Here’s a quick rundown of the top stories on mycharisma.com:
TD Jakes Denies Recent Sex-Based Allegations
Recent allegations against Bishop T.D. Jakes, the popular televangelist and leader of The Potter’s House megachurch in Dallas, Texas, have caused a stir in the Christian community.
An unverified report has accused Jakes of being a frequent participant at sex parties hosted by music mogul Sean Combs, known as Diddy. However, a representative for Jakes has dismissed the claims as “unequivocally false and baseless.”
As reported by The Christian Post, “Recent claims circulating on pockets of social media about Bishop T.D. Jakes are unequivocally false and baseless,” Jordan A. Hora, executive director of public relations and communications for the T.D. Jakes Group, T.D. Jakes Ministries and The Potter’s House, told The Christian Post in an exclusive statement Thursday.
Has God Called the Church to Rule the World?
Over the last two decades, I’ve been hearing more and more people equate the New Testament term for church, also called the ekklesia, primarily with influencing secular politics (like instituting a Christian theocracy). This is because the etymology of this word had to do with the way the Greek citizens would assemble to make public policy decisions, as a modern-day congress.
Jesus borrowed this political term from Greek culture to describe His representative body of the kingdom of God on earth (Matt. 16:18, 18:17). People reading this political definition of ekklesia sometimes interpret this to mean that God has called the church to take over the world and become the legislative body of the earth. Often, this is played out by Christians running for office and standing in the gates of power to fulfill the ekklesia mission.
But is this what Jesus was speaking about?
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Christmas: Celebrate the Reason!
In our neighborhood, there is a home where, among the festive lights and exterior decorations of this season, there is a banner that merely says “JESUS. Celebrate the Reason!”
Happily, other homes have some exterior decorations that show the nativity scene or other obvious biblical reminders of the events of the first Christmas—the coming of the Christ child!
At the same time, a few homes in our neighborhood have replicas of Jewish menorahs, spinning dreidels and the Star of David, displayed under blue-and-white lights as reminders of the Jewish Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah. It is also celebrated during this early winter season and was observed by Jesus (Yeshua) as the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22-39).
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