Phil,

The link you referred to gave a 404 error. That being said I agree. People
are quick to put blame on those who they feel not only have caused this
tragedy, but well should have deserved to suffer in it. And that in itself
is a good point. Did not Abraham talk with God and kept asking him if he'd
destroy Sodom and Gomorah if there were 50 godly people? 40 people? And now
bidding30Bidding30ThirtyBidding30... oh brother not that again but did not
God make it plain he wasn't about to destroy his people for the sins of the
perverse in the two cities. How many Christians found themselves then in
harm's way due to the sins of the wicked? I remember our pastor in Texas
talking about his return from a mission trip. He felt like selling
everything he had and give the $$ to those who needed it. It bothered him
very much. Of course he didn't do it, but then he doesn't have a 1.3
million dollar house, $20,000 Rollex and etc. But  he did get a perspective
I pray he never loses sight of as a leader in God's plan.

Brad


Phil Scovell wrote:
>I wrote this about 9 11 as well.  Maybe now is a good time to remember.
>
>American Christian Leadership In Question
>
>By Phil Scovell
>
>Taken from:
>
>http://www.redwhiteandblue.org/plstexts/LEADER.HTM
>
>
>      What you are about to read is something that came to me on
>the morning of Sunday, September 23, as I sat and considered all
>the things I had been hearing during the week.  Some things are my
>own personal opinions while others are things the Lord has shown
>me about the church in America over the last year.
>
>      I have been greatly concerned in recent days that some of
>our national Christian leaders have been speaking out about the
>terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.  My concern is
>specifically about their negativity, as it relates to the nation,
>and because of whom they blame for this tragedy.  Their messages
>have been largely inflammatory, specifically degrading, and
>purposely accusatory.  The tone of their messages have been one
>which clearly outlines this nation is being judged for its
>sinfulness by sinners whom they painstakingly name as prostitutes,
>pimps, homosexuals, abortionists, criminals, drug dealers,
>addicts, and immoral people in general.  I am not referring to a
>single person's remarks but several of whom I have read or
>personally heard on radio and television.  They all attempt to use
>Scripture as the bases for their claims as well.
>
>      I have spoken with Christians who find these public
>statements by Christians not only confusing and disturbing but
>Biblically conflicting.  If in case you, too, are confused let me
>state it in terms we all can understand.  They believe the reasons
>behind the loss of perhaps 6,000 lives and the destruction of the
>World Trade towers, not to mention the disruption of the stock
>market, is a direct result of this nation, as a whole, not
>repenting and turning to God.  Furthermore, they believe it is a
>sign of God's judgement upon us as a nation for all of our
>wickedness.  Many of them strongly recommend you, at this most
>critical of financial times, pull all of your money out of the
>stock market.  In short, they believe sinners are to blame and
>specifically sinners who are not born again Christians as they
>define it.
>
>      Now, I am going to tell you what I personally think.  Keep in
>mind, I have no large church to promote.  I have no Christian
>magazine for which I will solicit your monthly subscription.
>Furthermore, I have no ministry to support and I have no
>television program for which I must pay.  Nor am I going to hold
>an offering plate under your nose before I finish my sermon.  So
>you can take my words for what they are worth because I have no
>hidden agenda.
>
>      First, I submit these national Christian leaders are self
>appointed.  Are They operating large ministries with worldwide
>ministries due to their mighty power with God or is their power
>mostly electronic in nature?  Ask yourself the question, would
>their comments be spread throughout the known world if they didn't
>have radio and television and internet website networks upon which
>to broadcast their opinions?  How many of their authored books
>would be best sellers if they didn't have their radio and TV
>ministries to promote their own works?  How many miracles, signs
>and wonders, have you seen being manifest in their ministries in
>recent years?  Any?  Some?  A few?  How many of their prophecies
>have been fulfilled to the letter?  All?  Some?  None?  If the
>answer isn't all, then why are we listening to them?  There are,
>at least in my mind, some questions which demand answers before we
>consider the validity of their message.
>
>      First, who appointed them to lead us?  God?  Their huge multi
>million dollar ministries?  Their large radio or television
>ministries?  Their well oiled fund raising and marketing
>techniques employed to advance their ministries?  The size of
>their mailing list?  The bottom line of their monthly and annual
>financial records?  The books they have authored?  Who, for that
>matter, has appointed them as the spokesman for the Body of Christ
