001-07:00

In the Decature Daily is an interesting article, Plugged into Culture, about a blogging pastor, Rev. Dave Anderson, alias ‘moviepastor. As pastor of Crosspoint Community Church in Decatur, Alabama, he is passionate about the gospel message impacting the young online culture.

“I think the church should do everything it can to engage people long enough to present the gospel message.”

Melanie Smith, the article’s author says,

“He called himself ‘moviepastor’ because he loves movies and views them as windows into today’s culture. He also figured the name would help drive Web users to his site.
“He said it’s one thing to write a blog, but if it’s not genuine, readers will fast turn critical and stop reading. He said people are looking for authenticity, so he doesn’t shy away from putting his pain and shortcomings in his writing. He regularly uses words like ‘freaking’ and ‘crappy’.”

Anderson has had a number of movies posted to youTube. One about “You Did What to the Easter Bunny?” raised some eyebrows, while another about Anderson auditioning for American Idol has had 11,000 views.

Visit Dave Anderson’s MoviePastor.com: Church, Culture, Christ blog.

It’s great to see more and more pastors and other church leaders beginning to blog.

The Spiritual Armour of Ephesians 6

2007-04-22T01:19:00.001-07:00

Our involvement in healing prayer ministry and intercession has brought us into contact with a number of different ideas about the meaning of Paul’s injunction to put on the full armour of God.

During our early training we were encouraged to go through the daily motions of putting on the armour, while visualising a Roman soldier with all of his equipment. We understood it then as a mnemonic device to help us remember the equipment needed, and each piece was generally explained in terms of its function. However, as with any such approach, it easily degenerates into a ritual, perhaps with magical overtones. The implication is that if the armour is not put on religiously each morning then the person is at risk.

Such a ritualistic approach to life is common in religious people, but is a far cry from the way Jesus and his early followers lived. It betrays a lack of trust in God.

So, what was Paul intending when he outlined each piece of the Christian’s equipment in this fashion? Let’s read the passage:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:10–18 (NIV)

Clearly, Paul has in mind defence against a spiritual enemy here. What is the principle nature of this enemy’s attack? One of the principle ways a demon interacts with a believer is by suggesting fears, doubts and lies into their mind.

How, then, is a person to resist such subversive suggestions? Certainly not by erecting some magic mind barrier called ‘the helmet of salvation’. The defence against such attacks is to have a sure and certain knowledge of your salvation, how that salvation was attained, and what that salvation means for your future.

The intent of such an attack is to either make a believer unsure of either the certainty, or the effectiveness, of their salvation. Can Jesus really keep them safe if they take a risk? Or will he even care whether they fall or not? Are they really saved? Such doubts limit the effectiveness of a believer’s work for the Kingdom of Light. Instead, they will be focussed on their own state, trying to find ways to strengthen their walk, engaging in disciplines, memorising and quoting verses, obsessed with works, going from one conference, crusade or evangelist to another, seeking reassurance. What a waist of time – which is exactly what the devil wants!

To ‘take the helmet of salvation’, then, really means to first make sure you are saved, and once that is settled for ever, get a good grasp of what it means, so that when the doubts come you have a ready answer with which to refute them. What did Jesus say?

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27–30 (NIV)

Did you hear that! You can not be destroyed! This makes it possible for a believer, knowing this, to live in faith, which might be translated as ‘taking a risk’. If you are a believer, then whatever happens, whatever the enemy throws at you, no matter how scary or uncomfortable it gets, you are safe. This knowledge is the ‘helmet of salvation’.

We could make similar examples for each of the pieces of armour. How then should we understand these items?

“with the belt of truth buckled around your waist” == Be truthful in all things and at all times, otherwise the enemy will embarass you when you least expect it.

“with the breastplate of righteousness in place” == Keep short accounts with God and others. Always do right. If you sin, confess and repent. Do not give the enemy a place to stand in your life.

“with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” == Be ready at all times to be able to give an account of your faith. But do it in love, not stirring up arguments but demonstrating a heart that is at peace with God and man.

“take up the shield of faith” == Don’t shrink back from anything the Lord asks you to do. Be faithful to him, and instantly obedient. Otherwise, the enemy will accuse you about your failure.

