| Out of nowhere, I stumbled upon a heart-breaking article about someone I used to know. The piece chronicled this persons descent from a life of mission work, into a life of sin and hopeless despair. How sad to see someone who has tasted the goodness of God and who has enjoyed the fellowship of God's people, turn in a direction so diametrically opposed to the things of God. For some reason, this will bother me for quite a while. Years ago, when a friends pastor was caught in an affair with someone in his church, I was literally haunted for months. It takes time for me to work through this kind of situation. It would be easiest to forget about these two and others, and pronounce them as frauds - but that's not my call to make. There is no question that Christians can be seduced into participating in horrible things. Yet, I also believe if they are, they will repent. I pray repentance has taken place in both of these guys lives, and that I won't elevate their sin to a plane higher than the "lesser" sins that I commit. Without the grace of God, we would all be in situations like theirs, or worse. |
posted by Christie