As we plow through the internet looking, searching, researching, or just being nosey, we are able to find all kinds of information. Some of it good and some not so good, but the info is out there. Cyberspace is crazy place. There are online resources for just about anything you are looking for. Even in our Christian walk, there are many tools that are valuable. Folks have done years and years of research and posted it up free of charge to equip the body of Christ and help us in our daily walk. We at EX Ministries have done the same, by offering full web access to most of our materials free of charge and giving you blogs and daily words as well, without any kind of partnership involved. We are not knocking partnerships, but we do feel that some stuff ought to just be free.
But then, there is the dark side of the net. The perverted side that seeks to suck people into an underground movement that will ultimately destroy their faith in God and their faith in God's system. I'm not talking about porn sites or myspace. I'm not talking about adult chat rooms or webcams. I'm talking about church folks being exposed before the world by so called believers! I'm talking about folks outing Pastors, Ministers, Ministries, and Leaders by way of blogs, emails, and gossipy attachments. It's gotten to the point where lay people are many times rushing to their email every morning to see what preacher got caught with his pants down, or what Gospel artist is gay, or whatever. Now, I know there are folks reading this and saying, "how can G. Craige Lewis say this and he is always outing folks!" Well, anyone that says that, has not read what I have written nor watched the videos that I have produced. They have just "heard" about them after folks have put their own spin on it. If you know EX Ministries and what I preach, you know that I do call names and mention things people do, but only after they have exposed it to the public. Only after it's in the news, on tv, or something they put out for the world to see. But we do not out folks personal lifestyles and issues on our platform because God forbids that.
You see, God never intended for his people to become celebrities and seek after fame. There is a price to pay for fame and most famous church folks are finding out the hard way that the price is expensive . When you are a celebrity, your career, fame, money, and the like are not controlled by God, but by public opinion. When the public loves you, you are rich, but when they have finished enjoying you or finished with you period, you are poor. This is why so many of our prominent television church leaders and entertainers are on drugs, have sexual addictions, alternative lifestyles, etc., because they cannot deal with the fact that one day, they may no longer be famous and may resort to coming up with ways to stay in the public's view. Jesus avoided this by telling people to not lift him up or glorify him in the flesh, but rather keep quiet about the things he was doing that they deemed great. (Luke 8:56) Jesus never considered his workings as great, but rather said he was only mimicking what God was doing in heaven. (Luke 18:19) This was to avoid fame and the consequences of being steered by public opinion.
Nowadays, you can log on to google and type in a name and get all kinds of info, gossip, lies, slander, and even hard core truth without responsibility. Who got caught with who, who is sleeping with who, who is doing this and that. Could be true, could be a lie, but whichever it is, it is a shame before God for this kind of information to be given without responsibility or the clergy actually dealing with it first. Let me explain.
God has a plan for his prophets, and ministers exposure if they fall into sin. You see, God has men set up in a 5 fold ministry to hold each leader accountable for his actions. Men that are of the cloth so to speak, are apart of God's system of checks and balances. But the reason all these things are happening now is because men have surrounded themselves with evil men that will not hold them accountable. They are super apostles and untouchable by the clergy. Men that have become bigger than life cannot be subject to any authority because they have chosen to put men around them that covet their money and power. And by keeping each other's immoral indiscretions between each other silent, they each have something on the other and can hold it against the other if they decide to tell on them. This is mafia style behavior, but it is common among celebrity church leaders because they cannot afford to let anyone get close enough to see their wickedness without having some wickedness to throw around on them if they tell. So, there is no headship or accountability when the people you have surrounded yourself are wicked and hiding their own sin. They will serve you and do whatever you want because they want to escape judgment too! This is the dilemma and why the black church especially, is suffering from the lack of true revival, because men are blocking the move of God by being immoral and surrounding themselves with immoral men that won't judge their actions. In these cases, especially to those that have been hurt by these folks, you should just sit back and turn the hour glass over. In a matter of time God is gonna get them for you and you don't have to take action outside of God's system to do it. I"m not saying you shouldn't go to someone about being hurt by clergy (you should definitely go to leadership), but if they don't do anything, the web is not the place for it. When they won't hear the church, the secular media is waiting to judge them!
