In my theology classes, we are discussing the spiritual activity that is visible in the world today. Scripture paints a stark reality of angelic and demonic influences all around the saints of the Old and New Testament…but to see some of these realities at work in present human experience is quite scary. I’ve heard stories demon possession (including the personal experience of a pastor’s mother who was demonically possessed for years when he was a child), levitation by shaman, and I’ve watched video of a self-professing demon-possessed man doing ‘healing’ surgeries on Brazilian patients. Sexual abuse, suicide, substance abuse, drunk driving: demons can have a powerful influence over the lives of believers and non-believers alike. They are often hard to cast out: taking hours of confrontation and prayer. And they can be incredibly deceptive: even professing that they serve God and Jesus (yes, I watched the demon-possessed surgeon speak the name of Jesus!).

While I believe these things are adding clarity and preparation to my learning here at Dallas Theological, they are pretty fearsome to behold as well. Demons are liars, subtle attackers, and powerful enemies, having thousands of years of experience in tormenting the creatures made in the image of God. It’s worrisome to wonder what my more outright encounters might entail, and even more vexing to consider the places of influence they might hold in our national and global society.

Take, for example, the demonic power to do miracles. Usually we think of demons doing evil things…but they are told to deceive many people, especially in the end times, through miracles and wonders. What kind of reaction would a miracle-working surgeon get, if he started healing people today? How do we really explain some of the magicians that we see in our world today? Is it all just an illusion, or is there more behind it? What is really happening in the growing communities of our nation where wicca or the occult is practiced?

In addition to possessing people, demons have the power to cause illness, tragedy, and yes, it appears they can occasionally take the lives of their hosts and the people around them.

My key questions for you are as follows:

• Are we really doing the right thing in looking to science for explanations to everything we experience, or are we being naive?
• Should we be actively reaching into the darkness of our society in hopes of redeeming people under Satan’s power?
• How should we be magnifying the power of prayer in our churches to combat Satan’s efforts?
• How can we better reach out into the work God is doing in the world, and specifically help them to combat spiritual warfare where it is much more visible than in America?

The major cellphone carriers are adding a pretty stiff contractual obligation to their cheap phones…mandatory data plans. That’s right: get a Blackberry, and iPhone, or another qualified ‘smartphone’ from these carriers, and lock yourself into one of the more expensive plans for your contract term.

AT&T’s current users are exempt from a mandatory plan upgrade until further notice, but any upgrades since Sept 6th are subject to the penalty of these stipulations.Read the details of their deal by clicking here.

Verizons dates and phones are a little different. Their requirements have apparently been in place for a while, but are also subject to many changes. Read more about the details of their requirements here.

I’m not able to offer much more knowledge about this right now, but wanted to make sure any chance readers of this article are informed. I am personally outraged, and will not buy a phone from one of these carriers again…regardless of my need for a data plan. This kind of requirement appears a bit manipulative to me…money hungry and insensitive to their unsuspecting customers.

I must confess that I am drive to my knees

by overwhelming conviction

that I have nowhere else to go.

My wisdom and that of all about me

is insufficient to meet the demands of the day.

~ Abraham Lincoln

If God had answered all of my prayers

I’d be traveling the world on my own private yacht

Involved in several romantic affairs

With women whose beauty I longingly sought.

If God had answered all of my prayers

I’d have fame and fortune and beautiful weather

I’d sail along the coast of Spain

And if inclined, stay there forever.

But if God had answered all of my prayers

There I’d be, a millionaire

Beneath the sun a world away

From where I met you that rainy day.

~ Ron Atchison

When I don’t understand something, I reach up and hold God’s hand. And we walk together in silence.

~ Ron Atchison

“Do not look for big opportunities, “worthy” of your abilities. Those will come in due time. The great saints of the Bible started as servants, not rulers: and they were faithful over a few things before God made them kings. Moses tended sheep; Joseph was a steward; David was a shepherd; even Jesus was a carpenter. Live with the eye of God upon you, and forger the praise of men. Serve faithfully in the hidden place, and in due time, God will life you up. Every opportunity for service is an opportunity to exercise sovereignty in Christ. We reign in life by living to serve, to the glory of God.”

~ Warren Wiersbe, Live Like Kings: Living the Beatitudes Today (Chicago: Moody, 1976), 42.

I am confident that I have one of the best marriages around…and I love Stacy with all my heart. We talk, and laugh, and pray, and play together…and still I would wish for nothing more than longer weekends and more time with her. But love is daily challenged in my life. Lust crouches at the door to my life seeking to breach our relationship.

Life as an American is a constant battle against all the things that our society indulges in and celebrates. I can’t go a day without having to turn down the messages I hear from people and advertisements: eating too much, drinking too much, playing too much, being too selfish, and lusting over women that don’t belong to me…

Sometimes I grow tired of doing all the filtering. Perhaps that’s the new strategy of advertising…wear down their defenses. If that is so, then it’s working. I am prone to wander, so after constant bombardment, my sinfulness would like nothing else than free reign on the internet.  I need more than a break from sorting junk, I need a blockade against pursuing it.

A month ago I sought out and installed something that was previously unavailable: a really effective, FREE, internet filter. I’ve been using the K9 filter for a month now, and I’m loving it…so I want to pass it along to you. It provides high quality filtering for free, for individual users. They sell the filter to businesses, and then use the proceeds of those sales to give it away to individuals.

Best of all…the filter is not easy to disable. As an IT guy who’s fought with his share of viruses, I’ve learned a host of skills that make me a menace to programs both good and bad. In my weakness, nothing is underneath me…so in my strength, I’ve tried to beat the filter. I can’t. If you don’t have a filter…give this a try. It’s really worth it. After all, it’s not costing you anything…except freedom to indulge your sinful self. And that’s a road that should be barricaded at any cost…not just when it’s free.

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

Since being here at Dallas Theological Seminary and sitting under the instruction of some great men of God, I’ve realized that many of the things that I have heard preached from the pulpit and in the Sunday School classroom have not been Biblical. They may have been wise sayings…or great stories…or examples of what Joseph did, or Abraham did, or Jesus did…but they are not what the text of the Bible was trying to communicate to us.

I fear for the many things I have said and believed under the flag of “the Bible says”…and for the state of our pulpits today…since I have grown up in conservative congregations most of my life. One-line promises of God come to mind as well: “for I know the plans I have for you…” etc.

The truth is that the clarity of the Word of God is clear…and it can be heard in great pulpits all across the nation…but that it is one of many voices searching for an audience among the increasingly varied perceptions of religion in the USA. Our focus and our concern should not be so much for the politics of our nation, or the leader of our nation, as it is with the state of the church in the world today. We must step up and become the volunteers, the lay leaders, and the pastors that our nations needs in the future. YOU are needed. YOU have a critical role to fill that involves MUCH, MUCH more than being a Sunday morning greeter…

In closing, I want to cite an extremist example of the misuse of Scriptures. This unnamed pastor deserves no more attention that what he receives here and in a previous post…so I won’t even mention his name. But here he is using his limited Biblical knowledge, sincerely trying to use the teachings of “the real Bible” (KJV) to prove his ridiculous point that the NIV Bible is demonic. His is a case of pride, misdirection, and passion for God. I pray that our future is at the other extreme from such a person.

If you would like to read the counter arguments to his video, check out the posts from PaleoBabble & NT blog

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRzWRvHmH4Y[/youtube]