Tuesday, May 15, 2007

“The death of Jerry Falwell, man of God or embarrassment to the Christian faith?”

With today's death of Jerry Falwell, expect a rush of media driven stories. For a larger than life figure like Mr. Falwell, you can count on seemingly endless stories on his life, showing the good and the bad.

There are times I wish I was a famous Christian (although I still hold to the thought that "famous Christian" is an oxymoron). If I let my ego creep in (like the ring in Lord of the Rings or the dark costume in Spiderman 3) then I find myself craving the attention of millions.

Then I watch a review of Jerry Falwells life (I've already seen one online) and I cringe. Not that Jerry Falwell did all bad. He did plenty of great things for the kingdom of God in his time. However, I can almost bet he'll be remembered more for some of his verbal blunders over the years. God bless Jerry Falwell and his family as he is now in the Lord's presence!

The public stage of the Christian life is not an easy mantle to wear. It's only by God's grace that on my very little stage at Coastlands Church I haven't slandered the name of God yet. It is so tempting to give the "Evan Lauer translation" of the Bible when I'm either preaching or counseling. I've done it a few times and paid dearly for it.

As I often pray before I preach on Sunday's, "Please God, don't let me get in the way of anything you want to say today."

Godspeed my friends,
Evan

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hey Mr. Lauer! This is Sam Ryberg. Don't bother looking at my blog on here, because I only used my Blogger for a technical writing class some time ago. But I do have a Xanga. www.xanga.com/RohanRider762

I have a review on Spiderman 3 that I wrote last week that I thought you might like to see!

Good thoughts though on the death of Jerry Falwell. If you look at his life as a whole, he was amazingly exempt of scandal. People filed suit against him several times and he ended up winning. There was not money laundering, no sex scandals… He lived his life for God and that’s rare. I believe he really showed a life worthy of his recognition. You are right, though that the tendency is that effect of the Black Suit or the ring.

Is was great to see y’all on Easter… God bless!