Ted Haggard Part Deux

I will confess that Ted Haggard has never had a huge influence on me. I bet a lot of people never knew who he was is prior to his very public disgrace this past week but I can tell you one thing, pretty much everybody knows about him now.

I don't doubt that his heart and passion for Jesus are high but I would say that even while doing so many GREAT things for the body of Christ that and the cause of Christ that his walk got off step. I am not throwing stones at Ted Haggard. I have gotten out of step with Christ before and it is clearly no fun.

Getting out of step is no fun because it humiliates you. It causes others to doubt the power of Christ to change us. It causes others to stumble and it causes division, a division that is sometimes under the roof of a house shared by a man and and a woman and sometimes under the roof of a congregation.

There are two things at play here as I see it.

Ted Haggard was revealed to be the image of Peter as the cock crowed three times...Peter denied Christ three times and then looked into the eyes of Christ...At least that's the way I've always envisioned it. He had to deny Christ every time he picked up a phone to call the escort service. Every time he uttered a word. Every time he went to the hotel and when he returned to his holy calling. Ted Haggard had a lot of times to deny Christ and to lie to himself. To the people around him and to his God.

Ted Haggard also revealed something I've written about before in a blog called the Judas Spirit of the Church.

Haggard is a person who was profiled in a film called "Prayer Camp" and while this picture was produced by non-believers it shows what I would call a negative portrayal of Haggards efforts to impact younger children for the cause of Christ by instructing them to impact the political landscape. Many times we in the church, like Judas, look for a political solution to a spiritual problem.

Often times our problems would be solved if we would simply shut up and live what we believe the Bible says. Instead we spend too much time flapping our gums, writing on websites and putting our thoughts out there by any means other than the LOUD WITNESS OF A CHANGED LIFE.

If you are married your first ministry is to your spouse. If things are not right at home you have no business going out the door to win others to the cause.

Ted Haggard swore that things were right at home with his wife...He called them "steady"...but that can't be true because when you are married according to the scripture two become one and if one is delving into sexual relationships outside of a relationship with their spouse and doing drugs, something is very wrong at home....There is something very unsteady in that house.

The roles of ministers and leaders of the church today have been so clouded that we have pastors pretending to be politicians and politicians masquerading as theologians...It is nonsense and an outrage and all the while the verbiage of FAMILY VALUES gets shoved deeper down the throat of our culture when the family in the church is going to hell.

Be on guard and let your loudest words be spoken in silence by the witness of your changed life and faithful marriage.