God is allowing the very machine that made them famous to turn on them and expose them before the world. The very media many of them sold their souls to for fame has turned on them and is publishing their private garbage to out them. This is terrible for the body of Christ and our witness to the world. By the world probing our leaderships spending habits, sexual appetites, and lack of integrity, they are finding no differences in our leaders and their political leaders. This is silencing the voice of the true God to the world and causing them to seek after other gods and other religion's leaders because the Christians leaders are falling. This is the spirit of antichrist at its best; Make them all rich and famous, lift them up above everyone, attach countless ministries to them and let them be their "coverings," then snatch the cover off of them all!!! You bust out the leaders for being immoral and the churches under them die because their pastors should have seen this coming and because of their lack of leadership, discernment, and protection, they lose their churches too. After all, who wants to be under a person that was chasing after an immoral platform? The church hemorrhages and almost dies and God's small remnant has to rebuild it. This is a dreadful day people of God, but this is our present day reality.
The bible deals with things differently and rumors, gossip, slander, and the like should be dealt with inside the body of Christ, and never exposed to the world. The bible shows us how to deal with these things in a manner where the church stays responsible and the world keeps out of it so they will not be dismayed or lose their faith in the power and authority of God's people. But these bigger than the church leaders have erased the lines that separated the church from the world and now the world knows all our business! Paul, in the bible dealt with things this way to keep the church intact and the world at bay:
When there was a rumor going around in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul said he judged it for the church. He told the members of the church that he had "already" judged the common report, or rumor that was going around and he dealt with it from a leadership perspective. He told them, after he had judged the situation, to put the person out. He didn't pass it around the room and ask their opinions about it. They were already talking about it and it was made common in the church, so he dealt with it from a leadership standpoint. The word even tells us that if we find our brother in a sin, we should go to them and restore them, not spread it around. Sure we talk and confide in those that are in leadership or those that are our colleagues. But we don't spread it around the net or lend our websites and comment pages to it before the world. That is not God's way. We must stick to God's plan.
Now, when Peter got out of line in his doctrine and behavior as a leader, Paul rebuked him before everyone. Why? Because what he was doing was before everyone. He was bending the rules and twisting his doctrine to suit his desires and actions and everyone was privy to it. So, since it was going on in the public's view, he was rebuked openly in the public's view so that everyone could see he was in error and if anyone was deceived by it, they could be restored by knowing the truth about it. This is God's way of handling open rebuke. When people preach, teach, or allow certain things to go on publicly that are not lining up with scripture, then it should be made public by those that are chosen by God to deal with it. But when a person is caught up in a private issue or sin, they should be dealt with privately by those in leadership and if they refuse to hear and repent, then it should be made public according to the Word of God.
Don't let blogs, emails, chats, etc, deceive you. God is not please with the way things are looking for the church. We have so many folks falling right now, we don't have to assist it. God is bringing folks down and using the secular media that they crave to do it. You don't have to spread anything around but rather pray for these folks that they will hear the prophets that are calling on them to repent. If they refuse, they will pay the price of fame. You don't have to take a secret video around to expose them, you don't have to post their personal info on youtube or write a book against them, and you don't have to send it around via email. All we as the church have to do is sit back and watch the great falling away passover! If you don't have the blood of the Lamb covering your house, you will be affected by it. God is rooting out the darkness before his return and he wants us that are of him to behave according to scripture in the way we handle things. Let's stop the gossip via the web and start praying for mercy. You see, when these great pompous leaders fall, and they shall, it's not a victory for any of us in the household of faith, but only a fearful day of judgement for everyone. We should all be on our knees and faces before God lest we be exposed or found doing something that is not Godly. Pray for our church people. Every email you see, every blog you read, and every video clip you watch that is exposing the church, is a fierce blow to the Kingdom of God. And though leaders that are corrupt and refuse to repent should be punished and exposed, there is a biblical way to do it so the loss in the body is minimized.
