notes from lisa...

The Prosperity  Doctrine permeates American churches, and has even begun to spread its disease throughout the world, with its twisting of Scripture to feed fleshly whims and lusts. It is all about the earthy and temporal, and not at all about the spiritual, unless it relates to the supernatural obtaining of health and wealth. It reminds me of Eliphaz--Job's "friend". I suppose at one time, he had been a faithful friend to Job; when times were good, and Job wasn't experiencing any hardship. When the chips were down, though, Eliphaz became Job's judge; insisting that Job must have done something wrong to be in that conundrum. People still live with that mindset--they did when Jesus lived, too--and He quickly corrected them. When Jesus came upon the blind man in John 9, "His disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" The assumption was that if this man was blind, the cause was automatically sin.

"Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. And if the way be too long for thee , so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose: And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and th

There is a verse in the Bible that says: " The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord , as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." Some of us, assume that this means that when God gets involved in our affairs, the king has no control and will do whatever is in our best interest. If history hasn't proven that to be an errant interpretation, perhaps context should--not just of the next verses, but of the whole of Scripture. The verses that follow in the 21st chapter of Proverbs say, " Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin." [Proverbs 21:2-4]  (I always say, context is EVERYTHING, when it comes to the Bible. You have to know, Scripture interprets Scripture--not one verse ever stands on its own. The more I learn of God's Word, the more I have

" Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas" [Matthew 12:38,39] Today, in our churches there is a tendency to encourage the people of God to seek and to "claim" divine miracles and blessings. I'm not exactly sure why we think that is the way to go since Jesus clearly says that seekers of "signs" ( semeion : an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturally -- miracle, sign, token, wonder) are a "wicked and adulterous generation. Yet, if God's people are not actively chasing miracles they are deemed faithless--according to Jesus, just the opposite is true.  Miracles aren't bad, but they have a distinct purpose, and they are not for the comfort of those who already believe--it could be that we will

Today, in the world, there are an estimated 24 million Apostolic Pentecostal believers. That's the count for those who call themselves Apostolic--I'm one of them, from the crown of my head to the souls of my feet; and I take that designation very seriously. Why? Because, in all honesty the only New Testament church in the Bible was made up of those who held to the Apostolic standard. Mind you, except for baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit--we don't much resemble the first Apostolic believers and their way of living. We are very different from those first apostles and saints who believed and carried out the words of Jesus. The first Christians, after Jesus was resurrected, were baptized "in Jesus' Name" and "filled with the Holy Ghost" according to the book of Acts. That was the first step, but only the beginning of being real Apostolic people of God. That was just the "milk" (Hebrews 5:12-6:1), but the test of who is actually A

Today, God's people often relegate Him to genie-in-a-bottle status. I'm sure, that most of us don't realize that is what we do. However, to live our lives in constant desire for deliverance from natural circumstances--declaring, demanding and decreeing that God change the atmosphere for us (in this life) is doing exactly that . God has never promised us that we can have whatever we want. The reason we believe that every desire is at our fingertips is due to lack of context. It's easy to manipulate the Word of God into saying anything we want, if we isolate a verse, here and there. Context changes everything--and considering how God moves and deals with His people throughout the entire Bible, will show us that is not His goal for us, in the earth. I'm still amazed that we believe we can call those those things which be not as though they were--when that is not what Paul said. He wrote to us that " ... God , who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things whi

Most of us are familiar with the evils of the system of Apartheid that existed in South Africa for many years. Even today, many experience the aftershocks of that wicked and damnable system. Under Apartheid, only European whites were completely free, in South Africa. Indians, no matter what their education and accomplishments could not travel freely without "papers" and were still subject to harassment. Blacks suffered far more--being even darker. They were forced to live in crowded townships, only allowed to leave to work for the European whites (who couldn't survive without their labors). When they began to demand their rights as citizens, they were beaten, jailed and brutally murdered--sound familiar? These evils aren't limited to people of color either--remember Adolph Hitler? He was so fixated on creating the "perfect" race of blond-haired, blue-eyed people with no "imperfections". They should all have a particular nose a

Giving is a major part of Christianity, and its theme runs throughout both the Old and New Testaments. How to give, changes according to God's plan for each age, and His will. One thing is certain--calling ourselves Christians, yet being unwilling to give lavishly, is akin to central air conditioning in Hell--it just cannot be; it is a spiritual impossibility. Giving lavishly, however, has very little to do with the amount given, but more to do with the amount not given. What are we willing to give in service to God? And, more importantly, what do we cling to, rather than giving? Jesus and the apostles had much to say about giving. Not a lot about tithing; perhaps because it was understood that giving cannot be relegated to a mere 10% under grace--but, the Bible tells us, " And all that believed were together, and had all things common;  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. " [Acts 2:44,45] It wasn't a new con

" And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison . But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper." [Genesis 39:20-23] The last place you expect to find hope is in prison. Prison, by definition, is a place to remove hope and cause those imprisoned to lose sight of joy, peace, contentment and beauty. We all have prison experiences--they don't necessarily involve prison bars, armed guards and barbed wire--at least, not literally. But life sometimes brings chains to imprison us--for some

      There are so many points to the argument that loom ludicrous; it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ll start with the most common “Christian” viewpoint. Most Christians believe firmly that homosexuality and lesbianism are wrong, and an “abomination” to God. However, the abomination isn’t in being homosexual—it is acting on the homosexuality (or lesbianism). The Bible says this: “ Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination . ” [Leviticus 18:22]. This verse and all of the others in the Word of God (Genesis 19:4, 5; Leviticus 20:13; Judges 19:22; 1 Kings 14:24, 15:12; Romans 1:26, 27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10; Jude 1:7) deal with the practice of homosexuality, not merely being homosexual. For too long, we have shunned, abused and mistreated homosexual’s and lesbian’s as being an abomination when in fact, it is homosexual and lesbian behavior that is the abomination, according to Scripture.      Secondly, most Christians hold fast