I now wonder if FOTF created the hype just to get more attention. Either way, they just wasted $2.5 million to more than $3 million for 30 seconds that came across more like a FTD flowers commercial.

If you go view the video on YouTube at FOTF’s Youtube Page, you will notice that the one way street of voicing opinion is so prevalent that FOTF has disabled comments on the video. In other words, they want to dish out heated opinion but can not take counter opinion back in general. I’m glad that Jesus, the twelve disciples, Elijah, Moses, and the Apostle Paul could take the heat of counter opinion…

However, I was deeply bothered by the “tackling scene” in wake of domestic violence. Even though it was meant as “family fun” and snopes.com now claims that the statement of “More women are victims of domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year” is false, the scene still bothered me.

If he had thrown a football as if he expected her to catch it but it went sailing closely passed her but not hit her, I wouldn’t have had a problem but the tackling was way too much and over the line.

However, I am glad that CBS aired the commercial during the first commercial break of the game (I believe it was actually the second commercial) because I really believe that if this had not have been done, we would have seen a backlash of people with their remote control turning the channel during the other commercials until that commercial aired and a sense of relief was felt.

The game was so-so as the Colts lost but the commercials were intriguing this year as the products were highlighted more than in years past.

OFT’s Ten Best Super Bowl Commercials

(1): Boost Mobile – “Super Bowl Shuffle” – Even though this commercial rated low, it was my personal favorite as I clearly remember the original Super Bowl Shuffle commercial. I laughed all the way through the commercial

(2): Google – The commercial was simple, but flowed life events in chronological order that kept me hooked during the entire commercial.

(3): Bud Lite – The one with the castaways turning off the radio to party more. Hilarious

(4): Kia – The sock monkey and toys come to life and tour Vegas and in the end, they are actually lifeless toys in Vegas

(5): Universal Sutdios – Robin Hood – Now a movie that I would like to go see when released.

(6): Bridgestone – Life (mistaken as Wife) or Tires – The guy dumps the wife off and flees in the car

(7): Doritos – Kid scolds mom’s new boyfriend – This one was very funny and will be a classic for years to come

(8): HomeAway – The Griswald’s – Classic, even down to the old Ford station wagon

(9): Coke – The Simpsons – Suprised it aired on CBS

(10): Budweiser – Human bridge – People don’t care until they can’t get beer- Go figure

Honorable Mentions : Michelob Ultra with Lance Armstrong, Intel’s robot, Doritos shock collar, and CBS NCIS with Abby Scuito played by Pauley Perrette

—–

OFT’s Ten Worst Super Bowl Commercials

(1): All GoDaddy.com commercials – the ‘unrated long version’ videos never live up to the hype. Kinda similar to the FOTF commercial

(2): Electronic Arts – Dante’s Inferno Game – Mixing a Game to the “I know” (Ain’t no sunshine) song by Bill Withers??? What were they thinking????? JUst didn’t mesh at all

(3): Bridgestone – Batchelor party – Never knew it was a commercial for Bridgestone – Saw more of a Cadillac Escalade and thought this commercial was for Cadillac.

(4): Dove Man Soap commercials – Are you kidding me

(5): Snickers – Betty White and Abe Vigoda. Have a bad problem of Betty White and Abe Vigoda getting creamed on the football field similar to the way Pam Tebow was tackled.

(6): Audi – Green Police – Not only the parody use of a cheezy Cheap Trick song was bad, but the fact that the environmental hippies going nuts is already a reality.

(7): Sketchers – Joe Montana – Heard his voice, but he didn’t appear in the commercial using the product????

(8): CareerBuilder – Same old thing

(9): E-Trade – Same creepy babies year after year

(10): Flo TV – Spineless – Ain’t that the typical Christian evangelical butterfly kissing guy FOTF likes?

Honorable mentions: the Census, Kiss for Dr. Pepper, Dockers, and Late Show with Dave, Jay, and Oprah

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The Hype of Controversy

According to Rick Heibert via this article and part two posted at Bene Diction Blogs On, it is being reported that more than one person during a service at MorningStar last night publicly and loudly confronted Todd Bentley during the offering about Bentley’s adultery and his need for repentance. Bentley’s security apparently took action and escorted these people out of the building and the police was called to prevent any further disturbance from happening.

So that is how Todd Bentley (and many Charismatic fellowships) handle disagreeing people who disagree / “persecute” with them? Escort them out, call the police, and maybe contact the attorney to get a cease and desist order….

“Persecution” is apparently what Todd is labeling this as per his twitter account where he stated

Thanks for the Love. God is blessing his people. Tonite the presence was so sweet and God bless those who persecute us

about 20 hours ago from Twitterrific (9:42 PM 2/6/10 as I type this and therefore approximately 1 AM 2/6/10 when he tweeted this after the service)

I always found it ironic in these ‘ultra-anointed’ Charismatic churches where they talk about God protecting them and cursing their ‘enemies’ that they have a security team / armorbearers, etc. in the service. If God was really ‘protecting’ them, why would you need security and why would you need to call the police? Wouldn’t God ‘take care of them’ at that moment?

I do admire these people who did confront Bentley from the audience concerning his adultery and asking Todd to genuinely repent. In one way, I see it as being ‘out of order’ but in another way, I can see their ‘only opportunity’ because if these same people tried to access Bentley privately, they would have been either denied or roughed up and Bentley would have been shrouded by all of this ‘pentecostal prophetic posse’ called ’security’.

Gee, Nathan, Elijah, and Elisha never needed a pentecostal prophetic posse to protect them. Just think if Elijah had a pentecostal prophetic posse with him when God moved at the showdown on Mount Carmel, maybe he wouldn’t have ran when Jezebel threatened to kill him because he could have sent the posse to take care of Jezebel. Thank God Elijah had the true anointing of the Lord on him.

