My favorite Christmas album is Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song. For me, it highlights the perfect Christmas spirit, and it also has the most anointed version of “O Holy Night” that I’ve ever heard. Nat’s voice and the arrangements always make me feel like it’s Christmas, even in Las Vegas in the middle of July. —Felicia Abraham
I think Mariah Carey has one of the most impressive voices of all time. Even though her album Merry Christmas came out in 1994 (20 years ago!), it’s still my favorite. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is one of the most joyful, upbeat Christmas tunes I know of. Range-wise, her version of “O Holy Night” is untouchable. I love that she includes some songs about Jesus, even though she’s a pop artist with a secular audience. “Jesus Born on This Day” is so heavenly. You can have your lights, decorations, cookies … but for me, as far as creating a Christmas atmosphere, it’s all about this album! —Felicia Abraham
I’m often asked, “When should I leave a church or ministry team? How bad does it have to get?”
I respond, “Who sent you to the church you presently attend?”
The majority of the time they answer, “God did.”
“If God sent you,” I reply, “do not leave until God releases you. If the Lord is silent, He is often saying, ‘Don’t change a thing. Do not leave. Stay where I have placed you!’”
When God does instruct you to leave, you will go out with peace, no matter what the condition of the ministry: “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace” Is. 55:12, KJV). Therefore, your departure will not be based on the actions or behavior of others but rather on the Spirit’s leading.
So leaving a ministry is not based on how bad things are. To leave with an offended or critical spirit is not the plan of God. It is reacting rather than acting on His guidance. Romans 8:14 (NKJV) says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Notice it does not say, “For as many as react to difficult situations, these are sons of God.”
Almost every time the word son is used in the New Testament, it comes from the two Greek words teknon and huios. A good definition for the word teknon is “one who is a son by mere fact of birth.”
When my first son, Addison, was born, he was John Bevere’s son by mere fact that he came from my wife and me. When he was in the nursery in the midst of all the other newborns, you could not recognize him as my son by personality. When friends and family came to visit, they could not pick him out except by the nametag above his crib. He did not possess anything that set him apart. Addison would be considered a teknon of John and Lisa Bevere.
We find teknon used in Romans 8:15–16. It says that because we have received the spirit of adoption, “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children [teknon] of God.” When a person receives Jesus Christ as Lord, he is a child of God by fact of the new birth experience. (See John 1:12.)
The other Greek word translated sons in the New Testament is huios. Many times it is used in the New Testament to describe “one who can be identified as a son because he displays the character or characteristics of his parents.” As my son Addison grew, he started looking and acting like his father. When Addison was 6, Lisa and I took a trip and left him with my parents. My mother told my wife that Addison was almost a carbon copy of his daddy. His personality was like mine when I was his age. As he has grown, he has become more like his dad. He now can be recognized as John Bevere’s son, not only by the fact of his birth but also by the characteristics and a personality that resemble his father’s.
So, to put it simply, the Greek word teknon means “babies or immature sons,” and the Greek word huios is most often used to describe “mature sons.”
Looking at Romans 8:14 again, it reads: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons [huios] of God.” We can see clearly here that it is the mature sons who are led by the Spirit of God.
Immature Christians are less likely to follow the leading of the Spirit of God. Most often they react or respond emotionally or intellectually to circumstances they face. They have not yet learned to act only on the Spirit of God’s leading.
As Addison grows, he will progress in character development. The more mature he becomes, the more responsibility I will entrust to him. It is wrong for him to stay immature. It is not God’s will that we remain babies.
One way the character of Addison has grown is by facing difficult situations. When he started school, he met up with some “bullies.” I heard some of the things these rough kids were doing and saying to my son, and I wanted to go and deal with it. But I knew that would be wrong. For me to intervene would hinder Addison’s growth.
So my wife and I continued to counsel him at home, preparing him to face the persecutions at school. He grew in character through obeying our counsel in the midst of his suffering.
This is similar to what God does with us. The Bible says, “Though He [Jesus] was a Son [Huios], yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8, emphasis added).
Physical growth is a function of time. No 2-year-old child has ever been 6 feet tall. Intellectual growth is a function of learning. Spiritual growth is a function of neither time nor learning, but rather of obedience. Now look at what Peter says: “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1 Pet. 4:1, emphasis added).
