3 Things I don’t want to hear in a sermon:
1. I don’t want to hear that I need to tithe or give money to receive God’s blessings.
2. I don’t want to hear that I need to be controlled by someone else to be healed.
3. I don’t want to hear that I need to be indecent or perform indecent acts in order to receive Christ into my body.
My dear friends, many false prophets have gone out into the world. So do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.
My dear children, you belong to God and have defeated them; because God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world. 5 And they belong to the world, so what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. But those who are not from God do not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit that is true and the spirit that is false. ~ 1 John 4:1, 4-6
I don’t like sharing negative media, but I heard, read and saw some things this week that are completely against my belief, knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ and the Word God delivered to us, His people, through Jesus.
There was a truly disturbing video on Facebook feed about a man people call a pastor (Lesego Daniel of Rabboni Center Ministries, in Garankuwa, South Africa), who put members of the congregation into a trance. While the people were entranced the “pastor” man hit some, punched some, kicked others, he even walked on a few. He instructed other congregants to do the same. He boasted that his sheep would not react unless he instructed them too. Then he told the entranced people to “AWAKE” and they jumped up like puppets yanked on a string. In another disturbing scene of the same video, the man called the people sheep and told them to eat grass. They did. {As of the writing of this post, the videos I saw a couple of days ago, have been deleted from YouTube, but articles and photos are still online.}
While I was researching the above story online, I came across another, impossibly MORE DISTURBING story about another man people call reverend (Rev. Njohi of Lord’s Propeller Redemption in Nairobi,(Dandora Phase 2), Kenya) who banned the wearing of undergarments (bras and panties, folks!) among the female congregants (both adults and children). In the article, it reported that he “outlawed” the wearing panties to church and insisted the women teach their daughters the same. Why? So that they can “receive Christ into their bodies easily”.
I’m sick. I’m outraged. I truly want to find these two men and beat them with my own hands for attempting to shame the Word of God in such a blasphemous manner. With some extra kicks for the mis-education of these people who apparently have some desire to know God. I want to shove grass down one throat while the other is forced to parade around him without garments at all.
I want to see done to them what they have done to others, but of course, I won’t. But it remains, as a Believer in Christ, I feel violated.
Where are the leaders in the congregations? Where are the leaders of the families? I want to know where the husbands and the fathers are in the congregation where the females are being prepped for sexual assault in the name of faith? What man in his right mind and his right faith would allow his wife and daughter to hear, listen and obey such trash? What true Brother in Christ would allow such for his unmarried Sisters in Christ? Where are the believers and thinkers in either congregation?
As horrible as all that is, it was nearly equal in offense to hear a pastor of a church I visited demean the congregation financially – calling them broke, telling them to call each other broke and insisting people stand up to announce how much they were giving in addition to their tithes to match a financial collection goal the pastor set himself – in order to “sow into another church” clear across the country. I literally sat back crossed my legs and my arms and said aloud, “This man is off the chain.” More astonishing still was that people continued to stand up to shout out how much they were going to give. What made this so disturbing? Hearing a pastor teach that people’s broken state was directly tied to the amount of money they gave or withheld from an organization. Hearing anyone teach people that the amount of money they give to a church organization directly correlates to how God blesses them, really infuriates me.
GOD’S GRACE CANNOT BE BOUGHT. It’s a gift. All you have to do to receive it is BELIEVE.
The fact that the pastor quoted Ephesians 2:8 to the people and they didn’t get the message of God’s word because they were focused on the messenger told me a lot about the ears and hearts of those who so desperately want to be numbered among God’s elect but they keep missing Him in the thunder of applause they praise men with.
I mean that you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. 9 It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it. 10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. ~ Ephesians 2:8-10
Chances are nothing significant will happen, here in the world, to men who are leading people astray in the name of Christ. The world is ripe for such. These men will continue to experience the illusion of success in this world. They will consider themselves successful because many people believe and follow them over God’s True, Free, Loving and Eternal Word. It should be enough for me to know that these false prophets will have an eternity to experience God’s judgement.
The beast was allowed to say proud words and words against God, and it was allowed to use its power for forty-two months. 6 It used its mouth to speak against God, against God’s name, against the place where God lives, and against all those who live in heaven. 7 It was given power to make war against God’s holy people and to defeat them. ~ Revelation 13:5-7
Jesus said to his followers, “Things that cause people to sin will happen, but how terrible for the person who causes them to happen! 2 It would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large stone around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to sin. ~ Luke 17:1-2
Referenced articles:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/lesego-daniel-preacher-tells-congregation-3011825
http://www.kenyan-post.com/2014/02/shock-as-pastor-orders-ladies-to-go-to.html
