Thoughts
on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 216
Michael’s book is
available through:
Abiding Life Ministries
International
Littleton, Colorado
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One may wonder why I have selected this day’s writing to use for this
week’s blog…just 4 days away from Christmas!
Well, this is the time that folks check the “naughty or nice” list, isn’t
it?!? I will let you
in on a secret: I will be doing an EXTRA post on Saturday evening, right into
your stocking hanging onto your computer!
Michael
provides us with an interesting discourse that speaks to as great a truth as
there is in all of Scripture…take a look…
DAY 62
Discipline
Versus Punishment
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and
we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of
spirits, and live? --Hebrews 12:9
Church discipline has
often baffled me, for it seems to be much more church punishment than
discipline. A man was trapped in sin, but he repented; a year later when he
told the church leadership of his experience, they disciplined him. He had
moved past the sin, yet they punished him and stripped him of his position. I
think that his experience may be common, because many seem to have no
understanding of the purpose of church discipline, for which I will offer an
explanation. We fall out
with God before we fall out with one another or fall into sin. Sin is the cobweb, but the falling
out is the spider. We need not go for the cobweb when we can go for the
spider. If brothers or
sisters have fallen out with God, they will begin to walk in the flesh and
infect the whole body. We must discipline them. We need not punish them, since sin and punishment are one and
the same; the moment they started sinning, they started punishing themselves.
What they need is the discipline of falling back in with God, of spending time
with Him, of listening to Him, and of being loved by Him. Pull them aside and discipline
them by seeing that they spend time with Him and urging them away from all that
would distract from Jesus. Steer them away from leadership, giving them time to
listen to the good Shepherd; let them be disciplined while falling back to
Jesus. Once this is done, all is complete. No longer bring up the
failure; whatever it was is not as critical as the fact that they were deceived
into falling away from the abiding presence of Jesus. There will be the odd
time when we discover that the persons never really wanted Jesus and they do
not want Him now. They do not need to be put out of the fellowship, for God has
already done that. Just agree with what He has done and wait. If they fall back
into Jesus, they will then be welcome.
Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point Green
– IT, Incredible Truth
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches Pink
– PV, Priceless Victory
Many
sincere Christians have no idea that “discipline” and “punishment” are two
different actions. In fact, the more
legalistic one is, the more the possibility diminishes of that one knowing the
difference.
Don’t
you just love the scripture text for this day’s writing. Look at the three things that set the stage
for Michael’s discourse:
1.
our earthly fathers were given to instruct, correct, chastise us…i.e. “discipline”
us. Steering us down life’s path,
instead of punishing us, is father’s role.
2.
the writer of Hebrews speaks of a time when the children “respected” their
fathers for doing what is mentioned in #1.
3.
part of the earthly father’s role is to steer his children to be “subject”
(submit ourselves) to our Heavenly Father’s control.
Michael
shows us how this type of “parenting” should play out in a church, with the
leadership steering the people through such difficult situations. Wouldn’t it be great if the following were a
part of the church culture of our day:
1.
100% of the members have heard of such teaching.
2.
there was respect for leadership in most churches…especially as God teaches.
3.
the threat of lawsuits wasn’t keeping most church leadership from going down
this path.
Respect
for fathers, respect for pastors & elders, respect for law officers,
respect for others, respect for property, and the “fear of the Lord” is missing
in most places today. What a tragedy.
To access ALL past weekly
blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital
“C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com
NOTICE: another blog on
Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the
Wilderness. You can access by logging onto
www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com
Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 633244 Nacogdoches,
TX 75963 936-559-5696
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