A person who has ceased from sin is a perfectly obedient child of God. He is mature. He chooses God’s ways, not his own. Just as Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered, we learn obedience by the difficult circumstances we face. When we obey the Word of God that is spoken by the Holy Spirit, we will grow and mature in times of conflict and suffering.
Our knowledge of Scripture is not the key. Obedience is.
Now we understand one reason why we have people in the church who have been Christians for 20 years, who can quote verses and chapters of the Bible, who have heard a thousand sermons and have read many books but still wear spiritual diapers. Every time they meet with difficult situations, rather than responding by the Spirit of God, they seek to protect themselves in their own way. They are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). They never come to the knowledge of the truth because they do not apply it.
Truth must be allowed to have its way in our lives if we are going to grow and mature. It is not enough to give mental assent to truth without obeying it. Even though we continue to learn, we never mature because of disobedience.
John Bevere is a popular speaker at conferences and churches and the author of best-sellers The Bait of Satan and The Fear of the Lord. He is host of The Messenger TV show and directs Messenger International ministry. This article was excerpted from his popular book The Bait of Satan.
In his new book, The Cross, Rod Parsley shares how he believes society has diluted an important focus on the symbol of Christ’s sacrifice and why Christians should actively strive to recapture its significance in this critical season for the church. Charisma recently checked in with Parsley to ask him about the book, its inspiration and why the cross is “scandalous.” Here’s what he had to say.
Charisma: Do you feel this is the most important book you’ve written? Why?
Rod Parsley: I’ll leave it for others to sort out which of my books are the most important. Certainly I consider it a timely message for the body of Christ. It has been a two-year labor of love for me, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process.
I do believe this is a critical season for the church. When I was researching Culturally Incorrect a few years ago, I was shocked to learn that just 4 percent of Generation Y—my daughter’s generation—were Bible-believing Christians. That compares to 35 percent of my generation and 65 percent of my parents’ generation. We certainly can’t afford any greater erosion of the church!
The cross has been the centerpiece of my preaching for more than 30 years. In part, I felt impressed to write this book now in order to bring some neglected truths back to the forefront of our national conversation. I’m convinced that the answers to today’s major moral issues will not be found in the halls of Congress, the decisions of the Supreme Court, within the platform of a political party or in the talking points of elected officials. The answers are found at the foot of an old rugged cross. The sooner we realize this, the more readily we’ll see the moral decline of our nation turnaround.
Charisma: You write that we live in a cross-less generation. How has the cross lost its significance in our modern world?
Parsley: I’ve noticed a trend for the past few years where the cross is more commonplace than ever, yet it’s being trivialized as never before. They dangle around the necks of entire constellations of godless gyrating pop-stars. Professional athletes brand their bodies with cross tattoos of every size and variation imaginable. But for many of them, their lifestyle portrays a stunning ignorance of the cross’s meaning.
Additionally, the culture has marginalized the cross to a greater degree than at any other moment in my lifetime. In the public square, a fatally flawed interpretation of the Constitution has essentially driven the cross from our public landmarks and cityscapes.
And sadly, the church has followed suit. Many modern churches don’t render the cross as the focal point of its architecture, and it has largely disappeared from the interior and exterior of our church buildings. Maybe we’ve listened to too many consultants who have convinced us that the cross belongs to the last century or that it’s bad marketing.
As I’ve been saying for many years, there is much to be gained by a return to the discarded values of the past. Certainly that includes a reverence for Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross.
Charisma: When did the gospel drastically change your life?
Parsley: My family attended a number of Free Will Baptist churches on the south side of Columbus, Ohio, when I was a boy. Even at a young age I was fascinated by the stained-glass windows in those churches, each depicting a biblical scene that was superimposed upon a large cross. In those days, there were no self-imposed taboos about the preaching of the cross. That’s why I dedicated this book to the Free Will Baptist preachers who painted a vivid picture in my mind about the sacrifice of Christ, the love displayed on Calvary and the desire to help humanity find their way to the foot of the cross.
Charisma: Why do you call the cross of Jesus Christ scandalous?
Parsley: Because that’s what Scripture says! Paul records in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” The Greek word rendered “stumbling block” is skandalon. That’s where our English word scandal comes from. It actually describes something that causes a person to trip or an obstacle that stands in his or her path.
