My heart is troubled today because I note a disturbing lowering of moral conduct among the people of God. No, I am not talking about secret sin in high places nor do I refer to flagrant sin among the laity. Frankly I know there are both in both places – but I am unaware of any great outbreak. Sin will always be present to some extent among any sizable group of people religious or secular, so we just have to continue to fight it with a zeal and a purpose that cannot be denied.
This is what my worry consists of:
I am a Pentecostal, of which persuasion I am definitely not ashamed, but neither am I overly proud. “Pentecostal” is a label and it does not save anyone bearing the label. There are other followers of Jesus who have other labels appended to them such as Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, etc. ad infinitum; even Catholic. They are all my brothers and sisters if they trust fully in Jesus for their salvation. But since I have been reared in a Pentecostal home, that is what I am, a through and through Pentecostal. God loves me and He loves all of His own people no matter what they are called.
I am not too familiar with the present-day spiritual state of other religious groups beyond the occasional headlong fall of a well-know leader among these groups. We have to be careful here: Even if the leader is such a Colossus that his defection rocks the religious world to its subterranean core, we can’t point a finger of shame at him or her; Pentecostals have had more than their share of fallen Titans.
However when a religious leader has regrettably tumbled from his pedestal, I am interested in his or her story, but not for the tabloid type news it generates. I sincerely want to see if there is any sign of true repentance such as God would require me to exhibit if I left the Lord for any reason. I regret to say that happened to me several decades ago, but God was very gracious to me: He pled with me to return to Him and, even though I was unconscionably hardheaded (I have never figured out why I would be so foolish), eventually I did return – and God has disciplined me severely for my sins and my refusal to repent right away. But thank God for a heavenly Father who in love will discipline while not rejecting His sometime disobedient children! I was not well known then or now and there were no salacious stories from which the tabloids could make millions of dollars.
It’s always unfortunate whenever anyone falls from the pristine pureness that he or she had when they first turned to Christ. But let’s face it: IT HAPPENS and there is no point in crying over past sins. Great men fall and the lowly suffer the same fate, a fate that does not have to be – but somehow it happens because we are morally imperfect humans. So what do we do when we sin? We have two options: we can either wallow in our sins and bewail our fate or we can denounce our sins, turn our back on them and turn full face to God. He’s right there waiting for you to call on Him. You couldn’t readily see Him because the blackness of your sin had closed around you.
Call through the darkness! The love of God can hear your feeble cry and pluck you as a brand from the burning.
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