courage
It’s an amazing thing how many people think that leadership is about making people happy. I constantly tell the people around me that their happiness is not in me. If people are looking to you to make them happy, they will one day end up upset, end up disappointed, end up irritated. You will refuse something that they think is a matter of life and death. I said while preaching this sunday that i have learnt to be wary of people who love me too much and Jesus not enough.
Some people love themselves, love you and no one else. That is dangerous and frightening. They will be miserable when you frown, happy when you smile and resentful when you do not scratch their itch. And they are often the most vicious and unpleasant when things don’t work out. Leaders need people around them who are there by choice and commitment not because it makes them feel good. I have learnt to look at people’s hearts and see if they are committed to the cause of Christ or simply want to hang out with the woman of God. When people put you on a pedestal, get a foam cushion because you will fall off, at least try to make it less painful.
The last thing you want is to become slaves of the very people you are meant to lead, to become enslaved to their whims and fancies, to their pet sins that heaven forbid you preach about on threat of departure. This emasculation of leaders works against the cause of the gospel in our increasingly relativistic post-modern society. God grant you courage.
the delicious delight of contemplating Christ
We have been contemplating Christ in Colossians. It is a wondrous, awe inspiring spectacle of utter majesty and inexpressible beauty – the image of the invisible God, the first-born, the One through whom and for whom all things were created, in Him the fullness of deity dwells, and so on, and so on, and so on… And you read, and you think, and you shout; and then you think there is more to this, and you cry out with the prayer of Ephesians, oh for a spirit of wisdom and understanding that i may know you, flood the eyes of my heart with light that i may see..
The great sorrow of the church is its inability to see, to meditate on majesty and contemplate glory without props, the special music, the choir, the excitement; the inability to be still, and not for five minutes but an hour, two, three, four devoted to sitting at his feet, drinking in His presence, listening Read more
Frank, unadulterated celebration
Of necessity I must indulge in a moment of frank, unadulterated celebration and thanksgiving. From time to time, the realization of deep, prodigious joy overwhelms you, not the high of an acquisition, but the deep seated sense of well being totally unrelated to anything natural, tangible or visible. You don’t become happy, you just realize just how much you are. God and I were talking this morning and it happened again.
I realize I am profoundly thankful that I know God. I think of all those many years ago when God helped me to see clearly something that had totally eluded me and even seemed exceedingly ludicrous and implausible, Jesus, the cross, salvation, redemption, relationship, reconciliation; and I am so thankful that He was put off neither by my obduracy nor by my sharp tongue. Read more
David duPlessis – Mr Pentecost speaks of Wigglesworth’s prophecy
David Du Plessis was known as Mr Pentecost. He was God’s instrument to take the message of the Holy Spirit into the mainline traditional churches. His involvement with them so incensed his own Assemblies of God denomination that he had his ordination revoked, although it was later reinstated when they realised that this was a God thing. He played a major role in triggering the charismatic movement in traditional churches, a fact that had been prophesied by Smith Wigglesworth about 20 years previously. In this rare video he recounts the prophecy by Smith Wigglesworth. A treasure.
EXPLORING ‘THE BODY’
My Facebook friends have been informed that I have been rereading Charles Colson’s book ‘The Body’, a hefty treatise on the nature and purpose of the church. And if you read my article on the Todd Bentley scandal you will know I talked at length about the church. All that talk about church made me hungry for some meditation on the subject from minds more enlightened than mine. Evangelicals, where church is concerned live in a continuing tension ; we do not all belong to one behemoth of an institution like say the Roman Catholic Church, yet we are meant, differing movements and all, variegated ministries and all to function as one body, what we call the Church universal. If it is not materialized by a building, by a denomination, then what is it?
That may be one of the greatest weaknesses of the evangelical, charismatic wings of the church, that understanding of what the church universal is, how it is to fulfill its purpose, what is my role in it, and in what way does my life advance or hinder it? We tend to suffer from acute myopia and see things exclusively from the perspective of our particular movement, ministry, local haven or those of our friends. When their interests tally with those of the church universal, then all is well, but quite often, they do not, and without a solid theological understanding and passion for the church universal, we make decisions which seem totally right in our eyes but only serve the purpose of our particular movement, ministry or men while being deleterious to the church as a whole. Read more
The rape of the church – the Todd Bentley quagmire
As the Todd Bentley story unfolded, many of us chose to err on the side of mercy, to hope and pray for repentance and restoration, we withheld sharp criticism, in the belief that there must be somehow, somewhere a spark of righteousness left that would eventually triumph and birth genuine repentance. Those hopes have now been dashed by the recent news published on Rick Joyner’s web page and echoed by Charisma that Todd Bentley has now divorced his wife, married his mistress and is going to begin a process of restoration (after the fact) with a view to returning to ministry.
We are left astonished, dumbfounded, incredulous and altogether pained by the current turn of events, and worse, by the attitude of the ‘leaders’ who surround him. Since we received many visits to this blog to read our previous article on this scandal, we are duty bound to comment on the latest happenings. Rick Joyner is leading the restoration team which includes leaders who had vouched for Bentley’s good character in the past even as he was deceiving us all, and has posted a letter on his web page. We are informed that ‘Even so, they are married now and are resolved to make the most of their marriage, their lives, and to continue to serve the Lord in the best way that they can. ‘
My first reaction is have these leaders lost their minds, is Todd Bentley living on another planet, or are we all suffering from corporate insanity? Has anyone read the Bible lately? Does the fear of God mean anything to these people, do they care about the damage this has done to hundreds of thousands of believers worldwide and to the credibility of the church increasingly seen as moralistic and hypocritical? The assertion that they are married now is shocking and begs the question. Read more
AUTHOR
pastor bola olivia ogedengbe,
The Theophilus Company,
ABBA HOUSE, Paris,
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