“take the helmet of salvation” == Be sure of your salvation and what it really means for you: that you cannot be destroyed, nor subverted by the enemy, unless you choose to turn your back on salvation. And even then, Jesus will pursue you!

“and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” == This is the only weapon you possess. Things are brought into being, or destroyed, by words. Being in the image of God, who created with a word, our words too have power. Of course, the word of God includes a sound knowledge of the Bible, however, this verse would be better translated with a capital ‘W’ for ‘Word’. The Word of God is Jesus, and every word that comes out of his mouth. It is speaking under the direction of the Holy Spirit that has true power. Even the devil can quote scripture (see Luke 4), but we can speak the Word of God!

“and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” == I believe this is related to the previous point, giving an example of speaking in the Spirt. It is prayers motivated by the Spirit of Jesus that are the most certainly answered. But do not stop praying. Just as you sleep in your armour, so to does a believer pray without ceasing. Haven’t you ever woken in the morning to find yourself praying in tongues? I have!

One last point. I have heard people say that they put on the armour first thing every morning. My question to them is, why did you take it off the night before? Did you spend the night not being truthful, or righteous, or a peacemaker, or faithful? Weren’t you saved while you were asleep? Don’t you sleep with you sword at your side ready and alert at a moments’ notice to spring into action? The waking up speaking in tongues I referred to above is an example of this. My spirit will be alert to any prompting of the Spirit, even when my mind might be daydreaming, asleep, or even unconscious or in a coma.

It is while we are asleep that our mind is least alert, but our spirit is wide awake. The forces of darkness love these night hours. Why do you have bad dreams? Of course, this is the time when the Holy Spirit is also most able to get past our mental barricades and speak into our heart. He speaks to us in dreams and visions when we are least able to add our mental “But …!”. You need to go to sleep in the assurance of your safety with Jesus, and that he will minister to you while you rest.

If you must have a sleep ritual to reassure you, rather than putting on the armour in the morning, leave it on all the time and go to sleep with the last thing in your thoughts being a prayer of love and thanks to Father God for the adventure of the day, and a request for his presence and angels to guard you as you enter the darkness. Just as Jesus, when he was about to descend into the very darkest realm, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46, NIV), how much more sure we can we be of his holding us while we sleep.

Tags: spiritual+armour, spiritual+armor, Ephesians, spiritual+warfare, Christian+living, Holy+Spirit, spiritual+living, spirituality

Seminars for 2007

2007-04-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

The topics and dates for our 2007 seminars at Beth Tephillah have been set. This year there will be four, with each one held on a Saturday. The first seminar for the year is:

Hearing God�s Voice

Saturday 12th May, 10 am to 4 pm

at

Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre,

55 Park Crescent, Williamstown (Mel 55 J7)

"Hear the Word of the Lord" has been a common instruction to God�s people through the centuries. Jesus, who IS that Word, told us that sheep listen for their shepherd�s voice and follow him because they know his voice, and He expects His sheep to respond to His voice.

This seminar aims to help participants hear, identify, understand and obey the voice of Father God.

Cost: $25.00. There will be practical sessions. Refreshments will be provided. BYO lunch.

Please advise Malcolm or Diana Dow you are coming as places are limited.

Contact Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre, PO Box 138 Williamstown, 3016. Phone: 9397 2430, Fax: 9397 2430, or Email to pastors@bethtephillah.com.

Download a brochure in PDF format: Hearing God's Voice Seminar Brochure.

The 2007 seminar series continues on the following dates:

Saturday 14th July - Intimacy with God

Saturday 8th September - Generational Healing

Saturday 17th November - Becoming the Dear Departed: Dealing with Dissociation

Update on Speaking in Tongues

2007-04-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Prompted by a comment by a friend about my old article on speaking in tongues: Tongues - making it happen, on the Healing Prayer Ministries Network website, I've writen the first of a series on this topic on my Speaking-in-Tongues blog. The new article is called Tongues five years on.

New Blog - Point Cook Community Baptist Church

2007-03-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

One of my Baptist pastor colleagues from just down the road - Warren Hodge of Point Cook Community Baptist Church - now has a church website and a blog. Though, if you want to subscribe to his blog with your reader you'll need to use the BlogSpot version, as the framed version on the website doesn't provide an RSS feed.

Warren has posted some interesting Bible studies and comments.

Testing BlogJet

2007-03-08T00:04:00.001-08:00

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com.

