Signs & Wonders Blog

There’s a well-known story involving Dutch holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom (pictured here) about the power of forgiveness. Shortly after being freed from a Nazi concentration camp, Corrie spoke about that experience at a church in Munich, Germany. A former camp guard that Corrie recognized approached her, extended his hand and asked for her forgiveness. Corrie struggled at first while she stood face-to-face with one of her former captors. Finally, Corrie shook the man’s hand and in her own words: “I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then.” A few years ago, I experienced a forgiveness test at a revival meeting in the Minneapolis area. Around the time the preacher talked about forgiving others, I noticed a familiar-looking man leaning up against the wall. It turned out to be my former best friend whom I hadn’t seen in over a decade. “Stephen” betrayed me by getting into an adulterous relationship with my then-wife who separated from me and subsequently filed for divo...

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 year...

Those of you who know me are probably aware I frequently go to McDonald’s to drink coffee and work online with my laptop. You may be surprised to learn I once had a long standing grudge against the restaurant.  Back in 1976 as a twelve-year-old, I went inside McDonald’s one day to pick up dinner for my family. Initially, there were many other customers waiting to order. Over the next 45 minutes, everybody had been waited on except me! For some reason, employees asked people in line behind me for their orders. I didn’t speak up because I thought I was doing the right thing by being patient. By the time someone finally asked for my order, I was extremely upset. Back home I ate my McDonald’s food but then vowed never to eat there again. You might ask yourself, “So what’s the big deal? If you receive terrible service, don’t go back there.” I took my resentment towards McDonald’s to the extreme. Whenever my parents bought me food from there, I refused to eat it even if that ...

When people hear the term street evangelist , some think of men and women standing in public places shouting out Bible verses. That’s one way of reaching multitudes who might not hear the gospel otherwise. Romans 10:14 says, “And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” All the prophets of old as well as Jesus and the Apostle Paul preached in the marketplace.  Unfortunately, many open-air preachers I’ve seen lack compassion and do not speak the truth in love. They preach more about God’s judgment than His mercy. Some call women “whores” because (in their opinion) they don’t wear enough clothing. Jesus didn’t talk like that to the woman caught in adultery. Rude preaching repels sinners instead of drawing them closer to God. 2 Timothy 2:24-25 says, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant t...

Thank God for grace! None of us deserve eternal life but God made that available through the death and resurrection of His Son. We need to continue receiving that grace to fulfill His plans and purposes for us on this earth. A doctrine I’ve heard taught by some modern grace teachers is that once you’re saved, all your past, present, and future sins are forgiven. For a while I kept thinking, something isn’t right about the future part. Then I read Michael Brown’s book “Hyper-Grace” in which he shares this powerful analogy… “It’s as if you have a debit card with a prepaid amount of one million dollars, but the account is not charged until you go out and use it. In the same way, the forgiveness of all of our sins has been prepaid, but that forgiveness is not applied in advance. It is applied as needed.” The Lord also gave me this illustration. If you’re married, there have been times you said or did things that hurt your spouse. Your marriage didn’t suddenly end but that r...

This past Monday I initially woke up just after midnight. Unable to fall back to sleep, I went online for a couple of hours. Through Facebook friends, I found out a well-known preacher went home to be with the Lord hours before. Steve Hill, best remembered as the evangelist God used to spark the Brownsville Revival, died after a long battle with cancer. He was 60 years old. Born in Ankara, Turkey to a military family but raised in Alabama, Steve Hill got caught up in a lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, and crime. On October 28, 1975, Steve’s life changed when a Lutheran minister stopped by his house. Steve got born again not by going through the Four Spiritual Laws, the Romans Road, or some other popular witnessing method. The minister simply encouraged Steve to repeatedly call on the name of Jesus and was instantly delivered from drug addiction. Romans 10:13 says, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” A few weeks later, Steve was arrested due to unlawful ac...

In some churches, you will hear the term “greasy grace” used. There are Christians who believe the gospel message has been watered down in recent years to where we make it too easy for people to receive forgiveness. One of the definitions of the word grace is “the free and unmerited favor of God.” Certainly, we need to preach repentance from our pulpits and not tolerate sin. Romans 6:15 says, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!” But we must also remember, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) When I asked the Lord if it’s wrong to give a person too much grace, He reminded me of Matthew 18:21-22… 21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times sev...