Thursday, December 31, 2009

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas Blessings


Christmas Blessings
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew 28:19


Friday, December 18, 2009

Why the Oral Roberts Obituaries Are Wrong



The "faith-healer" (who hated the term) may have done much to mainstream Pentecostalism, but he was no architect of the Prosperity Gospel. By Ted Olsen | posted 12/16/2009 04:20PM

What was Oral Roberts's main legacy? How important a figure was he? Oral Roberts University president Mark Rutland told CT that he and Billy Graham "were the two preeminent luminaries of the 20th century."

Preeminent historian of Pentecostalism Grant Wacker, author of Heaven Below, largely agrees. "Other than Billy Graham and Martin Luther King Jr., and maybe Jerry Falwell, it would be hard to name a different religious leader of more importance," he told USA Today. "In the middle of the 20th century, he took faith healing and Pentecostalism away from a frowzy backwoods image and gave it an upbeat face."

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Healers head to war, bearing their own wounds



They are the combat medics of the mind, who joined the Army Reserve not to fight but to heal those who fight and sustain the incapacitating, invisible wounds of war.
(By Ann Gerhart, The Washington Post)

Evangelicals at a Crossroad: A Dialogue



Three Bethel University professors discuss the historic significance and present health of evangelicalism.
by Chris Armstrong | December 2, 2009
This past summer two professors at Bethel University, St Paul, Minnesota and one at sister institution Bethel Seminary (me!) were invited to participate in a recorded dialogue that would become a printed piece in the schools’ magazine. The three of us, guided by questions posed by a moderator, considered where evangelicalism is today and where it may be headed.
By necessity tentative and partial, our wide-ranging conversation nonetheless raised some important issues. When we were done, we had a meaty article, of which (for reasons of space) only a brief portion ended up being printed in the magazine.
Though somewhat longer than our typical blog posting, we offer the full edited article (“never before published,” as the marketing wallahs might say) in hopes that it will spark some conversation among our readers who care about the historical movement called evangelicalism: Read on here……


Saturday, December 5, 2009

Eye fears over holy shrine 'visions'


("BBC," December 2, 2009)
Galway, Ireland - An Irish eye surgeon has said an "unprecedented" rise in the number of cases of an eye condition could be directly related to people staring at the sun at a holy shrine. Thousands of people have been travelling to the County Mayo pilgrimage shrine of Knock after hearing that the Virgin Mary would appear there. Some claimed to have seen the sun "dancing in the sky". Read the story here….

Friday, November 27, 2009

Liberation theology is still alive and well & Nigerian priest wins fiction accolades


Since the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago, many critics have been quick to sign liberation theology's death certificate, says a leading Argentinian theologian. But its biblical concern with justice for all still continues to resonate in the neo-liberal, bi-polar era. To associate it with repressive communism is wrong. 
Read the full article here
…………………………………………
A Nigerian Roman Catholic priest who has appeared on Oprah Winfrey's television show and won praise for his fictional accounts of the lives of children in Africa, says that writing, like the priesthood, is a religious calling - writes Chris Herlinger.
"If you want your congregation to listen, that's where it begins: stories," author Uwem Akpan said during a recent reading and discussion at New York's Inter- church Center. Full story

From Crook to Choir Boy

Photo

Questions for Barry Minkow

From Scammer to Scheme Finder

One of the most infamous crooks of the 1980s, now a pastor and fraud detective, is preparing for his Hollywood debut as a pre-Madoff swindler.

» Interview by RANDY DOTINGA | Nov 25

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

'A Voice for Sanity'


J. Lee Grady doesn't want your gold. The journalist wants a 'Holy Ghost housecleaning' of the charismatic movement.
Sarah Pulliam Bailey | posted 11/23/2009

"Martin Luther had to say something, or they were going to keep selling indulgences. Now we have that going on in our midst," Grady told Christianity Today in his Orlando office. "If someone says, 'Send your $100 to be saved,' that is selling indulgences, and there are people doing that on Trinity Broadcasting Network." The TV corporation's fundraising appeals have been among Grady's most frequent targets. Read this interesting article here….

