3) In another Church, while I was paying a pastoral visit, a woman member haughtily told me: "WE ARE GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER PASTOR!" As she paraded before me, she repeated this haughty statement -- perhaps three or more times, informing me in no uncertain terms that (even though I had just been recalled for another year some weeks before) that THEY were going to have another pastor! It saddened me to hear this, and it HURT!! This time, she and her husband, along with, I believe, two other couples in the church had "gotten the ear" of the District leader. He called me and informed me that I must resign. I told him that the majority in the congregation wanted me to stay, and begged him to LET GOD work the matter out.
The Holy Spirit gave me this Scripture concerning what was taking place, assuring me that HE (GOD), had nothing to do with their plot: "Behold, they shall surely gather together, BUT NOT BY ME: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake" (Isaiah 54:15).
I was hurt -- to the very core of my soul! And, while God had assured me that the conspiracy to oust me from that pastorate WAS NOT OF HIM, the Scripture He gave me seemed to indicate that the conspirators WOULD SUCCEED, AND THEY DID!
I got a another call from the District leader telling me that if I did not resign he would put me on church trial! THIS HIT ME LIKE A SLEDGE-HAMMER IN THE PIT OF MY STOMACH! Here I was a man of God, unworthy of such cruelty, but the devil, working through carnal folks had succeeded in bringing their cruel conspiracy to pass.
I was still single at that time. I WAS EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATED, and this horrible occurrence and everything connected with it brought me the closest to a complete nervous breakdown that I have ever experienced!
I packed up my few belongings in my car. I think I had maybe about $75 to $150 dollars, and after what had occurred, I could not take another church at that time. WHAT WOULD I DO?! WHERE WOULD I GO?!
I went back into my vacated apartment and called my near-by sister's place to tell her and her husband good-bye. During the phone call I broke down and wept when speaking to my brother-in-law. He sensed my deep distress, and invited me to meet him at an eating establishment for a sandwich before I left, which I did.
He was a semi-retired Nazarene minister, and he bred and raised Arabian horses on their rural acreage. He invited me to come and stay with them for a while. I accepted, and they, at first, allowed me to sleep in an on-the-ground pick-up camper behind their house. In exchange for my room and board, I shoveled horse manure out of the stalls for the Arabians. Still, I was deeply devastated, emotionally SHOT! Just days before, I had been the pastor of a nice, near-by church, and now I was a defrocked flunky, shoveling horse manure into a wheel-barrow and dumping it out behind the horse-barn!! The ammonia from the bottom of the manure piles stung my eyes as I performed my menial task, but it was my heart which was stung and hurt far worse, from the painful events that had cast me into that situation.
I lived through this horrible ordeal, but... IT TOOK ME A YEAR OR TWO TO RECOVER EMOTIONALLY, and it was 6 years before I took another church!!
Part of what God had told me, BEFORE THE AXE FELL was: "whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake" (Isaiah 54:15). Several years later, the woman who haughtily informed me, "WE ARE GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER PASTOR!" suddenly died.
I think that SOME involved in this horrible hurt to me really "thought that they were doing God a service," but alas! even sanctified people CAN mistakenly allow themselves to be the devil's instruments for bringing GREAT HURT to other Christians!
Sometimes, how awful the fact, well-meaning, but gravely mistaken Christians can DO and/or SAY things to other Christians which not only deeply hurt them, but which, in the end, KILLS THEM! In some cases, supposedly "tough love" proves fatal to the one toward whom it is shown. How foreign! such "tough love" (actually I will call it "Heartless Holiness") is to the Spirit of Christ, of Whom it was written twice in the Scriptures: -- "a bruised reed shall He not break" and "smoking flax shall He not quench" (Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 12:20). NEVER does Jesus administer "TOUGH LOVE" when "TENDER COMPASSION" is what is needed. Every Christian SHOULD emulate this, but I fear too often, well meaning, but gravely mistaken Christians, fail to administer "TENDER COMPASSION," and instead deal out what they think is "TOUGH LOVE" -- which deeply hurts and sometimes crushes to death "the bruised reed" and the "smoking flax."
I know of one instance where a legalistic Nazarene pastor, years ago, gravely wronged a would-be seeker at his altar. The one going to the altar was the wayward son of two dear, old saints in the congregation. His going toward the altar was no doubt the result of many of their prayers, but... the legalistic Holiness preacher stopped their would-be seeker son in the aisle before he reached the altar, and demanded that, before he knelt at the altar, he remove his ring! Suddenly, that wayward son lost all desire to go to the altar, and in anger turned around and left the church -- so far as I know, never to return again! His parents were distraught, but the GREAT HURT AND HARM had been done! I think it altogether possible that the hurt done to their son proved to be FATAL to him, ETERNALLY! That legalistic pastor thought he was doing God a service, but, in fact, he had made himself an instrument of the devil that sad night! HOW AWFUL! In James 3:10 we read: -- "My brethren, these things ought not so to be." Indeed they shouldn't, but alas! sometimes THEY ARE!
As recorded above, after I had been cast out of the ministry years ago, I finally made my way, in great distress on a gloomy winter day, into the home of George and Ferne Roberts in Boise, Idaho. I nearly broke into tears (or did) as I recited my tale of woe to them during the nice dinner they invited me to partake with them. Like compassionate, Good Samaritans, they took me in like a son, freely gave me a pretty, comfortable, warm room in which to sleep, and they fed me, until I was able to get a job and get back on my feet. I SHALL BE ETERNALLY INDEBTED TO THEM for their loving aid during my deep distress! I know that He, Who does not crush the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, shall reward them both GREATLY for that Christian Love and Aid I so desperately needed at that time!
I shall close with the remarks in this paragraph. It will pay ALL Christians to do their utmost to make sure that they never, unwittingly, in their treatment of others, do the work of the devil while thinking that they are doing God a service! I am sure that Satan delights in "THE HURTFUL DOINGS OF HOLINESS PEOPLE" whom he has deceived into doing his fiendish work! May God deliver the reader from ever, unwittingly being involved in such. Selah.
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