I’m a little late to the “Best of 2008” game, but better late than never.
In looking back over 2008’s posts, the major themes that dominated were the crumbling economy and how we Christians should respond, the American Church’s (detrimental) fascination with politics, and the carnival known as the Lakeland Revival and what it means for the Church as a whole (and charismatics in particular). Interspersed between dozens of posts I wrote on those topics are others that sparked intense debate, discussed overlooked topics in the Church, both supported and dissed Christian bookstores, and even included a few works of fiction.
With that, I offer Cerulean Sanctum’s Best Posts of 2008…
The Economy, Finances, and a Truckload of Greed
Most of February and March 2008 saw posts in the enormous “Banking on God” series, which covered a host of financial issues. How prescient, right? Well, for years on this blog I’ve talked about the coming financial meltdown and the Church’s lack of preparation for it. What we are experiencing now may not be the final economic failure, but we can no longer be ignorant.
Banking on God: Series Compendium and Final Thoughts
We Had a Choice, and We Chose…
Jefty Economics and the Least of These
Ragnarok, Recession, and Real ID
Lakeland, Spiritual Gifts, Charismatic Issues, and the Supernatural
Nothing tickled the fancy of a large number of Christians in 2008 more than the Lakeland “revival” in Florida. Even normally sane people jumped on that bandwagon. Yet only months after it subsided, it’s as if that massively hyped “revival to beat all revivals” never happened. And that’s for a very good reason.
Discernment, Revivals, and Godly Common Sense
The Coming Charismatic Civil War
Spiritual Lust and Infatuation
Cleansing the Charismatic Crackup, Part 1
Cleansing the Charismatic Crackup, Part 2
Cleansing the Charismatic Crackup, Final Thoughts
The tendency in the aftermath of the death of Lakeland and what it stood for led to a piling on by those critical of people who believe that the charismatic gifts of the Spirit are still for today or who have a tendency to look beyond the physical realms to the supernatural. That’s a mistake.
Who’s to Blame for the Prosperity Gospel?
Perhaps, though, there is a better way for those who call themselves charismatics.
The Real Secret of Spiritual Warfare and Dominion
Politics
The rhetoric from every corner of America concerning the presidential election of 2008 burned white hot. Unfortunately, playing with fire may mean getting burned. Plenty of people said crazy things, with the prophetic movement going especially overboard. Now that the dust has settled on the election, the truth will out.
The Two Christianities on Display
Christ Alone in All Things, Even Politics
Christian Bookstores
In 2008, I tried to both defend Christian bookstores and offer them up for ridicule for their consumeristic idolatry. I’ll let readers decide which post wins.
The Truth About Christian Bookstores
Deconstructing the Family Christian Stores Catalog
Fiction
I believe that fiction can be a powerful source for truth. I wrote three fictional pieces in 2008, two of which I offer here.
Tangleknot on Leading the Opponent’s Subjects Astray
Christian Living
What does it mean to be Christian in 21st century America? How are we to live? These posts offer some clues.
How to Improve Your Body, Mind, Soul, and Spirit
A Dirty Tampon by the Side of the Road
The Commodore Decker Conundrum
The “Please, Someone Notice Me! Generation
Thank you for being a reader and supporter of Cerulean Sanctum.
May God richly bless you in 2009.
The links on this page seem to have an extra /2009 inserted in them and need it removed to work.
Knoble,
Thank you for the heads up. I have fixed them all by hardcoding in the prefix/domain on the links. I have no idea why the problem happened. What is most strange is that the links are fine from the landing page of the blog, but not from the post page or the feed.
When I inserted them into the post as I was writing it, I copied them from the title of each blog post, and the format is okay for a quick load:
a href=”http://ceruleansanctum.com/2008/{month}/{postname}.html”
But WordPress is automatically filling in the “..” with the current year date on the lone post and feed. That forced me to hard code in the “http://ceruleansanctum.com” to replace the double dots.
I know WordPress very well, but I’m not sure how to fix that problem of the added “/2009” when the app pulls up the double-dotted URL, which should work. Any WordPress gurus know so that I won’t have this problem should I elect to drop the domain name and go with the double-dotted URL format on a link in the future?
I first came to your site searching for contrary opinions to the Lakeland Revival. As someone who had seen Todd Bentley in person recently and wanted a fresh perspective on the man and the mania behind him, I appreciated the sensible, Holy Spirit-driven appraisal of what seemed to me a marginally insane overreaching by “the Church” for revival. As someone who became a Christian in a Pentocostal / Charismatic environment, its tendencies to fawn over signs and wonders and in particular sketchy Charismatic “personalities” have often put me ill at ease. I found in your blog a kindred spirit who does some amazing writing about topics that matter to an average, occasionally intellectual Charismatic who sees his own lacking qualities in a church that desperately needs major transformation rather than fleeting band-aids. In short – all of your writing is fabulous and it’s hard for me to pick one post I prefer as the best but your writing about the “Charismatic Crack-up” probably ranks up there.
Thanks, Boethius. I appreciate the kind words.
I’m going to forward urls for your 2-part on soul vs. spirit to my pastor. He led a discussion in Bible study on why he believes people are tripartate even though most current theologians seem to believe bipartate. Your posts really bring out why it is important, not a minor detail of interest only to theologians.