I’ve been sharing things from my heart on Facebook and my website SimplicityOfTheGospel.com for about 2 ½ years now. As I review those 170+ posts, I feel like I’ve shared some really good stuff. I don’t see any that I think were wrong. God has taught me a lot, and I try to be very careful to only share what He has taught me, not my own ideas, or what I’ve heard from someone else.
Yet I know that there are some who may take issue with things I’ve posted. That doesn’t bother me. I’ve had the Lord take issue with many things I’ve believed and said and done over the 40+ years I’ve been serving Him. But He loves me, and corrects me as a loving father chastens and corrects his son. I’ve truly come to appreciate… even seek… His correction. After all… either I’m perfect, or I need correction. (I don’t have to tell you which it is.)
Because I know His love for me, I am not afraid of making a mistake in the process of doing my best to serve Him, and do His will. I just want to be soft and pliable in the Master’s hands, so when I do make a mistake, or even sin, He can easily get my attention, and correct me… gently. It’s only when we’re hard to correct, that He must deal harshly. If we will not receive correction (chastisement), we may someday find out that we’re really not sons. [Read Hebrews 12:5-13]
That is one reason that, as confident as I am that everything I’ve shared is true and right, I will not say it is “thus sayeth the Lord”… without error. There is a time and place for making that declaration about a specific word from the Lord, but not speaking broadly… like 2 ½ years, or more. I have seen way too many times when I was very confident that I was right, and had many good brethren in agreement with me, …but God saw it very differently. As hardened as I was, He could have crushed me, or cast me away. But instead, He patiently waited until I softened, so He could remold me according to His good pleasure.
1 John 1:8-10 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
If I were to say that every word I have shared is without error, it would be like saying I have not sinned –at least in written word. That would make it hard for the Lord to correct me. That would be like telling God that I was not open to correction on that matter… “I know I am RIGHT… I will not change… end of discussion… do NOT bring it up again!” Then, if He ever was able to break through my hardness, and pride, and self-righteousness; I would also have to confess that, on top of my error, I was also guilty of a lie… possibly even one that caused one of His little ones to stumble. That thought makes me tremble.
That doesn’t mean that I’m going to say that everything I’ve shared is riddled with error, and you need to be very skeptical when you read it. I would rather say that you need to seek the Lord, and search the scriptures to see if what I say is true. (And search the whole book… not just the verses I quote.) I will say though, that the more willing I am to be corrected, the more confidence you can have in what I share. It’s when I would claim that my words are without error, but you can see that my life is not perfect, that you need to beware.
James 3:1-2 “My brethren, be not many masters (teachers), knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”
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