There's no place I'd rather be
There's no place I'd rather be
There's no place I'd rather be
Than here in your love. Here in your love.
I have decided, at this point, to make prayer a priority. To make intimacy my lifestyle. To worship the God who created me, loves me, saved me, and gives good gifts to me. His presence is so good!
Seeking his face.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The American Slave Trade
Not Quite a Teen, Yet Sold for Sex - Nicholas Kristof
This news story exposes the truth of human trafficking in America. I'm sharing it because we have no excuse to turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to this injustice happening right in our own backyards. This little girl, a normal American kid, went to her friend's house to sleepover after getting in a fight with her mom and was never seen again. She was forced into sex slavery and wasn't allowed to leave. Her pimp emotionally bound her, beat her, brainwashed her, made her feel like she was in trouble, and made daily threats against her life. The story talks about many issues regarding our American blind eye to sex trafficking, how even cops will arrest minors in prostitution when they were trafficked into slavery. How there are no spots for rehabilitation centers for these girls and boys because the need is too high. There's 1000x the need than what is available. And who is fighting for them?
There are so many complexities to injustices in the world. Reading about the stalemate between South and North Sudan is heartbreaking, that ethnic cleansing is still happening and thrives despite the divorce and human rights violations are being committed on both sides. How Hersheys Chocolate uses child slaves to get their cocoa beans. How entire countries run on corruption and dysfunctional division. That's why I am here. To learn about what I can do to be part of the solution. Because problems like these are complex, and none of us can just go in with sword and demand justice (in prayer we can though). HOWEVER, does that mean we just throw our hands up in the air? Oop. Too hard. I don't care enough. Let someone else handle this. I wholeheartedly believe we can't. I wholeheartedly believe that everyone can make a difference, even just by learning about an issue.
Learn about human trafficking in America. It's everywhere. What's more, this is something that can be fought without negative externalities. Better and more informed law enforcement, targeting the pimps and johns and not the prostitutes, criminal trials against the Pimps and the johns - all perfectly feasible goals. Learn about it! Then maybe we can STOP living in our deranged comfortable middle class mindset and pretending like a widespread, networked, global INDUSTRY doesn't exist. It lives and breathes and feeds off of ignorance.
- Katrina Doyle
This news story exposes the truth of human trafficking in America. I'm sharing it because we have no excuse to turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to this injustice happening right in our own backyards. This little girl, a normal American kid, went to her friend's house to sleepover after getting in a fight with her mom and was never seen again. She was forced into sex slavery and wasn't allowed to leave. Her pimp emotionally bound her, beat her, brainwashed her, made her feel like she was in trouble, and made daily threats against her life. The story talks about many issues regarding our American blind eye to sex trafficking, how even cops will arrest minors in prostitution when they were trafficked into slavery. How there are no spots for rehabilitation centers for these girls and boys because the need is too high. There's 1000x the need than what is available. And who is fighting for them?
There are so many complexities to injustices in the world. Reading about the stalemate between South and North Sudan is heartbreaking, that ethnic cleansing is still happening and thrives despite the divorce and human rights violations are being committed on both sides. How Hersheys Chocolate uses child slaves to get their cocoa beans. How entire countries run on corruption and dysfunctional division. That's why I am here. To learn about what I can do to be part of the solution. Because problems like these are complex, and none of us can just go in with sword and demand justice (in prayer we can though). HOWEVER, does that mean we just throw our hands up in the air? Oop. Too hard. I don't care enough. Let someone else handle this. I wholeheartedly believe we can't. I wholeheartedly believe that everyone can make a difference, even just by learning about an issue.
Learn about human trafficking in America. It's everywhere. What's more, this is something that can be fought without negative externalities. Better and more informed law enforcement, targeting the pimps and johns and not the prostitutes, criminal trials against the Pimps and the johns - all perfectly feasible goals. Learn about it! Then maybe we can STOP living in our deranged comfortable middle class mindset and pretending like a widespread, networked, global INDUSTRY doesn't exist. It lives and breathes and feeds off of ignorance.
- Katrina Doyle
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Charismatic? Or Biblical?
