|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Letters Archive: March 2004 Back to our Homepage Dear Loving Church Family and Friends, The Bible says in Matthew 24:24, that in the last days if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived. Several weeks ago our daughter who lives in Raleigh, NC called us with a sense of urgency in her voice. She had been watching the Christian TV station while cooking dinner. The “Praisathon” was in progress and the person speaking was saying, “this is your miracle moment”. They used the Scripture found in Psalm 68:19 to tell the viewers that they had to pledge $68.19 per month to this national TV conglomerate in order to receive God’s “benefit package” that was outlined in this Psalm. The speaker continued to increase the pressure by saying, “you can’t call later if you want to receive your blessing. This is your ‘miracle moment’ and you will not be blessed if you don’t make your pledge now to give $68.19 a month.” That’s when our daughter called us for help. Kendal said she was confused by what she was hearing. She desperately wanted to obey God and she wanted to be blessed and to receive His “benefit package”. The question she asked was this, “should I call and pledge $68.19 a month? Is the speaker right? Will God stop blessing me if I don’t respond to this “miracle moment?” This literally shocked us! Kendal has always given scripturally as outlined in Malachi 3. She gives her tithes and offerings to her local church. When she was small, she always gave 10% of her allowance as a tithe, then she would give another 50% of her allowance to missions. As a child she started her pattern of being a “radical giver”. You can understand why we were shocked to see the confusion Kendal experienced listening to the Praisathon speaker.. We told Kendal that by listening to this speaker on the Praisaton, she had come under the influence of the spirit of witchcraft. According to the late Derek Prince in his book BLESSING OR CURSE, whenever someone uses manipulation and intimidation, it opens the door for a spirit of witchcraft. Because many people do not know the Biblical pattern for giving and do not know how to hear God speaking to them, they trust the speakers they hear on Christian TV and obey them. Kendal knows how to hear from God and we told her that she does not need to depend on someone else telling her what amount she must give and where she must send the money if she wants to be blessed. She is already blessed. Her years of faithfulness in giving her tithes and offerings to the local church as God has commanded, have caused the windows of heaven to be opened and God has poured out a blessing that she doesn’t have room enough to receive. Because of this experience with Kendal, we realized that many Christians are in distress over the increased pressure of the appeals being made for money by Christian ministries that aren’t under the covering of a local church. These ministries are using manipulation and intimidation to get Christians to send them money. We’d like to share some facts that will liberate you from the guilt being placed on people who receive appeals for money through the mail and on Christian TV. 1. A recent poll conducted by the Barna Research group showed that 70%
of Christians do not attend church regularly and claim that they do not
have a church home. This probably means that those Christians send their
tithes to ministries they see on TV. Although the TV ministers proclaim
that people will be blessed by sending money to them, the Christians are
not experiencing the “blessing” because their giving is not
scriptural After hearing from our daughter and realizing the confusion she had experienced from watching only 45 minutes of Christian TV, we began to pray and ask God if He wanted us to share this with our Church Family. His response surprised us. He told us that the real issue in all of this is “prayer”. I was reminded of the frequency with which as a child, I would see my Grandfather on his knees praying. Also, during the years I lived at home, it was a regular occurrence to see my parents on their knees praying. The lesson I felt God was teaching me is that “prayerlessness” is the tragic consequence of Christian TV. Instead of seeing parents and grandparents on their knees, children see them sitting in front of the TV watching Christian programs. Prayer is happening less and less in our churches and in our homes. The fruit of prayerlessness is manifesting everywhere. Recently Dad Smolchuck mailed us a tape by Jim Seregow who is pastor of an Assemblies of God church in California. Jim and I grew up together attending Evangel Assembly in Detroit where Dad pastored for 12 years. Dad told us that tears came to his eyes as he listened to Jim’s sermon entitled, “Why Belong To A Local Church?” On the tape, Jim recalled how prayer was the foundation of Evangel Assembly when Dad was the pastor. Before each service, many would be kneeling at the altar, seeking God for His anointing and direction for the service. After church was over on Sunday nights, people would come to the altar and spend two hours praying before they went home. There were times when the church would start a “Prayer Chain” and people would commit to pray at the same time each day (or night) for a week, so there was non-stop prayer around the clock. Sometimes this would be extended for many weeks at a time. Jim Seregow was impacted, as I was, because we had a Biblical church. The Bible says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Over 20 years ago when the Christian TV station in Saginaw was getting started, owners, Garth and Tina Coonce, asked us for help. We provided Prayer Counselors, furniture for their first “set” and assisted them in other ways. As a result, they asked us to put our Church services on TV and they would give us free air time. It sounded like a good way to reach our community. As the years went by, we discovered that people in the community would recognize our face when they saw us around town.. But the impact on the community for Christ wasn’t happening through the TV program. Many more people were coming to Christ through our outreach ministries like Total Life Center and Clothed With Love than through the TV program. After being on TV seven years, (paying the bill for air time for many of those years), the Church Board joined me in a week of fasting and prayer to ask God if we were to continue the church’s TV program. God spoke the same thing to myself and every board member, “discontinue the TV program.” Instead of spending the time and money to produce a TV program, He wanted us to focus on making His House a House of Prayer and also going into all the world to preach the gospel through our local and foreign missions outreaches. Matthew 21:13 and Isaiah 56:7 speak so clearly... “My House shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” During this election year especially, Isaiah 54:is so important, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Joyfully Serving the Master and His People, Pastor Fred and Jetta Smolchuck |
View the Pastor's
• July 2007 •
Meet Pastor Fred Words to Live By • Daily Bible Reading Guide • Better Life Course by Randal Smolchuck |
|
|
|