Words cannot express the shock, dismay and grief I felt when I came across this story:
HE preached to thousands about his terminal illness and tugged at hearts with a hit song.
The problem is the pastor wasn't dying at all
Michael Guglielmucci, who inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians with his terminal cancer "battle", has been exposed as a fraud.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24216087-5006787,00.html
"Why does this dismay you, JJ?"
First of all, it's a brother-in-Christ who fell morally, who sinned. Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:29, said:
"Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?" (NIV)
That's what I am feeling right now, an inward burning. Whether I like the guy's music, his church or his doctrine is immaterial right now. A brother in Christ has fallen publicly.
Also, I am expecting the vultures to begin swooping in to discredit everything good God has done through that man. Seriously speaking, he's got the churches, denomination and now even the police looking into his life. His own conscience would have been troubling him all this while, and now he has to deal with the fact that he has deeply hurt his own family and betrayed AND discredited his fellow ministers.
He needs our prayers now, even more than before. And on our part we need to be ready and not caught off guard, for there will be even more cases like this in the future. That's what the Bible has already predicted.
"Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end." (Daniel 11:35, NIV)
So be prepared! When a prominent minister of Christ falls, we need to remember what the Bible teaches us to do:
"Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted." (Galatians 6:1, NIV)
Restore him gently. We are commanded to bring healing, not condemnation. Yes, I know that the faith of many has been damaged and people have turned away from the Lord because of scandals like this. But God's Word still tells us to seek to bring about restoration.
This verse is both sobering and encouraging at the same time. Paul tells us that the spiritual seeking to restore the fallen sibling-in-Christ have to be cautious of being tempted. No matter how strong we are in the Lord, remember that Paul addressed his warning to the spiritual amongst them, not the carnal. This tells me that the spiritual can still fall, if they are not careful. "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man..." Sobering, isn't it?
But the encouraging part is this: if even the spiritual can be tempted, then being tempted does not mean that we are not spiritual. Many believers assume that as they grow more spiritual they Lord and see his hand in their lives they will be less prone to being tempted. And when they are tempted and tested (the word used in the Greek carries the idea of being tested, examined and disciplined) they begin to doubt their spiritual growth and the Lord's work in their lives.
Don't doubt yourself or the Lord. The testing and temptations you face mean only one thing: that you are still human. You may be a spiritual human (I certainly hope so!) but you are still human none the less.
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2, NIV)
We can see in the context that this verse not only refers to helping one another in day-to-day living, but also specifically when a sibling-in-Christ has fallen. They fall under burdens that they cannot carry by themselves, and we, the rest of the body of Christ, are to help them AND to permit others to help US. We need to live in genuine fellowship with each other in order to fulfill this command to carry each others' burdens.
It's my firm personal conviction that if this pastor was totally open with at least ONE brother-in-Christ he respected before he started living a life of deception, this ONE brother-in-Christ would have been able to keep him on track before the lies and deception ballooned to monstrous proportions. Just ONE, that's all it would have taken to prevent this entire scandal and fiasco.
And we are talking about a pastor already used powerfully by God. If HE, with all his theological training, understanding and experience in the Lord, needed the help and support of the Body of Christ, how much more the rest of us!
"If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." (Galatians 6:3, NIV)
This verse is not referring to having a lousy opinion of oneself. It refers to acknowledging that we all need help. We all need the fellowship of the believers, people who will help us carry our burdens as we help carry theirs.
Why would someone NOT want to let others help carry his or her own burdens? Fear. When we need other people to help us, we become vulnerable. Such people can hurt us by simply refusing to help, even worse they are also in a better position to betray us because they know our weaknesses and struggles.
So that is why I am deeply honoured whenever anyone chooses to share with me their own personal burdens and struggles. I suspect it's the favour of God upon my life, that I've got friends who share with me deep, intimate secrets about their personal lives. I'd like to think that it's because I have the wisdom of God to help them; but most of the time I only know enough to pray for them.
But don't underestimate the power of knowing that a sibling-in-Christ accepts you for who you are and is consistently praying for you. This is often enough to break the power of shame in our lives.
