Now as most of you can imagine, when a man see's his family in pain and hurting because of someone's careless actions and their blatant disregard for how those actions affect others, he wants to lash out, and I am no different. Now some of you are going to read this and go "but aren't you a preacher?". And yes, I am , but I am also a a man who is a husband and father. Now I have to say this and hopefully many reading this will let this sink in. PREACHERS ARE HUMAN. THE MOMENT YOU PUT ONE OF THEM ON A PEDESTAL, THEY WILL UNINTENTIONALLY LET YOU DOWN. WHY? BECAUSE YOU PUT THEM ABOVE BEING A MAN AND MADE THEM MORE THAN THEY ARE, SO STOP DOING THAT. YES THEY ARE GOD CALLED MEN WHO STRIVE TO LIVE RIGHTEOUS LIVES BUT THEY HAVE HUMAN EMOTIONS JUST LIKE YOU. THEY HURT, THEY BLEED, AND YES THEY ARE NOT PERFECT.So yes, when I see my family hurting, I hurt and I get angry when others are responsible. So when the actions of the last several weeks affected those I care about, I got mad. I got so mad that I wanted to go and give a tongue lashing to those who caused all this hurt. I even sat down and wrote a letter I was going to send out telling these people why I could not return and why they are in the situation they are in. But isn't it funny how God can speak to you in the most gentle way but make you feel like you have been taken to the woodshed and had your backside burnt up. Before I could send this letter out, God spoke to me and said Bill, why do you want to hurt these people who have wronged others? Of course my response was just like any other child out there "because". And it was like I could feel his presence standing in front of me going, "because, are you serious, I ask why and all you have for me is because? have you forgotten I already know why you want to do such a thing but I need you to know and hear yourself say it." So once again feeling like I had just stepped out of the woodshed feeling about the size of an ant and unable to sit, I said " because God, people should not be able to act like this and get away with it. They are destroying lives and causing good people who love you to hurt and to wonder if it is always going to be like this in the house of God everywhere. It's time someone just looked them in the eye and told them that they are killing the body of Christ and I am just the man to do it Lord. I am going to let them have it like no one ever has and maybe then they will wake up, and if not then oh well."
When I finished saying what I had to say, I took a deep breathe and waited. I was waiting for a response of OK, but that's not what I got.What I got was silence, and in that silence, I heard myself again. I heard exactly what I had just said, except this time I wasn't saying it out loud, I was hearing it through spiritual ears and I have to be honest, I did not like what I heard. You see, Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 immediately came to mind. You see in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 Paul states that "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." And I realized that was exactly what was taking place. All of the things that had taken place over the last few weeks were the result of others refusing to hear what Christ has told the body of believers we call the church. In this world we live in today, people are so caught up in their own lives, and doing what they want to do, that the last thing they want is a preacher telling them they are going to hell if they don't repent of their sin and accept Christ as Saviour of their life. What they want is a feel good, let me do what I want and treat others any way I want, all the time while you tell me how good I am and how God is going to make me prosper. This is the reason that men like Joel Osteen, Robert TIlton, Benny Hinn, and so many others are able to preach a Prosperity Gospel and have huge churches and live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. It's why so many people out there today are heading down that road that leads to eternal damnation without even realizing it. How many of us remember Waco and the Branch Davidians. How many of us remember the Jim Jones tragedy in Guyana. False teachers are everywhere. And why, because people do not want to listen to a fire and brimstone preacher anymore. They do not want to be told that they have to love their neighbor as themselves, because their neighbor may be the wrong color or dress different, and that goes against everything they BELIEVE in.
