Encouragement

Aaaaaah!!  How fantastic would it be to have this sitting on my very own bookshelf!?  (I played around with the Canva Design website this morning and it made me quite happy... soooo now all that's left is to actually FINISH WRITING THE BOOK. lolol)

#iamridiculous #somedaysoon #forreals

In present day news, I gotta say again that I am such a fan of Matt Chandler!!  Gracious, his sermon this week was ON POINT!  I could cry with how deeply I relate to his church background and quest, and I just feel incredibly hopeful and encouraged to be in alignment with him on these major issues - like I'm not out of place but right where God wants me.  And I feel inspired to stand firm in prioritizing Scripture as the solid foundation of truth while growing in the gifts and anointing and authority of the Holy Spirit!

"Southern Baptists believe firmly in the sufficiency of the Scriptures, which I have been unbelievably shaped by.  My whole Christian experience has been that nothing outweighs the Bible... the Word of God is what informs us and shapes us to understand God rightly and to interact with the world correctly."

I got so cracked up picturing this story, but I can relate to being surrounded by the crazies who are faking it and putting on a show for people's approval, and I love that he ends with "Reject that nonsense!" lol

"I'm in this little revival, and everyone's slain in the Spirit but me.  I mean, literally everyone is on the floor but me. And here's my thing: If the Ghost wants to slay me, I'm willing to be slain, but the old fellow in the suit ain't pushing me down!  So now I'm the primary focus of the room because it's a failure if the Ghost doesn't get me, so all these brothers are over me and they're praying in tongues and all that... 

Most of what I saw in the great quest of '98 and '99 was 'charismaniacs' who rejected the sufficiency of the Scriptures and believed that they were hearing revelation from God that superseded the text -- that's what I kept finding. And it was in that space that I learned to reject that nonsense...

Until like a miner in a dark, cold mine, I saw just this little thin thread of gold, and I started to follow it.  And I found this group of men and women that defined themselves as reformed charismatics... Scripturally serious robust doctrinal belief inflamed with the power of the Holy Spirit!"

He also talks about his cancer diagnosis (being given a 2-year life expectancy then being healed and in remission for several years now).  I LOVED what he had to say on the subject of faith and healing as well, as that's been one of the main areas of faith struggle and confusion for me in the past:

"You had this group over here that was like, 'Man, you just need to have faith, brother.  Just believe because if you don't have faith, the Lord is not gonna heal. The Lord honors faith and He blesses faith, so you've got to muster faith right now.'  And I just want you to know what kind of pastor you have -- I will NEVER visit you in the hospital and ask you to muster strength and blame you for your illness for not having enough faith!  That is TOXIC NONSENSE, and the preachers that preach that and espouse that are shysters and scoundrels.  And I couldn't use any more strong language for them right now because of our setting.  It's a lie.  What kind of crushing, horrific weight would you place on people??

Then there was another group who were just like 'May the will of God be done.'  Yes... but what do we do where the Bible tells us to pray that people be healed in the name of Jesus?  What do we do with James that says lay hands and ask Him with great expectancy to heal disease?  ...I think the place that the Bible would have us is to pray boldly, believing that God is able and willing, and then holding our hands open, knowing that the will of God will be done.  We want to pray for healing and expect it, and then trust that He's good.  And not everybody is gonna be healed - we see that in the Bible. That doesn't mean we don't pray..."

Yeeees and amen!!  So good, right!?

Mmkay, that's all I have for the blog today.  Now I need to practice a teensy bit before I leave work.  Hope you're having a lovely Friday!! ❤