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 january 21, 1997
Notes from the Road i've something on my mind. a rumor recently got back to us that actually found it's origin in texas, near houston. i won't go into the details of what it was regarding, to not fester it's further discussion, but it was having to do with us, and was a bit disturbing for us to hear. in love, i address those who found reason to begin and continue it's circulation. it says in the Bible that "every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation;" (st. luke 11:17). basically, we are all going to have a really hard time discipling or evangelizing to folks if we're tearing down each other's ministries. as brothers and sisters united in Christ, living in a fallen world that is mostly against us to begin with, we really can't afford to speak against one another without merit. we are called however to give each other the benefit of the doubt, and to love each other unconditionally as Christ loves us, which sometimes means that we must love each other enough to instruct each other, and to correct each other, and sometimes to rebuke each other. the trick is to do these things out of love and not out of judgement, and to do them prayerfully, carefully, with much prudence, and under the conditions that we find in the Bible. (st. matthew 18:15-16) please don't take me wrong,i rarely do any of these things with the correct intentions. in fact, let me say this; i don't necessarily understand, or maybe just can't appreciate the ministries of many people, but that gives me no grounds to judge them, or the way they do business. honestly, poking fun at people in this business who i can't relate to is something that i've always struggled with. it's definitely something that i work on. nevertheless, i believe that as Christians in this world, we come up against enough opposition without having to worry about other Christians. it's really interesting to me that we as Christians are the most forgiven people, while we're the least forgiving. we are shown the most grace, but are unwilling to extend even a shard of that grace to our peers. are we living in the true knowledge and freedom of the in dwelling Christ, and reflecting His compassion and understanding, or have we, as Christians, become exactly what we spend the majority of our time judging? i can't emphasize to you enough how much this question is directed to myself. i challenge all of us to challenge the things that we hear, and to be in prayer for those that we think are doing wrong, instead of harming their credibility by repeating something that we don't know for ourselves as true. i think that we could all save ourselves much trouble, and much breath. i honestly don't mean this to be in anyway a rebuttal or a justification, but merely my thoughts on this issue, to be taken or left. after all, how can i possibly see the sawdust in the eyes of my brothers for the 2x4 that covers my own eyes?
lastly, we extend all apologies to any of those who we have offended, and hope that God continues to painfully mold us all into the
servants that He would have us be. we have always taken every precaution to not compromise on our very personal convictions regarding
the operation of this band, from the managing of our money, to the music that is played before concerts on the sound system. we ask you
to pray for us regarding these matters, and we will continue to remain as transparent as possible regarding the same. i really pray that
this is taken the way that i intended it. my further apologies if it's not. take care- |