Galatians 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
1Timothy 5:19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.
Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
1Timothy 1:20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
2 Timothy 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
1Corinthians 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. ...............For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
Proverbs 6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, n heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Hebrews 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
In His Name,
G. Craige Lewis
Showing posts with label ex ministries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ex ministries. Show all posts
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Alternatives
During the Halloween season, we begin to see a lot of Halloween Alternatives in churches and among our youth. People scramble to find ways to duplicate the experience and fun of the devil's celebration without it being devilish! They want the fun for the children and the excitement of the holiday without giving in to the enemy's celebration. Kinda like sweet n low. They want it to taste the same, but be better for you! This is a common problem among our churches and ministries of the day. From Hip Hop to Christian Nite Clubs, our people have a problem with totally letting go of their pasts and becoming new.
We have become such a selfish church that we don't want to part ways with our old man completely. We would rather mimic the things that used to give us pleasure and hold on to them so we can some how have God and our flesh satisfied. But there is a problem with this whole scenario that bugs God like you wouldn't believe. It's the fact that it makes him appear as a knockoff of what you had before him. It turns God into a knockoff, which makes him a substitute of the original and in many ways, only leads us back to what we had originally because there is no real satisfaction in a substitute. Kinda like a substitute sugar or filler that is created to work in place of a thing, but never really tastes like the real thing. We usually don't think this deep about it, but we should! The old man, once we are saved, is suppose to be dead, and we should not be looking for ways to substitute what the old man desired. Our desire should be Christ and not how to continue the sinful things that we once found pleasure in.
Is there an alternative to drugs? What about alcohol? When a person that was a sex addict comes to Christ, but still desires promiscuous sex, what do we give them? What about the person that was a gangsta or thug and comes to the Lord? Well, I know, we make them Holy Thugs and Gospel Gangstas right? We now have Christian Clubs, that people are starting. We have Holy Hip Hop, Christian Dances, Youth Proms and Hip Hop Dance ministries. We have alternative after alternative, but what is it all for? Is it to get people closer to God or to make them more familiar with their old wants and desires? Of course we know that people on large platforms do it for money and fame, but where does it lead the people? Are their youth growing stronger in the Lord because they can now mimic BET dances in church? Are the singles getting more spiritual because they can haphazardly date from a buffet of single's profiles? Are the children gonna feel that God is better than Halloween if we give them an alternative that all their peers reject? Their school, their favorite recording artists, the WORLD is celebrating Halloween, so how do you go against that and come up with a celebration that will counter something that huge? You can't! You can't compete with the fleshes desire to be fulfilled. You cannot make something Christian outplay something that is carnal. You can't compare the two because one feeds the flesh and the other feeds the spirit. The answer is to deal with the fleshly desire and challenge the flesh to be denied! The whole point in coming to Christ is self denial, so then why are so many seeking self fulfillment these days? Why are we seeking to be rich and seeking to be popular?? Why are we seeking online friendships and virtual relationships so much? Why are most TBN and national platform preachers talking about money, self fulfillment, and self promotion? What is going on?
Have we considered these things? Take a look at these comparisons and you will see that we are on a fast track to being as self centered as the world in some cases.
Show: Sunday's Best on BET (Alternative to American Idol)
Allows sinner, saint, homosexual, lesbian, and whomever else sing the gospel as a competition rather than as praise to God. For what purpose? So Kirk Franklin can have a job? So BE BE and Mary Mary can show that they are above them and can judge their fate? So the world can see that ANYONE can sing gospel no matter what kind of lifestyle you live?
The main problem with a show like this is that those that win are not ministered to and are put in positions to become ministers of music without even being held accountable for living right or being saved. Many of them have confessed to partying, getting drunk, and whoring right before the competition, but because BET is the machine backing it and Kirk Franklin got his success while being hooked on porn, it's ok. You don't have to be in Christ to sing for Christ! You don't have to live for God to work for God. You don't have obey his commandments to love him right? WRONG!
