I have to be honest here PennEd.
I can't recall Megiddo saying he was a pastor or such.
He may have done.
The truth to me is that all of us have been called as ministers of the Gospel.
Yes I agree that if one leads a church then there is greater responsibility to a greater number of people than we who are not leaders of a church will walk alongside.
Leaders of a church are just as culpable of getting it wrong just as we are.
We all have an ugly side (well at least I do).
On this point and I will put myself out on a limb here. Would you report any of my posts that were ugly?
We are all called to to look past the ugly and see the beauty, that's what Jesus did.
We all need to stop beating each other up and somehow acknowledge that the majority on here are working to the same goal.
To be like Jesus and encourage each other to do so.
Not going at you brother, as you know I have liked a lot of what you have said.
Bill
I appreciate this Bill and there are times I have been very emotional and ugly here...we all have...and those that won't own that...it is frustrating....but typical....so I will say to this thread, I am sorry for being emotional and ugly...
Brother Ed...
I am not angry or vengeful you did what you felt led to do....let me offer this, not as validation for what you perceived is ugly and emotional about certain posts of mine.....but a general statement...
What may look to some as ugly and emotional and not fit for a minister, to others might look like truth in love...and applaud that a minister today has the boldness and love for people to call people out acting in their flesh...
The degree to which reproof, rebuke, correction, council, and equipping is dealt upon someone, is measured in accordance to the spiritual maturity....or spiritual age...of that person, but the motive is always love...
To be candid and honest there are few today that could not ever work with the Apostle Paul, because he withstood people to their face and called them out for acting out in their flesh and relied on Holy Spirit to show him all things and to perform such things in love...
I am not saying this about you and what you did.....Another candid truth about the church today, especially in the USA, is that we have gone so far overboard in our grace theology, that people have really no idea what true reproof, rebuke, correction, council, equipping and maturing someone in love really entails...
When your kids were little and they tried to touch a hot stove....you did not quote 1 Cor 13 to them and softly and gently pull them away from the stove.....you acted boldly and urgently to keep them safe from getting burned or worse....you probably also took disciplinary action to insure they never touched a hot stove again...nobody ever questioned your motive in applying the over-reactive things you did to protect your kid from burning themselves on a hot stove....
I know parenting today says we are smarter, better and we will just make the whole kitchen a NO-NON room.....there is something here if you really think about it....
Political & spiritual correctness has made the Church impotent and weak....
In closing this thought.....
People today want a shepherd that will guide them to the still waters and green pastures and guide them into truth, but they want it on their terms....and heaven forbid, you tell me I have to grow and mature spiritually.....and get called out for things that are not Biblical, and stop telling me what is SIN and not SIN...and hey....you mind your own business and I am working it with God on my own....how dare you preach, teach, exhort reproof, rebuke, correction, council, equip and mature me in deep truth and not in superficial spiritual feel good motivational speeches....that take 3 points and 22 minutes to deliver, so we can go back to worship...and speak into my life truth about something the Lord sees in my I need to crucify!?!?.....blank you preacher man.....we are going somewhere else....Then the enemy blows a breeze that send them to their knees and they have nothing in them.....
Truly called, validated, appointed, sent and anointed shepherds today must do the same to the flock, that we did to our kids with the stove...sometimes at first blush there seems to be no love...but this is because people do not understand that a shepherd has to love you, than maybe you love yourself and a shepherd has to take his staff prod and even smack you to be more than the sheep or lamb you are called to be......and this is because the church today is deaf, dumb and blind to the fact that Truly called, validated, appointed, sent and anointed shepherds with the Spirit leading them can read your mail...and it is their job to read that mail, rip off the things that are hindering you, remove the wool and empower you to be everything God has called you to be and do...and the level of spiritual age determines how you administer and grow an individual, but it is always done with love as the motive....because as you state we are held to a higher standard and that means more than being accountable for teaching/preaching and proclaiming correct doctrine...
If God has placed someone under my care and I do not help grow them into what God has called and wants to send them to be.....the lives they touch could be lost....
You see at the end of the day it is not me....ever...
It is about my fruit bearing their fruit and their fruit bearing their fruit and I am not going to give the account one day and be found lacking, because people wanted me to bend to their will and not what God's will for them should be....
Guys like me are not popular and are often times attacked, but it is ok...I am laying up treasure in heaven and for everyone that attacks, because they refuse to grow up...God gets the increase and fruit of 3 that go out and bear fruit and they bear fruit....