Clarity
Again, this is a wonderful topic.
Eclipse, Great insight and summary of your stance. Question though, you state:
"...I think all of us who proclaim the name of Jesus, famous or not, must be mindful of the contradictions in our lives. On threads like this folks are proclaiming the gospel and gotta Word for someone and on other threads are talking about all kinds of lewd and lascivious things (that they have participated in no doubt!)..."
Interesting point. Yes the bible teaches us to not only be hearers of the word, but doers also. And yes all of us have profound contradictions in our lives (Just as Paul , David, Solomon, Peter, etc.), but the focus and the goal of every believer should be to weigh our own personal contradictions in light of scripture and therefore truly worship (respect) God by acknowledging his greatness in perfection and our falleness in imperfection. Nevertheless, this does not preclude or prevent any of us from trying to weigh the effectiveness of certain "ministries" in the body of Christ. Yes, we have all sinned, and do sin, but that does not stop us from trying to understand God better by questioning everything that comes "In the name of Jesus" to see if it is really true and profitable for edification.
One very popular phrase that is used today is "Judge not , less ye be Judged" (Mat. 7:1) But people neglect to move on and read further to see that Jesus was teaching that we should use the same rule of law to measure the validity of all actions for everyone, including ourselves. So often we take this to mean that we cannot say that anything is right or wrong, which totally defeats the purpose of even pursuing truth. Even though people sin, they still have the Holy Spirit and the Scritptures to lead and guide them into all truth. We should be debating the validity of everything , especially those things that are said to be ministries, regardless of whether or not we have sinned.
Blackwatch!!!!!!
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