“The Heart is deceitful above all things” So says the God breathed Scriptures. For some reason I was thinking about that verse. It could be because of what has come to light about Jean Vanier, namely his sexual abuse of several women over many years. I was sad to read that allegations have proved to be true.

However, the verse went off like a light in my spirit not when I read that news but when I read a heresy hunting website. There are many of them around. Sadly I have sometimes found it to be true, not always but sometimes, that those who trumpet most about the errors and sins of others are often found down the line to have been living a double life. It is not unusual for preachers for example who go purple in the face as they rage against carnal sin in the church to be discovered with prostitutes or to be deeply into pornography.

If you find wrong in others a delicious morsel that sets you salivating and looking for an opportunity to share it, take care. God will treat you in the way you treat others. The measure in which you have delighted to find fault and expose others is the way He is deciding to deal with you right now. It may be too late to stop your sins being exposed. It may not be. Fear God. The exposure could happen today, or in two years time. This moment be the last one God gives you to repent. Do it. In mercy God may never ask you to make it public. He is kind as well as severe. What we hide He exposes sometimes. What He hides is hidden.

“The Bible says,” can make you into a winner of souls like Billy Graham a teacher like the late great Jim Graham or into a false prophet who speaks from the heart of the enemy of God and His people. Give some people a Bible and a soapbox and a dictator is released. Some people follow dictators and get hooked by their eloquence without any check on their behaviour. Make sure you are not one of them.

I have found many Christians love in the angry sermons pointing out wrong. Love does not rejoice in the discovery of wrong, the practice of wrong. Oh for sure it needs to be done, but only from a Christlike heart that loves enough to have a track record of suffering for the church. Heresy hunters and fixers of the church rarely have such a record.

What losses and scars do you bear for the flock of God whom you claim to be warning, heresy discoverer, troll of video excerpts and quotes out of context, bull who sees red at the mention of certain names? If, as a pastor I ever spoke about errors creeping in at the edges of the flock, I had earned the right to do so. I had the scars, the sleepless nights, the being treated at times as the offscouring of the earth. My wife and family have scars too. Pointing out error needs more than a Bible, a degree in theology, the ability to find a quote from a revered author and access to social media.

God bless

Kenny