>in the United States?  Their denomination, their Bible colleges,
>or their television broadcast network?  Are they well known
>because of the precise fulfilling nature of their prophecies God
>has given them about our nation?  Have we witnessed the power of
>their prayers in behalf of our nation?  Are they seen as national
>Christian leaders because of the compassion and love for the those
>outside of Christ?  Furthermore, what about all these homosexuals,
>criminals, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, abortionists, and
>immoral people who have caused this horrible loss of life and
>brought the judgement of God upon us as a nation?  Why haven't
>these ministers been able to reach these poor depraved people with
>the Gospel?  Has God's arm waxed weak that it can no longer save
>through their ministries?  Aren't they spending enough money to
>reach the lost for Christ?  Aren't they broadcasting enough?
>While we are talking about money, how much of their ministry
>offerings has gone to New York in recent days?  How many teams of
>people have been sent from their churches to help our fellow
>citizens in and around Ground Zero?  Have they sacrificed, selling
>off much of their properties, and delivered the money to those
>hurting families in New York?  I ask again:  Why hasn't their
>national and international radio and television broadcast been
>able to reach those they claim are the cause for God's judgement
>upon America?  For that matter, how many hours can they say their
>entire church has logged in praying for our nation over the last
>year?  How much protection have they prayed upon America?  How
>much intercession has been conducted for those who they claim are
>the cause of God's judgement?  By the way, if your message is so
>powerful and your prophets so precise and accurate, and you have
>such intimacy with God through prayer, why weren't you able to
>predict and warn the people of New York in advance as the
>prophets of old did to the nation of Israel?  Did you walk naked
>and barefoot for three years as Isaiah did before the people,
>calling upon them to repent, prior to the falling of God's
>judgement upon his country or were you too preoccupied putting on
>your makeup to look your best before the television cameras on
>your TV show?
>
>      I think they are right about one thing.  What happened in
>New York September 11, 2001 was a wake up call but not to America.
>It was a wake up call to the church.  We have sinned.  We have
>forgotten God and replaced him with a marketing plan.  We have
>commercialized Christ and substituted the Gospel with televised
>interviews, mass choirs, transparent pulpits, padded pews, and
>preachers with 300 dollar shoes, 1,000 dollar suits, 20,000 dollar
>Rolex watches, and 150,000 dollar limousines to take them to their
>1.3 million dollar homes in the suburbs following their record
>breaking church service or television shows.  Furthermore, we have
>elevated coaches to national Christian leadership positions,
>complete with their own multi million dollar parachurch
>ministries, simply because they have won football championships.
>We have allowed professional athletes to become the crowns of
>spirituality, inviting them to speak in our pulpits and on
>Christian television programs, all because they pull down millions
>of dollars each year and say a short prayer just before trotting
>out on to the baseball or football field or the basketball court.
>Of course, we have to ask them to speak during off season times
>because they are busy playing professional sports on Sundays
>during regulation season times and aren't available.  We have
>taken the words of Hollywood stars, claiming to be Christian, and
>found them to be more fascinating than the preaching of God's
>Word.  We have succumb to promotion over doctrine, marketing over
>theology, and sales of Christian products over the cross of Jesus
>Christ.  We have flaunted converted criminals in front of the
>world, claiming they are now born again Christians, instead of
>focusing on the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We have
>taken are Christian cameras into the prisons and video taped
>violent murderers and asked for their opinions of how we should
>live the Christian life and then turned around and sold copies of
>the tapes on our daily broadcasts to eager Christians willing and
>ready to use their credit cards to call toll free ministry numbers
>to purchase that tape.  Of course, anything you give above the
>cost of the tape goes to support our ministry.  We spend hundreds
>of hours preparing for guest speakers and Christian entertainers
>and five minutes before the green light flashes the show is to go
>on the air, we pray and ask God's blessing.  Furthermore, we even
>pay these amazing and incredible guests to be on our shows and to
>be interviewed.  This is supposed to challenge us to live Godly
>lives?  moreover, we have shifted the Gospel to radio and
>television ministries rather than local New Testament churches
>meeting in storefronts and canvassing the neighborhoods to reach