Show: Exalted on BET (Alternative to VH1 Behind the Music)
This show exalts men and women that preach. It's a platform for celebrity preachers to shine and show how they got famous. It shows their money, their success, and people exalting them and lifting them up before men to look like God's anointed ones. But come on folks, if BET lifts them up, are they preaching the truth? If BET, the most exploitative, degrading, sin promoting station on cable "exalts" them, does God approve of them? Can they please BET and God at the same time? If they preached against the sin that BET promotes, and preached against the people that BET promotes, and preached against the degradation that BET promotes, would BET really "exalt" them? NO, because if they preached against the people that BET promotes, they'd be calling their own name!!!
The saddest part of this is that the preachers that BET have decided to "exalt" are doing exactly what God said don't do! He said if a man exalts himself, he would abase him. But if a man humbles himself, he would exalt him. So, why are men being "exalted" in the first place? Shouldn't Christ and the truth be exalted? Shouldn't the bible and the message against sin be our focus? And why in the world would BET promote the very thing that is dead set against it? Well, they would never do that. BET is a business and that business knows that if they present a message against their programming they would go under, so they strategically looked for some effeminate preachers that would love being "exalted" and won't hurt their agenda. They picked men that are friends of the world and enemies of God. They picked people that hide truth for the sake of actors, performers, and celebrities attending their churches. These men and women they are exalting are not of God, but of themselves because they hide truth for the sake of fame and large followings!
The church has become so self oriented that now we seek to put our fleshly desires before God. Now we want to keep the old man alive instead of rejecting him. Now we want entertainment in place of ministry. We want man's books instead of God's book. We want superstars instead of the bright and morning star! We want to shine instead of allowing the light of God to shine. And now we want God to be the alternative to what is worldly or what is popular. We want to pitch God and fix him up in a way that he can compete with television, movies, music, and dances. We want God to be like the world's gods, but with heaven to put us in! But God said to be in the world not of the world. If the love of the world is in us, then the love of God is not! When Christians seek to make an alternative to something that should not even exist, then you know we are following the flesh. When Christians want to use what we desire in the flesh as a tool of ministry, just so we can keep it, then you know we are in the flesh. When the preachers seek large churches, fancy cars, movies, television, and stardom more than they seek to preach the truth, then you know God is only a substitute for their real desire. They really want mammon! And if this is what they are doing, then they have chosen their god! God is not an alternative. He is not a substitute or filler. He is the WAY.
Lev. 18:30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
1John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Eph. 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Luke 14:11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
In Love,
G. Craige Lewis
We have become such a selfish church that we don't want to part ways with our old man completely. We would rather mimic the things that used to give us pleasure and hold on to them so we can some how have God and our flesh satisfied. But there is a problem with this whole scenario that bugs God like you wouldn't believe. It's the fact that it makes him appear as a knockoff of what you had before him. It turns God into a knockoff, which makes him a substitute of the original and in many ways, only leads us back to what we had originally because there is no real satisfaction in a substitute. Kinda like a substitute sugar or filler that is created to work in place of a thing, but never really tastes like the real thing. We usually don't think this deep about it, but we should! The old man, once we are saved, is suppose to be dead, and we should not be looking for ways to substitute what the old man desired. Our desire should be Christ and not how to continue the sinful things that we once found pleasure in.
Is there an alternative to drugs? What about alcohol? When a person that was a sex addict comes to Christ, but still desires promiscuous sex, what do we give them? What about the person that was a gangsta or thug and comes to the Lord? Well, I know, we make them Holy Thugs and Gospel Gangstas right? We now have Christian Clubs, that people are starting. We have Holy Hip Hop, Christian Dances, Youth Proms and Hip Hop Dance ministries. We have alternative after alternative, but what is it all for? Is it to get people closer to God or to make them more familiar with their old wants and desires? Of course we know that people on large platforms do it for money and fame, but where does it lead the people? Are their youth growing stronger in the Lord because they can now mimic BET dances in church? Are the singles getting more spiritual because they can haphazardly date from a buffet of single's profiles? Are the children gonna feel that God is better than Halloween if we give them an alternative that all their peers reject? Their school, their favorite recording artists, the WORLD is celebrating Halloween, so how do you go against that and come up with a celebration that will counter something that huge? You can't! You can't compete with the fleshes desire to be fulfilled. You cannot make something Christian outplay something that is carnal. You can't compare the two because one feeds the flesh and the other feeds the spirit. The answer is to deal with the fleshly desire and challenge the flesh to be denied! The whole point in coming to Christ is self denial, so then why are so many seeking self fulfillment these days? Why are we seeking to be rich and seeking to be popular?? Why are we seeking online friendships and virtual relationships so much? Why are most TBN and national platform preachers talking about money, self fulfillment, and self promotion? What is going on?
