Rick Warren is apparently at home recovering after his eyes were severely burned by toxic sap from a firestick plant last Monday.
I am praying that Rick Warren makes a swift and full recovery, and encourage you to do likewise.
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15 Comments
Amen. I agree and join you in prayer.
Why do you tell your readers to pray for Rick Warrens speedy recovery? You obviously do not like his ministry and have done your level best to seriously undermine him as a person and the ministry he seeks to do for his lord. You say to pray for his recovery – WHY!? According to you he’ll lead thousands more people astray by his false teachings? Why pray for his recover Mr Neades? So that he can propogate a gospel which you obviously think is not a gospel at all? Your hypocrisy is amazing for all your readers to see!! You obviously think he is not a beliver at all as your own words point out:- “Rick Warren thus preaches a message of what we must do for Christ. This back-to-front gospel is from the world of Alice Through the Looking Glass”. – You obviously believe that he preachers a gospel which is not the true gospel as you say it’s a “back to front” gospel – therefore he is preaching “ANOTHER GOSPEL” – yet you say to pray for his recovery..!! you cannot see that his soul needs to be saved! You have failed in your duty to exhort the two or three people (maybe more..?)who read these blogs to pray for his conversion so that he can be used as mighty tool in Gods hands. Tell us Mr Neades – would you also ask us to pray for Charles Dawkins recovery if he fell ill? OR would you rather we pray for the salvation of his soul? According to your request for Rick Warren whose teachings you basically rip to shreds publically, we should rather pray for Dawkins to recover, than pray for his salvation! What hypocrisy! What double standards – you should be ashamed of yourself!!!
1. When praying that God grants Rick Warren his vision, we need not choose between the opening of spiritually blind eyes and the restoration of physical sight. We may pray for both. My assumption is that the two or three readers of this blog (as you put it) who are inclined to agree with its sentiments would already be praying for the former, and therefore in need of no encouragement in that direction.
2. Recall St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians:
Rick Warren himself is not the enemy, no matter how much some of us might disagree with his teaching.
3. To answer your question directly, if Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens were to fall ill (as indeed Christopher Hitchens has), yes I should pray for their physical healing. And also, that the Lord might grant them repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Christ. Once again, the alternatives are not mutually exclusive.
4. What of the potential leading of ‘thousands more people astray by his false teachings’? Simply this: our God is sovereign. My petition to Him to restore Rick Warren’s sight, or Christopher Hitchen’s health, will in no way thwart our Creator’s eternal purposes. Our great, glorious and gracious God shall surely save all those whom He wishes to save.
I find it desperately sad that anyone could look upon a fellow sinner in distress with anything other than a heart of compassion – one that longed for both physical and spiritual healing. So very much love and grace has been poured out upon us from the Father through Christ Jesus by the Spirit – how could we wish for anything less to be bestowed upon others who are no worse than we ourselves?
Daniel wrote, “I find it desperately sad that anyone could look upon a fellow sinner in distress with anything other than a heart of compassion – one that longed for both physical and spiritual healing. So very much love and grace has been poured out upon us from the Father through Christ Jesus by the Spirit – how could we wish for anything less to be bestowed upon others who are no worse than we ourselves?”
I totally agree with you. I thank God for your compassionate heart. And thank God for his mercy and compassion towards us!
Thank you, Jean. And yes, let us give thanks and glorify our loving heavenly Father, who spared not even His only begotten Son for us!
my mr neades,u are sooooo compassionate, however u will find that Christ Jesus taught people that the soul is infinately more important than the body and you to neglect to tell your readers of the importance of praying for Ricks salvation in your initial post is desperately lacking in love for his soul. it is also unsettling for you to choose to leave comments from other readers on various otherd posts giving you glory and praise for the advice and council you offer them, Sir this shows a huge degree of vain glory and promotion of self to your readers , the scripture “Surely, they have thier reward” springs to mind. Sir, be carefull because some of the praise you receive should not appear publically as it gives the impression to your readers that you are someone, rather than a simple blogger , blogging with other bloggers! the whole idea of blogging is so that everyone has
equal validity to thier particular argument. your website fails in this area as you come across as an pastor albeit online. are you a pastor Mr neades? if you are then fin continue ministering to others , but if not (as id guess is the case due to no reference being made anywhere on this site that you are on) then you are falsely bearing witness to mny people. its always nice to get a “well done” pat on the back, but to have these praises of men on full view when you could simply prevent them being made public is putting it bluntly, egotistical and proud. oh, learn humility, learn that the praises of men, however much you want them, should be kept in the heart not broadcast to the nation! remember Jesus where he said on a number of occasions to “tell no one”of thier healing. Mr neads learn humility and begin to seek the praise of God not men.
