Plop!
Stones are for creating,
beautiful,
expanding,
sweet tasting,
lyrical sounding,
ripples of Life and Light...
Within God's stream of Living Waters.
Stones are not for harm.
Are you a stone thrower?
I urge caution.
John 8:7 & 2 Samuel 16:6
These 2 scriptures give amazing examples of both...
Just and righteous exposures
and unrighteous stone throwing.
It is God who is exposing ministries & leaders who have gone astray...
Who have disregarded God's warnings to repent.
God is in charge of exposures and sometimes He appoints people to bring these exposures "to light".
However, I warn...
Walk softly here.
The New Testament cautions us to be motivated by restoration; to restore the fallen in gentleness and humility lest we fall in the same way.
Restoring the fallen to His salvation- not to positions or platforms.
Light is antiseptic and light heals. ✨️
Light helps us to avoid hiding in our own areas of darkness. We all have them.
Light is what creates perception, understanding and revelation.
Ecclesiastes declares, "Light is sweet".
Light exposes perfectly.
It is never our ministry to accuse or judge, it is only our place to "bring to light".
Jesus is the Light.
Light brings justice.
There is goodness in clarifying these abuses of power, to the body of Christ....this is true.
Because of sheep who have been hurt, discouraged and misled by ministries who've gone far off target.
Yet...it is extremely important as well...
To avoid appointing ourselves to be STONE THROWERS.
IT is core to the heart of the LORD to expose for restoration and for good.
God alone exposes, God alone judges and God alone restores and heals.
Yes, predators must be removed. They must not be allowed to be pastors or shepherds, ever!
Wolves in sheep clothing are being exposed but so is our own tendency to idolize church celebrities!
We all left predators in their positions...we gave our time, service, offerings and backing to them.
We must discern, judge ourselves and take responsibility for our own idolatry. We must judge our own lack of insight while innocents were being abused.
I am speaking here, about the trap of becoming caught up in a "pharisaic attitude" or "spirit of self righteousness".
Self righteousness is a pride-full lie and this can cause us to be calloused & oblivious to predators as well. Put down the stones.
I'm talking about how we each respond to the Lord's ordained exposures. We must approach in humility and gratefulness for His redemption.
In John 8:7 Jesus confronts the pharisees when a lowly woman,
caught in adultery,
is publicly humiliated,
abandoned,
on purpose,
in their midst.
That yeast of adultery & idolatry had spread thru the whole loaf yet they wanted to stone her, alone. They weren't aware of their own lowliness, nakedness or hypocrisy.
In the same way, this current Jezebel (seducing) spirit has spread thru the whole of the church.
We all, as believers, in small ways, partook of the same forbidden fruit. Otherwise we would not have been so blind to this long standing atmosphere of church abuse. Right?
Our leaders are bearing the responsibilty of these exposures, as well they should. "To whom much is given, much is expected."
Yet, if we look at the story of David fleeing the wrath of Absalom in 2 Samuel 16...
We see Shimei pelting David and the king's officials with stones. He publicly accuses David and mocks his time of exposure.
This does not bode well for Shimei because he found himself on his own knees asking David for mercy in 2 Samuel 19:18...once David was restored.
David's repentance and judgment had already come through Nathan the prophet. It was not Shimei's place to judge or publicly accuse...or to throw stones.
He accused David of murdering Saul's family which actually was Saul's doing.
Shimei had the right crime as David had done something similar but Shimei was not God's chosen minister of exposure.
I do urge caution to those on social media platforms.
I'm telling you...put down the stones!
Shimei means "renowned". Are these social platforms using God's exposures for their own renown?
In Solomon's reign, Shimei did reap a severe consequence for his stone throwing! (1 Kings 2:36) Shimei lost his life, years later...under David's heir.
However, David, being humbled, showed Shimei the same mercy God had shown to him. A perfect example of God's justice system.
Stones are for building up the church and stones are for releasing oil and living water....aren't they?
Let us not self appoint ourselves as stone throwers. Let God finish His perfect work of refining the church...as only He can do in perfect Holiness, perfect purity and perfect love.
"His ways are high above our ways and His thoughts are high above our thoughts."
Isaiah 55: 8
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