The message of Jesus and the cross was a stone of stumbling for the religious, tradition-loving Jews and an absurdity to the trendy, intellectual Greeks. And those are essentially the same responses of those who reject that message today.
The cross is scandalous because it’s an affront to man’s pride, to his wisdom and intellect, to his self-righteousness. There is something deeply ingrained in the collective heart of fallen mankind that demands a better, nobler, prettier narrative than the cross offers. In our fallen state, we can’t believe that the pathway to redemption is so simple and straightforward. Only when we embrace God’s offer of salvation can we see this scandal for the truth that it is.
Charisma: We see revival crusades happening more frequently. Do you see more of a need for the gospel emerging in the United States?
Parsley: This generation has the same desperate need for the gospel that every generation before it has had. Those of us who grew up in the Church sometimes adopt the mindset that we inherited our faith from our parents. But we are each responsible for our response to God’s offer of salvation. Ultimately, the goal of this book is for readers to be so radically transformed and motivated that their life’s mission becomes to introduce others to the love of God that motivated Him to send His one and only Son as our substitute and provide us with life everlasting.
If there are more revival services today, that is probably a function of more people in need of reviving! My prayer is that the lasting fruit that comes from these revivals is an influx of the jewels of souls being placed in the crown of our Savior.
Charisma: How can we as a culture regain reverence for the message of the cross?
Parsley: There has been a lot of bad theology spread by theologians of prosperity regarding the cross in the past 10-15 years, with a stream of books calling for a “reimagining” or “reinterpreting” of the cross.
The cross does not need to be rethought. It needs to be proclaimed. As ministers of the gospel fulfill their divine calling and preach the cross, people will give it the reverence it deserves.
Jesus said it best: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32, emphasis added).
Charisma: How can Christians evangelize effectively to their friends and family?
Parsley: The most effective means of evangelism is one the evangelist will do—and that includes the evangelists who sit in our pews.
I am proud of our work with [my television show] Breakthrough, and we have the documented results to prove that we are adding daily to the kingdom of God. But my image and voice via television are not nearly as effective as a faithful saint simply telling friends and family members what Jesus Christ has done for him or her and what He will do for them.
But it takes commitment! That’s why the church, in addition to winning the lost, needs to be about the business of edifying and encouraging the saints to be ministers of the gospel where they are most influential.
Mary Pappas wasn’t sure she’d have a shot at a normal life. Diagnosed with a rare form of cancer of the thymus gland at the age of 23, she then battled cancer no less than six times—plus suffered a miscarriage—and lived to tell about all of it.
In her new book, Courage, Hope and Healing, Pappas writes of the first tumor doctors found when she was a young newlywed, which turned out to be just one of many. She endured radiation, chemotherapy, experimental treatment and surgery after surgery.
“You learn who you are and who Christ is when you’re right in the middle of your needs—when you are weak and God is strong,” she says.
Pappas says she learned to rely on this truth again when she had her miscarriage. It was devastating, as she believed God had promised her a child.
“I thought, ‘Lord, You blew it.’ I said, ‘I’m not getting up off this floor until You tell me something,’” she says.
God did speak, promising restoration and a double blessing. A year later, she gave birth to healthy twin boys.
“He makes a way when there seems to be no way,” she says. “Even though we go through really hard things in life, God sees the big picture that we don’t see.”
For Pappas, who is finally cancer-free after 30 years, God has not only restored life, but also is using her to speak into the lives of others. Today, she is an advocate for cancer patients and survivors, using her story to offer encouragement at churches, conferences and retreats, saying God used her to help those who suffer with sickness or loss even when she was in the middle of her own cancer battles.
“You never know when you’re an answer to someone’s prayers,” she says. “I want people to know that they are valuable. Their life can make a difference.” —Felicia Abraham
Six hundred seventy-three young people made public commitments to Christ through baptism on the shores of Daytona Beach, Fla., this summer. New Spring Church in Anderson, S.C., saw more than 2,500 middle and high school students attend an annual summer camp, dubbed The Gauntlet, where more than 300 young people were saved in addition to those baptized.
The event marked the largest occasion of baptisms in the church’s history.
“We have seen so much healing and so much brokenness being completed,” says Brad Cooper, the church’s student director. “We’re just so pumped!” —Felicia Abraham
About two years ago, a casting producer working with a major television studio contacted me about starring in a new reality TV series about women of faith.
