Runaway Bride!!!

"God is not married to our buildings, nor will He prop up our flimsy success."

Checkmate!!!

I've enjoyed most of what Lee Grady (editor of Charisma Magazine) has had to say over the years, but this may be the icing on the cake (at least until the next overwhelmingly profound thing he writes). I've never fully understood how leaders of churches can 'fall' into sin, get up, dust themselves off, and go right back into ministry as if nothing ever happened. Grady highlights three such ministries and their leaders in the editorial of the January 2009 issue of Charisma, and suggests that the hardship and evictions they are facing are not necessarily a result of the current economic and financial crisis our country faces, but probably more a result of God responding to their blasphemy, deception and arrogance.

As we begin 2009, we have a splendid opportunity to passionately embrace God's instruction, correction and gentle rebuke. Alternatively we can stubbornly resist Him and have to endure the pain and humilation of a public 'chastising' like so many of us have unwittingly done. I for one have sadly learned the hard way that, God will have His way with us whatever it takes. As Lee so eloquently points out, "If He allowed foreign armies to burn Jerusalem and its glorious temple, He will also write "Ichabod" on the doors of churches where there is no repentance for compromise." So, instead of playing the runaway bride fleeing from God's correction, let's embrace it wholeheartedly knowing that we and everyone around us will be the better for it.

What's your take on whether or not the difficulties many ministries are currently facing might be the judgment of God? Don't all speak at once now!