Jeff, Yeah I think most of us have been both the predator and they prey. Thanks for your honesty brother.

Maynard, I’ve grown up in the Church of Christ but now think I might be charismatic. Cool! I have come to see everything as a spiritual battle pitting satan’s band of warriors against those of us who have signed up to battle with our Lord.

LKT- your statement makes my heart hurt. I pray you find peace in Christ and can move past the pain you feel and rejoin the body with all of it’s infirmities one day.

It is permissable to say T.D. Jakes on your blog? If so, while reading your blog I was reminded of sermon I heard of his. As Charismatics are want to do, Jakes began talking about demons and how Satan has them well organized and they know that they are to kill, steal, and destroy. Obviously God is stronger than Satan and Jesus defeated him at the Cross. However, he still has power when he is allowed and many Christians are influenced by him as are the people who don’t know Jesus. Sadly, while church people/Christians argue and pander and squabble and fight and flaunt power, satan’s demons are well organized. I don’t remember in Scripture where demons and witches are arguing, but we know a plethora of examples where Christians lose focus. As some of your guests have pointed out and I’m sure you agree the more our focus is on God, the more we are truly His, the more effective we’ll be for God and His Kingdom. Awesome post, brother. Keep it up.

JMont, Don’t you mean All Saints day? That’s the Christian version of that (or in some churches Fall Fest).

Wes, thanks. Also thanks for posting that video on how to memorize the Greek Alphabet. Genius.

Philip, thanks man. You’ve always been encouraging, thanks for getting me to write again brother. You’ve helped a lot.

Sheila, well said.

Jeremy and Tracy, Yeah you’re right people have always been people. But what I am talking about isn’t as much human nature as it is the way these Christians began to look at power. There’s some brilliant stuff in the book of Acts about the way Jesus turned their views of power upside down. In fact, I think that’s the main reason Paul is writing 2nd Corinthians, to address these kinds of power plays.

With that said, you’re right I think that even the first Christians struggled with this, but with the conversion of Constantine it became systematized. This became the natural way we interacted with one another. Thanks again for the thoughts to both of you!

LKT, I’m sorry. I know that church can chew us up and spit us out sometime. May God restore the years that the locusts have eaten.

Keith, thanks for stopping by. That’s spot on, and part of that is dying to the systems that seem to work so well for others. I have heard it said that a good translation of John 19 is Jesus saying to Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this system.” That’s the nature we put on display.