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(0)I'm sure by now most (if not all) of you have heard about Ted Haggard, the now former Senior Pastor of New Life Church in Colorado. He is a man who has been found guilty of sexual immorality, and as a consequence, he has been "appropriately and lovingly removed from ministry."
Please read the letters he and his wife, Gayle, wrote to the people of New Life Church in Colorado. Let this be a reminder for all of us that none of us is exempt from sin and shame. Let this serve as a warning for our own sakes! And let us rest in the grace God has given us in Christ for He paid the penalty for our sin and shame. And let us immerse ourselves in the Grace of God known to us by His Word.
So what can we do to keep ourselves from sin? Ted's letter shares a few ideas:
1) "When I stopped communicating about my problems..." - Accountability is more important than we realize.
2) "I am a deceiver and a liar" - We must be truthful of who we really are.
3) "Then, because of pride..." - It is far better to lose our pride than our very soul (Matthew 5:27-30).
4) "The public person I was wasn't a lie; it was just incomplete..." - Make your public persona be who you really are, not who you want people to see.
5) "Please forgive me..." - Continue to repent and believe. Repent from sin. Believe in Jesus your Savior.
Let us watch, not Ted or Gayle, but ourselves that we may not fall into the temptation by which Ted failed to endure.
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Food for thought indeed.
What does it mean to repent of sins and most importantly how do you repent? What does that mean? What are the nuts and bolts of this word repentance insofar as "how" does a person do it? Then how do we believe? People can believe in George Washington but that doesn't do much for anyone just saying they "believe" something intellectually. So "how" does one believe in such a manner that the person "knows' God in salvation and has that assurance? Today, we hear folks say repent and believe that is all you need to do. But NO one ever says "how" is that accomplished and "how" do we do that when we have "no" power in ourselves to do it? We are bound in our sinful habits and evil ways. How do we do this? Or may I say how does God save us in this whole situation when we "can't" do what he says to do because of the power of Satan and sin.?