Healing Mission




The Anglican Church of the Resurrection
135 Vallecitos de Oro, San Marcos, CA 92069
Rev. Dr. Eric Menees, Pastor
San Marcos, CA
Is Hosting
Rev. Josh Acton
December 4 & 5, 2009
The cost of $40/person includes lunch
Schedule
Friday, December 4, 2009
6:30 p.m. Registration
7:00 Praise & Worship
7:15 Fr. Josh Acton
Saturday, December 5
8:30 a.m. Registration
9:00  Praise & Worship
9:15 Fr. Josh Acton
10:00  Break
10:15 Fr. Josh Acton
11:00 Workshop w/Gail Duffey
12:00p.m. Lunch
1:00 Induction of new OSL members
1:30 Soaking Prayer Session
2:30 Prayer time/Break
3:00 Fr. Josh Acton
Healing Mission will end around 4:00 p.m.

Information contact:
Carolyn Burns


Tuesday, November 17, 2009

When a child dies, faith is no defense



 
Why do courts give believers a pass?

By Jonathan Turley
Sunday, November 15, 2009

"Suffer little children to come to me." So begins one of the most cited passages in the Bible. Yet, in cases involving the deaths of children in faith-healing families, the second half of Jesus's admonition from Luke 18:16 is at the heart of legal controversy: ". . . and forbid them not."
In the past 25 years, hundreds of children are believed to have died in the United States after faith-healing parents forbade medical attention to end their sickness or protect their lives. When minors die from a lack of parental care, it is usually a matter of criminal neglect and is often tried as murder. However, when parents say the neglect was an article of faith, courts routinely hand down lighter sentences. Faithful neglect has not been used as a criminal defense, but the claim is surprisingly effective in achieving more lenient sentencing, in which judges appear to render less unto Caesar and more unto God. Read the whole story here......

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Emotional Healing from Toxic Emotions

By Mary Alice Isleib


Anger. Depression. Shame. Guilt. Fear. Thousands of people are suffering from toxic emotions that poison their souls, stymie their family lives, and hinder their relationship with God.

Countless Christians are saved, sanctified and set apart for God's use, yet toxic emotions sometimes rear their ugly heads to contaminate our lives. One of the strongest contaminates to Christian living is shame, the most painful of all the emotions. Where do these harmful feelings come from and, more importantly, how can we rid ourselves of these detrimental temperaments? It all started in the Garden and it can end with the love of Jesus.

Shame is not only an unhealthy emotion -- it's downright.... Keep Reading »


Monday, November 9, 2009

Questions for Robert Duncan




Is This Bishop Catholic?

By DEBORAH SOLOMON
The head of the Anglican Church in North America talks about the pope’s overture.

Does swearing relieve pain?


Q. Does swearing relieve pain?
A. Holy @//!#!, does it ever! Or so concludes a British study published recently in the journal NeuroReport.
The idea for the study first occurred to psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in North Staffordshire, when he hit himself on the finger with a hammer and let loose with a few choice words. It solidified when his wife swore gustily during a breech delivery of their daughter and one of the midwives “mentioned that women often swear in childbirth, which I found intriguing,’’ said Stephens in an e-mail.
So he set up an experiment in which he compared the pain tolerance of 67 male and female undergrads when they uttered neutral words and when they cursed as they endured a painful stimulus, in this case, putting one hand into icy water and leaving it there as long as possible. In most people, swearing increased pain tolerance - they could keep their hands in the ice water much longer - and decreased perceived pain compared with not swearing.
“It seems to [work] via the emotional content of swearing - people appear to shock themselves into a state of emotional arousal (the fight or flight response), which is known to have a pain-lessening effect,’’ Stephens said. Women and men both benefit from swearing, he added, but it’s likely that the more a person swears habitually, the less shock value it has during pain.
All this makes sense to Jamie L. Rhudy, director of the Human Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of Tulsa. “Swearing could reflect the activation of brain circuits involved in emotional processing,’’ said Rhudy. The emotion circuits connect to “descending’’ circuits - nerve signals that travel down from the brain to the spinal cord - which could alter the way in which pain is processed, he added.
So should you swear when you’re in pain? Go for it, said Stephens. “What’s the harm in swearing if it helps you cope? Provided there are no children around, of course.’’
E-mail health questions to globeanswers@gmail.com

Tongue Tied



Elders in the Assemblies of God are worried about what a younger generation's more practical theology might mean for the future of the practice of speaking in tongues. Read all about it here.....

