Caught this last Saturday, on the way to the West End markets with our godparents... what a sight! Well trust my photography skills that I managed to get a stray lamppost into the shot as well -oops! Anyways we're still enjoying a wonderfully cool summer, that now seems to be gently slipping into Autumn... beautiful!!
Last Friday we went with a friend to listen to a famous visiting Christian evangelist, at the Brisbane entertainment centre. We had heard much criticism of him before, but we also had read one of his books, and he seemed quite sound in his writing; to lay-persons like us at least, the theology seemed intact and we were encouraged by some of the ideas. But knowing that this evangelist had some less than raving reviews to go with his celebrity status, Joerg and I prayed over the course of that day, that God would send us a sign that we shouldn't go. Well there was no big storm, lightning strike, or unusual traffic jam that prevented us from going, so we took a 40-minute train ride to Boondall to have a listen to this person who was raising so much controversy.
Less of a crowd compared to Hillsong United conference, but there were still enough people to fill the indoor stadium. The musicians played worship songs, and they were good. Then the evangelist finally appeared on stage, after being held up in a traffic jam on the motorway, and it started off alright. Later as he got into his message, we began to feel more uneasy. It was then that I realised that what I was listening to was none other than a full-on version of the prosperity gospel. I had heard people talk about this before, but never personally heard it for myself. To cut a long story short, the three of us walked out midway through the meeting.
As we walked back to the train station- and having missed the half-hourly train- we reflected on what we had heard, and how it was that we ended up there. I was reflecting in particular about our prayer during the day for guidance about whether to go, and wondered why God let us go to this meeting when the speaker was clearly off the mark. Then I realised that perhaps God did want us to go. Interestingly, the speaker himself did open his message by saying that "All of you are here for a reason." I think that the reason why the three of us were there, was so that we could learn to discern for ourselves the voice of truth from voices of deception. It really was an ear-opener. But we were also wondering, how could the pastors on the stage - 10 of them, no less! -allow him to carry on speaking and condone the misleading of His people? It came to me that the people wanted to hear that message. They wanted to hear that their businesses were soon going to be booming. They wanted to hear that they would soon receive wealth beyond their wildest dreams, in no uncertain terms. And this was what they heard from him.
I guess we all do this as well- our perceptions and beliefs are biased toward what we want to hear. But we do need to strain all the things that we hear with the sieve of the Bible, so that we are not misled into believing what we want to believe, rather than what is the truth. And we can only do that if we open the Word enough to let it soak into our minds and hearts and guide what we see and hear. Don't be deceived! And oh yes, having brothers and sisters around to bounce off your doubts helps alot too!
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