A few days ago, I received a message from a friend of mine that had the very best of intentions. We live in the same town and though we haven't had a chance to meet each other yet, we've heard of each other from others in who we are already in close relationship with. He made a statement (of which I won't repeat) that from the moment he said it, God checked me. Hard. Exact words:

Be careful.

Be careful.

Be careful that the opinion of men doesn't become more valuable than my opinion.

Be careful that what you hear from people doesn't dictate to you whether you are doing a good job or not.

Be careful.

The very moment I saw the first word, God checked me. Let me know it wasn't about who knew me or didn't, who liked me or didn't or how well thought of I was by other ministry leaders in my area. Checked me because it gets dangerous.

Celebrity is a dangerous thing in America (and the world). It has a way of changing people. Rightly so. Before when you couldn't get your friends to take a picture of you, people are now paying millions of dollars to have a picture of you. That changes things.

Christian celebrity is even more dangerous.

Outside of the church, take all the credit you want to for why you go to where you are. Since you're the sole proprietor for you life, you can have exclusivity. However, when God inspires, directs, empowers and fulfills, we have to be careful that we don't become sole proprietors of the work of God.

The work of God is never to glorify you or I. It's to glorify God. Exclusively. Used in the process, absolutely. Glorifying Justin doesn't help glorify Jesus though. In fact, it's highly distracting to Him.

The more people talk Jesus, and the less they talk Justin, the better. For Him. And for me.