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Discerning Signs and Supernatural


By David Coker

What's the purpose of supernatural signs that point toward your destination?

God is building and establishing His Kingdom. But He's not pressured to build His Kingdom using media hype and hocus-pocus. No, He's doing it His way, according to His Word. He's setting apostolic governing churches in territories to build His Church. One function of true apostles and prophets is to expose the counterfeit operations of Satan that try to slip in and subvert the credibility of the Word. If Satan can discredit the quality of a move of God by sending the false, he is able to successfully restrict and limit the effectiveness of the true move as it happens. In this season, it is vital that we build everything we do upon the foundation of the Word of God. I'm not trying to criticize any particular move of the past or present. My goal today is to equip you with knowledge and understanding to help identify a true move of God.

Imagine you are driving to your favorite vacation spot. When you get about 30 miles from your destination, you see the first road sign with the city's name. Do you slam on your brakes, slide across the median and jump out at the sign? I would hope not! Yet, in the body of Christ, it seems we have become sign hunters. At the first sign of a "miracle" or the "supernatural," we bring everything to a screeching halt so that we can take pictures of the sign, dance around the sign, and even build churches to the sign. How foolish we have become! The sign's purpose is to reveal location. Spiritual signs are no different. When you see a spiritual sign, it is not advertising itself, it is merely pointing the way to where God wants you to go.

Jesus said in Matthew 12:39, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas." Jesus didn't say they were "slightly in error." He called them.... Keep Reading »

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Desert Call Prayer and Pastoral Counseling Center to be Established in South Bay, San Diego



In just a few short weeks, Desert Call Ministries will have established its first prayer and pastoral counseling center, which is intended to serve low income individuals and families in the South Bay area of San Diego. These services are offered in Spanish, and there is no fee required, though donations to the ministry will be accepted.

This is a much needed service in our community" said Pastor Dallas Bullock, Director of Hispanic Ministries for DCM, and resident of South Bay, “We combine the counseling interview and prayer ministry model to bring people to real wholeness." 

Desert Call Prayer Counselors are trained in counseling on a graduate level, as well as being highly anointed prayer ministers.  Rev. Josh Acton, Desert Call's Executive Director said, “our prayer counselors will be supervised regularly by a Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Carol Sheffield-Green, who serves as co-director of the Center for Christian Healing in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas." 

If  you are interested in serving as a prayer counselor for Desert Call Ministries, and would like to know more about the training and commitment required, please call the Rev. Josh Acton at 928-257-0905, or Dr. Carol Sheffield-Green at 972-934-2925

Conferences, Retreats, Missions and Programs
 

Dec. 4-5 2009:  Hearing God's Voice Conference (San Marcos, Calif.)
Details to follow....
Venue: Anglican Church of the Resurrection in San Marcos, Calif.

Contact:  Carolyn Burns:  carol.burns@earthlink.net

Jan 28-30, 2010: Journey Into the Depths of God Prayer Retreat (Oceanside, CA)
Venue:Mission San Luis Rey, Oceanside, California
Contact:Carolyn Burns: carol.burns@earthlink.net

January 2010:  Int'l Healing Conference (Tijuana, Mexico)
Details to follow ...
Venue: TBA
Contact: Dallas Bullock: dallasdrb@aol.com

Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Fallacy of Unconditional Love

What is the question? Simply this: "If God loves me unconditionally, why does it matter how I live my life?" Or it could also be phrased this way: "If God truly loves me unconditionally, why should it matter whether or not I 'become a Christian?'" Be careful to not miss how powerful and deadly this question really is. It is not just a clever twist of wording, meant to sidetrack the evangelistic efforts of well-meaning proselytizers. Far from it. This question is the stake in the heart of the modern evangelical notion of God's "unconditional love." In fact, I challenge you to search for the phrase "unconditional love" in the Bible or find the concept that God unconditionally loves every person on earth being taught anywhere in Scripture. In fact, R.J. Rushdoony makes the bold claim that "unconditional love is contrary to the Bible." Read more here......

