The Lowlight of My Year

It happened a little before midyear. Just about my whole family had been plugged in and very involved in our church. We were there early and late. We loved it. We ministered and were ministered to. However, bad things happen to good churches.

Here is some of what I learned: (A very condensed version.)

Pastors do bad things when tired. Our Pastor was exhausted. A dream job came along and he took it. He had been a good pastor. He really cared for my family and many others. He made a bad decision of who would take his place. He only knew the guy for a matter of weeks.

Some pastors are evil. Looking back now, I would have to characterize the guy who took his place as a wicked infidel and charlatan. I don’t use those words lightly. He was Mr. bible babble. He could say it faster than you could hear it. He destroyed our church. He didn’t care about people, only his pet doctrines.

Leaders need to be strong, not yes men. The men who were supposed to be the leaders in our church did not do their job. They took the departing pastor’s recommendation of the new guy. They didn’t look into his background. If they had, they would have been warned of what was to come, by what he had done in the past. When his evil ways were exposed, they were afraid to oppose him.

Not all pastors are pastors; some are hirelings. John 10:12 says: He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. Sadly, this is what happened in our church. I don’t use this towards our senior pastor. After things blew up, he tried to make things right and through his actions the bad guy left. It was true of the associate pastor. Like a coward, he ran away.

Some pastors really care. Thankfully, we had a place to go when things fell apart. Our former youth pastor had started a church almost a year before. He gave us a place to land with no strings attached. We found a new home and a place to heal. He is real and cares for people.

You have to get back on the horse. There are not words sufficient to describe the devastation and broken lives left after this disaster. It was like being hit in the stomach. People were reeling. They were hurt and disillusioned. Would they ever trust again? But as the old saying goes, you have to get back on the horse.

All men will disappoint us. Only Jesus won’t. He is the only one we can put on a pedestal or give complete trust. We can’t give up because of what people did or didn’t do. Be assured, they or someone else will do it again.

We need other people. The devil tries to isolate us. When we are hurt is when we need people the most. We need someone to watch our back, to speak words of comfort, to point out our sin, to be a friend.

So, there it is. I know it’s raw but it’s real. I hope that the condensed version doesn’t leave too much unsaid and hopefully too much hasn’t been said.

Should I mention some highlights? Check back for that. In the meantime, what was a highlight or lowlight of your year?

Philip

Kill Them Quick

I came across this article in today's Denver Post (click on it to read). It advocates the screening of all pregnant women for Down syndrome. Previously, screening could only be done later in pregnancy. Now a test is available that can be done in the first trimester.

It was very interesting that the goal of the screening was never mentioned; it's abortion. The goal of the earlier testing is not to do something to help the mother or baby, it's so a cheaper and easier abortion can be done.

I applaud the parents who refuse to do these kinds of tests. I applaud the ones who refuse to label Downs children as not worthy of life or the extra care we might have to give them.

I wonder what the future might hold. Will these kinds of tests become mandatory? Will insurance companies not want to cover the Down child's medical expenses because it could have been prevented? Will prolife doctors be charged with malpractice if they refuse to advocate the screening?

Refuse and resist the slide towards barbarism and death.

In the battle for life,

Philip

Here is a link for more information:
National Right to Life on prenatal testing

Learn and Press On

From my morning reading

It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are, and where we are, is God's providential arrangement,--God's doing, though it may be man's misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made out of them. Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest false steps. He is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organize victory out of mistakes.

F. W. ROBERTSON

From Daily Strength for Daily Needs, by Mary W. Tileston

This is encouraging. God can help make good from my bad. I can forget the past (after learning from it) and press on to the future. This is a good thought as we finish one year and begin another.

Philip

Handicap Awareness

From my morning reading

1 Corinthians 8:13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

About 15 years ago, my wife broke her leg the day before she was to read Scripture before a large Christian gathering. After first aid was administered, we were told that she had to ride a wheelchair for the coming week. I became her loving and willing servant to push her to her public duties and private needs. Needless to say, we both got a major lesson in care for the handicapped. We have never been the same since.

What does this have to do with 1 Corinthians 8:13 ? Paul stated that the Corinthian church had people with weaknesses who were in danger of stumbling. Most of the meat sold in the public market was left over from pagan rites. New converts from paganism were in danger of returning to the offering of meat to idols and thus slipping away from the faith. Strong, mature Christians knew that idols were a figment of the imagination, so they had no qualms about buying and eating such meat. Some new converts, however, believed that such meat was contaminated with evil forces and therefore abstained from it.

How should these opinions live together in one church? Again, love for the other person outweighs one's rights and privileges. The strong dare not offend the sensibilities of the weak. What sensibilities of new Christians do you need to respect?

O Lord, please help me to respect and love the brethren as You do. Amen.

From GOD'S MAN

A Daily Devotional Guide to Christlike Character

Edited by: Don M. Aycock

Here is what really struck me about this reading: love for the other person outweighs one's rights and privileges. We are a rights society. So often, the decider is that it's my right. When we talk about something being not fair, it means we didn't get what we want.

James 4:1-2 says this: What is the source of the wars and the fights among you? Don't they come from the cravings that are at war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask.

This attitude manifests itself in our homes, our churches, at work and in the world around us. How different things would be if love for the other person was our motivation. Sometimes we don't want to do that because the other person is just being weak. Why do I have to abstain because they have a problem with ____ ?

It's hard! I want what I want. Maybe I'll give you what I want if I still get what I want.

The reality is that many times there is a certain pleasure and joy that comes when we defer. Not my will but thine. We may give up one thing but we gain another. Jim Elliot said: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

I want this. I want love. I want to learn to love others as I love myself.

Philip