But what makes this interesting is this eyewitness account from a pro-Bentley supporter where these people who spoke were referred to as having a ‘demonic presence coming from them. It was like… it was on their voices.’ and that this person has come out in their last statement and made an identification of one of those people:

I’m pretty sure that one of hte guys was Bud Press. Sounded like his voice

(In case you do not know, Bud Press is the head of the Christian Research Service, a well respected apologetic web page that has spoken out against Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival.)

This is a very serious accusation to make and be ‘pretty sure’ about it based on someone’s voice. Either Mr Press was definitely there and possibly did become involved in what happened last night or (more than likely) Mr. Press definitely was not there. I do not know if Mr. Press was present or not and maybe we may see some sort of comment from Mr. Press on his web page addressing the issue. However, if Mr. Press was not there, the author owes Mr. Press a public apology and needs to retract that statement.

So what is going to happen next? More “security”? More ‘Discernment at the door’ (a practice done in many Charismatic churches where a ‘discernment team member’ acts like a bouncer and allows/denies entrance to the sanctuary as they please)? More “discernment team level 2″ people (who get the people not singled out by the level one door personnel) where anyone they deem as being suspicious in the audience will be told to leave because “God told us to ask you to leave” as they walk through the audience trying to ’sniff out the enemy’ during the services with their ‘demon detectors’? No more live services online to where if something really happened it can be edited?

It will be interesting to see

======= EDIT 11:48 PM 2/6/10 =======

A search on Twitter has prompted this tweet from Twitter user AMightyRoar that stated

Going to MorningStar Church tonight to confront Todd Bentley and his ministry with the gospel of Jesus… http://tumblr.com/xpu65yvi0

3:59 PM Feb 5th from Tumblr

I wonder if he did follow through on his tweet and was one of the people who did speak out.

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Handling Persecution Todd’s Way

The Thirty second clip, scheduled to air during Super Bowl XLIV, has already started controversy concerning whether the ad should air or not. To this, I say let the ad air in the name of free speech.

The ad is rumored to be the story of how Tim Tebow’s mom, Pam, was told by doctors (during a 1987 missionary trip to the Phillipines) after getting very sick to abort the child she was carrying. Pam Tebow went against those doctor’s recommendations to abort her fifth child and eventually gave birth to Tim, the now famous college football player.

Even though I am pro-life, I do not believe nor do I place faith in the fact that that the tide of stopping abortions will overturn overnight.

But the real underlying issue here is not Tebow, or abortion. It is whether the ad is supposed to be a Christianity based message or a covert political message from a ‘Christian organization’ trying to circumvent laws (through loopholes defined as ‘wanting to do what is defined as unlawful, illegial, or unethical but attempting to justify it as being right) applying to registered nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations. In fact, one can now question if the Tebow family are really being “used” not to proclaim the pro-life message, but instead to further establish the “Christian organization one day, political action committee the next day” mindset of Focus on the Family as a political think-tank disguised as ‘ministry’ and a ‘force to be reckoned with’ in light of the Obama administration.

If the ad is making a Christian statement. Fine. If a political statement is being covertly stated, then let the 501(c)(3) status investigations into violations of 501(c)(3) laws come forth .

Even though the ad has been approved by CBS, the actual content of the ad itself has been a well kept secret along with at what actual point in the game will the ad air (in many churches tomorrow morning, you may get to see the ad in full during the service). It has been speculated that the ad will air either before or after the halftime show starring the famous band The Who. I am wondering if both the content of the ad and also the time the ad airs is being kept secret to where no one would attempt to ’sabotage’ the showing of the commercial or to prevent people from flipping the channel in advance to avoid viewing the commercial.

However, this is not the first anti-abortion ad in the national spotlight? I remember the Arthur S. DeMoss foundation running some of those famous, but very tasteful “Life, What a Beautiful Choice” ads in prime time media during the Clinton years. Were these ads ran during the Super Bowl? I can not remember.

However, the most ironic point of all of this controversy is that if you attend one of these ‘official Christian Big Game’ parties at a local church, you probably wouldn’t see the commercial to start with because almost all of these parties usually “block out” the commercials in the name of preventing obscenities from being seen and try to do ‘quickie testimony filler’. If the ad does happen to be aired at halftime, it definitely would not been seen at most of these ‘official Christian Big Game’ parties because of the fact that most of those parties at halftime love to turn the game off and the pastor preaches a “sermonette” or show some NFL player’s testimony DVD with an altar call to follow.

I will bet you that this year at private Super Bowl parties, there will be one person assigned to be the ‘guarder of the remote’ at your Super Bowl party that will monitor the commercials and immediately change the channel when the Tebow commercial does air. It will be very interesting to see if the Nielsen ratings monitor the commercial viewing patterns and see how many people do turn the channel when the commercial airs to see the total effect of really how many people do actually see the commercial.

If the Tebow ad is not controversial enough for you, how about the Tim Tebow Mask (credit pjmiller) that you can wear while watching the big game.

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That Controversial Commercial

Grammar and punctuation

But that is supposed to be taught in the schools? To some degree, yes, but I really am starting to wonder if we have forgotten about not only the rules of punctuation but how reading comprehension skills take place in reference to observing the punctuation.

I first came across this ‘different’ thought about Sunday School curriculums while doing a very slow read of 1 Corinthians with emphasis on Chapters 12-16 in reference to some questions that I had. While reading these chapters, I came to realize that in order to fully understand what was being stated, I had to follow three strict rules

(1): Read in context to what was stated in verses before and in verses after those particular verses

(2): Read the text very slowly

but what really became the clincher was rule number three

(3): Follow the rules of punctuation….

You know the ones that define the period as being the end of a sentence and a paragraph as being the end of a thought. This is in addition to the many rules defining the use of commas and semicolons.

