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Showing posts from October, 2019

Spiritual Hunger

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Once I witnessed to a man promoting hunger awareness. This man didn’t believe in the existence of heaven or hell. Therefore, he thought feeding the hungry was more important than preaching the gospel. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” A nonbeliever’s good works won’t matter if he’s lost for eternity. Is it important to feed the hungry? Absolutely. Scripture exhorts us to do so (Psalm 146:7, Romans 12:20). The miracles of Jesus included multiplying loaves and fishes to feed the thousands who gathered to hear His word. In recent years, I’ve gone out of my way to give food to panhandlers as well as the gospel . Although food is a basic necessity, we should focus more on cultivating and satisfying our spiritual hunger. My former pastor Mac Hammond taught a series on that. He pointed out we can build an appetite for anything that consumes our thou

God is a Woman?

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A few weeks ago I witnessed to a Vietnam War veteran panhandling near Walmart. After thanking him for his service, I handed this man a tract while saying, “I was also in the army…now I’m in the army of the Lord.” The expression on his face immediately revealed he wasn’t receptive to the gospel. One of his objections was the Bible always referring to God with masculine pronouns. A joke I’ve seen online is “Why do we say ‘Amen’ at the end of a prayer instead of ‘Awomen’? Same reason we sing Hymns instead of Hers.” But seriously, I pointed out to this veteran men and women are equal in God’s eyes. Galatians 3:28 says, “…there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The only time women are always meant to be subordinate to men is in the marital relationship. Ephesians 5:23 says, “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.” A body cannot have two heads. It also says in 1 Peter 3:7, “Husb

Believing the Best

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A few weeks ago, reports surfaced of immoral behavior involving Canadian-born evangelist Todd Bentley. Three of his former associates who I’m friends with on Facebook issued public warnings about him. Todd has denied most of these accusations. Meanwhile, a tribunal has been set up to investigate the charges. At the time of this writing, I’ve not heard of any legal action taken against Todd.  Unless he is proven guilty, I’m choosing to believe the best about Todd Bentley (1 Corinthians 13:7). It was around 2002 when I started hearing about him. His name stood out to me because I had a junior high classmate also named Todd Bentley.  The first time I heard evangelist Todd Bentley minister was at The River at Tampa Bay church in 2004. He wasn’t the scheduled speaker but Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne invited him to come up to the pulpit for a few minutes. Because he’s from Canada, I was surprised to hear Todd preach like an American Pentecostal. Over the next few years, I list

Accused and Excused

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Major League Baseball is currently in the midst of its playoffs. Having lived in Minnesota most of my life, I’m rooting for the Twins who (at the time of this writing) need to make a miraculous comeback to finally get past the New York Yankees and possibly play in their first World Series since 1991. Baseball has been called America’s National Pastime. However, the sport became tainted 100 years ago due to the infamous Black Sox Scandal.  The Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds faced each other in the 1919 World Series. The White Sox were heavily favored to win but lost the best-of-nine series five games to three. It was discovered some White Sox players intentionally played poorly to receive money from gamblers. The “Black Sox” moniker reportedly came from the dirty White Sox uniforms. Tight-fisted owner Charles Comiskey refused to pay for having his players’ uniforms cleaned. Despite being acquitted in a public trial, eight of the White Sox were banned from profess