The best definition of shame I ever read is this: shame is the nagging feeling that, deep down inside, there is something inherently wrong with me. And together with shame comes the fear, that if people know me, really know the REAL me, they would turn away from me and reject me.
What makes shame so insidious is that anyone, even those who look as if they have their lives in shape, can have it. In fact, it can be worse for them because there doesn't seem to be any way out. A jobless man who has shame can believe that his shame will go away once he finds a job. Usually it doesn't, it hides for a while and appears in another area of his life. Someone with family problems can believe that if the problems are fixed the shame will go away. But those who have their lives together and still have shame are stuck.
"Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load." (Galatians 6:4-5, NIV)
Here is where I speculate on the reason for this deception.
And no, I don't believe it is for money. Why? Well, this pastor is the youth pastor of a powerful church in Australia. And they don't pay shabby. Let's not forget also he has royalties coming on from 60 songs already, so I don't believe money is the issue.
I believe it is because he was dissatisfied with the load he had to carry in this life and felt it had to be something else in order to really bring glory to God. Hence the need to 'help' God make his own personal message more 'glorious'.
It would be fantastic if you write a great worship song about God's healing while you are suffering from terminal disease, that song becomes a hit and you see God's healing of your body later on. What a great testimony to Christ!
But does it become any less glorious if all you did was write a great worship song about healing and you have no personal testimony about it? It's all about being true to the load you have to carry in this life.
Yes, other people may have great testimonies, and those testimonies make their message powerful. But do not despise the message you already have and the testimony you already are by being faithful to the load you have to carry in this life.
Yup, it's tempting sometimes to embellish our testimonies a bit, especially if we didn't come from shady backgrounds and thus don't have much 'street cred', as they'll call it in the hip-hop scene. Or if we weren't delivered from crippling addictions, or a few million in debt, or whatever. But in such moments all we can depend on is God empowering the songs we sing and the words we speak. And when we see God touching the lives of others through us we know it is entirely because of God, not of us.
And, for me at least, I think that is more than good enough!
HE preached to thousands about his terminal illness and tugged at hearts with a hit song.
The problem is the pastor wasn't dying at all
Michael Guglielmucci, who inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians with his terminal cancer "battle", has been exposed as a fraud.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24216087-5006787,00.html
"Why does this dismay you, JJ?"
First of all, it's a brother-in-Christ who fell morally, who sinned. Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:29, said:
"Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?" (NIV)
That's what I am feeling right now, an inward burning. Whether I like the guy's music, his church or his doctrine is immaterial right now. A brother in Christ has fallen publicly.
Also, I am expecting the vultures to begin swooping in to discredit everything good God has done through that man. Seriously speaking, he's got the churches, denomination and now even the police looking into his life. His own conscience would have been troubling him all this while, and now he has to deal with the fact that he has deeply hurt his own family and betrayed AND discredited his fellow ministers.
He needs our prayers now, even more than before. And on our part we need to be ready and not caught off guard, for there will be even more cases like this in the future. That's what the Bible has already predicted.
"Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end." (Daniel 11:35, NIV)
So be prepared! When a prominent minister of Christ falls, we need to remember what the Bible teaches us to do:
"Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted." (Galatians 6:1, NIV)
Restore him gently. We are commanded to bring healing, not condemnation. Yes, I know that the faith of many has been damaged and people have turned away from the Lord because of scandals like this. But God's Word still tells us to seek to bring about restoration.
This verse is both sobering and encouraging at the same time. Paul tells us that the spiritual seeking to restore the fallen sibling-in-Christ have to be cautious of being tempted. No matter how strong we are in the Lord, remember that Paul addressed his warning to the spiritual amongst them, not the carnal. This tells me that the spiritual can still fall, if they are not careful. "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man..." Sobering, isn't it?
But the encouraging part is this: if even the spiritual can be tempted, then being tempted does not mean that we are not spiritual. Many believers assume that as they grow more spiritual they Lord and see his hand in their lives they will be less prone to being tempted. And when they are tempted and tested (the word used in the Greek carries the idea of being tested, examined and disciplined) they begin to doubt their spiritual growth and the Lord's work in their lives.