>the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a one-on-one bases.
>We have depersonalized the Gospel by Christian entertainers who
>couldn't make it on the public circuit but found their niche in
>the Christian world.  We have weakened the church by creating
>thousands of parachurch ministries which siphon local monies away
>from legitimate New Testament churches by the millions every week.
>then, if one of those parachurch ministries experiences financial
>difficulty, they have a wonderful mailing list of churches all
>over America to whom they can mass mail in order to raise millions
>of dollars to keep their parachurch ministries alive and
>productive.  Additionally, we have ignorantly reversed church
>leadership roles so we are now spiritually weak, anemic, deaf and
>blind to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Worst of all, we have
>turned and blamed it on others rather than taking upon ourselves
>the responsibilities God has given us for our communities in and
>through our churches.
>
>      It is time for our church leaders to repent and turn to God
>and to stop blaming everyone else for their failures.  Then, and
>only then, will they be able to lead.  They may also discover,
>they were never called to be leaders in the first place.  In which
>case, I expect them to resign and step down and let more
>spiritually responsible men and women of God take their places.
>
>      If anyone has failed and brought about the national tragedy
>upon our country, it is the church.  We have not prayed; we have
>not fasted; we have not given; we have not sought God and His
>mercy.  We have let our own people down and now we try and blame
>others.  Repentance begins at the house of the Lord.  When will it
>begin?  Now?  Later?  When I see our national Christian leaders,
>so-called, calling the churches to repentance and confessing their
>sins to the Lord publicly, perhaps revival will come to America.
>
>      What happened in New York at the World Trade Center was
>nothing short of evil attempting to destroy what God has given
>this country.  I will remind you, the devil did not give us
>America and her freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and
>freedom of religion.  The devil did not bless this country to send
>out and financially support more missionaries to evangelize the
>world than any other nation on the planet.  The devil did not
>provide us with the ability to work and to make a living and to
>provide for our families.  The devil did not give us the freedom
>to vote and to elect our national leaders.  What happened on
>September 11, 2001 was nothing less than a demonic attack on the
>United States of America and we have no one to blame, as
>Christians, but ourselves.
>
>      One month before the attack on America, my youngest son was
>married.  A few days following the attack on America, this 19 year
>old son of mine went right down to the U S Post Office and filled
>out the selective service forms.  Why, you ask, when there is no
>draft and isn't likely ever going to be?  The answer is simple.
>He wanted to show his love and loyalty for his country just in
>case the draft was reinstated.  In short, he wanted to be ready to
>serve if called upon.
>
>      If you are a born again Christian, you are called to serve as
>well.  Part of our service is to stand against evil.  Have we done
>that or did we in fact, as Christians, let the people of New York
>down?  Are you ready now?  Go sign up with God and start praying
>for your country, its leaders, and for its protection.  Learn how
>to pray and keep praying till you learn.  Become an intercessor.
>Before everything else, repent; for yourself, your family, and
>your church and its leadership because we are not right with God
>as a church nationwide.  Don't blame others but seek God.  Stop
>evil before it strikes again.  this is something all Christians
>can do who know God and know how to pray.
>
>      Pastors, start leading.  Shepherds led their flocks and
>protected them from harm.  Are you doing that as a pastor or are
>you spending your time with church duties?  If you aren't praying
>more than your church members, you aren't a shepherd, you aren't
>leading, and you are not protecting your flock from harm.  No one
>can do it for you.  It is time to stop acting the part and,
>instead, becoming a part of the Body of Christ once again.  After
>all, pastors are sheep, too.  Stop being pastoral and be Christ-
>like.  Lead by example.  Don't tell us how to do it; do it
>yourself and we will follow.  Open your ears and heart to other
>called anointed ministers of the church and stop trying to do it
>all yourself.  Stop being afraid of the gifts of the Holy Spirit
>in others.  Minister to those whom God has given you in your
>church.  If you do not, God's power will not come nor will He
>increase your flock.  Stop attempting to build another church on
>top of the Lord's.  The power of God will come when we are ready
>to receive it.  If we don't have His power, we will be devoured by
>the enemy.
>
>Phil.
>
>I Flew Kites With Jesus
>www.SafePlaceFellowship.com

Brad

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