No, I am not a pastor. As I say on the About page:
Peace and grace.
Dear mmanson,
You wrote ‘it is also unsettling for you to choose to leave comments from other readers on various otherd posts giving you glory and praise for the advice and council you offer them’
I’m just curious as to how you regard the words of Paul to various churches, words that are publicly on view in God’s Word such as
“I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers” [Ephesians 1:15-16]
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, Being confident of this very thing that he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” [Philippians 1:3-6]
“We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which ye have to all the saints” [Colossians 1:3-4].
Is the example of Paul publicly encouraging fellow believers not an example to be followed?
God’s Word warns believers to beware of a situation “when ALL men shall speak well of you” [Luke 6:26] – As someone who has sought for 20 years to faithfully defend God’s truth and gospel and who has witnessed the treatment meted out not only to myself but to fellow faithful contenders, like Daniel, I can assure you that if we are faithful we will not receive universal ‘praise’ but that does not preclude us publicly receiving encouragement such as that recorded by Paul to the various churches and such as that seen in some of the postings on Daniel’s blog.
As someone who has publicly criticised and challenged the teachings of Rick Warren as you can hear by going to http://www.gbc-peel.org.uk/audiosermons.htm and listening to the message of 17th March 2010 I can assure you that I pray both for his physical recovery but especially for his spiritual recovery/enlightenment so that he might in future preach a faithful gospel that would be to the true saving of those for whom Christ died.
I must confess that I was grieved by the harshness of your comments directed towards Daniel ,and I believe that the words of Matthew 7:1-5, words so often misused by critics of ministries like that of Daniel and myself, do have a measure of application in relation to your own comments.
May you graciously reflect upon these matters.
Your servant for Christ
Cecil Andrews
‘Take Heed’ Ministries
http://www.takeheed.net
The blood and tear-stained cross is proof that God in His love, grace and justice cannot delight in sin and abhors it to the uttermost! And yes, we should too. But oh, have we forgotten the reason for the cross? Have we already forgotten the grace–the most amazing Grace that was poured upon our hardened hearts? Of course we should pray!
The reminder for us to pray is just that, a reminder–a much needed reminder because quite truthfully, it seems impossible to embark upon such a needful quest and to note that vengeance is not ours but God’s. But lets come back to the cross and there ask for forgiveness for our frail and darkened human hearts; and there clad ourselves in Christs’ righteousness, that we might enter the throne room on behalf of others while there’s still breath in us. Oh, let us bring glory to God in utmost gratitude for His grace upon sinners like us!
“however u will find that Christ Jesus taught people that the soul is infinately more important than the body and you to neglect to tell your readers of the importance of praying for Ricks salvation in your initial post is desperately lacking in love for his soul.”
Please cite in Scriptures where Jesus makes this statement.
Gnostics believe that the body is not important – heretics. Jesus purposely vistied his disciples in a resurrected body because the body is as the soul.
martha, you are wise, and thank you for your gracious words, they have helped more than anyone else on this site, so thank you, adn keep up with your good works.
mmanson, I notice that the IP addresses from which you have posted your comments belong to Manx Telecom. Since I too live in the Isle of Man, and the Isle of Man is a very small place, that strikes me as quite a coincidence. May I therefore ask whether I know you?
It turns out that mmanson is indeed known to me. His response to my question was not edifying and raised the intensity of personal invective significantly above the high bar already set by his previous comments on this post. This is not the place to pursue personal vendettas or to make false and libellous accusations. I shall not therefore be publishing his most recent comment, or indeed any future ones from him.
As a result of his contributions, and so as not to be capricious, I regret that I have had to draft a preliminary comment policy.
Has anyone heard of the status of Rick Warren’s condition? We like to know how are prayers are being answered.
An excellent question. The first few pages of Google results didn’t seem to have anything more recent than the late-July ‘he’s recovering well’ type statements, with the expectation that he was going to make a full recovery. I have sent him a Tweet to ask – I doubt he’ll notice it among the very many he must received, but I’ll comment here if he does respond.