Mark 16

I went with my guys last night to see a tent revival service here in the Chicago area that was being hosted by The Last Reformation (TLR). I had only recently learned of this group - founded and led by a guy named Torben Sordergaard, TLR is a group proclaiming the message of Jesus and healing people as they go. You can find plenty about them on their website and they have a myriad of YouTube videos as well. I'll be honest, I went to this meeting HIGHLY skeptical. I've watched a number of their videos, including a longer movie with the title of their organization. The Holy Spirit is clearly working through them, but still, I am not sure about their message.

It was a warm and humid night in Chicago - upper-80s and high humidity, but the service didn't really get going until 7:30 and sitting there, it was plenty comfortable. My favorite part of it was that there were no masks, not even a hint of fear surrounding the virus - men, women, children, all together under a large tent. We opened with about 30 minutes of worship together and it just felt great to be praising God with 300 other people. I haven't experienced that since all of this started and it was wonderful. After a few songs, a few people gave their testimonies, and then Torben spoke for about 45 minutes. The focus verse of his own testimony and of his talk on this night was Mark 16:15-18, which are the words of Jesus describing what signs will accompany those who believe - and this is immediately before Jesus' ascension into Heaven. It reads:

"And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

He coupled this verse with Luke 13:6-9:

"And He [Jesus] began telling this parable: "A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard keeper, 'Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?' And he answered and said to him, 'Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer, and if it bears fruit next year fine, but if not, cut it down.'"

Basically - he came to a point in his life where he could not get around Mark 16 - he had been a believer, but hadn't seen anyone healed, no demons cast out, hadn't led anyone to the Lord and he came to the conclusion that he was bearing no fruit in his life. You can hear the rest of his message here (fast-forward to minute-42 for the beginning of his comments).

I won't provide too much commentary here - but it is thought-provoking, if not just outright provoking. I remain skeptical of TLR after having seen this for myself. I have many questions that remain - but I won't let those questions and my skepticism keep me from hearing the Truth. The call of a disciple of Jesus is to "bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (Matt 3). I need to think about this more - one thing I know for sure is that our faith and discipleship MUST have a practical side to it. Simply knowing and not acting is not discipleship. What exactly that practical part looks like is what I will be thinking about.