21 The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.
Food for Thought
Think back 300 years. I know, we all remember that time so well having all been there, but humor me.
How many times did you hear about church scandals: pastors sexually abusing children; pastors sexually abusing men; pastors sexually abusing women; pastors squandering money on houses, cars, glass buildings, prostitutes, or televisions?
Answer: occasionally. At least on the abusing and houses or prostitutes.
The Church as a whole taught … the resurrected Jesus Christ and the Bible.
There was not a whole lot of fluff. In fact, there were a few people preaching more Hell than Heaven.
Today, we can barely go a full week without hearing about some pastor or Christian leader caught in some scandal.
Why?
It would seem our world is going down in morals, over all, not just within the Church.
What has happened?
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
This passage seems to describe us, eh?
Many church leaders preach a message people want to hear, not necessarily what they need to hear.
But what has happened to those leaders?
More and more often they are still trapped within or fall into sin, sometimes worse than many in the world.
Perhaps you have seen the rise in people leaving churches or moving between churches or simply leaving Christianity altogether.
Why?
Like a hungry person wants some warm solid food, the spirit longs for words of truth and wisdom.
A good preacher teaches the truth of the Bible: that humans are sinful and in need of a Savior, that we need to live for God to have any real and good life (though we may receive pain and suffering for our faith).
Many teachers today preach: happiness, financial prosperity, “all people are basically good,” you can have it all, and/or all things are permissible.
A diet of only cookies will kill you before too long. A balanced diet will give you long life.
Messages preaching only goodness and cheer will lead you to destruction. Reproof and grace will lead you to everlasting life.
Father, give us ears to hear and hearts that yearn for truth. Strengthen our spirits with Your Word. Nourish us with Your guidance. Help us to endure the trials You send to strengthen, and help us hear when You correct us.
Chris Jordan
Daniel M. Klem
David
Grady Davidson
Jason Sneed
Nick
Anthony Baker
August 18th, 2012 at 7:12 am
What one might say is the preachers of today have become a bunch of cheerleaders and not men of God. Why? Because Jesus is no longer the King and everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. Please forgive us? AMEN!
August 18th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
I see you saw one of the main points, possibly THE main point. When we seek Jesus and His love, we must be changed. Otherwise, we remain in our fallen nature acting like our fallen world doomed to fail and die.
And churches have failed in so many ways to do this simple thing: teach people the Truth.
August 18th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Please don’t misunderstand what I am about to say. I am not disagreeing with you that things are getting worse. However, when you how man remembered church scandles, abuse, prostitutes, etc., I immediately thought of what was going on in the “church” around Martin Luther’s time. I can’t remember at this minute which book it was I was reading (church history), but the stuff that was going on at that time was completely horrid! There was sex, abuse, murder, torture, robbery, lies, you name it. It was much worse than it is now.
Of course, that wasn’t the situation with all believers of the time, for most (if not all) that were doing that stuff weren’t believers in Christ, anyway. Had it not been for the Reformation, the Bible put into the hands of average men, and the revival of personal responsibility before God, the church might have never survived (at least as an institution). That’s just my thouhts, anyway.
August 18th, 2012 at 5:54 pm
Quite right. There has always been scandal within the Church (read Paul’s writings in the New Testament). There were times it got worse than at other times, for sure.
I think the biggest travesty of our day is that heresies and blasphemies that would have been squelched in the early days of the Church are allowed to grow throughout the Church nearly unabated much of the time. (And do not get me wrong, for I know those have always existed, as well.)