Letter to My Calvary Temple Friends (June 23, 2016)
Dear Calvary Temple friends (both in and out),
Wrapped in a blanket this morning, enduring a headache and sipping coffee, while trying to concentrate on what I was reading, I was thinking of all the needless pain we have all suffered. Those being told to cut off their own flesh and blood, and those singled out to be sent away from their families for God only knows what. The shear insanity of this 'biting and devouring' of precious lives. So anyway, I have been thinking.
What has kept me going more than anything, is the love I have for my children. I love them so much. They are wonderful kids, and I have always been proud and pleased to have such great kids. They did the fun and crazy things kids do, and I enjoyed assisting them in their efforts to live life to the fullest. I believe Jesus when he said he came to give us life and life more abundantly.
The second thing that has kept me going, is preventing anyone else from suffering this horrible situation. So I resolved to tell my story publicly, after all efforts at private reconciliation were ignored or refused. Thus sounding a warning loud and clear to all sane and sensible individuals that maybe there is something wrong with this church, and at the very least, to do some serious vetting of the men at the helm. And to be especially cautious, with regards to ones immediate family, of allowing them to be influenced by anyone in this church.
Of course, it then stands to reason, that if these two things are what is keeping me going. Then if the people inside CT (both pastors and people) would just let me have my children back in our life like normal families do, and if Pastor Scott calling me up and apologize and say he was sorry. Well then I would have no reason to write on this blog. Except to write about the children being back with me and the nobility of a pastor who can admit his sins and errors. And of course, I would forgive him. Imagine the instant popularity of a person who is that willing to admit wrongdoing. It is so incredibly rare today. He would become an overnight hero to multitudes of formerly abused individuals. I mean David was a hoodlum (adulterer, murderer, liar), but he became a hero when he took his public humbling well and repented publicly.
He might even find all his enemies have now become his best friends. What a wonderful turn of events that would be. And think of the opportunities to rebuild fractured families and show the true love of Christ. Because Jesus did not shun anyone. He was never afraid of sin or being contaminated by it. Sin has no dominion over love. Love has dominion over sin. If pastor and his people are so afraid of catching a sin...maybe it's because they have no self-control?
So if Calvary wants to stop having all this bad publicity, by which the way of truth is being evil spoken of, then they should come to all whom they have stolen from and restore what belongs to others. Then they will have some good publicity. After all, Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Some of them were deserving and some were not. Jesus did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them. And if he came to them and they rejected him, then he went to the next. He did not take anything away from them, or punish them. Because the goodness of God is poured out on the just and the unjust. There is a Judgment one day, and we will all stand before Him then, to give account. For right now, I think Calvary Temple would be better off admitting and righting their wrongs, and looking at their own sins, instead of trying to 'break everyone else of sin'. It's just not your job.
Wrapped in a blanket this morning, enduring a headache and sipping coffee, while trying to concentrate on what I was reading, I was thinking of all the needless pain we have all suffered. Those being told to cut off their own flesh and blood, and those singled out to be sent away from their families for God only knows what. The shear insanity of this 'biting and devouring' of precious lives. So anyway, I have been thinking.
What has kept me going more than anything, is the love I have for my children. I love them so much. They are wonderful kids, and I have always been proud and pleased to have such great kids. They did the fun and crazy things kids do, and I enjoyed assisting them in their efforts to live life to the fullest. I believe Jesus when he said he came to give us life and life more abundantly.
The second thing that has kept me going, is preventing anyone else from suffering this horrible situation. So I resolved to tell my story publicly, after all efforts at private reconciliation were ignored or refused. Thus sounding a warning loud and clear to all sane and sensible individuals that maybe there is something wrong with this church, and at the very least, to do some serious vetting of the men at the helm. And to be especially cautious, with regards to ones immediate family, of allowing them to be influenced by anyone in this church.
Of course, it then stands to reason, that if these two things are what is keeping me going. Then if the people inside CT (both pastors and people) would just let me have my children back in our life like normal families do, and if Pastor Scott calling me up and apologize and say he was sorry. Well then I would have no reason to write on this blog. Except to write about the children being back with me and the nobility of a pastor who can admit his sins and errors. And of course, I would forgive him. Imagine the instant popularity of a person who is that willing to admit wrongdoing. It is so incredibly rare today. He would become an overnight hero to multitudes of formerly abused individuals. I mean David was a hoodlum (adulterer, murderer, liar), but he became a hero when he took his public humbling well and repented publicly.
He might even find all his enemies have now become his best friends. What a wonderful turn of events that would be. And think of the opportunities to rebuild fractured families and show the true love of Christ. Because Jesus did not shun anyone. He was never afraid of sin or being contaminated by it. Sin has no dominion over love. Love has dominion over sin. If pastor and his people are so afraid of catching a sin...maybe it's because they have no self-control?
So if Calvary wants to stop having all this bad publicity, by which the way of truth is being evil spoken of, then they should come to all whom they have stolen from and restore what belongs to others. Then they will have some good publicity. After all, Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Some of them were deserving and some were not. Jesus did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them. And if he came to them and they rejected him, then he went to the next. He did not take anything away from them, or punish them. Because the goodness of God is poured out on the just and the unjust. There is a Judgment one day, and we will all stand before Him then, to give account. For right now, I think Calvary Temple would be better off admitting and righting their wrongs, and looking at their own sins, instead of trying to 'break everyone else of sin'. It's just not your job.
