faith

Healing and the Resurrection

Lisa Spencer2 Comments

empty tombI don’t really have time to blog these days so forgive the brevity and superficial nature of what could be a more indepth conversation. But I came across what I consider to be an important connection in the relationship between divine healing as portrayed in the Gospels and Acts.

A debate that often gets tossed around today is the gift of healing or if healing is part of the atonement. It’s really hard to argue with the Gospels and the book of Acts that healing was very much a part of Jesus’ earthly ministry and that of the apostles.

There might be a tendency to read Acts as a prescription for life today. But keeping in mind that this is about the ministry of Jesus, which continues through the witness of his disciples. It’s why Acts 1:8 sets the precedent for the rest of the book and the purpose of the church – to testify to the Son. It’s why it kind of bothers me when we’ll focus the attention of Acts 2 on the occurrence of the baptism of the Spirit instead of the reason, summarized in vv. 14-26. Peter gets to the point of all – “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (vs 36) Continue reading →

The Latter Will Be Greater?

Lisa Spencer1 Comment

I was stuck on this song today. Ironically it has been within a week that my prayer theme has been ‘impossible’, meaning praying in all the areas of God doing the impossible. So the line of this song keeps ringing through my ears – “all things are possible”

I like Israel Houghton. I think he has an infectious heart of worship. Ever since his New Seasons release in 2001, he has had a growing presence in the gospel market.  Though I do not listen to much of this genre, I find that New Seasons is an album I come back to from time to time.

As I listened to the words of this song, I was both encouraged and skeptical. I plan on doing a longer piece on Israel and his music, what I like and lament. But suffice it say for now that I listen with a great deal of ambivalence.  Specific to this song, in relation to some long desired restoration I have hoped for, I am encouraged knowing that God can do the impossible.

You will be blessed, more than you can ask

Despite what has been done, the best is yet to come

And your latter will be greater

Your latter will be greater than the past

Take a listen to the whole presentation and you might pick up on why I’m skeptical. And by skeptical, I mean can we expect that our tomorrows will be better than the past? Continue reading →

Why Do They Stay?: Slavery to Doctrinal Abuse

Lisa Spencer2 Comments

convicts, work gangs, hard labor, punishment, prison, serving timeI drafted this post shortly after the brouhaha over shai linne’s Fal$e Teacher$ had come out a processed in a number of posts, including mine. But then, I never got around to posting it. Though the dust over his song has settled, I was reminded yesterday that the teaching he was addressing has not. I’m thankful that the song generated a resurgence of talk about teachers that promote these philosophies. I myself have written a number of articles on related to the perverse nature of this teaching. As a former endorser of such teaching, I would hope that if I can just articulate why this teaching puts a corrupt twist on scripture then people will wise up.

I’m especially concerned because of the enslaving nature of such teaching. One of my FB friends had this to say about the burdening nature;

Prosperity Gospel teachers bind up sheep as slaves imprisoned to fear, guilt, disappointment and disillusionment when God does not respond as the teachers promise he will.  The TRUTH is supposed to set people FREE–NOT imprison them in guilt, shame, fear, etc…

You can argue it’s God all you want, but this runs so contradictory to the freedom that Christ came to provide. His truth is based on grace that we undeservedly obtain because of the Father’s love that he lavished on us through the Son. Anyone reading Ephesians 1 and with no agenda, can see that we do not have to earn favor through faith or giving. Favor comes through Christ. Anyone willing to humbly invest in the study of scripture that seeks to understand the whole message of 66 books will come to the conclusion that the reaping, sowing, word proclamation so rampant in these circles is NOT the focus of scripture. Christ is the focus as I wrote about here. Continue reading →

Religion is not Rules: The Unhelpfullness of Religion vs. Relationship

Lisa Spencer3 Comments

rules-listFor some odd reason, I find a propensity for Christians to create false dichotomies. We love to say if something is one thing or one way, it can’t be another. This is especially true with the religion vs. relationship dichotomy. Statements like “Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship” or “Christianity is about relationship over religion” run rampant.

I think it is fallacious to say Christianity is not a religion. A while back, I wrote this piece one Parchment and Pen making that case by looking at the definition of religion. Here’s an excerpt.

There is a body of belief that is specifically meant to promote the attitude we have towards it.  It is the revelation of God that ascribed to scripture, i.e. the bible that not only explains who the Christian belief is based on, but also the expectations towards those who claim to hold to the belief.  In this way, I think its safe to say that the bible institutionalizes the system of attitudes towards our belief system, both individually and corporately.  Moreover, this belief has been preserved and passed down for 2,000 years so that history has also presented an institutionalization of sorts…

The overarching theme of the definition of religion is that it is a system of belief that promotes worship of deity on which the system hinges.  If that is not Christianity, I don’t know what is.   We worship God for who he is and what he as done.  The bible is replete with direct and indirect proclamations of the sovereignty, majesty, righteousness, love and mercy of God and his actions towards man that ought to affect faith and worship with ardor and passion…

And I think the reason we have such a hard time with Christianity as a religion is the connotation of it being man’s attempt to get to God based on a set of rules. But reducing religion to a set of rules really undermines what it is as a belief system. I think a broader way to frame it is in the context of expectation. We would be remiss to read Scripture and not see expectation. Continue reading →

Should Christians Be Considered ‘Damaged Goods’?

Lisa Spencer2 Comments

broken jarWe’ve all heard this phrase applied to people who have experienced the rough stuff of life – broken or unhealthy relationships, addictions, abuse or devastating losses. We say they are damaged goods. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard this expressions used even of Christians, who have taken some blows from life that have impacted them in various ways. In fact, I confess to feeling that way myself at times.

But…

I question if its a phrase we really should be applying to Christians. On one hand, we do want to be honest about stuff that has impacted us. We don’t want to be divorced from our humanity. When life hurts, we should be able to say ‘ouch’. And when the hurt lingers, we should be open about it and the consequences of that impact. As devastating as life can be for some, I think it is equally devastating to pretend that our humanity is not impacted when it gets harmed.

So there are events that have impacted some so deeply that it changes them. It might change their perspective. It may add a layer of grief that wouldn’t be there. It might make them more prone to despair or depression. It might produce unreasonable cautions where they need not exist. It might, it might….the list goes on. This is reality.

But…

There are a couple of reasons why I think we should not refer to Christians as damaged goods. Continue reading →