Philippians 4:4-9 English Standard Version

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

I will not confess everything that is going wrong right now. I am anxious about many things.

What I will confess is that it has infected my writing to all of you. Thanks be to God for my accountability partner for speaking to me about my speech. I have a past that is colored by mistakes in leadership and service. I am not in a position to know what is happening in your churches that needs to have these warnings addressed.

When this happens, my writing takes on an accusatory tone which is unwarranted.

As repentance on my part I have deleted two posts that are prepared but not released.

My accountability partner is a teacher, I am not. We believe the same thing, we know the truth, but what needs to be addressed and the language used needs more constraint on my part because I am so anxious.

Your needs are best addressed by your pastors and elders where you stand.

Pray for Israel, pray for this nation, pray for God’s will to be known and that we all have the strength to obey His will. We live in difficult times and being anxious about the future does not help.

God help us all.

My accountability partner was inspired by my series on prayers and began looking at prayers and said “Wow, have you looked at Ezra’s prayer in chapter 9?” I had not, so I did.

The end results were not what either of us expected.

Ezra 10 18 Now there were found some of the sons of the priests who had married foreign women: 23 Of the Levites 25 And of Israel

These passages list the names of those that confessed their guilt. I have a problem with public shaming. We live in the church age, in a state of grace and confession of sins is a deeply personal issue. First between us and our Lord and then to those in which we may find an opportunity to heal wounds and restore relationships.

The list was created in the Old Testament and there may have been a purpose that suited God for that time, but it is lost on me. I live in an age of grace, and yet grace should not be used as an excuse to allow sin to continue in our lives.

The Old Testament is full of examples of sin and consequences. It also has many examples of repentance and restoration. Doing a search of histories and behaviors it doesn’t take long to discover that the next generations fell back into sin and the cycle of consequences, repentance and forgiveness repeats itself over and over again.

Since we live in this church age and grace is given, we need to look at the examples of the Old Testament and learn how they fit in this present age. 

In some ways I look at the OT as “Do it because I said so.”

Now, given that we have the abiding presence of God I hear, “Be Holy because I am Holy.” His abiding presence is what makes the difference between “I told you so” and “this is who we are.”

While I have a history of witnessing public shaming in some of the churches I have attended, I find it difficult at times to share those behaviors without it sounding accusatory.

My intentions are to encourage right choices based on the Word of God and one of my weaknesses as a writer is in not anticipating how some might interpret my words.

Do no harm. 

At least try.