The poor woman was clearly perturbed. She did not want to be bothered with this. The church leaders, in their best efforts, were wanting to meet together with her to console her and offer their help and encouragement and also... to keep her from acting out a decision she'd made to kill. Perhaps it was the embarrassment and shame of the fact that her husband has been freely sleeping around with other women and had recently been caught again. Perhaps she didn't want to be talked down. This was the fourth or fifth time and she was fed up with it all! The group that had come to meet with her waited silently, listening as someone was in the other room trying to coax her into agreeing to talk with the others. Voices were raised. It wasn't perfect encouragement, but she did eventually decide to come in to where we were gathered and talk with us.
This is where we saw God's Spirit shine through his people! Joey and I sat back and watched as the church poured out their love and concern for this woman and her family. You see, the church has been working with this man who claims to be a follower of Jesus for years, trying to steer him away from his extra marital proclivities. It's become clear at this point that there is blatant disregard going on in this man's heart and so the church is moving forward with a decision to follow what they see clearly in God's word. It's time to recognize publicly that this man's continuing affairs, despite numerous warnings, do not fit in God's plan for his people, his church. In agreement with 1 Corinthians 5 and Matthew 18 the church leaders have decided it's time to publicly de-recognize this man as a brother; to tell the community and surrounding areas that this man's actions are unacceptable and unbecoming of someone who claims to trust that Jesus' life and death and resurrection paid the price for his sin and has given him hope for future glory. His attitude toward sin completely goes against all that this gospel message is about. He will no longer be recognized as part of the church. In moving forward with this decision the concern was for this faithful woman and the rest of her family, which brings us to the meeting at hand. They wanted to take some time to walk her through the decision they had so painfully made regarding her husband. So for a while a number of them huddled around a dimly lit bible translated into the trade language and read and talked through a number of passages. After a bit more than an hour, though she was clearly hurting, she seemed encouraged. Joey and I sat there amazed at how much love and thoughtfulness was being displayed in this very difficult meeting. The church leaders did great, though it's hard to think about how great it really was simply because of the extreme difficulty and sadness of the situation.
Would you please be in prayer for this woman and for her family and especially her husband. Please pray for the church to be able to wisely carry through this decision, difficult and painful as it is, in hopes of maybe seeing this man come around someday after being put out and in a place removed from the benefits of fellowship with God's people. And please pray similarly for the woman who was regularly involved with this man, and who also has been worked with by the church over the last few years. A similar decision will be made regarding her as well. Her family too (husband and kids) will need the same love and support from the church.
No comments:
Post a Comment