I have been struggling with something on and off all year. And it gets more and more personal as it affronts me. Because it grew from just awkward encounters with random Christians, to debates with trained and career Ministers, to my inability to explain this concept with some of my closest friends here - Christians at that.
I had a conversation with someone a few days ago and I mentioned my frustration with denominations because it often gives people excuses to deny things that are Biblical or deem things as unimportant, often because they associate them with another practice or denomination different from theirs. My friend respectfully disagreed, saying that the only difference between denominations are a few words in The Lord's Prayer, the way you're baptised, etc. And then the subject changed before I could get bold enough to say what I really meant. I couldn't really say the prime example I have been thinking about all school year, because I thought it would offend all the people I was with. But I'm going to say it now. And if you are reading this friends, know that I am only using the question I brought up the other day as a gateway into the meat of this blogpost. Please don't get offended and know that this is not aimed at you, but at a serious problem in the Church as a whole.
In the most concise words I can put: "Charismatic" is often used to describe the practice of spiritual gifts, encounters with God, and signs and wonders. Spiritual manifestations are even rejected by many denominations of Christianity. This is a huge problem, as spiritual manifestations and the corporate use of spiritual gifts in the Church is biblical. From Genesis to Revelation, people all over the Bible encounter God in radical ways. And people continue to encounter Him today. Speaking in tongues didn't happen once, it became a practice. From Pentecost on, some began speaking in tongues as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Prophecy wasn't just for Elijah and Isaiah. It is a spiritual gift that Paul wishes "we all have". Signs and wonders aren't only allowed in the Bible. They happen all the time today! If you don't know my story of how I was given life from sudden death as a baby after drowning in the pool, how my parents prayed for me in the ER after the doctors declared me done for and my eyes shot open and heart rate monitor started going after AMEN, email me and I will gladly share. It's good news! It's the gospel! Jesus has come to heal! Amen.
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
- Acts 2:17-21
Speaking in tongues, visions, signs, wonders, demons, angels, prophecy, healing - these are all considered "CHARISMATIC". Before I came to this school, I had no idea what the heck charismatic meant. I had to learn from people here what it was because they think I'm weird. I know they haven't experienced the wondrous works God does today. He is the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He doesn't change. Neither does the Holy Spirit. We all have the same Holy Spirit. So why should Biblical concepts like the ones I mentioned above - speaking in tongues, healing, prophecy, etc. be attributed to a certain denomination or practice, thus deauthenticating their purpose?
Paul says that those who do not have the Spirit of the Lord inside of them are not Christians at all (Romans 8:9). Because of this and verse 21 of Acts 2 above, I believe that those who have truly given their hearts to Christ have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of them. The entering of the Holy Spirit occurs at Salvation. Pentecostals will disagree with me on this, but that's because so many people in Acts and the Church today had been Christians for years but never experienced the Holy Spirit. And then revival - which is messy - breaks out and people experience God for the first time. it's natural to think that someone who has been a Christian for years and experiences God for the first time has also received the Spirit for the first time. Maybe, but not always the case. This because so many Christians are told to reject him, Holy Spirit. It's called "quenching the Spirit" and it's a sin. For some, spiritual growth is immediate - Baptism of the Holy Spirit. For some, spiritual growth is gradual. For some, it is stagnant.
This I took from the Southern Baptist Convention's official website -
As scripture says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom". I love how this concept is said eloquently in Psalms "There is vindication in the presence of the Lord." Yet, so many Christians I know reduce the Holy Spirit to this ambiguous member of the Trinity who is treated more as a mystical "power force" of God, than an actual person of the Trinity. Holy Spirit is real. He is here. He is now. Jesus said "It is better that I leave you because the Comforter (The Holy Spirit) is coming". Jesus knew that it was better for him to leave for a couple thousand years and leave us with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is so amazing! Jesus was in a human body. He could only physically be in one place at a time. But the Holy Spirit can live in all of us, in all of our hearts, and operate through and around us.