It was during a phone conversation with my buddy “Triple-P” that I began to see more and more of the importance of the grammatical aspect of Bible reading combined with Bible reading in context with the surrounding verses. I will admit that in the past, I really did not pay much attention to these grammar rules. In fact, I will admit that most of the time, those sermons I heard were usually exercises in text cutting where only a certain section was discussed without respect to the proper interpretation from the Greek and also without respect to the context of the verses before and after.

I had told him that 1 Corinthians 15 was really eye-opening after applying these three simple rules because the chapter is full of those grammar rules and punctuation rules that if you do not follow, you will miss out on much of what the apostle Paul is saying concerning the resurrection. I will admit that it took me forever to read that chapter but after reading it, see the resurrection more clearly than I had ever imagined because without the resurrection.

I am convinced now that maybe, we do need a refresher course in English grammar and reading comprehension. I feel that it will solve many of our problems in understanding what the Bible clearly states.

The next problem to overcome is now retaining what I have learned via paying closer attention to reading comprehension and the grammar rules.

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Grammar Class For Sunday School

Based on some time constraints, I have decided that the blog will go from a standard everyday reading blog into more of a “online weekly edition” of blog similar to the format of a weekly magazine.

However, I am leaving myself open to posting during the weekday if something of high importance happens.

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Special Announcement From OFT

Christian Post – Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr: ‘God is in My Life’ – at the age of 69, Ringo Starr says God is in his life

Christian Post – Churches Tread Lightly with Super Bowl Viewing Parties – How churches are now complying with NFL policies when showing the Super Bowl in their sanctuaries.

While we are on the topic of the Super Bowl, I have noticed that the Elijah List hasn’t had their annual Super Bowl prophecy yet. Kinda hard this year when either “the Saints are marching in” in the name of hyper-charismatic dominionism or “Jesus made the triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a Colt” can be used. However, I feel that the Colts are going to squash the Saints because the Colts appear to be more poised and collected.

pastoralia.org – Did Tony Jones Kill The Vineyard? – The blog author examines both the Tony Jones / Andrew Jones spat as well as the apparent ‘flux’ of the late John Wimber’s movement.

Internet Monk – A Brief Update From Michael 2/4/08 – Michael, you are still in my prayers as well as Matt Chandler (village church) and David Wayne (jollyblogger)

Polycarp – Christian retailers seek federal probe of competitors Christian book companies angry at Wal-Mart and Amazon.com because people are seeing the light in terms of getting ripped off in the past.

ESPN Outside The Lines – Higher Calling – a very deep and introspective look at Tony Dungy

The Writing on The Wall Kenneth Copeland: The government, the sheep, now the lost – What really happened with Angel Flight 44 (AF44)? and speaking of televangelists and jets… Another televangelist (yeah the ‘hip’ one with the fake Australian accent) is accused of secretly owning a eight million dollar jet.

Gospel Masquerade – The “Super Apostle” and their dangerous theologies – another great article from this blogger. She is really posting some personal and insightful stuff.

Businessweek – Audi 1980s Scare May Mean Lost Generation for Toyota Sales Is the Toyota Camry the Audi 5000 of the new millennium? We can very easily see history repeat itself

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Articles of Interest 02-06-10

I am specifically addressing this question to the elderly who may come across this article and are at this time now reflecting on that question. However, there is a specific group of elderly people that I am targeting this question towards.

I am especially targeting this question to the elderly person who was Christian throughout most of their life, but because they really believed that the rapture was going to take place well before their death , they never initiated any form of savings/retirement plan (either personally or at their job) and instead gave their extra income above and beyond the normal tithe to ‘the church’ or to the foreign missionaries.

I am talking to elderly Christians in their sixties or older who are coming to the blunt realization that they may die on Earth before the second coming of Jesus Christ.

I want to invite you via the comments box below, to begin a public dialogue with me (no personal e-mails). I really want to dialogue with you specifically on the subject of the end of your life as it directly relates to your belief in the second coming of Jesus Christ specifically as documented in the last half of Acts 1:11 where it states “…This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” and also as documented throughout the book of Revelations. I want to ask you some hard but personally introspective questions such as:

If you could go back to the age of 30 and re-budget your finances again, would you set aside some money for be saved for the golden years of life and/or start some form of retirement planning whether privately or through an employers retirement benefits package?

Because of the fact that no retirement planning was done due to the personal belief of thinking that Jesus would have already came back, how are you surviving right now? Social Security / Medicare? help of your children? working a part-time job when possible? government assistance? church benevolence ministries / assistance? non-profit organizations helping, assisted care facilities / services?

Has the highly possible scenario of you dying before the second coming of Christ in the wake of you now living in your golden years changed your theological beliefs / perspectives concerning Christianity and/or the belief in the rapture/second coming teachings of the church?

Do you attend a local church? If yes, do you really feel accepted and wanted or do you feel like the church wants you to leave because you are seen by them as a ‘burden’ or like a “Moses” holding back the “Joshuas” from fulfilling their “destiny”. When you offer suggestions based on wisdom and past experiences, does the church try to dismiss your thoughts as ‘old fashioned’?

If you do not attend a local church, do you rely on televangelists (which ones) and/or local hospitality ministries (or if you are in an assisted care facility, the church services by volunteering churches) for your spiritual nourishment?

Trust me, THIS IS NOT A SCAM! If you did decide to publicly dialogue and start getting personal by mentioning money matters or other personal data, I would edit those personal information for your protection

I was raised pentecoatal / holiness and saw alot of what I am describing in this article. I saw elderly couples who struggled month-to-month only on Social Security to survive because they did give their extra money to the missionaries and ‘the church’ when they were younger thinking they would have already been raptured. I saw how they gave their wisdom while the young lions dismissed it and went forward with their ‘plans’ called ‘will of God’. I saw how when they died they got the great sendoff funeral to only next week be called “Moses” who held the church back and that now, the ‘Joshua Generation’ was going to enter into ‘the promise land’.

