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{Heart4Teens.com} *ESP, Ghosts, Talking To The Dead: Is it Real?* ______________________________________ If you enjoy this free email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of teenagers everywhere! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, you can join Heart4Teens.com readers around the world by visiting: http://www.hundred-acre-woods.com/magic-list/Heart4Teens Visit our inspirational web site to read all the past articles in our archives and view the tons of resources we have there for teens! http://www.Heart4Teens.com/Teen_Stories _________________________________________ *ESP, Ghosts, Talking To The Dead: Is it Real?* by Mark Matlock In the last few emails, we've seen that God, angels, Satan, and demons are the basics of what Christians believe to be true about supernatural beings. Does that mean that nothing else exists in the supernatural world? Is there anything "out there" that the Bible doesn't describe? We can't know for sure. But we can know that we can dismiss as untrue any ideas about the supernatural that contradict what the Bible teaches. Why? Because as Christians, we've made a choice to believe the teachings of the Bible. It's a reasonable faith. There's good evidence for the reliability of God's Word. But in the end, it's a choice to base our beliefs on a standard outside ourselves. For people who believe the Bible, what Scripture teaches about the supernatural world is our standard. So what do we do with all the other spiritual ideas in our culture today? What about Wiccans and witchcraft? How should we think about crop circles, reincarnation and ghosts and communicating with the dead? We've got to do two things with these and any other ideas about the supernatural that come our way. We've got to pass them through our discernment filter--listen, learn, compare with Scripture But we also have to remember that Satan's number one weapon in a Christian's life is deception. Just because someone is religious and knows the Bible doesn't mean they can't be deceived. Remember what Jesus said to the some of the best-trained religious leaders of his day: "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44) Jesus actually told these men of high religious standing that they were Satan's kids! Why? Because they had believed the devil's lies. As the first and best liar, Satan's an expert and tripping up our thinking with both small and giant deceits. Every supernatural experience or idea we come across has one of four possible explanations: 1. Spiritual activity from God. This would include events involving actual angels or godly intervention into the natural world. 2. Supernatural activity from Satan/demons. Events in this category would include actual demonic possession, demonic revelation, or other Satanic/demonic influence on the natural world. 3. Hoax. Very often, experiences that appear to be supernatural--especially those involving someone on stage or otherwise making money from such event--are just cheap illusions. As an illusionist myself, I know how easy these are to pull off in highly believable ways. 4. Unexplained natural phenomena. We may mistake a natural experience for something supernatural. For instance, a person could believe that lights in the sky are from a UFO when, in fact, they are generated by some kind of human-created aircraft, or other heavenly light (comets, meteor showers,etc). Together let's dig into one of the most obvious thinking traps that can lead us to the wrong conclusions about the supernatural. Can We Talk With The Dead? Our Emotions Can Betray Us. The death of a loved one may be the most emotional experience in life. Even Christians who carry the hope of meeting that person again in heaven often carry the intense pain of loss for many years. The pain and longing can be amplified when some key issue in the relationship remains unresolved. Supposed spiritists and psychics have been exploiting those emotions to take advantage of people for thousands of years. "I feel someone coming through. He's very assertive. He really wants you to know something. Is there a...an "R" in your family?" A woman gasps. "Richard? Richard was my uncle! My father's brother." "Yes. Yes, I'm getting that. R is very strong. He wants you to know something about your dad. I'm getting something about the chest area or...Is there something about the chest?" "My dad died of heart disease." "Yes, that's it. That's it. And there's more. Something about a...a car or a truck..." "I don't know. Hmmm. Well, my dad did give me a car for my sixteenth birthday." "Right. I'm getting that Richard wants you to know that your dad is okay about the car. Was there a problem with the car?" "Well, I didn't really like it. Dad might have felt bad when I sold it." "I'm getting strongly from Richard that your dad wants you to know that everything's okay. He's okay." The woman is crying now. "And there's something about a nephew or a niece? Someone below you. A child?" "My son Daniel would be Robert's nephew." "Right. Of course. R is emphatic that the child will be okay. You don't have to worry about him." The woman is crying harder now, and she's convinced that a spiritually gifted psychic has just given her a message from her father and uncle beyond the grave. It's very moving for her--and even for those who are watching her remember and think