The Holy Spirit lives inside of you, makes you a new person, and communicates God's word to you. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives you power, and the ability to do the same things Christ did and MORE. It's not blasphemy. It's biblical.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12
We have the power to raise people from the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons, and even more. And it's not by our own strength. Oh no no no. This isn't mysticism. This is done in the only name that has power - Jesus. By His blood, I can speak to a mountain and tell it get lost. (Mark 11:23)
The Holy Spirit came down so many times in the Bible, I don't know how many to count! The building of the temple in 1 Samuel, David, Pentecost in Acts, the Samaritan church in Jerusalem, Cornelius in Acts, Revelation. And speaking in tongues didn't happen ONCE. It happened so many times. Paul would write letters to people encouraging them to walk out in spiritual gifts to strengthen and encourage one another. One who has the gift of evangelism, of teaching, of unknown tongues, of prophecy, of mercy........
It hurts. It really hurts. It hurts that I walk in the Spirit and experience the freedom and joy of chains GONE and some of my Christian friends, and Christian leaders that I see, do not experience this same freedom. How do I know they don't? Because many of them constantly still refer to themselves as sinners and struggling to fight sin. Whereas I am not in a struggle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities of darkness (Eph 6:12). I know that Christ has set me free from my dark sin that separated me from him, and now that I am liberated I walk in this blissful freedom.
It hurts that biblical concepts are deauthenticated and labeled as "charismatic" by so many. When you umbrella the Spirit under an ideology, you avoid it at all costs. It's really upsetting and it hits home because I've been there. I've thought things were weird, thought that some people had faith that was so big it was "unbiblical" to me. But when I experienced the same freedom in the Spirit that they did, I realized how right they were! And so I have grace for those who are still doubtful. So much grace. If anything comes out of this long, drawn out blog entry that is jumbled with so much stuff I just want to say in the most loving way possible: Spirituality is not charismatic; it is part of our Christian life. Don't reject speaking in tongues, visions, prophecy, demons, angels, etc... just because your pastor said that it was "charismatic" and unbiblical or that it CAN'T occur today. That's because they haven't experienced it. They haven't experienced the fullness of the fruits of the spirit - peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, all those! They come with the fullness of my best friend - Holy Spirit! He is so good. Amen.
I had a conversation with someone a few days ago and I mentioned my frustration with denominations because it often gives people excuses to deny things that are Biblical or deem things as unimportant, often because they associate them with another practice or denomination different from theirs. My friend respectfully disagreed, saying that the only difference between denominations are a few words in The Lord's Prayer, the way you're baptised, etc. And then the subject changed before I could get bold enough to say what I really meant. I couldn't really say the prime example I have been thinking about all school year, because I thought it would offend all the people I was with. But I'm going to say it now. And if you are reading this friends, know that I am only using the question I brought up the other day as a gateway into the meat of this blogpost. Please don't get offended and know that this is not aimed at you, but at a serious problem in the Church as a whole.
In the most concise words I can put: "Charismatic" is often used to describe the practice of spiritual gifts, encounters with God, and signs and wonders. Spiritual manifestations are even rejected by many denominations of Christianity. This is a huge problem, as spiritual manifestations and the corporate use of spiritual gifts in the Church is biblical. From Genesis to Revelation, people all over the Bible encounter God in radical ways. And people continue to encounter Him today. Speaking in tongues didn't happen once, it became a practice. From Pentecost on, some began speaking in tongues as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Prophecy wasn't just for Elijah and Isaiah. It is a spiritual gift that Paul wishes "we all have". Signs and wonders aren't only allowed in the Bible. They happen all the time today! If you don't know my story of how I was given life from sudden death as a baby after drowning in the pool, how my parents prayed for me in the ER after the doctors declared me done for and my eyes shot open and heart rate monitor started going after AMEN, email me and I will gladly share. It's good news! It's the gospel! Jesus has come to heal! Amen.
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
- Acts 2:17-21
Speaking in tongues, visions, signs, wonders, demons, angels, prophecy, healing - these are all considered "CHARISMATIC". Before I came to this school, I had no idea what the heck charismatic meant. I had to learn from people here what it was because they think I'm weird. I know they haven't experienced the wondrous works God does today. He is the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He doesn't change. Neither does the Holy Spirit. We all have the same Holy Spirit. So why should Biblical concepts like the ones I mentioned above - speaking in tongues, healing, prophecy, etc. be attributed to a certain denomination or practice, thus deauthenticating their purpose?