Have we considered these things? Take a look at these comparisons and you will see that we are on a fast track to being as self centered as the world in some cases.
Show: Sunday's Best on BET (Alternative to American Idol)
Allows sinner, saint, homosexual, lesbian, and whomever else sing the gospel as a competition rather than as praise to God. For what purpose? So Kirk Franklin can have a job? So BE BE and Mary Mary can show that they are above them and can judge their fate? So the world can see that ANYONE can sing gospel no matter what kind of lifestyle you live?
The main problem with a show like this is that those that win are not ministered to and are put in positions to become ministers of music without even being held accountable for living right or being saved. Many of them have confessed to partying, getting drunk, and whoring right before the competition, but because BET is the machine backing it and Kirk Franklin got his success while being hooked on porn, it's ok. You don't have to be in Christ to sing for Christ! You don't have to live for God to work for God. You don't have obey his commandments to love him right? WRONG!
Show: Exalted on BET (Alternative to VH1 Behind the Music)
This show exalts men and women that preach. It's a platform for celebrity preachers to shine and show how they got famous. It shows their money, their success, and people exalting them and lifting them up before men to look like God's anointed ones. But come on folks, if BET lifts them up, are they preaching the truth? If BET, the most exploitative, degrading, sin promoting station on cable "exalts" them, does God approve of them? Can they please BET and God at the same time? If they preached against the sin that BET promotes, and preached against the people that BET promotes, and preached against the degradation that BET promotes, would BET really "exalt" them? NO, because if they preached against the people that BET promotes, they'd be calling their own name!!!
The saddest part of this is that the preachers that BET have decided to "exalt" are doing exactly what God said don't do! He said if a man exalts himself, he would abase him. But if a man humbles himself, he would exalt him. So, why are men being "exalted" in the first place? Shouldn't Christ and the truth be exalted? Shouldn't the bible and the message against sin be our focus? And why in the world would BET promote the very thing that is dead set against it? Well, they would never do that. BET is a business and that business knows that if they present a message against their programming they would go under, so they strategically looked for some effeminate preachers that would love being "exalted" and won't hurt their agenda. They picked men that are friends of the world and enemies of God. They picked people that hide truth for the sake of actors, performers, and celebrities attending their churches. These men and women they are exalting are not of God, but of themselves because they hide truth for the sake of fame and large followings!
The church has become so self oriented that now we seek to put our fleshly desires before God. Now we want to keep the old man alive instead of rejecting him. Now we want entertainment in place of ministry. We want man's books instead of God's book. We want superstars instead of the bright and morning star! We want to shine instead of allowing the light of God to shine. And now we want God to be the alternative to what is worldly or what is popular. We want to pitch God and fix him up in a way that he can compete with television, movies, music, and dances. We want God to be like the world's gods, but with heaven to put us in! But God said to be in the world not of the world. If the love of the world is in us, then the love of God is not! When Christians seek to make an alternative to something that should not even exist, then you know we are following the flesh. When Christians want to use what we desire in the flesh as a tool of ministry, just so we can keep it, then you know we are in the flesh. When the preachers seek large churches, fancy cars, movies, television, and stardom more than they seek to preach the truth, then you know God is only a substitute for their real desire. They really want mammon! And if this is what they are doing, then they have chosen their god! God is not an alternative. He is not a substitute or filler. He is the WAY.
Lev. 18:30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
1John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Eph. 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Luke 14:11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
In Love,
G. Craige Lewis
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)