What Should be our Primary Focus
Friday I had the opportunity to listen to a couple speak about their experience in ministry and how God was working through them. To my surprise they attend a church I have been very critical of, going so far as to label the pastor a false teacher and a heretic. The meeting took place over a nice BBQ with some good friends and the idea was that we would come together for fellowship, good food and listen to this guy tell us about his experience in ministry and thus be encouraged in our own ministry. He began by telling us where he was from and immediately a red light came on in my mind saying, "Oh no, is he from that church" and then he had to say it...he had to go and say "I go to the Bethel church".
I can't tell you what went through my mind at that moment because words cannot express how shocked I was to be sitting there listening to a guy firsthand talk about the very things I have been criticizing. I listened to every single word and I honestly was looking for something to show me that all my accusations and thoughts about the Bethel church might be wrong because I never want to be in the place of hindering or criticizing the true work of God. This man, who is just a few years younger than me, proceeded to tell us how much God is working in the Bethel church with story after story after story of how people are being healed physically. The pain in people's bodies disappeared, a person had a missing chunk of their tongue grow back, cancer was falling off and the stories continued to get more amazing as we heard of one guy that had an anointing to melt metal from people's bodies and when he would touch people the metal would just come out and end up in their hands or fall on the ground.
I know many people are wondering why I have such a problem with this because after all isn't this a non-essential issue? I thought about this for a long time and kept coming back to one thing that I refuse to compromise. If I'm wrong about these "miracles" and they are real and people are truly being healed, regardless of how amazing it may be, it's nothing in comparison to what Christ has done for us by saving us from our sins. One is temporary and the other is eternal and yet these miracles are the primary focus in the lives of the Bethel church congregation. As I sat and listened to this guy speak, I never heard a single story of how someone’s life was changed by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. I believe anything less than an absolute primary focus on the redemption of the soul from sin and hell is to cheapen make the death of Christ meaningless. We can always recognize the true move of God because it will always bring us back to cross of Christ where we find redemption from sin through Christ’s atonement. This is how we can know if the prophecy, miracles and teachings of the Bethel church are true. We must always ask, where is this taught in scripture and does it point me back to Christ. The answer is an emphatic NO when it comes to the Bethel church.
08-09-2008 23:35 
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