Mrs. Benny Hinn

This video is so bad I hate to even post it. However, it may be the single funniest "blooper" that I have ever seen. What bothers me so much about it is that it is not quite a blooper...she is actually serious about it!

Perfection in God's Economy

The idea of "God's economy" has figured into my thoughts a lot lately. What I mean by this idea of God's economy is that God has completely different valuations of things than we do. In Matthew 5 God lauds the meek while the world admires the strong. God blesses the peacemakers and the persecuted, while the world claps for the victor.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light
(Matthew 5:3-12 NIV)

Lately I have tried to read the scriptures through this lens of God's economy. Today I went back over the end of chapter 1 in Romans:

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
(Romans 1:29-31 NIV)

Did you see it? God put gossiping and disobeying your parents in the same list as murderers! If we were putting together a list of things that resulted from a depraved mind would we include these two things? I doubt it...but remember this is God's economy....God's valuation system, and he does things differently that we do.

Even at 2 years old, my son disobeys us. Does this mean that he is depraved? I have gossiped in the past week or so? Am I depraved? YES! I am depraved. My son is depraved. Sin is in our human natures. If left to my own devices apart from God I exhibit many of the traits that are listed in these verses. Sadly enough, my son is depraved too, and has been since birth. OK...so what can we do about this?

This is where grace comes in. This 5-letter word is possibly the sweetest in the English language. Grace allows us to be forgiven and for a depraved, disobedient, lying, gossip to be welcomed into the true family of God. By the ultimate show of God's grace, the sacrifice of His son, he has made us perfect and we are no longer held in bondage by our depraved heart.

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts

I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
(Hebrews 10:11-22)

God forgives us for doing all of the evil things that we do with the simple admonition that we are to continually strive for perfection in our day to day life just as the sacrifice of Jesus' life has made us perfect in God's eyes.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
(Matthew 5:48)

I don't know about you, but this changes things for me. To know that I, at my core, am depraved, but that God has made me "perfect" is almost too much to comprehend. To be welcomed into his family because of God's good grace, this is incomprehensible in the human economy, but it makes perfect sense in God's economy.

This post also appears on Digitial Devotion.

What About Those Who Have Never Heard the Gospel?

What is the fate of the millions of people that have never been formally exposed to the Gospel? What of the minions who it seems never got to make the choice to allow Jesus Christ to become Lord and Savior in their lives?

This is a question that I have struggled with for years. My wife and I have discussed it together on several occasions. My gut wants to carve out a separate path for them that would somehow give them a second chance. I don't want the teenager in Iran to be held accountable for his unbelief in the same way that the preacher's son is. I will say up front that my compassion begins to override my beliefs here and I want to start making exceptions for people that haven't had all the chances that I have had. It just doesn't seem fair that the Iranian kid is judged by the same standards that I am.

This came up again in my devotional time this morning. I read Romans 1:18-21:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
(Romans 1:18-21)

This verse teaches that God has been clearly revealed through Creation. As I recall, C.S. Lewis backs up the position that nature declares the existence of God in Mere Christianity. One thing to keep in mind is that we as human beings are are part of his creation as well. It is not just trees and butterflys and such.

This verse goes on the tell that the "wrath" of God is poured out on those that choose not to believe after they have seen God revealed through His creation. Of course, one would assume that the wrath of God involves eternal torment in Hell, but that is not specifically enunciated in the passage. What later passages (Romans 1:21-32) do vividly describe is the downward spiral into sin that happens once someone rejects God as revealed in His creation. What Paul described in these later verses is not a pretty picture, although it does look a whole lot network television today. Chew on that for a while.

So here is the wrap up of what I took away from this passage:

1. The power and nature of God has always been revealed though his creation
2. Those who see His creation (everyone) and reject God receive His wrath
3. Those who reject God will find themselves on a degrading spiral of sinful living

The question of where these "rejectors" go for eternity is still not concretely answered, all this passage teaches is that they will receive God's wrath. While it is easy, and may be correct, to assume that they end up in Hell, that should not change anything about how we treat our responsibility to tell them about Christ. Regardless of their eternal fate, the experience of God's wrath and the bondage into the degrading temporal life of sin as described in Romans 1:21-32 is something that no one wants to experience. While we as Christians do not have the power to "win souls" or to release these individuals from this bondage, we can do everything in our power to show people another better way of living in Christ. Of course this might mean preaching the Word, but it may also mean living a Christ-like life day to day. For me, this might mean keeping my attitude, temper, and grace in check as the world I have built crumbles around me, or it may mean putting others before myself and acting with humility when I am on top of my game. The bottom line is I should strive to live my life so that everything I do and every action I take points the rejectors toward the "eternal power and divine nature" or God.

As I researched this issue, I had a look at the following sites:

• Rebbecca provides an excellent commentary on Romans 1:18-20
• Another well written resource from GotQuestions.org
• An answer from the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministries

This post also appears on Digitial Devotion.