I’m excited to see my good friend, BeBe Winans again this week.  BeBe always encourages, always uplifts, always loves on me and our family when he’s here.  If I could keep him around, I would!  We need more real friends like BeBe.  The Bible says in Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”  BeBe Winans is my friend, one that I can trust because his opinion of me doesn’t flow with the tides of public scrutiny – his opinion of me is settled in a lavish grace that gets its foundation and instruction from the very heartbeat of Jesus.

Jesus knew (knows) the hearts of people, and even when they failed (still fail), His love covered (continues to cover) them and didn’t (still doesn’t) expose them.  Jesus was and is tender, kind and gentle and His goodness leads people to repent of their sins so as not to grieve His heart (Romans 2:4). The love of Jesus is just the opposite of harsh and carnal judgment of people.

I am currently doing a series of teachings I titled “To Know Him” which will eventually be a book that contrasts the humble heart of one who knows they are utterly helpless and dependent on Jesus, with the proud heart that exhibits the harshness of judgment.  Jesus outlined the contrast in the Beattitudes when He said, “blessed are those who mourn (sorrow for their sins and the sins of others), and “blessed are those who are poor in spirit” (they know they are helpless in and of themselves, and they know they have great spiritual needs.)

The love of Jesus is always for and not against, always rooting you on to restoration and redemption, never satisfied to draw a conclusion from a failure but always moving you toward the final liberation from sin – salvation.

BeBe and I are going to talk about his new book about the life of Whitney Houston.  BeBe and Whitney were friends, and more importantly, brother and sister in the Lord.   You see, when Whitney passed from this life, there were many people who said she didn’t deserve the honor and the respect that the many who loved her and those who were close to her gave her.  Brutal people proclaimed her failures and sins as they scoffed at her legacy.

BeBe’s own personal knowledge of her couldn’t let the treachery of harsh judgment stand, and because he knew her as a Child of God who loved the Lord, he will tell the story of Whitney Houston from his eyes – eyes of love.

When my sins and failures were paraded before the world in the media, brutal people reviled me and said awful things that weren’t true, and put treacherous words in print – and they still do to this day!  It isn’t easy to live with the knowledge that there are people out there in this world who hate you and don’t mind telling others just how much!   But throughout the times of my life when others went out from me like a receding tide, BeBe never wavered in his love and adoration for me.  He looked beyond my sin and saw my heart – and he was (is) a friend who loves at all times.

I told Lori recently that if I die before the Lord comes, I know the media headlines will no doubt read, “The Disgraced Jim Bakker Dies.”  But for those who really know me and love me, maybe one day one of them will write about “The Jim Bakker I Knew.”  My legacy is not with my failures, but in the knowledge of the Blood of Jesus, which covers every single one of them, just as it did Whitney’s.