I really believe that the elderly has alot to offer us in reference to spiritual wisdom that can be gleaned upon and I want to extend the invitation via the comments section of the blog to share your thoughts about life, but also end of life / rapture thoughts.

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Weathered Life

Before there was 24 hour convenience stores, gas stations, and late-night breakfast houses; there was always this scenario that was always dealt with in pentecostalism…

It is 9 PM at night….

Your car breaks down….

All of the department stores, gas stations, and mom-and-pop businesses are closed and not a convenience store in sight…

You start walking to find the nearest payphone to call someone to pick you up and/or a tow-truck to carry your broken-down car to your mechanic. People drive by and no one stops to offer you a ride. No police officers in sight to waive down for assistance. Not a single one of your many ‘friends’ just happen to drive by by circumstance…

The first sign of an open establishment is……

A bar; a nightclub; a pool hall; a honky-tonk
(and to the ultra hard-liners, a pizza joint, a bowling alley, a roller rink)

You begin to think that there is a payphone either in the parking lot or inside the building. You have been walking for quite some time and you are starting to get tired and need to sit down and rest.

From the edge of the street, you look around the parking lot of that bar, nightclub, pool hall, etc. and you do not obviously see a pay phone. Your feet and legs are now more tired and achy and now that ‘life-altering’ decision must be made….

Do I go in that bar, nightclub, pool hall, etc. and explain my circumstances to an employee and ask them where the payphone is or do I walk past that bar and as soon as I have passed the property line of the bar, sit down on the ground long enough to rest my now achy legs and feet in order to keep walking and either find a payphone, a convenience store, or eventually make it home?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that particular potential situation was always addressed at least annually by the pentecostal church I attended. As usual, the answer was always:

Keep walking!!! You will either make it home safely, find a payphone outside a local business, or a friend will always drive by.

always followed by…

Going into that bar for any reason is feeding the flesh and opens you up to succumb to the temptations of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, or sleazy sexual one night stands!!!

Going into that bar to use that payphone will affect your witness

Going into that bar to use that payphone will hold back revival and the last-days end-time harvest

Going into that bar to use that payphone will make you a hypocrite to the sinner you are witnessing to at work

Going into that bar to use that payphone will cause demons to ‘latch’ on to you

Going into that bar to use that payphone will alter your salvation and life destiny and God can not effectively ‘use’ you for His service until you repent

“Real” Christians do not go to bars under any circumstance

Going into that bar because your legs are tired is “yielding to the flesh’. Man up because no pain in the physical is no gain in the Spiritual

However, walking past the bar is “Spirit”; overcoming temptation, giving the ole devil (debble or deb-bull) a black eye, and you will receive your blessing and jewel in your heavenly crown for doing so.

And it was that quest for the blessing and the jewel in your heavenly crown like that prominent family I talked about in a previous article that was driving us combined with the unhealthy fear that going into that bar just to use a pay-phone would either send us to hell, open the door for bad things to happen, or become the “Moses Moment” that would affect our eternal destiny and our ability to not receive the ‘promised land’….

But where would this crap stop… The word of faithers took it one step further to wonder why the car broke down to begin with because to them, consumer goods do not break down unless you have secret sins, lacking faith, disagreeing with a pastor, or ‘touch not mine anointed’ televangelist. It didn’t matter that the car was eight years old with 100,000 miles on the original parts. Something happened which either ‘unprotected your car and opened the devil to do stuff’ or ‘it was God showing you who was the boss’.

So if this was really true, does this mean that God would block the knowledge of the mechanic from fixing the car (I can’t remember what causes your problem) until you repented thereby ‘freeing up’ the mechanic to (‘now I remember what causes this problem’) activate his knowledge skill sets and fix the car? (but if it was a leader’s car, then it was every demonic hoarde of hell attacked that car…)

Evidentially, they believe it is true because if that car hadn’t broke down, you would have been focused on going home to the point where you would have quickly drove past that bar and not even consider going inside because the temptation would have automatically been non-existent. But secretly sinning opened the temptation to go into the bar….

Holy Hogwash!!!

And that was where the point was missed. It was not whether you were at the bar or not, it is what did you do while inside that bar? Coming out of that bar made you guilty by association, guilty until proven innocent (and non-Christian testimonies were always called ‘lies’), or guilty no matter what of ’sin’ to suffer the life-punishment of Moses, to suffer the family-feud like David, to raised undisciplined children like Eli, to fall into sexual sin like Samson by meeting Delilah the bar-hopper…

What you did or did not do while inside the bar was the real test that needed to be passed not to receive an extra ‘mega-blessing’ but to simply obey and not micro manage a macro God.

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The Bar Test

Please remember to keep Matt Chandler (Village Church), Michael Spencer (Internet Monk), and David Wayne (Jollyblogger) in your prayers as they still continue their respective fights against cancer. Just got word that the folks at New Reformation Press have given us details on how you can help out the Internet Monk, Michael Spencer, during his recovery from colorectal cancer because now per the NRP page “he is unable to work, and his insurance is due to run out very soon. He still faces a lot of expensive treatments for his cancer.”

—–

IHOP-KC Student Awareness / Todd Bentley / Morningstar related articles

Bene Diction Blogs On – A good question for Mr. Bentley – a repost of another Rick Heibert piece. Heibert has a very interesting point concerning why isn’t ole Todd down in Haiti helping out? If you listen to these charismatic and word of faith types, every time someone calls them out on their theology, these people always point to their ‘relief works’ as if that either negates their wrongs or implies that people who do relief work can never do wrong at anything else.

Phoenix Preacher – Angel Feathers and Bull Dust – Truthful insights onto another key player into the repentance of Todd Bentley.

