Jump directly to the Content

When It's Time To Confront

Every time we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.
J.B. Phillips

The intertestamental book Bel and the Dragon describes a confrontation between Daniel and a great living dragon the Babylonians revered. When Daniel was pressured to bow before the monster, he said to the king, "If you will give me permission, I will slay the dragon without sword or club." The king agreed.

As verse 27 relates, "Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair, and boiled them together and made cakes, which he fed to the dragon. The dragon ate them, and burst open."

That's one kind of effective confrontation. Unfortunately, it's an approach that probably should not be used with dragons in the church. Unlike Daniel or Saint George, the goal of a pastor is not to slay but to tame the beast, to prevent further destruction on either side.

Such work is rarely easy, never fun, but it is possible. Before looking at the important ...

Tags:
Posted:
March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

From the Magazine
Should the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?
Should the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?
Controversy over Bibles in Jamaica, the Philippines, and Germany reveal the divide between the sacred and the relatable.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close