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This is a copy of one of the comments I put in my blog "will this beer bother you?" Guys, it is imperitave that we cleanse ourselves from immorality within the church and stop putting the burden of change on the new believers and the people we are trying to reach. The comment was as follows I want to highlight the point I was attempting to make...and I recommend my blog "In response to..." for furthur reading...was that we need to not be judgemental in our ministering to others. We like to use the phrase "judge not" all the time when defending our own actions upon being questioned about questionable behaviors...but we are not under the same guidelines...in fact we are supposed to judge eachother and ourselves...don't believe me...consider this 1Co 5:9-13 I wrote to you in the letter not to associate intimately with fornicators; 10 yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then you must go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to associate intimately, if any man called a brother and is either a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one not to eat. 12 For what is it to me to also judge those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But God judges those who are outside. Therefore put out from you the evil one. This is not a common scripture I have heard from most pulpits but is vital in our walk. We are to judge amongst ourselves...it is called accountability and it is the basis of all of the leadership discipleship I oversea. We are not to judge the lost...and that is my point. You had better believe that if I saw a leader in my church openly drinking a beer in a local nightclub he would hear an earful from me...as well as if it were me. It is not what we eat or drink...it is where, when and why that we must ask ourselves and be prepared to answer. But all that is out the window when ministering to the lost. God is their judge...and if we will walk in that we will reach people. One of the comments to this came from a young man who said his team stays away from alcohol before they play at clubs to be able to follow the Lord in music...but after, they enjoy fellowship with them an drink a couple beers with them so they don't destroy their testimony. Young man, your heart is apparant...but you are off track. Do you not need to hear from God when you are actually ministering to the lost in person. How will drinking nullify your testimony...and what is your testimony. Is it centered on you? These are questions that anyone who you were accountable to would ask...I have made many mistakes the few years I have been here but the people I respect the most are those who have made sure to their best I don't make them again. Paul makes it clear through the authority of the Holy Spirit that we are not to apply the checks and balances within the church to those we are ministering to...but we are to apply them to ourselves. To the brother who is "ministering" in the bars, I don't feel you qualify as immoral by any means...don't take me wrong...but I do think your ministry could benefit from some reform. My point was and is we don't need to be judgemental to the lost for doing things that lost people do...especially when we have within ourselves so much of what we are commanded not to have anything to do with. Case in point...who can tell me beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are not aware of one "believer" by claim who is not living in immorality yet is still a part of your circle of peers? Hard question to answer... |
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