Cerulean Sanctum – The New “Revivals” and a Warning… – Dan once again provides us with his usual and typical balanced insights.

Crossroads – More Testimonials from the Third Wave Disaster Front – The responses to Andrew Strom’s Kundalini article. On a side note, I have somehow lost my subscription to those e-mails for some reason. Also, a commenter on my Shake Em Up article left a great link to this article discussing the Third Wave / Kundalini similarities in greater detail.

——–

Sola Dei Gloria (and numerous e-mails from people especially Diane at CrossRoads blog) Buckle Up: Peter Wagner and Cindy Jacobs Issue Word of the Lord for 2010 – Yes, the so call ‘official’ word for 2010 was ‘released’ and guess what, the first statement rhymed. and also guess what? they have embraced the IHOP revival because it happened on the same day that the Pilgrims made covenant with God in Plymouth, Massachusetts. – so, that makes it automatically ‘of God’?

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Articles of Interest 01-22-10

In one corner, the defending champion from the Lakeland Revival / Florida Outpouring, Stacey “Shakeums” Campbell

(look at the clip starting from 2:40 until 6:00)

In the opposite corner, the challenger at Morningstar via the Morningstar Outpouring / IHOP-KC student awakening, Jessa “the Jerkette” Bentley

(look at the clip starting from 2:55 until 3:45)

(Credit goes out to Todd Bentley plays Can You Top This? from Bene Diction Blogs On)

After seeing the Jessa clip, the first thing it reminded me of was the now famous Stacey Campbell “prophecy” clip from the Lakeland Revival. I therefore went to Youtube and looked at both the Stacey and Jessa clips and I came to the conclusion that…

It is the same foul, rotten, demonic, and filthy spirit that was causing Stacey Campbell to gyrate at Lakeland that is causing Jessa Bentley to do the same thing at MorningStar

Between the “voice” coming out of both of their mouths, the similar pitch, similar tone, and similar frequency of the “voice”, and the redundant “hissing” and upright ’slithering’ that took place, It sounds like the same ‘voice” is speaking out through two different people that have allowed this foul, rotten, demonic, and filthy spirit to manifest inside of them. I don’t think the two women are ‘faking’ this.

This really looks like the Kundalini manifestations Andrew Strom mentioned in his last e-mail entitled “KUNDALINI WARNING – Urgent” from his mailing list. And they call these outpourings “of God”? I think not

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Shake Em Up

You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy

The phrase was used specifically to describe young men who were raised on the farm but who eventually left the agrarian life and went away to college in ‘the big city’. However, the more I thought about that statement, I began to realize throughout 2009 that I could substitute the word ‘country’ with the words ‘pentecostal/charismatic movement’ and get a ‘new saying’ (not to be confused with ‘new thing’ of popular pentecostal/charismatic ‘new thing’ theology) that was equally as true

You can take the boy out of the pentecostal/charismatic movement, but you can’t take the pentecostal/charismatic movement out of the boy.

I have always heard that similar phrase where the word “country” was replaced by the word “Catholic” in basic theological discussions, but there was something about the year 2009 where I felt as if I was at a crossroads and point where I had to make a whole-hearted and legitimate attempt of

You must still keep the man from going back to the pentecostal/charismatic movement, while at the same time take the pentecostal/charismatic movement out of the man.

It started in January of 2009 where I figured out that I had to do something about this. I felt as if life was beginning the process of repeating similar life patterns experienced around ten years ago which brought back from the repressed and cobweb memory a very popular concept within pentecostal/charismatic churches that I would like to refer to as simply…. “test theology”

“Test theology” in the pentecostal/charismatic mindset is defined as going through the exact same process and life patterns over and over again until you eventually ‘get smart’ to ‘make the ‘right’ decision’ that God will approve of before you can somehow go forward into the ‘next level’ (another theology of it’s own). Every life experience was viewed as this ‘divine’ test that had to be ‘passed’ by making the ‘right decision’ before one could go further or be considered as being ‘anointed’ enough to be viewed as either ’saved’ or ’spiritual’.

Of course, if you failed, the typical excuses of ’secret sin’, ‘lacking faith’, and ‘disagreeing with your pastor or a televangelist’ was the force-fit answer of why you were not spiritual enough to receive the blessing of making the right choice…..

what a blooming idiot I used to be for believing this crap….

I had to do something as pente-anxiety started to try to work its way back into my life and instill more and more fear than it was supposed to have liberated me of. I had to do something that the repent-a-thons, mega-fasts, hyper prayer rallies, etc could never do….

I had to go back deeper into the Word and literally learn to ‘deprogram and reprogram’ myself into some new thought processes by studying the Word with a new fervor all by myself.

There was only one way to ‘effectively’ do this…..

Skip church every other Sunday and devote that time you would have spent in church into a very deep Word study and prayer session.

WHAT?????

And that was what I did throughout 2009. I took every other Sunday off from church and devoted those mornings away from church into a very deep Word study and prayer session with God. Call it skipping Church, call it playing “Holy Hooky” LOL!

In fact, the first major battle of getting the pentecostal/charismatic movement out of the man was addressing the fear (instilled in the pentecostal upbringing) of missing church on Sunday. Growing up pentecostal with a holiness slant, you didn’t miss church on Sunday, you didn’t go out to lunch after church (the early years), you didn’t go to the department stores that were opened after the repeal of the ‘blue laws’ on Sunday in fear of not keeping the day holy and in fear of getting the ‘holy heiney beating’ from God and ‘holy hexes’ on your life. And don’t tell anyone you watched football either. In fact, you were expected to be there sick to get prayed for (but somehow the pastor and deacons were somehow ‘exempt’ from this requirement).

