We All Can

The scandals that have hit the church in Uganda the past few weeks have shown me one thing: The world is up in arms against what we profess and fail to do. Damage is always done when we fail to remain accountable to both God and the people that we are leading.

Most of all, I have come to realise that we are not angels, we are not God. We are all susceptible to falling and are in no way infallible, but as human beings we can actually be the human that we are and end up down. I received e-mail a few weeks ago from Hillsong Church. Something had gone wrong with their latest project This Is Our God because one of the people who sang was actually a fraud. The song 'Healer' was actually made up by a person Micheal Guglielmucci who had made the church believe that he had cancer. Later, he confessed that he actually had a pornography problem and was struggling to have do away with it. That was both shocking and yet humbling for me because a pastor had duped a church and yet he had honestly come out to say that his healing from his addiction was to tall the truth.

I have followed a little more on this and been shocked to find out it began long ago. That may not be very bad. We have heard of Jim Baker and how he stole millions of money in the name of being a wealthy preacher who believed that God had actually made him rich. His book I was Wrong explains how he felt after being released, having served a part of his sentence in jail.

I guess we have also heard of Jimmy Lee Swaggart and how he had actually found himself with prostitutes and had fallen from the grace of God. He had slowly developed his habit and become a start at pretending to be a preacher. It took a lot for him to come out and accept the fact that he had lived a life of a lie and open;y admitted he was wrong.

When I think of such big names, I remember Moses and how he had faithfully led Israel for all the years in the desert and finally failed the test at the rock of bitterness. Because he chose to get angry at the people and credit himself and not God for bringing water from the rock, God stopped him from getting to the promised land. I also think of Abraham who after a promise for a child had to listen to his wife so as to sleep with Hagar. Whatever came from this union is affecting the world up to now.

One thing however comes at the bottom of my mind. We are all human beings. We can have a ministry, have a successful Christian life, and do the things God wants us to do. However, once we start thinking that we cannot fall, that we have reached the height of our salvation and so cannot be tempted, the devil sows his best seeds. Pride is killing the church. We have started worshiping pastors and not the God we are supposed to worship. It hurts, but it is the truth.

God wants us to be honest with who we are. He wants us to be aware of the fact that He has made us human. Because of this fact, our souls may get saved but our flesh never gets saved. If this truth becomes embedded in us we can be sure that the devil cannot have his way with us. When we sin, we open a lot of doors for Satan to play with us. The feeling that we cannot fall is something that shows we are more important than many Christians. It is wrong and does not make us any more spiritual than the worst sinner is.

Christianity is a call to daily repentance, daily sacrifice, daily prayer and daily giving in to the will of God. It is great when we reach a point and God comments us. It is however wrong for us to assume we have reached the zenith and so cannot fall. We can only do this if we are willing to let God take over, have His way and move for us. We have a choice to let Him have the glory or give ourselves the glory. Each has its consequences. God help us to see through what is taking place in the Church so we can humble ourselves so as to be used by Him.

God richly bless you.