about her passed loved ones. If you read that exchange carefully, though, you'll see that the psychic didn't really know anything about the woman's life that she didn't tell him. I personally know highly skilled illusionists that can convince entire audiences of their psychic abilities using similar fishing and reflecting techniques. In addition, it's now very easy to get basic information about people from the Internet. Shows like "Crossing Over with John Edwards" and "Pet Psychic" could easily utilize information provided when someone buys a ticket to the show to find out all kinds of things about an audience member's past. A little conversation while waiting in line to see the show with a friendly stranger (who works for the psychic) could also reveal a lot. Combine that kind of basic digging with some of the "cold reading" skills of psychic illusion--the power of suggestion, selective memory, fishing for and repeating information as if you came up with it--and you can create a spookily convincing psychic presentation. Why do many people buy it? Why are people in the audience and at home tricked into believing the psychic is really delivering messages from the afterlife? Emotion. When it comes to the areas where our feelings are deepest, humans are very vulnerable creatures. If I show up to a psychic hoping to hear from my dead mother, I'm already emotional. If you can give me just enough convincing-sounding comments from her that I assume you could never have known, I'm likely to believe she's speaking through you. What is it about our emotions that can prevent our minds from working well? The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). But that doesn't mean our emotions are evil. They're just very powerful; we need to learn to control our emotions instead of letting them run away with us. "Above all else," says Proverbs, "guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" (4:23). Guarding our hearts means being aware that our emotions may lead us away from truth and from God's best direction for us. That's why the first step in guarding our hearts is to fill them with God's truth--learning to trust God instead of the way that "feels" best to us. Psalm 37 reminds us that when the law of God is in our hearts, our feet will not slip (37:31). And Proverbs urges, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6). So avoiding the thinking trap of letting our emotions rule our minds comes down to trusting God's Word, even when our emotions tell us to believe something else. Ghosts, Spirits, and Reincarnation And what, exactly, does the Bible teach about life after death--and spirits reaching out from beyond the grave? It doesn't leave much room for such things to happen. The writer of Hebrews said, "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment..." (Hebrews 9:27). That at least implies that death is followed by facing God, not by hanging around on earth in spirit form. It definitely rules out reincarnation for those who believe the Bible (since people die only once). And Paul wrote about his willingness to be absent from the body and present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8), suggesting that for Christians, one immediately follows the other. So even though I might feel strong emotions about getting a message from "the spirits all around us," including one from a lost loved one, I have to compare that idea to what the Bible teaches. And Scripture doesn't seem to teach that the spirits of lost loved ones can contact me through psychics. Beyond that, we do believe the Bible leaves room for the possibility that Satan or demons could use a psychic to fool people into believing they were talking to the dead. Many psychics claim to be hearing voices or becoming possessed by the spirits of those they are "channeling." Though these claims are most often a hoax, it's at least possible that demons are involved in these processes. That might be why God commanded the Israelites to avoid getting involved with such people: "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them" (Leviticus 19:31). Such contact could open a person up to demonic influence. Only one passage in the Bible suggests contact with the dead is even possible--and even this story seems to suggest that things like that don't happen normally. It's the story of King Saul and the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28). Saul was on the decline as king, and he knew it. He was afraid the Philistines were about to crush his army. So he called on God for some reassurance. But God wouldn't answer Saul. So even though Saul had earlier had all the mediums and spiritists removed from the country, Saul's men somehow found one in Endor, and Saul went to see her in disguise. He wanted to talk to the prophet Samuel, who had died. But he had to swear to the witch in God's name that she wouldn't be punished if she did it. The king was willing to break his own law in order to find emotional reassurance from someone who had died. When the witch did her thing, she cried out in surprise when she somehow suddenly became aware that Saul was the king. She said that she saw an old man rising out of the ground in a robe, and she delivered a disturbing message from Samuel to Saul that started out with the words, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" (1 Samuel 28:15). The message that followed from Samuel is