Pastor's Circle - Rick Scarborough

On your website, visionamerica.us you have a sermon  "The High Cost of Low Living." Talk to us about what that means, especially when you apply it to, say, Newt Gingrich.

First you have to worry about the pastors and spiritual leaders who signed on with the Gingrich campaign and endorsed it.

I once had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Newt in his office with another pastor, and to ask him about his walk with God.

I truly believed him to be a great man of God, only to find out later that there was a young, attractive woman down the hall who was then engaged in an extramarital affair with him.

So something to remember is that someone can look you in the eye, talk Christianity, and be involved in great sin.

In fact, no one talked about his faith more clearly and concisely in the 2008 elections than Barack Obama.There's also another issue that everyone needs to be praying about.

There is no visible leader among the evangelical community. There's no leader of the pastors, and there's no leader of the politicians.

There are two forces that pastors can be influenced by. The lust for things and the temptations that come from money cripple ministry.

The second force is fear. I had to repent and spend more time listening to God than I did listening to talk radio and television commentators.

How do we protect ourselves?

There's a story in Luke 2 about Jesus getting lost in Jerusalem. His parents realize it and search the city frantically, only to go back and find him in his Father's house. 

In the same way, if we're drifting, we can go back and see where God was blessing, where God's presence was tangible, where we had great quiet times.

How important is that daily time of prayer and Bible study?

As important as eating and sleeping. 

It is the daily sustenance for the follower of God.