{"id":4150,"date":"2012-09-21T14:28:24","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T21:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lightbearers.org\/?p=4150"},"modified":"2021-04-22T17:19:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T01:19:37","slug":"look-mom-im-a-televangelist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/look-mom-im-a-televangelist\/","title":{"rendered":"Look Mom! I\u2019m a Televangelist!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quick: what do Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard, and Jimmy Swaggart all have in common?<\/p>\n

Answer: they\u2019ve all made my life harder.<\/p>\n

At various times, and in various ways, they all succeeded in sullying my profession, my faith, and, worst of all, my Savior. (He\u2019s their Savior too, of course!)<\/p>\n

They can\u2019t help it that people are largely unthinking and gullible, sure, but they certainly could\u2019ve stayed in bed with the right person (among other things).<\/p>\n

For better or for worse (and usually for worse), television has a way of legitimizing things, including, and especially, people. Something about seeing a person on a screen makes them seem credible or desirable, or both. For my part, I\u2019ve not only observed this phenomenon, I\u2019ve lived it. Sure, not in an Oprah or Larry King kind of way, but in a real way nonetheless.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been recognized in restaurants and on airplanes. I\u2019ve been asked for autographs. I get \u201cfan\u201d mail and \u201chate\u201d mail. It\u2019s all quite awkward, really, and I can trace much of it to my regular appearances on, mostly, 3ABN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not that I\u2019m complaining. In perfect candor, I could not care less about the modest modicum of \u201cfame\u201d I have. But here is something I care very much about: God, in His own merciful, mysterious and inimitable way, has used my preaching to change lives by introducing people to Scripture, and to Scripture\u2019s whole point\u2014Jesus!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026the best preachers are practicers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m happy to endure any social awkwardness or personal inconvenience, if I can help, even in some small way, to bring someone\u2013anyone!<\/em>\u2013into this glorious faith and truth that has changed my own live so immeasurably, wonderfully and completely.<\/p>\n

This is the life God has given me. It\u2019s not the life I would\u2019ve expected, but, and not many people can say this, it is exactly the life I would now choose for myself, given all the options the vast world affords.<\/p>\n

Fame? Money? Leisure? Adventure? Power? Pleasure?<\/p>\n

Not even close.<\/p>\n

No, if I could do anything, I would preach.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a preacher. It\u2019s what I do, and who I am. As someone once said, \u201ca nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s a little-known secret: the best preachers aren\u2019t on television. In fact, the best preachers aren\u2019t even preachers!<\/p>\n

To put it as a variant of the age-old admonition, the best preachers are practicers<\/em>. (As in, practice what you preach.) And there\u2019s an even better way: preach with your practice<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What has God put you on earth to do? Build? Count? Heal? Teach? Sell? Manage? Create? Parent?<\/p>\n

What are you good at? What do you enjoy? What will you be?<\/p>\n

So do it. Enjoy it. Become it. Whatever it <\/em>is.<\/p>\n

Do it the best you can. Do it like only you could. Do it \u201cwith all your might\u201d (Ecc.9:10).<\/p>\n

And be sure, most of all, to do it to the glory of Him who gave you the desire, knowledge, and ability to do it in the first place! <\/em><\/p>\n

Because then, in addition to doing it<\/em>, you\u2019ll be doing something else. Something very important. Something very significant. Something very beautiful.<\/p>\n

And something very legitimate <\/em>(television or not).<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be preaching.<\/p>\n

Post script: the preacher that preached to me was a computer programming student at the local college. And, so far as I am aware, he\u2019s never once been on television.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quick: what do Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard, and Jimmy Swaggart all have in common? Answer: they\u2019ve all made my life harder. At…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Look_Mom_Im_a_Televangelist_2.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAh8r-14W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13584,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150\/revisions\/13584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}