The producers wanted to follow me around at work, at church and at home. I prayed about it and decided it wasn’t what the Holy Spirit had in mind for my life. I don’t think the show was ever produced, but over the last two years, many “Christian” reality TV shows have hit the airwaves. Some, like Kirk Cameron’s The Way of the Master, are inspiring. Others, like Duck Dynasty, are so popular that the faces of the Robertsons stare at me from lunchboxes every time I shop at Wal-Mart.
What’s more, a slew of new “Christian” reality TV shows are in the works. Some essentially mock Christians while others just let Christians mock themselves. Preachers of L.A. is one of the latter and has sparked so much controversy—and probably high ratings and advertising revenue—that a copycat is already emerging, called Thicker Than Water. The new show seemingly hopes to blend Preachers of L.A. and Duck Dynasty with a jazzy twist.
Bravo describes the show this way: “This southern family integrates their strong religious conviction with their penchant for the finer things in life. With the belief that ‘God wants us all to be millionaires,’ the Tankards aim to be the best and brightest in everything they do.”
The trailer for the new show shows the Tankard family playing croquet in a lush green yard at their Nashville, Tenn., mansion. One of the daughters celebrates hitting the ball through the wires when you suddenly hear best-selling jazz musician Ben Tankard’s voiceover explain, “The Tankard clan is a blended family. We are the black Brady Bunch.”
The trailer goes on to display the interior of the Tankards’ luxury home, complete with its indoor fountain, expensive chandeliers and grand piano.
“We live life on the good side. We live in a three-level mansion … seven vehicles to drive,” Tankard says. “Plus, I love my airplanes. My financial success comes from my musical talent. I’ve been poor; now I’m rich. Believe me, rich is better.”
Tankard’s wife, Jewel, then appears on the video, explaining how the first time she realized God wanted her to be rich was when she was a senior in college. She saw a man preaching the Word.
“Honey, there wasn’t nothing broke about him!” she says. “I said, ‘Oh, Lord, this is the Jesus that I love.’”
The trailer goes on to introduce other members of the Tankard clan, like Brooklyn, who admits things haven’t always been easy for her. “I’ve been in trouble with the law and my family, but I’m a survivor, baby,” she says.
Son Benji can see himself being a multimillionaire within five years. He plans on owning two hotels, a couple of McDonalds’, and having two or three kids. “I don’t want to be like my dad,” he says. “I want to be better than my dad. I want to be the man!”
The youngest is Cyrene, who claims, “I know just what to say and just what to do to get what I want.”
Another daughter, Britney, says she’s the piece of the puzzle that doesn’t fit—working her 9 to 5.
The trailer concludes with Jewel proclaiming, “The Tankards, we will do everything big—his and hers Mercedes, airplanes, houses—but we are doing what God called us to do. Sometimes that bothers people, but somebody’s got to have it, so why not us?”
The trailer fades out with the sound of laughter.
I’m not against prosperity—nice cars and houses. I believe God wants us to prosper. But I don’t believe He wants us to make a spectacle of ourselves in the process or advertise God as a big sugar daddy in the sky just waiting for someone bold enough to approach His throne of grace to ask for the big cars, diamond rings and grand pianos. Likewise, I don’t believe God wants us to gloat about our prosperity or propagate a prosperity-centered gospel on cable television that gives people wrong ideas about Christianity.
They call it reality TV, but it’s not reality. It’s a gross exaggeration—and even an abuse—of the gospel message concerning prosperity.
I have been in the media business long enough to know how producers—even Christian producers—craft a story around your life that the market finds appealing to sell products. I understand the pressure to go along with the story line. I’ve seen people coached and editors cut video clips out of context to make people’s words sound as extreme as possible so people will tune in or shell out money.
I’m sure the Tankards sincerely love God and are clearly blessed, but secular producers are having a field day with their prosperity story. That’s the problem with some of these so-called “Christian” reality TV shows. Secular producers have found a cash cow in the prosperity gospel and are exploiting it for all its worth. Don’t be surprised to see more Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous with Christians agreeing to be primed and pimped out on shows like Preachers of L.A. and Thicker Than Water on your cable network in the months ahead.
Let’s just pray these shows don’t contribute to the love of many growing cold and the Great Falling Away as people pursue the God for prosperity instead of salvation and the character of Christ in these last days.
Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma. She is also the author of several books, including The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Jezebel. You can email Jennifer at @
Brad J. Silverman was climbing the ladder of Hollywood success as an actor, producer and screenwriter when he discovered his vocational success wouldn’t lead him to the happiness he was searching for. After giving his life to the Lord and finding lasting joy, Silverman made the difficult decision to walk away from the movie industry. Almost a decade later, he’s back in action as the writer and director of a new mainstream film, Grace Unplugged, geared to families. Charisma sat down with the filmmaker to discuss his latest move.
Charisma: Why did you initially walk away from the movie industry?
Silverman: I was just so unsatisfied with life. Nothing was bringing me joy. My career was actually doing fine, and I thought if I got to the next level of success, then I’d be happy.
Failure was easy for me; but success is tough. Every level of success just didn’t bring the happiness I thought it would. And I went through a couple of years where I was just crying out, saying “What is real in this life? What is true?’”
I had a sense of desperation: “Nothing is making me happy and I don’t even know up from down anymore.” I questioned everything.
Through that process a friend of mine invited me to church. And over time, it was like, what do I have to lose? Then I started reading the Scriptures and going to church. And I decided it was time.
Charisma: So what made you return to the film industry after being away for 10 years?
Silverman: I came from Hollywood. I got saved in Hollywood. I walked away for a decade and the Lord just opened up a door for me that I never saw coming.
Charisma: Your new film, Grace Unplugged, opens in theaters Oct. 4 and is a modern-day retelling of the prodigal son story. As the screenwriter, what were you wanting to accomplish by basing it on that narrative?
Silverman: I’m hoping we prompt a lot of dialogue between families, and that this movie can be a conversation starter. At the end of the day, I don’t miss the fact that this is entertainment—and I think we’ve made a very entertaining movie. But when the movie is over and the audience reflects on what they’ve seen, I want Christians to say, “Wow. I love God.
Charisma: The film is about a worship pastor’s tumultuous relationship with his talented daughter, who wants to leave the church and explore a career in the secular music business. Why was this story important for you to tell?
Silverman: This is a big issue in churches today—kids growing up and struggling with making their faith their own. That’s the journey [the lead character] Grace goes on. But I also had to tell that story in a PG way. I have four children, and if I can’t make a film that my teen daughters can watch, I don’t want to make it.
Charisma: On that note, how difficult is it to be a Christian making films that honor Christ in Hollywood?
Silverman: It’s important that Christians don’t give up creative control. As believers, we must have that contractually, because we are the light in the darkness. On the flip side, Hollywood is so much a part of my life. I was an actor here, and it was a faithful brother in the Lord who led me to Christ here, so I don’t shy away from that. I believe I’m called to go into battle; I don’t believe I’m called to hide in a bunker and only deal with Christians. If some people are called to that, great. Personally, I feel I’m called to be in the streets with the tax collectors and to do my job as a filmmaker.
Henry Blackaby, author of Experiencing God and many other books, is missing.
Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, blogged about an emergency prayer relating to Blackaby’s disappearance.
“This morning we learned of an urgent prayer request for noted author and pastor Henry Blackaby. Dr. Blackaby lives in the Atlanta area and has been missing since yesterday. His son Richard tweeted this morning: ‘Please pray. Henry Blackaby has been missing since 4 p.m. Thursday. He is in black Lincoln without his diabetic medicine in Atlanta area.’”
Rainer is asking his readers to join him in praying for Blackaby’s safe return to his family and for strength for his wife, Marilyn, and his children and other family.
Henry and Marilyn Blackaby served in churches in California before serving 18 years in Canada, where they saw many new churches begin. They raised their five children in Canada. It was also at that time that God taught the Blackabys the truths concerning walking with God that would eventually become the basis for the best-selling book Experiencing God.
Raised in that environment, all five children sensed a unique call of God into ministry. Their oldest son, Richard, currently serves as president of Blackaby Ministries International and resides in Greenville, S.C. Thomas Blackaby is the former senior pastor of North Sea Baptist Church in Stavanger, Norway, and now is director of international ministries for Blackaby Ministries International. He and his family reside in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Melvin Blackaby is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Ga. Norman Blackaby is a professor at Dallas Baptist University in Dallas, Texas. Carrie Blackaby-Webb is a career missionary serving in Germany.