Michele McGinty: May 2008 Archives

OK, so I'm late to the story (as usual) but I'm not buying that there have been resurrections because of the Lakeland Revival:

Hundreds are claiming healing from various ailments, including deafness, cancer, tumors and paralysis. There are also unconfirmed reports of the dead coming back to life.

One of the cases involves a 3-year-old girl, dead for two days, who allegedly woke up and coughed as she was being wheeled into a room to have her organs harvested, Strader said. The hospital denied the report.

Another case involves a woman in West Virginia who had three heart attacks last Saturday, but was revived after family members had made the decision to pull her breathing tube. The woman’s niece, Darla Pence, told Charisma she received prayers of “healing, revival and restoration for your family” one week prior to her aunt’s heart attacks from someone who had been to Lakeland.

Here's a video of Todd Bentely claiming a 13th resurrection:

(via)

Where to start? Doesn't a corpse have to be embalmed before it's buried? I thought it was the law. And if you are in heaven with Jesus, why would you want to return to earth? Bentley admits that he hasn't verified it, why allow a story like that to go out over the air until you've verified its truthfulness?

And as I was watching the video, I kept thinking about his desire for the press to cover the revival. He keeps asking where is the press, as if he's doing it for the publicity.

I'm a cessationist, so of course I'm going to be skeptical but I would think that if God were outpouring his Spirit in Lakeland, then we would be seeing a powerful preaching ministry (that's what happened with The Great Awakening) instead of focusing on signs and wonders. But here's an example of Bentley's teaching:

Here’s what happened. At first I saw heaven open, and as I ascended a ladder into the heavens I saw full vibrant wings and feathers! These feathers were white and as real as they would be in the natural realm; that’s how vivid it was. Then I noticed wings that moved and there was an arm under one wing and another arm under another wing! As the wings lifted I saw every precious gem you could think of under those wings; and then I saw the angel standing, having a body like a man with six wings. I knew it was the angel of finance.

Next, I saw a door called “treasure” and the door was open. Without thinking or considering what to do, I found myself in a treasure room in heaven. The only item in this room was gold coins, and I began stuffing those coins into my pockets until they were falling out. Then, after filling up another pocket, I opened my trousers and started filling my trousers with gold coins. After that, I stuffed them into my suit jacket. I even opened my shirt and started stuffing gold coins down my shirt!

Still in the trance, I asked the Lord, “What am I doing?” “You’re getting the offering!” He said. Now we weren’t receiving the offering yet in the meeting, but God said that I was getting the offering! Now, we don’t usually, if ever, see it that way, yet God was saying this because the offering, the money, is in heaven. After I heard that answer, I made a conscious decision (in this experience) to get even more gold. Now I was collecting more, stuffing as much as possible anywhere I could fit it, even my ears!

Here's what Jesus says of those who need signs and wonders to believe:

ESV Matthew 12:39-40 But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. or just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

ESV Luke 11:29-30 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, "This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

Miracles were bore witness to Chirst:

ESV John 5:36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

You know, Obama and his campaign manager strikes me as pretty shrewd, they figure out a way to game the system so that they can beat the forerunner county by county but when it comes to Obama's church, they seem like they are politically tone deaf. They knew it would be a liability in the fall, that's why they wouldn't let Wright speak, yet Obama continued as a member of the church and even when the church kept making news they stayed. If you're running as a post-racial, post-paritisan candidate, why would you want to be associated with a church that is anything but post-racial? I think that Obama's association says more about his views on race than he probably wants us to know:

Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday that he has resigned from the church where controversial sermons by his former pastor and other ministers created repeated political headaches for the Democratic frontrunner.

"We don't want to have to answer for everything that's stated in the church," Obama told reporters. "We also don't want the church subjected to the scrutiny that a presidential campaign legitimately undergoes."

Obama said he was resigning "with some sadness."

"This is not a decision I come to lightly," he said.

When are these guys going to learn that they can't lie like this without getting caught? Here's video evidence that Axelrod (Obama's campaign manager) doesn't know what the heck he's talking about:

(via)

Because the federal government is about to force you to stop using it. I wonder how many asthma patients will wind up in the emergency room do to problems with an unfamiliar inhaler?

Old-fashioned asthma inhalers that contain environment-harming chemicals will no longer be sold at year's end — and the government is urging patients not to wait until the last minute to switch to newer alternatives.

[...]

Chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, once were widely used to propel the drug into the lungs. But CFC-containing consumer products are being phased out because CFCs damage the Earth's protective ozone layer. As of Dec. 31, asthma inhalers with CFCs can no longer be made or sold in the U.S. Inhalers instead will be powered by ozone-friendly HFAs, or hydrofluoroalkanes.

[...]

The FDA warns that patients will face a learning curve: HFA inhalers may taste and feel different. The spray may feel softer. Each must be primed and cleaned in a specific way to prevent clogs. And they tend to cost more.

OK, so this guy didn't look in the top compartment of his closet for a year? How many of us have parts we don't go to in a year? My attic is about it. And how could she be that quiet that he couldn't hear her?

A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.