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**I don't know if this is the appropriate forum in which to post this, but since this article has to do with the way we think, I chose to post it here. I think the meaning of this article could apply to other areas as well...it has to do with judgment and pre-conceived ideas without any basis of truth.**


THE MESSAGE, AND NOT THE MESSENGER

by Shakera Reid

How many times have we heard about various ministers and devoted servants of God who have fallen short in the public eye? How many of these leaders lead alternate lives that are not exemplary to those that follow them and depend on them for Pastoral care or spiritual guidance? How many of them lead ridiculously lavish and extravagant lifestyles, while so many in their congregations suffer silently in poverty? How many people treat them as if they themselves were God and not the servants of God, putting them up on pedestals as if they could do no wrong? These were the issues that bothered me at an earlier stage in my Christian walk. So much so, that after a while, I absolutely refused to accept any teachings from the people who I deemed unworthy or to be charlatan. I would even judge them before even hearing from them. I would just see how people talked about them and "worshipped" them and then rejected them because I didn't want to become a mindless drone, conforming like the rest, because it would be disobedient to God. I got into some very heated debates about "big name" preachers who I believed were insincere. Even though many times it could just be a small thing that I criticized, people responded as if I had blasphemed. How could I? How dare I even speak about these people in such a manner or even question the motives, actions, or deeds of these people?


A pastor at my home church preached a sermon that gave me a totally different perspective on this situation. Yet another fallen servant of God was in the news for some scandal of the sort and he was addressing it. He acknowledged that they as pastors were to lead a life that is exemplary, but he also noted that they were human. To err is human. He continued on to say that we do put these leaders on pedestals, so far up that if and when they do fall, it is so devastating and it causes some Christians to become discouraged and go back into the world. I was still stuck on the part where he said they were human. I was now conflicted. On one hand, he was proving my point, but on the other hand, I was guilty as well. I realized that instead of becoming dependent upon God, we as Christians often tend to become dependent on the man bringing His message. The sad part is that when our earthly crutch is out of commission our faith is shot. We do put them on a pedestal. I also was putting them on a pedestal by expecting them to a perfect example of what God wanted them to be at all times.


Some time later at Bible Study we engaged in a discussion about Saul and his conversion in Acts 9. What if I applied my earlier judgment to Saul (Paul)? Here is this man who openly and enthusiastically persecuted Christians, who took pleasure in ridding the world of us, but yet God saw fit to use him. In one moment He changed Saul on the road to Damascus and the transformation still amazes me when I read his letters of encouragement and his willingness to serve God despite the trials and tribulations that came his way. The light had come on: "God can use ANYONE!" Imagine how many people judged Paul after his conversion. I wonder how many people questioned his motives, and turned away from God's message because of the messenger? I realized at that point that if the message that is given lines up with the Word of God, I should receive it. The important thing is to pray for discernment. God can use anyone to provide encouragement. I matured as a Christian that day.


Years later, I sit here in my bed doing my devotions and I come across a quote that is so profound to me. I use it as a part of my signature for my email. As usual, I get background information about the person who said it in order to be informed just in case someone asks, or to make sure that this person is someone who I would like to represent daily. Much to my dismay, my googling turns up some things about this person that I completely disagree with. I immediately go back in and erase it and start searching for a new quote. Suddenly, a voice in my head says, "Why does that matter?" I read the quote and knew that it would be a blessing to someone as it was to me and then I realized that I had almost regressed to my earlier days. It's not my place to judge the messenger. My job is to receive and apply the message.


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Shakera Reid was born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Miramar, Florida. Her passion in life is counseling and educating youth. Hobbies include traveling, writing and watching movies. Her hope is to encourage others through her writing and to help them in their Christian walk

Article Source: -- CHRISTIAN WRITERS

This post touched me because this is the way that I used to think about a lot of preachers...especially the big name ones. I wouldn't even give them a chance, or listen to their sermons to see if there was truth within. I judged them...wrongly...based upon their looks, their wealth, their fancy clothes and cars...and especially their sins, when they were caught in them publicly.

Yes, it seems like the more popular a preacher is, the harder he falls when caught in an indiscretion of some type. But now I think, who am I to judge? To God, sin is sin...no matter how large or small, or who commits it.
Jesus told the people who were about to kill the prostitute, "let any who have never sinned throw the first stone." And as we all know, not one stone was thrown!

This article has opened my eyes and heart to be more open to preachers and to listen to them before I decide to follow their teachings or not. However, having said this, there are still many preachers out there whom I will not listen to because their message is not the true Gospel of Jesus. Discernment in these things is indeed needed, and the author makes a good point.

I can get some one perception of a person, from one thing the person does or says, and then hold the person to that impression, when in fact the person is going to be in different moods and activities at other times and will not always be the way I observed at only one time. Plus . . . people can grow and develop. What you have found out about your spouse, yesterday, could be out-of-date, today > "Good morning, Honey . . . w-h-o are you, today?" Especially for us Christians, God is correcting and maturing us in His love to have the new personality of Jesus with new preferences and ways and emotional capabilities and ways of responding. We can't see each other growing right while we are staring at each other

So, we do mature as Christians. And 1 Timothy 3:1-10 makes it clear who qualifies to be just *considered* to become trusted with the "care of the church of God". So, if a man has matured in Christ to become "blameless" the way love makes a person "blameless" . . . now this man can minister his *example* > "nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." (1 Peter 5:3) This is basic to being a qualified Christian leader.

Such a man will give us more than a message with a few items, now and then, that are correct. Ones who are wrong may be able to give certain things that are correct; but I think only a mature example leader can give us the balance of God's message with maturity of how to become in love. They will not give just a few pet correct doctrines that they keep repeating. The wrong ones might say certain right things, but there will be so much they never will say and show; so it's very essential to find the example pastor each of us needs, who we know personally so we can see how he and his wife relate in love and bring up their children and minister as our examples.