I vividly remember one time where a family prominent in the church walked into the church thirty minutes late all tired and sweaty. Their car had broken down due to a fan belt breaking (attack of the enemy in their eyes) and the father got on the microphone and bragged of how they walked all the way to church from their broken down car to the point of ‘overcoming temptation’ by walking past the open auto parts store in fear of dishonoring the Sabbath and placing more ‘wrath’ on their lives while passing up rides from other ‘Christian looking people’ claiming that he was going to receive his ‘mega blessing of prosperity’ for giving the devil a black eye…. Twenty years later, he was dead from a major organ failure, still living in the same old small house working at the same old job, and months after his death when seeing one of his daughters for the first time in twenty years at a department store; she asked me not to talk about Jesus because of all the shame and ‘persecution’ she experienced at school growing up because of the ‘pentecostalism’ (always in dresses, low self-esteem, always looked poor to appear holy, never pretty) that the other kids laughed at….

Another thing that one never did on Sunday was to start the annual summer vacation on Sunday but instead leave town on Monday. I vividly remember the stories of the family that would do this to experience something bad happening on that vacation ranging from wrecking the car to a visit to the emergency room for some bizarre accident and how they would cry and ‘repent’ for not going to church that Sunday because those things was the wrath of God for skipping church on Sunday. I remember growing up one summer where my father had to go to a week long work-related training seminar in another state and took the family with him as a form of summer vacation. We had to leave that Sunday afternoon to be at the hotel by Sunday evening. I remember not being too far from our destination when dad saw that the fuel gauge indicated that he was about to run out of gas. He started looking for gas stations and could not find an open gas station. I still to this day remembering the anxiety, heart racing, cool sweats, and worry that overtook my body thinking that running out of gas was going to be the ‘punishment’ for traveling on Sunday and started silently praying to God asking for forgiveness for all my sins (and invented ones as well). I vividly remember when dad finally found an open gas station with the fuel gauge near empty and filled up the gas tank, I was finally able to feel relaxed and un-tense and felt like God loved me enough and that my sins were indeed forgiven and we wouldn’t miss the rapture…. Further relieved when we made it to the hotel safely.

I had to overcome that anxiety first of things happening to my car and/or my body for skipping church. I was in an anxious mess that first Sunday this past year when I decided to skip church to start the in-depth study of the Word, fervent prayer, and killing of ’stinking-thinking’. I went after watching Charles Stanley on tv and got breakfast that morning, went to the grocery store for groceries, and filled up the car at gas station praying for forgiveness of my sins before stopping and restarting the car each time fearing the potential mechanical breakdown, the potential wreck, or the potential grand theft auto crime that could somehow take place because skipping Church on Sunday now “opened the door” for one of those things to happen. I made it home safe and sound.

It was during these times where I had to do many things:

Rediscover my Faith in God and that Faith was not a formula

Had to re-embrace my Christian Spirituality as Gospel truth instead of doing things in fear of superstitious repercussions

Had to rediscover the ability of attending church for the purpose of worshiping God in Spirit and in truth instead of the ‘mafia-like’ obligation it eventually turned into from past ’stinking thinking’ learned as a child fearing a beatdown from God if I skipped.

Had to deprogram stinking thinking and bad pentecostal / charismatic / word of faith / third wave fear-mechanisms and theology and literally reprogram myself with the pure and adulterated Word of God myself

and for every other Sunday, that was what I had to do…. to survive!

This became the “Life Fight” that I had to do myself

And those Life Fights (on those alternating weekends I took off) usually started on late Saturday nights all throughout the night into early Sunday morning. On some of those overnight sleeps, I would vividly remember dreaming about being dragged into some back alley and getting a gang-style beat down to eventually wake up in the middle of the night in a cool sweat but at the same time feel every muscle ache in deep throbbing pain to where I felt like I could not walk without the help of IcyHot and a deep hot shower with the water pressure on ‘jet’ to massage my muscles. I physically felt as if I had gotten beaten up and left there in pain. I would later tell my closest friends that I felt that the meanings of that dream applied to both the spiritual and physical realms.

Some overnight sleeps did not even involve sleeping at all. It involved 3 AM prayer sessions where I would pray about conquering the stinking-thinking, praying for my deepest desires for a Godly wife, and praying for my loved ones and my closest friends to see God move in the midst of their lives.

Unlike the famous song by the Commodores, those Sunday mornings were not “Easy”. The mornings would start out at 5:45 AM with a short prayer time, a shower / shave, getting dressed, and some Bible reading until 7 AM when Charles Stanley would come on television. After Charles Stanley’s program ended, I would go to a local breakfast house for breakfast buffet because I needed the food for the intense study, prayer time, and blog time that would follow throughout the rest of the morning until noon when I broke for lunch and by 1 PM to 5 PM, take a long nap to recharge my batteries.

I had to re-read the Word to suddenly realize that the Word stated alot of things that I never learned before and to dispel many bad teachings I had received from the pentecostal / holiness movements. Sometimes, it would go fresh into my memory while some times, I could not focus enough to get those teachings to activate within me. I had to learn to dispel fear and truly learn how to apply Godly faith as the Word of God became my source of inspiration instead of the shock value of oak tree evangelism.

It was me and my Bible on those Sundays and later on, I used the Westminister Confession and the catechisms (with the Bible as the ultimate source of inspiration) for some ‘basic training’ to rewrite simple and basic Bible doctrines coming to a renewed understanding of justification by faith, God really does love me unconditionally, nothing shall ever separate me from the love of God, God is sovereign and provident and omnipotent no matter what happens to Christian America, and that my salvation is secure and firm never to be taken away by anyone, and that Charles Finney is the biggest scumbag to ever walk the earth proclaiming the name of God with his perfectionalism theology.