It allows you to edit posts for your blogs while you are offline and publish them later.

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

Prayer Ministry - What's in a Name?

2007-03-03T23:59:00.001-08:00

Prayer Ministry - what's in a name? Sometimes a great deal.

Through Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre we come into contact with many people working and ministering in the area described variously as Christian counselling, prayer ministry, healing ministry, Theophostic ministry, prayer counselling, and other terms. Often there is no problem because those involved know what they themselves mean when they use their name for what they do.

However, increasingly, different ministries are intersecting as Jesus breaks down the boundaries that have for so long separated us. This is wonderful. It is an outworking of what Jesus means when he prays, "Father, ... I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:21,22)

He goes on to speak more about this glory that is revealed through the oneness of Jesus with the Father and us with them. And what is this glory? Surely a part of it is our doing the work of Jesus on earth - bringing freedom to the captives, sight to the blind, life to the dead, and so on.

Di and I have just spent another week with Peter and Heather Toth, of Anazao, on a course in Geelong on ministry to the dissociated. During our discussion the problem of what to call what we do arose again. Let me give you some history.

When we became involved with Wholeness through Christ Ministries in the early 90s, we were learning to do, and were doing, "Prayer Counselling" This was a mixture of various tools as taught by John and Paula Sandford of Elijah House, Carol Thompson's "Possess the Land" teaching, Denis and Rita Bennett's pioneering work in healing of emotions, and numerous others. It was Christian Counselling, but with a strong emphasis on reliance on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge that it was Jesus who heals, not us. It was Christian Counselling in its true sense - not secular counselling done by Christians, as so often Christian counselling is practiced, even when it has a spiritual element added, but counselling done by the true Counsellor - the Holy Spirit - with us providing the human presence for him to work through.

After some years an uneasiness set in about use of the word "counselling", mainly, I believe, because we were not training counsellors in the accepted sense of the word, who could be held professionally accountable for what they did with a "client". We were really facilitating the interaction of the client with Jesus, plus restoration of what should have been taught in the church in basic discipleship training, but generally wasn't. It was "Christianity 101"! So, because it involved asking God to work, we began calling it "Prayer Ministry" instead of "Prayer Counselling".

Some 10 years ago we began to encounter people who had trained using Ed Smith's "Theophostic" approach to ministry. As we worked with them we discovered that they generally knew nothing of prayer ministry except Theophostic. In fact, they often thought the word "Theophostic" was synonymous with "Prayer Counselling". They would ask "Have you done Theophistic?" and would be mystified when we told them that we or our team members had done "Wholeness through Christ Ministries", "Elijah House", "Vineyard's Equipping the Saints", "VMTC", "Servants in Benloch", "Ellel", "Possess the Land", "Charles Kraft's Deep Healing", "Come out Be Free", "Sonrise Family Ministries", "Beth Tephillah Ministries", "Restoration", "Healing Rooms", or a host of other training and ministry systems.

Our first encounter with Theophostic, which simply means to bring God's light into the situation, was the day after a session in our own Beth Tephillah course, where we had taken a person to a deep seated lie and asked Jesus to reveal the truth to the person, after having disposed of the demons getting in the way. Someone loaned us Ed Smith's basic video course and the following day we began to watch it, to find it was exactly what we had been teaching and doing the previous day, and in fact, for some years.

Theophistic is excellent, especially as a concise systematisation of the steps in this form of ministry. However, the name has caused us some problems, not only because of its unfortunate similarity in sound to the occult science of "Theosophy", but more because of the isolation of many of its practitioners from knowledge of other, and older, streams of healing ministry. Personally, I believe that Ed Smith is largely to blame for this situation because of the very proprietorial stance he has taken on this teaching. However, he is not alone in this approach. For example, we love the teaching of those real pioneers in all things prophetic and healing, the Sandfords. Yet, at least as it is practiced in Australia, there is talk of an "Elijah House Way" that must be followed if someone comes to an EH graduate for ministry. Other ministries have similar restrictions. Our approach at Beth Tephillah is the one originally taught to us by the Sandfords themselves - add everything to your toolbox. Bring it out when needed and put it away again. Each time allow the Holy Spirit to tell you what he wants you to do.