Don't doubt yourself or the Lord. The testing and temptations you face mean only one thing: that you are still human. You may be a spiritual human (I certainly hope so!) but you are still human none the less.
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2, NIV)
We can see in the context that this verse not only refers to helping one another in day-to-day living, but also specifically when a sibling-in-Christ has fallen. They fall under burdens that they cannot carry by themselves, and we, the rest of the body of Christ, are to help them AND to permit others to help US. We need to live in genuine fellowship with each other in order to fulfill this command to carry each others' burdens.
It's my firm personal conviction that if this pastor was totally open with at least ONE brother-in-Christ he respected before he started living a life of deception, this ONE brother-in-Christ would have been able to keep him on track before the lies and deception ballooned to monstrous proportions. Just ONE, that's all it would have taken to prevent this entire scandal and fiasco.
And we are talking about a pastor already used powerfully by God. If HE, with all his theological training, understanding and experience in the Lord, needed the help and support of the Body of Christ, how much more the rest of us!
"If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." (Galatians 6:3, NIV)
This verse is not referring to having a lousy opinion of oneself. It refers to acknowledging that we all need help. We all need the fellowship of the believers, people who will help us carry our burdens as we help carry theirs.
Why would someone NOT want to let others help carry his or her own burdens? Fear. When we need other people to help us, we become vulnerable. Such people can hurt us by simply refusing to help, even worse they are also in a better position to betray us because they know our weaknesses and struggles.
So that is why I am deeply honoured whenever anyone chooses to share with me their own personal burdens and struggles. I suspect it's the favour of God upon my life, that I've got friends who share with me deep, intimate secrets about their personal lives. I'd like to think that it's because I have the wisdom of God to help them; but most of the time I only know enough to pray for them.
But don't underestimate the power of knowing that a sibling-in-Christ accepts you for who you are and is consistently praying for you. This is often enough to break the power of shame in our lives.
The best definition of shame I ever read is this: shame is the nagging feeling that, deep down inside, there is something inherently wrong with me. And together with shame comes the fear, that if people know me, really know the REAL me, they would turn away from me and reject me.
What makes shame so insidious is that anyone, even those who look as if they have their lives in shape, can have it. In fact, it can be worse for them because there doesn't seem to be any way out. A jobless man who has shame can believe that his shame will go away once he finds a job. Usually it doesn't, it hides for a while and appears in another area of his life. Someone with family problems can believe that if the problems are fixed the shame will go away. But those who have their lives together and still have shame are stuck.
"Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load." (Galatians 6:4-5, NIV)
Here is where I speculate on the reason for this deception.
And no, I don't believe it is for money. Why? Well, this pastor is the youth pastor of a powerful church in Australia. And they don't pay shabby. Let's not forget also he has royalties coming on from 60 songs already, so I don't believe money is the issue.
I believe it is because he was dissatisfied with the load he had to carry in this life and felt it had to be something else in order to really bring glory to God. Hence the need to 'help' God make his own personal message more 'glorious'.
It would be fantastic if you write a great worship song about God's healing while you are suffering from terminal disease, that song becomes a hit and you see God's healing of your body later on. What a great testimony to Christ!
But does it become any less glorious if all you did was write a great worship song about healing and you have no personal testimony about it? It's all about being true to the load you have to carry in this life.
Yes, other people may have great testimonies, and those testimonies make their message powerful. But do not despise the message you already have and the testimony you already are by being faithful to the load you have to carry in this life.
Yup, it's tempting sometimes to embellish our testimonies a bit, especially if we didn't come from shady backgrounds and thus don't have much 'street cred', as they'll call it in the hip-hop scene. Or if we weren't delivered from crippling addictions, or a few million in debt, or whatever. But in such moments all we can depend on is God empowering the songs we sing and the words we speak. And when we see God touching the lives of others through us we know it is entirely because of God, not of us.
And, for me at least, I think that is more than good enough!
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