Today's Devotional
May 8, 2006
Subject: Confrontation Fights Truth Decay
Galatians 2:11 - "But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed."
While the "C" word was never a challenge for someone like Paul, it is for many. However in the body of Christ we are to be accountable to each other and at times that may call for "Confrontation."
At our local church body, one lady hasn't returned to service in the past month. She is supposedly upset by a conversation that I had with her one day. She called about 3 a.m. one morning saying that "something knocked her off of the toilet in the middle of the night." She went on to inquire about why God would allow something like that to happen. After she finished her diatribe about what kind of God would allow this to happen to her seeing she already had a bad leg and a few other things, I prayed for her and told her to go back to bed. The next day I saw her and began to question her about her drinking habits and if she had consumed any alcohol the night prior. The answer was in the affirmative, but she defended immediately saying it wasn't that much. She seemed shocked when I went on my own diatribe about the ability of alcohol to impair judgment and then implied that she didn't get knocked off of the toilet, but instead that she fell off in a drunken stupor. Since that conversation, she has not returned to the church.
The church is not a place to come and play games with God and His people. If someone tries to do that within the body, they should be confronted with truth. Paul was like that with his fellow disciples as he confronted Peter about his conduct which was misleading some believers. We should likewise be that bold.
We should not tolerate a mushy, feel-good Christianity that disregards and ignores truth to keep from hurting feelings. Truth is the oxygen that sustains God's body and many will come in to choke the life out of a living, breathing, vibrant church body. Don't let it happen. Like Paul, challenge deception and error. Confrontation fights truth decay!