The freedom that comes with this approach is wonderful. There are no formulas to follow - you must depend on Jesus. It also allows you to be adaptable to new teaching. I remember in our early training by Wholeness through Christ Ministries, we were sternly injuncted to "not do deliverance the way Charles Kraft does it - he talks to demons!" There was a certainty that because demons are liars by nature you cannot allow them to give you information. You will be deceived. In 1995 Charles Kraft came to Australia to do some seminars for Tabor College. WTCM took advantage of his presence to arrange a small seminar for our staff, at which Chuck was able to demonstrate, by carrying out deliverance on our staff director, what he actually did. It was so exciting to see his ability and authority to make the demons reveal truth, especially about the lies that they had been telling the person, while all the time forbidding the demons to cause any discomfort or embarrassment to the person, that we all immediately became enthusiastic supporters of this way of doing ministry, and have used and taught it ever since. Chuck, like others such as Peter Wagner and Jack Deare, had their conservativism broken earlier by encounter with John Wimber and his demonstration that supernatural healing really did still happen today. I still remember the excitement of the Vineyard "Equipping the Saints" conferences in Melbourne, and "Doin' the Stuff" as John used to call it.

We have had similar experiences with other ministry movements, such as the misnamed "Toronto Blessing", for example. At the founding meeting of what was to become Intercessors for Melbourne, Diana and I encountered this laughing, falling, rolling, shaking phenomenon, exactly one year before it broke out in Torronto and spread to the rest of the world. As happened at other places, the Lord told me he was going to be doing this soon and that we should reassure people when it happened that it was of Him. Once the Lord released it, it rapidly became an opportunity for renewal, deliverance and healing in many centres and churches. Although the initial excitement has dimminished, these opportunities continue. But the fear and criticism of this movement have also continued. Some said it was God, some were adamant that it was of the flesh, others that it was demons. I still don't see why this was such an issue - all were correct, it was God, the flesh, and the devil! Whenever God shows up in power, our fleshly fears and desires become revealed, and any demons around come under pressure and are exposed. It was a wonderful opportunity to deal with them, not to run away because it offended our theological sensibilities. It was meant to upset the applecart of a church that had become dry and stale - that was the point of it!

Why do I mention this example now? Because, this too is now commonly called "Prayer Ministry". It is typically carried out after a conference or church meeting, up the front near the stage. Perhaps, on reflection, this really is prayer ministry, because all it asks of the "minister" is either laying-on or laying-off of hands (as we used to do it to avoid charges of pushing people over), and asking the Holy Spirit to come on the person in power. And he did! I've had the joy of simply looking at people from the stage and they would fall, and of walking around a conference centre and see people fall as I went past. Yes, we encountered flesh, and demons. But we saw a lot more of the Lord. There were times that I was standing behind someone to catch them, and if they resisted they would be leaning back at an impossible angle and not falling, while I would be struggling to stay on my feet in case they did. The flow of the power of God's presence was often so overwhelming that the catchers reached the floor first.

Over the past two years Diana and I and our team have reached another such watershed in ministry. This has been brought about by our encounter with Peter and Heather Toth of Anazao. Their approach to ministry to sufferers of Dissociate Identity Disorder and to victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse is revolutionary. Not that others have not been ministering and teaching in this area before them, but they have found a new model for understanding dissociation that acords much better with reality than that of previous ministries and secular psychiatric thought, and through 1000s of hours of counselling have become effective in freeing people quickly and completely from dissociation and true SRA. We had previously looked at how others handle these situations and found them so unsatisfactory that we decided to leave them alone. Now, using Anazao's model and methods, we are having real success in quickly setting people free, and it is impacting our approach to other areas of ministry.

However, the problem of what to call what we do comes up again. Anazao use Theophostic ministry to deal effectively with demonic interference, because Peter learned to do this from Ed Smith. Of course, Ed Smith does not like Anazao's approach to dissociation and SRA, but that is another matter - Theophostic works in other situations! Yesterday as I discussed with Peter his misgivings about our use of the term "Prayer Ministry" it became clear that he did not use the term the same way as we did. He was thinking more of the "up the front of the church" style of ministry, and his observation of our use of a separate intercession team to feed in encouragement on a sheet after the ministry session seemed to him as if our ministry was asking God to speak through the minister to the client.

