TAKING CARE OF YESTERDAY

      I don’t have an axe to grind and I certainly don’t harbor any resentment or even hatred in my heart. Having said that, I want to address an issue that happened a number of years back and has been on my heart all this time. I feel like it is time to forgive and ask for forgiveness. But first let me digress for a moment.

     Do you know what a pastor of a church is? He is a gift from God to a few select people in that particular congregation. Now I did not say he is something high and mighty or an overlord or better than anyone else. What a pastor is, is a trained in the Bible individual. Trained in the operation of a church, in counseling people, in administration, in maintenance, in teaching, in performing all the sacraments and many other things too numerous to mention. A pastor is a called one. Called by God. Called to lead that particular flock.. He is a gift from God to the church. But, in too many cases, a select group of governing people within that congregation where the pastor is, tend to think they are more educated in the things the pastor is trained to do. They decide it is better if they tell the pastor what to do rather than let the pastor lead as he was called to do. Again, I did not say let the pastor dictate but rather lead. Those people in the church who do not want to relinquish their position to the pastor or do not want to see the pastor take charge and lead as he is supposed to, tend to think he is dictating rather than leading because they have lost their position of authority now that they have a pastor This is nothing more than ‘control’ and that is not what God intended for the church.

     God gave the church a pastor as a gift because He trained that pastor first. When a group of people reject that pastoral leadership, they are saying, God we don’t want your gift, we want a figurehead who will do what we tell him.

     Such was the case a number of years ago. I ran into a group just like this. In the end, they hurt me. They hurt my wife. They were nasty in their actions because of their lust for control. Every time I as the pastor would point out a wrong direction they were taking, they would rebel and try to make it look like I the pastor was in the wrong and trying to dictate my own agenda. That was sad because the only motive behind the decisions being made were to see the church advance. But every turn was thwarted and the church regressed instead of progressed.

     Without going into any lengthy detail suffice it to say, my wife and I decided to leave. We did but the control followed us and it took a nasty turn. We had to deal with some very heartbreaking issues that could have been avoided if those people had simply backed off. After all….we were already gone!

     Well that was then, this is now. We (my wife and I) have had nearly five years to reflect, pray and seek the mind of God as to what  if anything we should do about those past incidents. The result is that the Scriptures say…Mark 11:25-26; "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."   

     This can be a hard thing to do if your heart is not ready to do it and knowing that your Father in Heaven will not forgive you unless you forgive makes it doubly hard to do.  

     These people tried to ruin our lives and that to me was grounds to write them off and never mention them again. It was also my license to never forgive them because of what they had done. Well I know (we know) that we are better than that which brings me to the gist of this post…It is the need to forgive and ask forgiveness. 

     So, with that in mind, I trust those of you of that group of people I mentioned above who are following this blog, (and I know you are, the word anonymous is only for your protection against revealing who you are to the general public when you comment on a post but you are not anonymous to me because I get to moderate each post before it goes online and I can see where the comment came from), I hope you all get to read this and ponder what I hope you will do as well.

 

For my part in the ‘altercation’ with all of you, I ask you to forgive me.

For all you did to me and my wife, (I) we forgive you.

Matthew 5:43-45; "You have heard that it was said, 'you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'   "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.…

In closing,         be assured of our prayers.

Pastor Bob 

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