Signs & Wonders Blog

The past few days, I attended Summer Campmeeting at Calvary Pentecostal Tabernacle in Ashland, Virginia. Before going there, I stayed with a pastor and his family in Buffalo, New York. While packing up my stuff, I couldn’t find my portable luggage scale used to avoid baggage fees. A friend who drove me to the Minneapolis airport weeks before offered to get me another one. Since my hosts in Buffalo had a bathroom scale I could use to weigh my bags, I asked for the luggage scale to be sent to my post office box in Ashland.  It was soon discovered that Amazon wouldn’t deliver packages to PO boxes. Instead, my luggage scale was sent to a set of lockers outside a Wawa convenience store. After arriving in Ashland by train on Wednesday morning, I went to Wawa but didn’t know which locker contained my package nor how to open the door. So I called Amazon’s customer service number. My friend who had placed the order needed to send me a special email, which I received several hours later. ...

One of the most well-known and controversial ministers today is Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Pastor Joel oversees the largest congregation in the United States plus reaches millions through television, satellite radio, and has written several best-selling books. Some Christians criticize Osteen’s motivational messages because they think he needs to preach more about repentance. Others disapprove of Joel’s lack of theological training. Then again, some of the early apostles were considered “unlearned and ignorant men.” (Acts 4:13) Eight years ago in Washington, DC, I attended one of Joel Osteen’s outreach events called “A Night of Hope.” Joel ministered that night on detoxifying our thought life. The service concluded with an invitation for salvation that was much longer than what Joel does on TV. That gave me a greater respect for him. A Facebook friend once posted the above photo of Joel Osteen’s first book “Your Best Life Now” side-by-side ...

Many times before publishing a new article in my blog or newsletter, I’ll share it with a friend to get their feedback. I always want to be sure my writings are accurate and don’t mislead people. It annoys me when someone starts making suggestions before reading the whole thing. Often their concerns are addressed later in my article. Ministers constantly face scrutiny like this. Religious watchdogs habitually take sound bites of well-known preachers they don't like and attempt to expose them. Sometimes it's made to appear these preachers said things they really didn’t mean. A recent example of this involved Victoria Osteen, who co-pastors Lakewood Church in Houston along with her husband Joel. A few of my Facebook friends posted a short video clip of Victoria making comments about worship that upset many Christians (some versions of this include an added "rebuke" by Bill Cosby)... . Eventually, Victoria issued a response saying, " I did not mean to imply...

Two days ago while some friends and I briefly evangelized in a trailer park, the maintenance man approached us. He told us we were on private property (though there was no sign at the entrance indicating that) and needed permission from the manager to talk to the residents there. This man was friendly and thought the manager might give her approval if we asked.  My friend Sue and I eventually approached the manager in her office. When “Mary” learned what we were doing, her demeanor suddenly changed. With an angry tone in her voice, Mary informed us 75% of her tenants were Buddhists and wanted to “respect their religion.” My immediate response was that Buddhists need to hear about Jesus also. While that is certainly true, my comment didn’t help the situation. The manager then revealed other Christians have witnessed on the property and supposedly told the Buddhists they were heathens and condemned to hell. Sue suggested I slip out the door while she tried reasoning with this ma...

In a recent interview on HuffPost Live, host Josh Zepps read the following passage from Joel Osteen’s latest book “Break Out”: “It doesn't matter who likes you or doesn't like you, all that matters is that God likes you. He accepts you. He approves of you.” Zepps then asked Joel if that’s true for homosexuals. Joel replied,  “Absolutely…I believe every person is made in the image of God…and you got to accept them as they are on their journey. I’m not here preaching hate, pushing people down, or telling everybody what they’re doing wrong.” 2 Timothy 4:2 says, “Preach the word!   Be ready in season and out of season.   Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”   Every minister may specialize in a particular topic such as finances, healing, or end-time prophecy.   Still, we are responsible for preaching the whole truth of God’s word and bringing correction when the situation arises. This past Tuesday night while street ...