I can understand such misgivings. Anazao, as do we, prefers Jesus to deal directly with the client. The ministry team is to facilitate this process, not to be directive. Actually, I think we might even emphasise this more sometimes, because Anazao also does far more of what we would call "counselling" than we do. We try to minimise the giving of advice or instruction as far as possible. This is not a criticism of Anazao, just an outworking of the fact that they are counsellors where we are not, and although counselling is a necessary part of healing ministry, we have generally prefered to separate it from the prayer ministry. In practice, however, I have found myself liable to counsel rather more than many other prayer ministers of my aquaintance, because it reflects my particular spiritual giftings as prophet/teacher and the Holy Spirit's role as "Counsellor". I expect that as we embrace, and are trained to use, more of the revelations that are being given to the ministry today through Anazao and others, we will see the development of a more rounded approach to healing, just as happened in the past through the Sandfords, Wimbers, Krafts, etc.

A few years ago, when there was a change in the structure of the Prayer Ministries Network we changed the name to Healing Prayer Ministries Network, to better reflect that as a network we were welcoming of different expressions of healing ministry apart from what we had mostly come up through. Of course, this only increases the ambiquity, as "Prayer Ministry" or "Healing Prayer Ministry" now even more deliberately includes many different expressions of ministry. This is healthy, because we can learn from and support each other, and refer people with different needs to that which is most appropriate or available to them.

But, it leaves ministries such as Beth Tephillah Ministries, and others, with a problem - What do we call what we do? I throw this out as a challenge for discussion. I would love to hear your ideas on this, either through comments in this blog, or by email through the HPMN network, or directly to me.

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Our Church, Visible and Invisible

2007-03-02T02:46:00.000-08:00

The Reformers distinguished between the visible church: the organized institution as it appeared on earth, from the invisible church: the whole number of the elect known only to God.

In our modern day, with its �scientific� worldview, the visible or tangible seems more �real� than the invisible, which seems ephemeral or mystical.

However, to a postmodern the spiritual and relational has a strong appeal, and anything with a structure which might support a power base is viewed with grave suspicion. The organized chuch is unappealing, while a fellowship with a loose, unorganized, non-institutional appearance stands a chance of attracting, or at least not frightening them. I think Jesus would probably find more of a welcome among such a group as well.

In the world of the organized church, loose �home group� churches become invisible. Beth Tephillah, even though it is more like a home group in its functioning, and is thus often relatively invisible, is still a constituted Baptist Church. Thus it can bridge this postmodern version of the visibility divide.

I just reread David Kosoff�s story, as told by �Jethro�, an old Temple worker, of the discovery of the child Jesus by Simeon and Anna. Here, in the midst of the central symbol of organized Jewry, right at the focus of their religious world, God was doing something which was about to change forever the whole of history and the entire universe. And only a handful of people: a disgraced virgin, a kind hearted young man, a bunch of common shepherds, a few astrologers, an old priest, and a widowed prophetess, had any idea that it was happening.

The temple was the most visible expression of Jewish religious life. The Messiah was the great hope for salvation eagerly awaited by all of God�s people. Yet hardly anyone noticed his arrival in that place. As this obviously poor couple brought their baby to be recognized in the Temple and dedicated to God, the world changed forever, but �Church� life continued unchanged!

Is God still doing this today? Is it really in the great church institutions and denominations, and with the powerful and recognized religious leaders that Jesus is bringing in the Kingdom of God?
Or, is it advancing, virtually unnoticed, among those who are considered to be nothing in the world�s and the church�s eyes; those who struggle to fit in to a system that spends so much energy upon itself and so little on those God most cares about - those who give up on the great ideas of man and return again to ask of Jesus what he really wants of them?

Could the �church in the cracks�, as I have fondly called it for years, be today a more accurate expression of the small band of nervous risk takers that Jesus gathered around him for a few years, and then sent out to win the world. He sent them out, not with great systems and organizations, but by telling one or two friends the story of Jesus and his salvation, around a fire, or over a meal, or at a roadside stop, or in a prison, or beside a sickbed, or during a break at work, or just over the back fence!

How much evidence do we find in the Bible for the large institution being what Jesus had in mind? I don�t see much. I do see the group of friends, sharing everything they had, suffering persecution together, and fearlessly confronting the fallen world around them with a message of hope:

�The Messiah has come � God is with us! Emmanuel! Hallelujah!