My Faith

My faith is the reason for my work. I want my values to reflect God's thoughts and God's ways. My focus, I want to be heavenward. I am conscious that eternity looms beyond the grave. My life is not all there is. I don't need to grab all the gusto, toys, money and pleasure that I can. I don't want to be self-centred and pleasure oriented.

I believe in God. So I want to be spreading the word about His love and His justice. I don't want to circle my wagon, protect myself and hide the light of the Gospel under a bushel. I want my life and my work to show that I know God. My children, neighbours relatives and friends must see God's presence in me and around me.

God does exist and He wants to have a vital, growing relationship with us through Jesus the Christ, His Son. I trust Christ, believe God and live for Him.

I do not seek – I find. - Pablo Picasso

The sound of laughter has always seemed to me the most civilized music in the universe.

To be gentle, tolerant, wise and reasonable required a goodly portion of toughness. - Peter Ustinov

A slothful man will not catch his prey; But the diligent man will get precious wealth. - Proverbs 12

Friends love through all kinds of weather' And families stick together in all kinds of trouble. - Proverbs 17

He who is slack in his work Is a brother to him who destroys. - Proverbs 18

God cares about honesty in the workplace; Your business is His business.

It pays to take life seriously, Things work out when you trust in God. - Proverbs 16

Generous hands are blessed hands because, Because they give bread to the poor. - Proverbs 22

The fear of human opinion disables; But only God protects you from that.

If you let people treat you like a doormat, You'll be quite forgotten in the end. - Proverbs 29

Endings are better than beginnings. Sticking to it is better than standing out. - Ecclesiastes 7

Lord, make us instruments of thy peace. Where there is Hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon; Where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, Faith
where there is despair, hope; where there is Darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
- St Francis of Assissi

March 24,2008
KENNETH HAGIN's FORGOTTEN WARNING
-by J. Lee Grady.

Before he died in 2003, the revered father of the Word-Faith movement corrected his spiritual sons for going to extremes with their message of prosperity. Charismatic Bible teacher Kenneth Hagin Sr. is considered the father of the so-called prosperity gospel. The folksy, self-trained "Dad Hagin" started a grass-roots movement in Oklahoma that produced a Bible college and a crop of famous preachers
including Kenneth Copeland, Jerry Savelle, Charles Capps, Jesse DuPlantis, Creflo Dollar and dozens of others-all of whom teach that Christians who give generously should expect financial rewards on this side of heaven.

Hagin taught that God was not glorified by poverty and that preachers do not have to be poor. But before he died in 2003 and left his Rhema Bible Training Center in the hands of his son, Kenneth Hagin Jr., he summoned many of his colleagues to Tulsa to rebuke them for distorting his message. He was not happy that some of his followers were manipulating the Bible to support what he viewed as greed and selfish indulgence. Those who were close to Hagin Sr. say he was passionate about correcting these abuses before he died. In fact, he wrote a brutally honest book to address his concerns. The Midas Touch was published in 2000, a year after the infamous Tulsa meeting. Many Word-Faith ministers ignored the book. But in light of the recent controversy over prosperity doctrines, it might be a good idea to dust it off and read it again.

Here are a few of the points Hagin made in The Midas Touch:

1. Financial prosperity is not a sign of God's blessing. Hagin wrote: "If wealth alone were a sign of spirituality, then drug traffickers and crime bosses would be spiritual giants. Material wealth can be connected to the blessings of God or it can be totally disconnected from the blessings of God."

2. People should never give in order to get. Hagin was critical of those who "try to make the offering plate some kind of heavenly vending machine." He denounced those who link giving to getting, especially those who give cars to get new cars or who give suits to get new suits. He wrote: "There is no spiritual formula to sow a Ford and reap a Mercedes."

3. It is not biblical to "name your seed" in an offering. Hagin was horrified by this practice, which was popularized in faith conferences during the 1980s. Faith preachers sometimes tell donors that when they give in an offering they should claim a specific benefit to get a blessing in return. Hagin rejected this idea and said that focusing on what you are going to receive "corrupts the very attitude of our giving nature."

4. The "hundredfold return" is not a biblical concept. Hagin did the math and figured out that if this bizarre notion were true, "we would have Christians walking around with not billions or trillions of
dollars, but quadrillions of dollars!" He rejected the popular teaching that a believer should claim a specific monetary payback rate.

5. Preachers who claim to have a "debt-breaking" anointing should not be trusted. Hagin was perplexed by ministers who promise"supernatural debt cancellation" to those who give in certain offerings. He wrote in The Midas Touch: "There is not one bit of Scripture I know about that validates such a practice. I'm afraid it is simply a scheme to raise money for the preacher, and ultimately it can turn out to be dangerous and destructive for all involved."

(Many evangelists who appear on Christian television today use this bogus claim. Usually they insist that the miraculous debt cancellation will occur only if a person "gives right now," as if the anointing for this miracle suddenly evaporates after the prime time viewing hour. This manipulative claim is more akin to witchcraft than Christian belief.) Hagin condemned other hairbrained gimmicks designed to trick
audiences into emptying their wallets. He was especially incensed when a preacher told his radio listeners that he would take their prayer requests to Jesus' empty tomb in Jerusalem and pray over
them there-if donors included a special love gift. "What that radio preacher really wanted was more people to send in offerings," Hagin wrote. Thanks to the recent resurgence in bizarre donation schemes
promoted by American charismatics, the prosperity gospel is back under the nation's microscope. It's time to revisit Hagin's concerns and find a biblical balance.

Hagin told his followers: "Overemphasizing or adding to what the Bible actually teaches invariably does more harm than good." If the man who pioneered the modern concept of biblical prosperity blew
the whistle on his own movement, wouldn't it make sense for us to listen to his admonition?

~J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma. The Midas Touch is available
from Kenneth Hagin Ministries at- www.rhema.org

~SOURCE: http://www.charismamag.com/fireinmybones/