To put yourself under the means of grace, to listen to the preaching of the Word and come to the table of the Lord, to pray the prayer of humble access. It won’t be easy, and there will be lots of pain and humiliation, but it’s worth it. You are not alone. You will have brothers and sisters who will love you and care for you in the church. That love must be tough and not excuse your sin but in the context of the local body of believers you can know grace and forgiveness.

Recently I’ve spent some time with two friends who were in ministry but have fallen morally and so now find themselves out of a job that they loved, separated from their families and, in all honesty, struggling. I’ve showed what I’ve written to them and I wouldn’t say they were overjoyed at what I had to say but both agreed I could put this on here.

There’s a number of things that need to be said but, first of all, we need to recognise how fragile we are. These men were more gifted and more able than I ever will be. They are bright guys who were, in lots of our eyes, ‘successful’ in ministry. I’ve prayed with these men and shared in ministry with them.  After meeting with them I came away upset and sad and slightly afraid; the reason being it could have been me. No one who has met with people who’ve just seen their lives implode and the speed at which sin can destroy a man can ever be proud. You can be angry with them and what they’ve done but you’ll be more aware of the fact that it could so easily have been me. ‘Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall’. 1 Corinthians 10:12

Some thoughts……

– online life is a killer. This isn’t new is it? There are lots of warnings about it out there and yet I’m not sure it really sinks in. I was on Twitter for a while and loved it. To be honest it’s addictive, catching up with old friends, getting new followers, checking who retweets you, linking to good articles etc. Very subtly good things can become bad things. It’s true in every area of life but online it’s probably more subtle. As I became more obsessed with Twitter it became obvious I should just get off it and yet I didn’t want to. To cut off the arm and pluck out the eye. It won’t be the same for everybody but I suspect we can all think of folk who could do with getting off social media for a while. It might be a good thing to tell them. Of course Facebook and Twitter in and of themselves are not bad at all but, if you’ve got a slightly addictive personality like me, then you need to stay off it. For others it’ll be a good hobby but what it has done is make the moral collapse of some of my friends easier. Both the guys I met with struggled and got into inappropriate relationships online which in the end turned toxic and destroyed them. The language is interesting on this, inappropriate = sinful, but that’s not often how it’s spoken of is it?

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