Monday, October 12, 2009

Doctor Describes Miracle in AIDS Treatment





VATICAN CITY, OCT. 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A doctor dedicated to helping African AIDS patients is affirming that these people are "coming back to life," but adds that he sees an even greater miracle in his work.
                Doctor Elard Alumando, the director of DREAM -- Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition -- in Malawi, affirmed this today during the Twelfth General Congregation of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.
                In this session, some of the auditors such as Alumando gave interventions to the Synod.
The doctor explained that his program has treated some 80,000 people with HIV/AIDS in ten African countries.
According to an English summary released by the Vatican, Alumando stated, "I believe that healing the sick is the true way of preventing the spreading of AIDS in Africa, as the Holy Father said with authority during his visit to Cameroon."
                He continued: "I am a witness to many stories of resurrection of people who were ill, especially women and children: women who were considered dead, and started to live and work again; women who rose out of the dark pits of condemnation due to the AIDS disease, out of the prison of social stigma, and who regained their place in the life of their cities."
                The doctor reported that he has seen several thousand children born healthy, free from the virus, due to this treatment.
                The DREAM program is carried out by the Community of Sant'Egidio in Africa, in communion with other members in Europe.
                Our treatment centers, the doctor explained, offer "state-of-the-art tri-therapy," as is administered in the West.
He reported: "All the treatment and nutritional support offered to the patients is given for free. In our world dominated by money and corruption, gratuitousness is important."
                Alumando explained that this helps the Africans to "look at disease and healing in the perspective of the Gospel and of the Church, removing them from sorcery and from the mystification of sects."
                He concluded, "These acts of healing are not mysterious and incomprehensible wonders, they are the fruit of work, of communion, of prayer and of the love of the Gospel, and that is the true miracle."

Sunday, October 11, 2009

MID CITY SAN DIEGO CHURCHES




Friday, October 2, 2009

5-Short Years Ago This Weekend


PSA - Listen to Overpaid Celebrities

In the Beginning, Grace



COVER PACKAGE
In the Beginning, Grace
Evangelicals desperately need spiritual and moral renewal—on that everyone agrees. But what do we do about it?
By Mark Galli

Poll: Does evangelical teaching on right living undermine our emphasis on the Cross?

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life



Support for Abortion Slips
A new poll by the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that fewer Americans express support for legal abortion than in 2007 and 2008. The poll reveals that Americans are now evenly divided on the question and finds less support for legal abortion among most demographic and political groups.
Go to the survey report »

Religious Groups Weigh In on Health Care Reform
As the political battles over health care reform intensify, religious organizations are forcefully adding their voices to the debate. A new Pew Forum report provides information on two prominent coalitions of faith-based groups that have engaged their supporters to speak out on the proposals currently before the U.S. Congress. 
Read the report »

Sept. 23 - The Associated Press
Terror Probe Highlights Police-Muslim Tensions
An Associated Press article on the relationship between Muslim Americans and U.S. law enforcement personnel following the 9/11 terrorist attacks cites data from a 2007 survey of Muslim Americans by the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center.

Read more Pew Forum in the News articles »


Thursday, September 24, 2009

Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection


- The Associated Press
 
BANGKOK -- For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.
The World Health Organization and the U.N. agency UNAIDS said the results "instilled new hope" in the field of HIV vaccine research.
The vaccine -- a combination of two previously unsuccessful vaccines -- cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, researchers announced Thursday in Bangkok. READ THIS EXCITING STORY HERE......

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Soaking Prayer

PILLOWS!
BLANKETS!
HOLY SPIRIT!

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009
6:30 - 7:30 P.M.

