- from Amazon:
 Between 1906 and 1909, the Holy Spirit had come to dwell among the people in Los Angeles. One April day, in a run-down livery stable that was converted to a church, Pastor William Seymore (1870 – 1922) broke out into tongues and so did everyone within earshot. In fact, people blocks away began to speak in tongues and witnessing to all passersby. Within no time, the walls of that "tumble-down shack on Azusa Street" were decorated with the crutches, canes and hearing horns of the recently healed. The attached article was written by one of the few attendees to remain totally unaltered by the righteous energy that permeated the neighborhood. "Somebody said the Lord's Prayer, and the meeting broke up. I walked three blocks to the subway station. Just as I was about to go down the stairs - BANG - It happened! I don't like that word miracle, but that's all I can call it. The lights in the street seemed to flare up. My feet seemed to leave the pavement. A kind of shiver went over me and I burst out crying...I haven't touched a drop since, and I've since set four other fellows on the same road." "I am a firm believer in prayer. Of all things, it has been the most important to me in my life, the surest staff on which I lean. It is my advice to any who come to me in confusion or weakness or with a problem that is driving them to despair. For I believe that it has not only a spiritual but also a concrete, practical value." For believers in Christ, Psalm 22 is the most curious of all of the 150 Psalms. It catches our imaginations not simply because our Savior quoted from it during His final hours, but because it makes a reference to the practice of crucifixion centuries before the torture was ever conceived. It also anticipates His thirst, the coming of the church and the distributing of His garments among His tormentors. We have highlighted these verses and illustrated the prophetic aspects of the psalm with quotes from a recent book on the topic.
The Christian concept of death is contained in this article by the ancient Greek author Athanasius (296 - 373).
"All those who believe in Christ tread death underfoot as nothing and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die, they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the the resurrection. Death has become like a tyrant who has become completely conquered by the legitimate monarch and bound hand and foot so that the passers-by jeer at him."
The editors at Coronet recognized that Oral Roberts was not your average minister, who was simply contented to preside over thirty full pews every week; they labeled him a "businessman-preacher" and subtly pointed out that the man's detractors were many and his flashy attire unseemly for a member of clergy:
"God doesn't run a breadline...I make no apology for buying the best we can afford. The old idea that religious people should be poor is nonsense." |