Brainwaves

“We desire to establish a place of forgiveness and restoration rather than judgment and condemnation. Our desire is to develop a fellowship of ministers who will stand one with another during a time of failure, exhaustion, discouragement, accusation, or any other area of concern that could lead to the destruction of the minister and his or her family. Decision for restoration is not based upon innocence or guilt. Our stand is based on our love for God, His Word, and our love for those who have given their lives for the sake of building God’s kingdom.”…..mission statement based on Galatians 6:1-3

When three different pastors in the Pensacola area were recently publicly exposed, having been either caught in an act of adultery or found in possession of drugs, my friend began to approach other churches with the hope of seeing the above come to pass. Having survived false attack brought against him some years ago, he well knows the price demanded by the “righteous”. If no more than hint of misbehavior surfaces, you are guilty until it is proven otherwise; and, even then, the stain is your concern, not theirs. Yet, in dealing with issues like these, isn’t the important item the soul weighed in the balance?...

His “fleece” was to approach the elderly shepherd of a denomination whose theology pretty much has you going to hell if you don’t speak in “tongues”. Negative response to his vision from that arena would indicate he was merely pushing his own heart. Ten minutes into such invitation, however, this fellow stopped him and asked through tears running down his face why work like this had been neglected for so long. Indeed, when the second man on his list, a believer who preached “glossalia” to be demonic in nature, repeated what he experienced in the first encounter, there was little doubt but that God was in this…

I wonder: Have we finally arrived to a realization that Christianity isn’t about “strutting our stuff”? Sin is a human condition to which we all are vulnerable. Jesus came, not to overlook that fact, nor to eradicate it in its entirety. Not yet, anyhow. What He provides for us through the Cross is not a re-creation of who we are in Adam, but a relationship restored that enables us to know Him in all that He is. He walks with us via the Holy Ghost and extends unto us a choice. Grace, you see, is not a one-time covering given at conversion, but a divine Presence at work in us as individuals, and reaching through us unto others…