Every third Saturday of the month, members of the St. Dunstan’s Order Of St. Luke Healing Prayer Ministry host Soaking Prayer, a 90-minute time of soft, inspirational music interspersed with Scripture readings, usually based on a theme or single word e.g. “love”, “water”, “forgiveness”, etc. Participants are asked to bring a pillow and blanket. There is no charge to participate. There will be a discreet basket for freewill offerings. For more information, contact the church office at 619-460-6442. Soaking Prayer is a lay-led experience and under the guidance of Fr. David, Chaplain of the Healing Prayer Ministry.

HEALTH FAIR at St. Dunstan's...

SAVE THE DATE: SEPTEMBER 19, 2009 / 10 AM - 2 PM 

Free Information and Support for Health & Wellness:
Healthy Snacks and Lunch available at 12 noon for $5
PLAN TO ARRIVE EARLY AND SPEND A GREAT HEALTHY DAY!

 

Monday, September 14, 2009

Intensive Care Week


Thoughts while sitting beside my brother as his brain and body failed.
Philip Yancey | posted 9/14/2009 10:26AM
You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends," Joan Didion writes in a memoir of her husband's death from a heart attack. Everyone who has suffered sudden loss knows that freefall feeling.
My brother's life did not end this summer, but in one terrifying week of progressive strokes, his brain shut down much of his body. On a Friday, he began experiencing vision problems. The following Monday, he drove himself to the doctor, who sent him in an ambulance to a local hospital. On Tuesday he spoke sometimes clearly and sometimes in gibberish. Wednesday he could walk but lost control over his right hand and arm. By Thursday he could not stand and failed to follow simple commands. An MRI showed significant brain damage.
When I arrived the following day, my brother could barely open his eyes and had lost movement on his right side. Sometimes he squeezed my hand appropriately when I talked and he cried often, so I knew he had some understanding. After the brain had stabilized, a surgeon cut a window through his skull and in a six-hour procedure redirected an artery from the scalp to the inner brain.
I spent all that week in a hospital waiting room, hanging out with other families between visiting hours. In such a setting, strangers become intimate friends. A mother told stories of her bipolar daughter whose lung had been removed. We saw her in the manic phase, pacing the halls with a medicine-dispensing pack; in her depressive phase, nurses watched her for suicidal signs.
Alone, always with a book in hand, the boyfriend of a young woman who had overdosed on Vicodin kept vigil by her bed for three weeks. Nearby, an Indian man translated for his wife: after a brain injury, she had lost facility in English and reverted to her mother tongue. A desperate family put up posters in the elevators—Help Save Nick's Life—asking for Asian Americans to consider a bone marrow donation.
Sadly, some patients had no visitors. Different rules govern wealth and status in a hospital: the currency is not cash, but visitors and love. Read the whole story.....

American Anglican Council Announces Formation of Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans-NA

September 14th, 2009 Jill Posted in American Anglican Council, Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), Global Anglican Future Conference

By David W Virtue and Mary Ann Mueller, Virtueonline


NASHOTAH, WISCONSIN—In a stunning pronouncement, the American Anglican Council (AAC) announced the launching of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans-North America (FCA-NA) this week bringing together individual Anglicans in the great Diaspora who are unable to find an ACNA church near them. Orthodox Episcopalians and Anglicans can join to become ministry partners.
"I am pleased to announce the formation of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans – North America as a ministry partner of AC-NA to which you can apply immediately," said the Rev. Phillip Ashey, AAC’s travelling chaplain. He urged Anglicans to go on line and join the FCA -NA apply at: www.fca.net. Read the whole story here.....

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Healing News




CASES

Coming to Know the Limits of Healing
By COLIN FERNANDES, M.D.
Sometimes a doctor must say, “There is nothing more I can do.”


Splits Form Over How to Address Bone Loss
By KATE MURPHY
Some doctors are worried that a disease is being treated unnecessarily with risky drugs.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Q&A: Faith Healing and the Law


Two of government's obligations - enforcing child welfare laws and protecting freedom of religious expression - can clash when a parent chooses to rely on spiritual healing practices instead of standard medical care to treat a child's illness. Indeed, courts in Wisconsin and Oregon recently decided two cases involving faith healing that resulted in the death of a child. In a new Pew Forum Q&A, church-state scholar Robert W. Tuttle explores the legal issues that courts must consider in such cases. Go to the Q&A »