In today's world, man has become more important than God to probably 90% of the population. Today we are afraid to upset people that we sit idly by and let the enemy walk right in under our noses and do nothing about it because we are afraid to upset them. Well hello, look where that has gotten the body of Christ.We would rather sit by and watch homosexuals be allowed to marry instead of looking at them and go Jesus loves you but he can't stand the sin in your life, so you need to repent of your sin, turn from your way and that includes the homosexual lifestyle your living, and accept him as Lord and Saviour or you are going to fry in eternity. You see Jesus loves the homosexual just like he loves you and me. What he does not like is homosexuality, because that is a sin. Jesus came to set the captive free he tells us in Luke 4:18. We would rather sit on the pew next to Satan himself than tell someone they are living a sinful lifestyle. I will give you a good example of what I am talking about. Angie and I about 2 years ago felt like God was telling us it was time to make a move so we started attending different churches trying to find where God would have us. We went into this one and everything seemed to be going pretty good until the preacher started the morning sermon. Now we had been once before and this was the "if all goes well today we will come one more time and then see about joining it" Sunday. The preacher steps up and on the screen in front some scripture comes up and we turn to it in our bible, but it's not what is on the screen. OK they mislabeled it no biggie. Then the pastor asks everyone to stand while he reads his passage and he tells everyone to turn to the scripture on the screen, and he begins to read. Now about this time Angie looks at me with a puzzled look and I look at her and go "where is he getting this" and she looks at me and says "I have no idea". So I start digging and I find the scripture he is reading, but I find it in a different book of the bible no where's near where he and the screen say it is. I look around and guess what no one else in the building looks puzzled, and the screen operator is reading along in her bible with him. Then we took a closer look at things, and we notices that there are men dressed like FBI or Secret Service all around the back of the Sanctuary, and they even have those ear things hanging out their ears. Well that was enough for us and as soon as the last amen was said, we got Becca out of Children's Church and we were gone, never to darken their doors again. But the most disturbing thing about the whole situation was people were blindly going along. Hello, people will turn away from sound teaching to follow their own myths. I can honestly say I have seen it first hand now.
You see Angie was hurt by the actions of those who have turned away from sound teaching and now follow their own ways. Oh they sit on a pew Sunday morning and hear the preacher speak, but they are not listening unless it fits what they want to hear. But I would be wrong to go off on them for hurting someone so close to me. You see Paul tells us in Romans 12:14-19 that we should not repay evil for evil. or try to avenge ourselves because vengeance belongs only to the Lord. We are to live peacefully, as much as we can, with all men in this world. We are to be the "bigger"man in those situations. What I needed to remember was the words of 1 Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a Child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways." What that spoke to me was that now that I am in Christ, I cannot act in UN-Christ like ways.And to go to them and go off on them for hurting those I care about would be doing just that. I would be acting in a manner that is unbecoming of a minister of the Gospel. I would be showing my family that it's OK to lash out in anger , while telling them that its OK to get angry but not to sin when you do so. What I have to do is pray for those wrong me, bless them who persecute me and comfort those who are hurting. I am to cling to my family and show them that Godly men still exist, and continue to lead them and help them to realize that no matter what someone does to us, this is not our permanent home, we are only travelers passing through this life on our way to Glory with the Father in Heaven.
To those who read this and have been hurt by others actions in the last few weeks, know I am praying for you and will continue to do so. To those who have done the hurting of others in the last few weeks, know that I am also praying for you and will do so until God tells me to stop. To my wife, I know that you are hurting and feeling like we have been here before (and we have) but know we are going to bind together against the enemy, and we shall see the hand of God continue to move in our lives. We will fulfill the calling he has placed on our lives together. To those who are reading this and have been through similar situations, I pray that you will not let the actions of a few cost you your spot in Heaven with Jesus. Turn to him today and he will turn to you. If you are reading this and have never given your life to Christ, know he is calling you this night, and he is waiting for you. If you need help in making that move, or need guidance for anything in your life, please feel free to contact me at cntrydadof3@gmail.com. Put the words "your blog said to contact you" in the subject line and I will get in touch with you and we shall seek God's will for your life together. God bless all who read this and may he keep you safe until we meet again on the pages of this blog.
In Christ's Love,
Rev. Bill Roy
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