Paul says that those who do not have the Spirit of the Lord inside of them are not Christians at all (Romans 8:9). Because of this and verse 21 of Acts 2 above, I believe that those who have truly given their hearts to Christ have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of them. The entering of the Holy Spirit occurs at Salvation. Pentecostals will disagree with me on this, but that's because so many people in Acts and the Church today had been Christians for years but never experienced the Holy Spirit. And then revival - which is messy - breaks out and people experience God for the first time. it's natural to think that someone who has been a Christian for years and experiences God for the first time has also received the Spirit for the first time. Maybe, but not always the case. This because so many Christians are told to reject him, Holy Spirit. It's called "quenching the Spirit" and it's a sin. For some, spiritual growth is immediate - Baptism of the Holy Spirit. For some, spiritual growth is gradual. For some, it is stagnant.
This I took from the Southern Baptist Convention's official website -
There is no official SBC view or stance on the issue. If you polled SBC churches across the nation on the topic of "charismatic" practices you would likely find a variety of perspectives. Probably most believe that the "gift of tongues" as described in the Bible ceased upon the completion of the Bible. Some may view speaking in tongues as a spiritual gift given to some Christians enabling them to communicate the Gospel to foreign cultures in a language the speaker had not known previously. A very small minority might accept what is commonly practiced today in charismatic churches as valid
I don't mean to call out a particular group. Everyone has their faults. But this caught my attention. How could the gift of tongues cease upon completion of the bible? Like I said, God is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. I am not even charismatic. I just was worshipping God one night and then starting speaking in tongues. In a public school worship event. I wasn't at some creepy Apocalyptic basement meeting. It was in the middle of my high school's auditorium. Tell me, anyone, how this is an unauthentic experience. When I speak in tongues, my Spirit "utters and groans things that the mouth cannot" (Romans 8:26). When I don't know how to pray, my spiritual tongues help me out. Through this gift, I've seen people get healed from disease, God's presence fall in a place, and more.
The Holy Spirit lives inside of you, makes you a new person, and communicates God's word to you. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives you power, and the ability to do the same things Christ did and MORE. It's not blasphemy. It's biblical.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12
We have the power to raise people from the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons, and even more. And it's not by our own strength. Oh no no no. This isn't mysticism. This is done in the only name that has power - Jesus. By His blood, I can speak to a mountain and tell it get lost. (Mark 11:23)
The Holy Spirit came down so many times in the Bible, I don't know how many to count! The building of the temple in 1 Samuel, David, Pentecost in Acts, the Samaritan church in Jerusalem, Cornelius in Acts, Revelation. And speaking in tongues didn't happen ONCE. It happened so many times. Paul would write letters to people encouraging them to walk out in spiritual gifts to strengthen and encourage one another. One who has the gift of evangelism, of teaching, of unknown tongues, of prophecy, of mercy........
It hurts. It really hurts. It hurts that I walk in the Spirit and experience the freedom and joy of chains GONE and some of my Christian friends, and Christian leaders that I see, do not experience this same freedom. How do I know they don't? Because many of them constantly still refer to themselves as sinners and struggling to fight sin. Whereas I am not in a struggle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities of darkness (Eph 6:12). I know that Christ has set me free from my dark sin that separated me from him, and now that I am liberated I walk in this blissful freedom.
It hurts that biblical concepts are deauthenticated and labeled as "charismatic" by so many. When you umbrella the Spirit under an ideology, you avoid it at all costs. It's really upsetting and it hits home because I've been there. I've thought things were weird, thought that some people had faith that was so big it was "unbiblical" to me. But when I experienced the same freedom in the Spirit that they did, I realized how right they were! And so I have grace for those who are still doubtful. So much grace. If anything comes out of this long, drawn out blog entry that is jumbled with so much stuff I just want to say in the most loving way possible: Spirituality is not charismatic; it is part of our Christian life. Don't reject speaking in tongues, visions, prophecy, demons, angels, etc... just because your pastor said that it was "charismatic" and unbiblical or that it CAN'T occur today. That's because they haven't experienced it. They haven't experienced the fullness of the fruits of the spirit - peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, all those! They come with the fullness of my best friend - Holy Spirit! He is so good. Amen.
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