apparently something only Samuel and Saul (and God) would have known about. And it left Saul in greater terror than before he had come to the witch. It's unclear exactly what happened in the witch's house that night, but Bible scholars suggest several possibilities: Some suggest the woman was just pulling a hoax on Saul in order to give him what he wanted. However, it seems unlikely she would have known what Samuel told Saul. Others say the woman was possessed by a demon who delivered the message to Saul through the woman. That's possible, since she was a witch in a time when there was much spirit worship. But the passage doesn't say anything about Samuel not really being Samuel. A third idea--and the one that seems most likely--is that this witch intended perform a hoax, but got more than she expected. Perhaps she normally tricked people the way most psychics and mediums do today. The fact that she cries out in a loud voice when Samuel appears suggests that she was shocked and surprised to actually hear from someone who had "crossed over." It's definitely possible that God used this means as a one-time supernatural event to communicate his message to Saul through a deceased prophet who had been used many times to deliver supernatural messages. But this example does not suggest that it's "normally" possible to talk with the spirits of humans who have passed on. In fact, it seems to suggest that only through God's power could such a thing happen. Emotions are wonderful and powerful, but we can't trust feelings to run our lives. And we really can't trust them to help us make right decisions about the world of the supernatural. Next Week: Living Supernaturally Mark Matlock, founder of PlanetWisdom.com, is the author of Don't Buy the Lie and Living a Life That Matters. Used by permission. See Mark's books online at the YS store: http://shop2.gospelcom.net/epages/YouthSpecialties.storefront/en/searchmask?allByAuthor=Matlock _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine." --Ralph Waldo Emerson Verse for the Day: "A man's pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit." Proverbs 29:23 Teen's Thought For The Day: "Forgiveness means giving up your right to punish another." Parent's Thought For The Day: "Mother's arms are made of kindness, and sweet sleep blesses the child who lies therein." -- Victor Hugo Coach's Thought For The Day: "The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion." --Jean-Claude Killy Deep Thought For The Day: "The Bible has a word to describe 'safe' sex: It's called marriage." __________________________________________ Author MICHAEL T. POWERS www.Heart4Teens.com Contributing Author to Chicken Soup for the Teen's Soul on Love and Friendship and 24 other inspirational books. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 _________________________________________ ALL-STAR Ministry --The Youth Church of Faith Community Church in Janesville, WI If you are in 6-12th grade and live in the southern Wisconsin/northern Illinois area and would like to check us out, we meet every Sunday night from 6:30-8:00 PM at Faith Community Church which is located at 2931 Lucerne Dr. in Janesville, WI. (About 3 blocks south-east of The Skating Place.) All-Stars: 6:30 - 8:00 PM Sunday nights! Open to all youth grades 9-12. The Outlet: 6:30 - 8:00 PM Sunday nights in the Multi-Purpose Room! Open to all youth grades 6-8. Currently we have students from Fort Atkinson, Milton, Janesville Craig, Janesville Parker, Marshall, Orfordville, Clinton, Beloit Memorial, Beloit Turner, South Beloit, and Hononegah. E-mail me back if you have any questions about our weekly meetings or would like to come to any of our events that are listed below... We have way too much fun and then, most importantly, talk about issues that are relevant to you as a teenager. October 30 -- Cofield in Concert in the church sanctuary! 6:00 PM (free of charge) For more info visit: http://www.faithcommunityChurch.net/ps_150_Club November 6 -- The Case for the Brady Bunch _______________________________________________ Teen Community Groups 6:30 - 8:00 PM Wednesday nights (September though May) These groups are limited to no more than ten teens and are split into Jr. High and High School ages. This night is for those teens who want to dig deeper than what we do in All-Stars, but may not be ready to be a part of the Xtreme Teens. These cell groups will also be doing special activities with each other as the year goes on to build community. Sixth graders meet at Kent and Rachel Martin's house: 1324 E. Racine St. (Call 373-0886 if you have any questions!) Seventh and Eighth graders meet at Tedi Knox's house: 429 1/2 Harding St. High School age meets at Matt and Kristi Kauffman's house: 4339 Fox Hills (Call 758-1243 if you have any questions!) Xtreme Teens Xtreme Teens meet on Wednesday nights from 6:30 - 8:00 PM all year round at the Powers' house. This group is very extensive with weekly homework, memorization, service projects, etc. Students interested in this group will have to fill out an application, provide references as to why others think they should be involved with this, and sign an agreement as to what is expected of them. Admission into Xtreme Teens is on a case by case basis. Contact Pastor Michael for more details! |
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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