Thought For The Day: Bishop Eddie Long??? Are We Missing the Point?

Believers,
Are we focusing too much energy on the who’s and what’s and missing the main point?

The main point for me is that regardless of Bishop Long’s guilt or innocence there is a larger problem that needs to be addressed. Perhaps this is not about did or didn’t do, but a movement of God. Perhaps the accusations are all a part of God’s plan to say that Christian’s are not handling sexual misconduct in the proper way.

It seems like as long as the perpetrators were catholic, we have been able to turn a blind eye to a problem we all know exists. But now, he is someone with whom a good deal of us can relate. He’s not a distant person that we have never heard of we have watched him on TV in our homes.We might have even gone to his church. Now it is too close to ignore.

Ponder this, what if this is just a wake up call for us as a the Body of Christ? Perhaps we needed it to be someone with whom we are familiar so that we would become more action oriented in establishing an environment where sins of sexual misconduct are dealt with and handled in a Christ Like manner. In Christ’s house.

If you have college women in your church, a recent study showed that one in four college aged women have or will be raped. How many of those women might be sitting in the same pew as you? Broken and hurt, crying on the inside because she feels there will be shame or rebuke if she tells you about her burden? Or that she will not be supported. All the while knowing you were once the same girl.

For those who have a Children’s ministry. How many children indicate that there is something wrong? What do you do about it? Oh that’s right, give them a crayon and a picture of Jesus and send them on their way.

In your Men’s Ministry, can a man who was molested, and now molests, come to you as a broken and scared child and confess to you what happened in his childhood and how it affects him now? Where he can confess his sins and ask for help? Or does he have to be macho, a strong man of God all the time?
[ad] The truth of the matter is, I don’t know why God made sex so powerful that people would abuse it in such awful ways. However it is so prevalent that the norm is you know someone who has been abused and rare if you don’t.

I understand that dealing with this issue and opening up these ugly wounds is hard work. It might mean crying and running our mascara, or getting our freshly dry cleaned suits wrinkled or dirty. Yet and still the family of Christ is not going to be healed if we don’t. We will have a conference about keeping the family together and being strong women and men in a heart beat. But at the end of the day, if we don’t learn how to effectively resolve this issue, families are destined to fail.

Why? This is why. How do I learn to be a good father, if the father who provided for me also abused me? In my mind as a child, how am I supposed to know this was wrong? How do I not equate this with fatherhood?How can I serve God effectively when his messenger is asking me to perform sexual acts that cities were destroyed for in Biblical times. How can I be a good wife to my husband when my first love violated my trust and now I have intimacy issues.

I get that we all like to come to church and hear a message that makes us feel good. But that is not doing Christ’s work. Only wanting to feel “Good” is like going to a job, not wanting to do any work and get a check. No we have to roll up our sleeves and stop these atrocities from happening.

See the bigger picture isn’t the guilt or innocence of one man, God has that. The bigger issue is how are we failing one another and what can we do to fix it. This might have been the wake up call we needed. So will you get up or hit snooze? When we are doing God’s work we should be healing these wounds not making people feel like they have to handle them on their own or outside the Body. They should be running to the church not running away from us.

What ya’ thinking?
As always, be Blessed!
RiverAngel42


Comments

11 responses to “Thought For The Day: Bishop Eddie Long??? Are We Missing the Point?”

  1.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    My Pastor just preached a powerful message on Sunday as to why God deserves to be worshipped. First, because HE is the GOD of ALL CREATION and secondly, he is the one and only GOD of REDEMPTION. I could not help but weep through the entire sermon as he carefully explained the innocence and perfection of Jesus, the ugliness of sin and the love of God! I wept through the entire sermon. We should ALL have a broken spirit and a contrite heart and NEVER lose sight of the price that was paid on OUR behalf so that we could escape the torture chamber of HELL! Some of us act like we are doing God a favor when we come to church, or give of our time, talents, gifts or resources, when actually, we can NEVER repay HIM for what HE has done for us. We should be humbled and honored for the privledge of calling HIM our SAVIOR and LORD! We “the church” need to be void of self-exaltation, self-promotion, self-importance, self-pity, self-serving, self-focus and just plain old SELFISHNESS! We need to DIE to SELF and present ourselves as a LIVING SACRIFICE unto the LORD which is the least that we can do–it is our REASONABLE service as spoken of in Romans 12:1,2.

  2. On the comment concerning the Eddie Long story , Judgement must first begin at the house of God. Saiths of God, pray for the leaders, ministers of the Gospel Jesus Christ. for they are without excuse. God show, have mercy on us all.

  3. We should be praying for all involved, God is the judge and we all have to stand accountable to the Lord one day and what we do and say now will not be forgotten, the Word say’s we should pray for one another not condem, Love is a action word and the Church need’s to take action in Love and not judgement, that is why so many are running from the so called church to day, judgement on so many level’s, Let’s all start praying more. Along with so call saints on their own purpose, having itchy ear’s, not wanting the hear the truth of the Bible, taking polls on what the people want to hear instead of teaching, preaching and living according to the Word of God, but the Bible says all these things would happen, then the End!!

  4. Lady R Avatar
    Lady R

    Wow…definitely something to ponder….

  5. Jennifer Ward Avatar
    Jennifer Ward

    I totally agree that the accusations against Eddie Long is a wake up call. I found a bunch of sermons on sexuality. Perhaps we need to look for this kind of guidance for our church community.

    1. I agree. A lot of Christians are really looking at him while turning a blind eye t the issues that need to be addressed within their own congregations. We need to become more proactive and hold each other accountable to the word. Not in judgement but in love.

  6. Bible Believer Only Avatar
    Bible Believer Only

    RiverAngel 42 I must say, I agree with you all the way around on this issue.Truly, God will take care of the details of who’s guilty and who’s not as it relate to Bishop Eddie Long. We as the church MUST stop playing church and address the real issues of our times.Preaching, praising, and singing does not mean a thing IF we as the church are not being honest about who we are inside and addressing our brokenness , pains and problems.That start at the head and move down. If the head is broken it must be healed first in order that the body may follow.Anything less is simply…PLAYING CHURCH and NOT at all about doing our FATHER business.Time to turn over some tables and a few pews…just as Jesus did in order to set the CHURCH straight again.There is no better place to start than up there around the pulpit. I got this end of the table will you catch that corner?

    1. God can take a mess and use it as a MESSage! We all need to take heed and stop being listeners to a Sunday word and doers of God’s word. Absolutlety. We need to scream and pray and yell for healing as much has we do for Wordly prosperity!

      Thank you so much for commenting. I hope that others who read this will comment as well. Also feel free to comment on anything we post and join the site also.

      Be Blessed and I have my table turning gloves on!
      RiverAngel42

      All other readers please feel free to comment, all points of view are welcome here.

      1. I just want to add neither the victims nor the assailants should ever be afraid to come through the Church for God’s healing and Grace. All should be able to find help in the House of God. That means we (the folks already in the pews) need to be accepting, while expecting great change.

        Riverangel42 again!
        Peace

        1. I so agree. Hurting people (in the church or not) need for other compassionate, empathetic people that live by God’s Word of Love to be there for them and help them understand His Word and pray and love them through … even when it’s tough love, at least having someone to stand with them when they do have to receive judgement/punishment … someone that will see them through their whole restoration process.
          I know that’s asking a lot, but when we go beyond being just human to being God’s Hands of Love in this Earth, then it’s possible. That takes unselfishness on a whole different level.

    2. Val Havrilla Avatar
      Val Havrilla

      AMEN…………AMEN…………..AMEN

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