I’ll tell you, this past year, I have come a far and long, long way forward! Hallelujah bless God. In some areas, I still have quite a bit of distance to go. However, one of the many blessings during the end of 2009 was an article I discovered by Jared Wilson entitled Imperfect Love Drives In All Fear where after reading his article, I felt like I must have known him from somewhere even though I never met the author before because I too grew up with the same types of fears and fearmongering against the same types of people he had to grow up fearing (except his reference to the Baptists was actually “Basically any non-pentecostals”).

But like Wilson, I knew my pastors, Sunday School teachers, and church leaders loved me (I just did not know if God really loved me or not because life was always chaotic that must have been caused by something I did). They cared about my soul. But they also made me a very frightened, timid, paranoid, anxiety-ridden, and powerless believer with no self-confidence and no self esteem. And I too was so ill-equipped for real life, because I too had been given the spirit of fear which was further amplified when life did eventually cave in, crumble apart, and breakdown and those warfare prayers and Charismatic ‘personal prophecies’ for some reason grossly failed….

It seemed that like Wilson, when I went to a new church, a ‘new set’ of fearmongering was at work. Instead of The Smurfs as agents of Satan, people who played the lottery and drank beer, The Olympic Games as the AntiChrist of the Week, and HeMan as the forerunner of New Age thought, it was the DEMONcrats, Madalyn Murray O’Hair wanting to take God off television years after she was dead, and the abortionists that Jerry Falwell claimed to have caused 9-11-01 was the new enemy that it took a repent-a-thon, mega-fast, hyper prayer sessions, 2 Chronicles 7:14 rallies, and defeating the DEMONcrats every November to conquer them.

It was during those alternating Sundays where I did rediscover Faith as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen instead of a formula. I re-discovered Christian spirituality as a lifestyle of grace instead of being a re-legalism of works. I re-discovered the joy of attending church because I wanted to worship Jesus instead of being an obligation to avoid a visit from the “Holy Hitman”. I discovered that missing a Sunday will not give me a incurable disease only cured by vocal repentance in a church service, wreck my car, bankrupt me, give me the flu, miss the rapture, nor cause me to have a bad week at work.

Looking ahead, I know what I still need to work on, but I also choose to rejoice for the progress that has been made in my life and finally getting to start understanding Colossians 1:9-18

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

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Life Fight

Building Church Leaders – Facing Shame Issues in a Small Group – interesting article about when people do not want to get personal in a small group setting. I was always leery because when I used to go to small groups, everyone was staring waiting to see who had the ‘worst’ story or it was a ‘game’ to get you to ‘confess’ something big and they confess something ‘trivial’

Bene Diction Blogs On – A little necromancy for Mr. and Mrs. Bentley – a blog I have been reading for some time; Bene has been posting the latest research from Canadian Rick Hiebert concerning the latest antics of Todd and Jessa Bentley. This time, it’s Jessa’s dream and the recently deceased Oral Roberts is the subject of the dream. It seems that the Bentley’s are “hellbent” (figuratively and literally) on being the ones who proclaim that “they” have the ‘mantle” and ‘double portion” anointing of Oral Roberts (Elijah / Elisha)

GetReligion.org – Dobson’s family squabble – it seems that there may be something more to the story on why Dobson wants 2 million dollars to start another radio program in the spring of this year.

m’kayla’s korner – m’kayla’s korner blog – it seems that every time, I read blogs and web pages that come out in the name of apologetics against Bentley / Lakeland / MorningStar and the latest stuff at IHOP, this person is always providing very helpful and truthful insight via her comments left on those articles. I was able to find her blog and read some of her articles and am very impressed with the content she has on her blog.

The Gospel Masquerade – I have three articles from Ariel’s blog for you to read (1) – The path that leads to life is indeed a narrow one. – (2): – Common Issues in Post-Cult Recovery and finally – (3) – Some of my IHOP “Red Flags” – all based on her experiences while being an intern at IHOP

Cerulean Sanctum – Your Holy Spirit Is W-A-Y Too Safe – a great article from Dan. It has spoken to me in reference to a desire for the Holy Spirit to be even more present in my life while at the same time; the first thing that came into my mind was the sense of fear, trepidation, and “oh-no” not again as in every congregation I was ever a part of that this happened to eventually went into the wild, shameful and silly stuff we’ve seen in many Third Wave Charismtic churches with little to show for it”

Internet Monk – Michael Sends an Update Michael Spencer has updated us on his cancer fight. At the same time as I pray for Spencer, I still pray for David (JollyBlogger) and Matt Chandler (village church) in prayer as they fight the battle of cancer.

T.C. Robinson / New Leaven – Brit Hume’s Advice for Tiger Woods: “Turn to the Christian Faith” – WOW!!! Brit Hume laying the smackdown. way to go Brit!

—-

and finally

KUNDALINI WARNING – Urgent
-by Andrew Strom.

I just saw the video of Rick Joyner announcing that Todd Bentley is back ministering every night at Morningstar in North Carolina and now they have so-called “revival” manifestations eerily similar to Lakeland. They also announced that they are streaming these big meetings every night on their new TV channel – and they are greatly promoting the whole thing.

Now I am a tongues-speaking Pentecostal myself – but can I ask a simple question here please? What kind of “spirit” was it operating in the Lakeland revival – when the leader and main focal-point of the meetings (Todd Bentley) was having an adulterous affair behind the scenes? Was it truly the “Holy” Spirit that was anointing something so sensual and unholy? And now that Todd divorced his wife and married his mistress – are we supposed to welcome him back and this “anointing” with him? What is going on here? Rick Joyner has been warned very specifically by high-level ministries not to do what he is doing now – bringing Todd Bentley back into the limelight. And yet it seems he does not care. Apparently the “manifestations” are all that matter.

