Dear Church, We’ve Made a Mistake

I think we’ve make a mistake.

We’ve allowed ourselves to love God’s messengers more than God Himself.

We’ve fallen too deeply and too carelessly for their causes, their notoriety, and their truths rather than stand firm in the Truth of God.

And when these, our bothers and sisters in Christ, veer off the narrow road, we get mighty angry and disappointed.

Now, I realize I’m a messenger. Honestly, we all are.

But God, in His graciousness, has given me a public platform to speak and write of who He is. It’s a privilege I remind myself to never take for granted. That’s why my greatest prayer is for God to make me always – a reliable messenger.

But I’m human.

And in my humanness I will be deceived.

I will make mistakes.

I will say what I shouldn’t and do what I mustn’t.

I will read God’s Word and proclaim the parts I can live with, and white-wash the parts I can’t swallow.

And in my ignorance and pride, I will take the Bible and bend its words to justify my life choices among its pages.

That’s what sinful souls do.

And this is where we get caught up.

We’ve set these messengers on pedestals and think their outward-facing Christian life makes them more holy than everyone else.

Their words and actions become gospel while the true Gospel gets pushed to the nose-bleed seats.

They’ve intrigued us with their humor, or passion, or vulnerability and we’ve become enamored with the person instead of the Perfecter.

And when God shines His light upon their motivations and musings, we start to see unseemly things.

They begin to let us down and we get ticked.

So out come the pitchforks and torches. We draw lines in the sand and pick sides.

We’re insulted over their waywardness and become transfixed on their demise.

We forget we are the Church.

But what if we laid our condemnation aside, let God do the work, and thanked Him in the process?

What if we thanked Him for loving His Church so much that He would expose and discipline His children – including you and me.

What if we thanked Him that we are still His plan for the world. So much so that He demands we all GET REAL AND SINCERE ABOUT WHO HE SAYS HE IS.

And what if we thanked Him for using the correction of others as a reminder to the rest of us to get our eyes off the person on center-stage, and start looking heavenward.

I still haven’t forgotten how I’m a messenger too.

And if I’ve done my job with this post, I’ve convinced you to hold me at arms length.

I can live with that.

As a matter of fact, I’ll tell you one thing more …

Please … please, always believe, trust and love God more than you ever do me or anyone else.