Our internet went out… so it is super late. I am at a friends now to submit this. HOWEVER I don’t have the graphics etc. :p

Read:

Genesis 12:¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

Stopping here before we move forward, we see Abram was promised this land, and now he is moving elsewhere because of the famine. We should note that though God was giving him this property God wasn’t supernaturally changing the land for him or anything else like that. The land that God had provided had natural problems… I am not saying this is going to ALWAYS be the case, but we shouldn’t assume that things God gives us will be like the fish and loaves in the New Testament. We get these gifts and we assume they will miraculously never run out, or never be tarnished. Now that is, at times, the case. However, instead of assuming something is not from God if it eventually breaks or falls apart would be overlooking these texts. Let’s continue 🙂

¹¹ As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. ¹³ Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” ¹⁴ When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman.¹⁵ And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. ¹⁶ He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.¹⁷ But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” ²⁰ Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

Hmmm… so Abram is this FAITHFUL guy (Hebrews 11 talks about that) and he is called by God to do something but here we see him lying and causing people to suffer because of his lie! Simple truth here: a “called” person isn’t a “perfect” person. Just because you’re called doesn’t mean you’ll perfectly execute what He has called you to do. We look at these pastors or others in ministry who make major mistakes and discount everything they have shared about God. (I would say this is a pretty mistake by Abram). We get rid of all the grace and mercy that God calls us to share and we strip them of their position, mar their name, and do everything we can to “save our churches reputation.”

We all preach this Gospel of how broken humanity is, how we are incessantly disobedient, and how Romans 7 (inability to do good without the Spirit) is true. We also ALL know that NONE of us are constantly walking in the Spirit. Yet when someone does something that we think is bad enough to make the church look bad we completely “cancel” them. We call our pastors or support ministries without ACTUALLY evaluating their qualifications according to the pastoral epistles, and then we use those same principles (usually misinterpreting them) and “cancel” their ministry. In our complete inability to be obedient or walk in the Spirit we are (all of a sudden) able to see clearly the meaning of Scripture.

I think it’s time for the Church to wake up and realize THEY are dividing their own ministries. We are all so arrogantly hiding our own sins and when someone else’s comes out (and it doesn’t look like our sins) we attack viciously. We champion church discipline while simultaneously fleeing the call to evangelize and share the Gospel. We have wrong priorities and will be held accountable before God. The enemy is essentially on vacation because he knows that we will destroy our own people. All he has to do is make others aware of someone’s mistakes (though God did that over and over again) and since we are so far from the Word we will carry out the enemies plan for him. We will divide and attack anyone who has a sinful nature… #Everyone

Our churches are sick. God knew that. That’s why Jesus came. We wouldn’t fire doctors for getting sick. We SHOULDN’T ridicule police officers for being robbed in the middle of the night. Now we WOULD fire a doctor who was giving medicine to hurt people. So I am not saying keep pastors or ministries open if they are characterized by sin. However, mistakes aren’t “characterized by” they are mistakes.

Respond:

Lord, thank You for being merciful when I make mistakes. Help me to be just as merciful when others make similar mistakes. Help me to see Your heart and understand the different struggles of different people. Keep me from pointing fingers just because their sin is different.

Relate:

If you have chastised someone because of a mistake… I think you know what you need to do.

Caveat:

Call people out on sin, don’t be accepting of sin like the Corinthian church was. I am just asking that we don’t attack and kill people (hating them, marring their name, etc.) just because of a mistake. ALSO it feels weird talking about this because it seems like I’m prepping for a major mistake lol. I am simply typing what I feel led to about these verses. If  When I make a mistake I want to be challenged to fix it. I am not asking for special privilege or anything. Ultimately I want you to apply this to normal people because there’s significantly less gray area there. With a pastor there are certain levels of committed righteousness that needs to be evaluated. So being unqualified for a ministry position is totally legitimate. However, a church with proper church discipline would be welcoming that minister into their congregation and loving them through the pain. Trying to reconcile them unto the truth. What we see are churches that find out about sin and then they “excommunicate” the people. If someone is coming to repentance LET THEM BE RECONCILED!!! This could use a whole lot more input and I am open to further discussion on it. I did not know I would be going here lol. Again, reach out if you have some questions, comment below, email, text, whatever you’d like 🙂