So what exactly are these ‘manifestations’ if they are seemingly at home in such an unholy environment? Are they from God at all? (I am talking here about the violent “jerking”, uncontrollable laughter, bodily contortions, drunkenness, ‘portals’, strange “angel” encounters, etc.) Why do we not see such an ‘anointing’ in the Bible? Why aren’t Jesus or the apostles promoting these manifestations if they really are true Revival? Why instead do we see these things all the way through the New Age and Hinduism, etc? Do we not realize that many false religions have their own version of “laying on of hands” that results in these very types of manifestations? This ’spirit’ is not in the Bible – but it is all the way through Kundalini-type Hinduism! Don’t you think this should alarm us?

WHAT is KUNDALINI?

If you search for Kundalini and Shakti on the Internet, you will find that multitudes of people in the New Age and Eastern religions still experience these powerful manifestations. Often this is with the help of a Guru, who touches them on the forehead so that they can experience a “Kundalini Awakening”.

As researcher Robert Walker wrote in 1995:

“The meetings which mystic Hindu gurus hold are called ‘Darshan’. At these meetings devotees go forward to receive spiritual experience from a touch by the open palm of the hand, often to the forehead, by the guru in what is known as the Shakti Pat or divine touch. The raising of the spiritual experience is called raising Kundalini… After a period when the devotee has reached a certain spiritual elevation they begin to shake, jerk, or hop or squirm uncontrollably, sometimes breaking into uncontrolled animal noises or laughter as they reach an ecstatic high. These manifestations are called ‘Kriyas’. Devotees sometimes roar like lions and show all kinds of physical signs during this period. Often devotees move on to higher states of spiritual consciousness and become inert physically and appear to slip into an unconsciousness…”

And as the guru Shri Yogãnandji Mahãrãja wrote: “When Your body begins trembling, hair stands on roots, you laugh or begin to weep without your wishing, your tongue begins to utter deformed sounds, you are filled with fear or see frightening visions… the Kundalini Shakti has become active.”

In China there is a popular Kundalini-type movement called ‘Qigong’. When a Chinese Qigong spiritual master spoke in the USA in 1991, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that many in the crowd began to experience “spontaneous movements”. The master told his audience, “Those who are sensitive might start having some strong physical sensations – or start laughing or crying. Don’t worry. This is quite normal.”

When you see videos of these “kriyas” or other Kundalini-type manifestations, you would often swear that you are watching a modern “Impartation”-type church meeting. (And I say this as someone who believes strongly in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I just don’t believe in “alien” anointings infiltrating the Body of Christ! There is a big difference between Kundalini and the real Holy Spirit).

Since 1993-4, I believe a foreign spirit has been allowed to invade the church – first through Rodney Howard-Browne’s ministry – then Toronto, then the Prophetic movement (which I was part of at the time) and on into Lakeland and many other ministries and movements. I urge people now to “test the spirits” just as we are commanded to in Scripture. Do not let just anyone lay hands on you. This is a powerful spirit and it has the backing of a lot of big-name ministries. In fact, these men and women are the very ones responsible for allowing it to spread right through the body of Christ. And one day they will be answerable to God for doing so.

We are specifically warned in the Bible that the Last Days will be a time of “seducing spirits,” false prophets, ‘lying signs and wonders,’ and that we always need to watch for “angels of light” masquerading as the real thing. Why does the modern church not take these warnings seriously? Aren’t we living in the very days that the Bible warns about?

Right now I need to do something that I have never done in such a way before. I have never before published a list of ministries or movements to watch out for. But this time I have to. This sickness has gone on long enough. I urge you to cut yourself off from the following ministries and their tainted “anointings” my friends. Even though some of these people say “good things” at times, it is simply not worth having any involvement with them due to the tainted anointing that they endorse or minister in themselves. Here is the list-

(1) Todd Bentley.
(2) Rodney Howard Browne – the so-called “Holy Ghost Bartender.”
(2) Rick Joyner or anyone connected with Morningstar Ministries.
(3) John Arnott & any connected with TACF (The “Toronto Blessing”).
(4) Peter Wagner of the ‘New Apostolic Reformation’ who claims to be head of a worldwide network of ‘apostles’ – who publicly endorsed Lakeland and will soon preach at Toronto TACF alongside other “false anointing” advocates.
(5) Mike Bickle and IHOP Kansas City (-I lived nearby for over two years – and know how much they are into all this stuff. Mike Bickle promotes it in his book).
(6) Bob Jones – the Kansas City prophet whose ministry is utterly tainted by it all.
(7) Patricia King and anyone else from ‘Extreme Prophetic.’
(8) John Crowder & anyone connected with “Sloshfest.”
(9) Bill Johnson of Bethel church, Redding – who says some good things but publicly endorsed Lakeland and promotes the “false anointing” very strongly behind the scenes.
(10) Heidi & Rolland Baker of IRIS Ministries – who do good work amongst the poor in Mozambique – but who have also carried and promoted this tainted anointing for years.
(11) Randy Clark, Wes & Stacey Campbell, and other key figures from the “Toronto blessing.”
(12) The Elijah List – and almost anyone featured on it.

Of course there are a huge number of lesser-known preachers and ministries who carry or endorse this Kundalini-type “anointing” around the world. But I have concentrated here on the most influential that I know of. It really is an enormous issue in the church. I urge anyone who is a supporter of any of the above ministries to really check them out thoroughly. If you find (as I have) that they carry or endorse this false Kundalini spirit in the church, then please stop supporting them in any way – and whatever you do, don’t let them “lay hands” on you!

I am putting everything on the line to be “naming names” like this. But I believe it is that serious. How on earth did we get to the point where “kriyas” just like Hinduism are spreading through the church?

Please forward this email to everyone you know, blogs and boards, etc. These people are trying to “relaunch” this whole thing right now. Help us get this warning out. To see a video showing “kriyas” and other Kundalini-type manifestations, please click on the Youtube links below-

Please send feedback on this article to- prophetic@revivalschool.com

God bless you all!

Andrew Strom.

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Articles of Interest 01-15-10