After I spoke at a church this past weekend, I was asked, “How is it that so many celebrity preachers, celebrity Christian authors, and celebrity pastors take the stage with known (and popular) false teachers?” There are, of course, many possible reasons. It could be they seek to maintain or add to their own personal popularity. It may boost their ego to speak to large crowds of 25-50,000, or it may boost their personal wealth … Continue reading
Category Archives: Eastern Mysticism
We find angelic communications to humans quite a number of places in Scripture. An angel appeared to Zechariah with the news that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a son (Luke 1:13). Mary, a young Jewish virgin, who was engaged to be married, had a similar encounter and was told she would have a son conceived by God (Luke 1:26-38). And, while her husband-to-be Joseph was deciding the kindest way to call off his … Continue reading
Spoiler Warning: This post contains the most minor of spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War and one whopper of a spoiler for the Empire Strikes Back. Some of you are old enough to remember seeing Empire Strikes Back at the theatre. That movie is of course the best of the entire Star Wars series and I will have words with anyone who disagrees. 🙂 Just words though. I may be skinny but I’m weak. What made … Continue reading
(Originally printed in the Winter 2005 Issue of the MCOI Journal beginning on page 12) By Jan Fletcher Our freedom to home-school is precious to us. Home-schooling parents cherish the freedom home-schooling gives our children to learn and grow in the ways we, as parents, think are best. Keeping our children safe is also important. Dangers to children abound in our society—everything from school violence and stranger dangers to negative peer pressures and cultural … Continue reading
(Originally printed in the Winter 2005 Issue of the MCOI Journal beginning on page 10) “God’s first language is silence.”1 “Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence.”2 “The important thing is that we are relaxed and our back is straight so that the vitalizing energies can flow freely.”3 Contemplation is “a pure and a virginal knowledge, poor in concepts, poorer still in reasoning, but able, by its very poverty and purity, to follow … Continue reading
Writing to the Colossians in the First Century, the Apostle Paul warned about certain spiritual disciplines that had “the appearance of wisdom” (Colossians. 2:23) but, in fact, conflicted with sound biblical teaching and were very harmful to the Christian life. False teachers were in this case Gnostics, who crept into the church and claimed special “spiritual knowledge.” They gained influence in the church because what they were teaching felt “right” and “good” and oh so … Continue reading