In the past couple of weeks I have been busy between work school papers and the privlege of speaking a couple of times and it’s been a wild ride for sure! I haven’t neglected ATW but I always make sure I bring you something that’s genuine and not just to post something for the sake of numbers, that’s not me. Here at ATW, my goal is to share my heart and what God is doing and working in my life cause it’s all about Him.
Tonight, the Super Bowl is on but where am I? Studying and praying and I don’t regret it, I’m a nerd at heart. I like football but there are days when I know I need to step back and just dig in the Word and get saturated in God’s Presence and today has been one of them. I ended up taking a break and decided to check the score of the game and I saw there was, on a different channel, an interview with a leading pastor in America. As I was watching, I was intentionally being careful not to judge this pastor off of my prior opinions on his doctrine but in the end I heard troubling things from a man of great influence. This is not the first time I have heard statements from this pastor that go against what the Bible clearly teaches and it breaks my heart to see someone who millions listen to weekly through so many avenues of television, books, radio, podcasts etc be in blatant error of Scripture. As I was looking at this incident, to make sure I heard him right, I saw another where one pastor was “crowned a king” before his church last month and while I may be behind on the news it broke my heart to see this. One thing the Holy Spirit quickly reminded me is that teachers will be judged strictly by God in the day of judgement (James 3:1) so I know I will be praying for them and I ask you too as well. While I am not attacking these men I believe that these prominent pastors have fallen to the lure of leadership in seeking to please men and themselves and that is dangerous ground.
In 2Timothy 3 Paul writes to Timothy and warns of teachers in the last day and how they will be. Am I saying these men fit this description? On purpose? No but I do not discount Satan’s ability to deceive and the lure of riches and pride.This shows a disturbing trend towards seeing this more and more common. I learned a while back with every teacher or pastor you listen to it’s important to check what they teach according to the Word and solely on the Word. Sometimes you have to “chew the meat and spit out the bones” and I do my best to take this approach with everyone because I believe I can learn something from a child to any adult there is always something to learn. Deception is spreading from places that were once thought safe and from people we thought knew the Word and walked with God but intimacy with God always has its fruit. I write this post not to judge anyone (in fact I encourage you to pray for these pastors) but rather to ask you: who are you listening to? Study what you read, what you listen to and judge it by the Word of God not by how large is the church or well known the pastor is.
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