What has happened to Ted Haggard is something that is probably the biggest fear out of anyone in ministry. My greatest fear in life is becoming disqualified. We are judged with a higher judgment and are called to be blameless and above reproach. Obviously, Haggard passed that point years ago, but it is still something that anyone in ministry needs to be continually aware of.
Derek Webb, on his CD “The House Show” says this in the intro to his song “I Repent”:
The best thing that could happen to anybody in this room is that your sin would be exposed to everyone on the 5 o’clock news. Your deepest, darkest most embarassing sin, the one you work the hardest to hide. Because I am so weary of hiding my sin from people and deceiving people. I wish there were huge screens that would tell you the truth about me so you would no who I really was and so I would have nothing but Jesus to hold on to. Take joy in the fact that our sin is real and our savior is real.
Haggard should be thankful that he has been forced to deal with his sin on this side of eternity, rather than die and face God without having dealt with that sin in his life. I’m not going to make a judgment on him whether he was saved or not. What he has realized is that he can no longer hide in his sin. The reality is that he could only hide his sin from those who could not see his heart. He could not hide his heart from God. But God has given him a special measure of grace in that He has allowed Ted to experience forgiveness and restoration while living rather than shame and condemnation after death.
This should strike a chord in our own hearts. We should take this event as a time to deal with our sin. To realize that we have been given a special opportunity through the fall of another pastor. We have been given the opportunity to deal with our sin on this side of eternity. As Christians, I fully believe that we face no condmenation, but I’d rather deal with my sin now, rather than it be exposed later.
I can’t help but be ashamed of my past sins and the current pride I find surfacing much too frequently. And I can’t help but think that when it is all over and I will look back over my life and just think, why couldn’t I have taken my sin more seriously? Why did I take that sin so lightly? Why was I content to let that sin have a part in my life? I can’t help but think that when its all done that I will feel some sense of shame over how I lived my life, or rather how I didn’t.
But what we have to do is to take the advice of Paul in Philippians: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
We can get focused on past failures (or past successes for that matter, but that’s a different message) and become consumed with focusing on the past that we take our eyes of the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ. As Christians we need to realize that our sin, if dealt with, is done and forgotten. Don’t remind God of what He has promised to forget about.
That’s the beautiful thing about forgiveness. It can take the vilest offender, and wipe the slate clean. The sinner no longer has to live in fear of punishment or condemnation. Job 14:17 says, “my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover my iniquity.” God has taken the sins of the forgiven, sealed them in a bag, and charges them, “Go, live for me.” Forget the past. Forget your failures. Forget your sin. Run with everything you have away from that life, and pray that you will never be tempted to turn your head to catch a glimpse at your sin. When Christ cried out ‘It is finished’ He was talking about the punishment for your sin. Now live like it.
Ramblings, Rumblings, and Ruminations 
I loved this post! Thanks for the nudge.
the question has been raised ‘how do we answer those who attack Christianity because of the hypocracy of men like Ted Haggard.’
here’s my answer: there but the grace of God am I. We don’t claim to be perfect, but we do preach that we need to pursue holiness and fight the sin in our lives.
the answer to this and the question about what every person has done in the name of God is that, that is why we need the grace of God. Mankind has a desperate problem, and that is his/her sin. That sin can take all different shapes and forms. Sometimes it looks like someone that claims to be a Christian that is living a personal life contrary to that, sometimes it looks like someone killing someone in the name of God, and sometimes it looks like an athlete praising God after winning the game and before going to the strip club.
the reality is that each of them need Christ. because they claim him doesn’t mean Christ claims them. How would you feel if I went to a marketplace and killed a bunch of people while yelling “(fill in your name) must be praised!”
the amazing thing is that as hebrews 11 says, it is possible that God should look on those who are his and say that He is not ashamed to be called their God.
so that is the goal of every true believer. to be able to say that God is not ashamed to be our God.
Totally agree- having your sin exposed is immensly spiritually beneficial.
Pardon my ignorance, but who is this guy?
yeah, all this went down the friday before you got back. He was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of New Life Church. he got outed by a gay prostitute for having a three year relationship that involved sex and drugs, specifically Meth. He denied it all at first, then said he had been morally disqualified, but denied a lot, and then finally confessed to it all. of course the national media took this and ran with it. no one had heard of him one day, and the next day it was like Jesus himself had sinned.