JOEL 2 GENERATION

According to God's Word, Calvinism HAS TO BE wrong! We simply DO NOT see the concept of God that Calvin advocated in the life of Jesus.  And what we "see" in the life of Jesus is exactly what God wants us to know about His essential nature and His attributes. Jesus  is "the image of the invisible God" in whom all the fullness of God dwells (v. 19) - Colossians 1:15, 19) Jesus is "the exact imprint of His [God the Father's] nature" (ESV) or "exact representation" (NASB) - Hebrews 1:3 And Jesus said, "if you have seen me, you've seen the Father" (John 14:9) So what did Jesus reveal about the nature of God?  What kind of God do His life and ministry reveal?  The God of Augustine/Calvin is essentially all-powerful and that power is expressed through His meticulous control of absolutely everything or a God of love who is also all-powerful, but whose power is expressed OUT OF and as an expression of His ete...

I listen to and read from a lot of different teachers, from very diverse camps in the Body of Christ.  I learn from them and their perspectives and particular emphases have deepened my own faith.  That being said, I have found that when it comes to "pet doctrines" some teachers can really confuse people, especially on particular issues and/or their interpretations of the Scriptures regarding those issues. The question about the Jewish roots of Christianity is definitely one of these "issues" and I want to "put my two cents in" and shed the light of the earliest Christians in regards to the Jewishness of Christianity, worshipping on the Sabbath (Saturday) and whether or not it is important to observe the Jewish dietary laws and/or follow the Jewish calendar (which is also growing in popularity). I should say, none of the teachers I am referring to teach that "observing the law" is a salvation issue.  I think they rightly under...

As a young Christian, I remember that "the eternal perspective" was a powerful theme and motivating influence on my life.  In a nutshell, Jesus calls people to give up their lives for the sake of His Eternal Kingdom.  And here it is, the eternal perspective – if we really believe what Christ taught about this 'short' life vs. eternity, then we will willingly forsake everything for the far superior reality.  This has ALWAYS been something that has caused Christians to do the most incredible things with their lives for the cause of the Gospel.  The suffering and the sacrifice only make sense if 'this life' is temporary and eternal life is just that, eternal! For some reason, this season in my life has me pondering again this issue of the eternal perspective.  Maybe it is because I have lost my own awareness of this mindset to some degree.  I definitely think we are living in a world where many Christians are not living in light of eternity....

A couple of us went to a worship/renewal meeting this week.  At a time when we were all asked if anybody was getting any words of knowledge for healing, I got a distinct word for an issue on the top of the right foot going down into the big toe. A woman raised her hand and as I prayed for her, the Holy Spirit was on her in a powerful way.  It was obvious that God was touching her and the revelation about her foot just seemed to increase her faith and the level of encounter.  After a minute or so, I went to pray for someone else. As we were getting in the car, she came running up to us to tell us that this chronic long-term issue in her foot was healed.  A car accident had exasperated the initial problem also for a couple of years and she told us it was all gone.  The original and then secondary injury.  So encouraged!

Back in 2012, Isaac of Ninevah and I were in the interior of Oman and visited the "witchcraft capital of Arabia", a small city in the interior. Here was our blogpost where I wrote about visiting the house of the "last living witch" http://joel2generation.blogspot.com/2012/11/to-ends-of-arabia-part-2.html Over the years I have shared the story about our failed attempt to go and pray for this man who represented the power of magic in his region.   A couple of guys who heard the story however wanted to follow up and just this week went back and visited the home of this man, as I was able to drop them a pin on Google Maps as to the exact location of the witch's house. As it was 5 years ago, the witch had subsequently passed away. In 2012, he had been very old and in poor health. But these young men went to the house, and were able to spend several hours sharing the Gospel with the witch's son, his son-in-law (who had been the ...

I am revising and reposting a blog post I did back in 2013.  The topic is as relevant today and some of the so-called "Grace Teachers" have gotten more extreme.  They have taken the critiques against them and have sought to strengthen their arguments. Dr. Michael Brown has met a couple of times with one of the Grace teachers (Joseph Prince) and although he was encouraged by the meetings, and they were able to affirm areas of agreement, and Brown wrote an article for Charisma magazine wherein he lists the areas where they agree.  In that same article Brown clearly states, however, that "Our principal area of disagreement remains his teaching that the moment we are saved, our future sins are already pronounced forgiven". ("My Meeting with Pastor Joseph Prince", Charisma News. 26 Jan 2017). So logically Prince continues to teach that a believer would never have to ask forgiveness for any current and/or future sin because all sins in the life of a belie...