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| I'm ripping Psalms out of my Bible... |
| Sunday, 19 October 2008 | |
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I'm not going to apologize for not blogging for the past two months. And, I'm not going to commit to writing more regularly. Been there done that. Things have been busy lately and that's a good thing I guess. Not a frenetic pace but just full. And time with family has been at the top of the list. So there... I'm not apologetic. Now that I've said that... I can move on. I've been wanting to get this off my chest for a while. It started quite a few weeks ago when Christiandom was "shocked" to hear about a well-known worship leader falling from grace. Gasp! Apparently, Mike Guglielmucci didn't have cancer when he penned the song "Healer" which appeared on Hillsongs' latest live worship album, "This Is Our God." The week just before, we saw a clip of him telling his story and then singing the song on stage in front of thousands... oxygen tank and all. How could this be? "How dare he carry on this kind of deception? How could he do this?" So then the awkward question became... "Do we sing the song or not? I mean, the man is surely confused. And did you hear? He's admitted an addition to pornography.... gasp again!" I have an idea... let's all rip the Psalms out of our Bibles because Mike Guglielmucci and the rest of them (us) have nothing on King David. I'm not condoning what he did but let's warp David into the present day and take a look at his dirty laundry. The headline reads...
"WORLD RENOWNED WORSHIP LEADER CAUGHT IS GHASTLY SCANDAL AND WEB OF DECEPTION"
I don't know how the article would read but I do know what would be in there. All the salacious details. We know this because Scripture is pretty thorough on what went down. Let's start off with the ultimate creep factor... David was a Peeping Tom or the modern day equivalent of someone who likes to take a peek at porn every now and then. Of course, he didn't stop there... gasp! He acted on those impulses and committed adultery. To cover it up he engaged in a blatant abuse of his power by having Bathsheba's husband killed. So add murderer to the list. I'd love to tell you it's at this point in the story that he felt remorse, confessed his sins, and sought godly council. But he didn't. He covered it up and hid it away in the darkness of his own heart. Not until he gets caught does he pen his confession in Psalm 51. And what about his confession... "Surely we can't trust a man who is capable of such horrible sin. And besides, he's a liar. I bet he's not even telling the whole truth." "Oh sure... he's crying now. I mean, he got caught!" "And, why write it down? It's probably just a publicity stunt after all. Of course, he's sorry now. Loser." The rest of the article doesn't even include his wonderful parenting skills. One son rapes his sister. Another son seeks to overthrow him... they must have been real close. Yet another son is so filled with lust (like father, like son I guess) he needs 700 wives and thousands of more honeys to satisfy his desires. And yet, in all of this, we look at this "Man After God's Own Heart" as an incredible source of inspiration as we connect with his humanity. But, put him in the modern day and we'd crucify him. We'd be wondering... "Do we sing the song or not?" I wonder why we give David such a free pass and yet hang all those who's brokenness becomes apparent in one way or another. Again, I'm not condoning what Mike Guglielmucci did, but unless you're willing to rip the Psalms out of your Bible, how can you pass judgement? I think tomorrow morning as I walk, I'm going to put "Healer" on repeat even though it's hard for me to sing. Hard, not because of the author's failures but because of my own disappointments. I'm going to put the song on for one reason... ...because, neither the author's failures nor my own disappoinments change the fact that "nothing is impossible for God" and he alone "holds my world in his hands."
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Comments (7)
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written by John Garrett , October 19, 2008 No judgement passed. However, we can only hope that people will show as much mercy to those outside the social club of American "church" as we do those in it. I also can't help but continue to feel that a lot of this comes from an ungodly system that we have bought into, putting to much power and influence in people attached to a hierarchal system. I did a lot of reading on the Pastor who lied about cancer since reading your post. Can't judge whether he is sincere or not, nor is it our place. But if what he says is true, he attributes this to growing up in youth ministry and being in church as a christian, unable to tell someone who he really was (a guy who looked at porn, like any of us haven't). So instead of being fostered in a relationship of growth, he covered his sin to keep his positional stature in the hierarchal system. When mans social, financial and spiritual cards are all intermixed in the same hand, it can be hard to figure out which ones to toss and which ones to keep. Imagine the difference this all would have been if he was just a man loving God without all the facades of organized religion. We can keep acting like these events are shockers, but is anyone shocked? When will we revert back to what God had intended? A priest directly to us, a relationship without the scribes and pharisees and a kingdom with our King as the represented leader. Finally, it doesn't seem it was Gods intention to have man as a King of Israel. I wonder what Davids life would have been like had man not instituted their "way" of government and followed Gods. Another reminder to keep things that ought to be separate, separate.
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written by Tim , October 20, 2008 Let me just say, Dan, nice use of bold text. Emotive. Actually, it reminds me of having a good discussion with you in person. Wouldn't it be fun to have a cup of coffee and talk politics? Give my love to your family.
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written by Chris , October 20, 2008 Dan, good words there. Heather and I miss you and Maria and would love to see you if you are ever down this way, seriously give us a call sometime. God bless you and your entire family!! You will always be someone that I consider a Good friend!
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written by mike hassoldt , October 24, 2008 When will we learn to stop shooting our wounded? we ask for sinners to come into the church, we want the broken, the sick and the desperate, but when we see all that comes in the package, we cast them out instead of showing them the love of Christ. Seems the are a lot of people willing to cast that first stone these days. Wish we could all just use it as an opportunity to take a good hard look at ourselves and be thankful for the grace in each of our lives. Good piece Dan, miss you buddy Write comment
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