I got a very troubling phone call last week. My best friend from childhood is no longer walking with Christ. Now, there’s a lot of people that I know that are away from the Lord, but this person is a little different. I remember his mom telling me that his first word was “Jesus.” I remember that his dad built him a stage in his yard, and on weekends and every day after school, he would preach to his audience of dogs, cats, trees, bushes, the wind… Anything. I remember a preacher prophesying that my friend would grow up to be a minister of the Lord. And I remember saying goodbye to him as he moved to the MidWest, and accepted an Associate Pastor position.
After being in this position for several years, the senior pastor’s 50 year old wife made sexual advances at my friend. He was in his 20’s, and married with a few children. Not knowing how to stop this situation, he did the only thing he knew to do… He called her husband, which of course is also his boss and head of the church. Instead of handling it correctly, he fired my friend, who had done no wrong.
This incident rattled my friend. It rattled him so hard, to the point that not only did he leave the ministry, but he left his walk with God. What an awful situation. The same person who was hanging on the rail of his baby bed, jumping up and down, yelling the name of Jesus, is now experiencing the most horrible thing in the world… which is the absence of the presence of the Lord, because he chose to no longer walk with Him.
♫♪ “The wind blows hard, the climb is slow.
Shadows are dark, I stumble on these stones.
But my Lord, you are near. I will not fear.
I chose to take this road called faith… I will walk on.
I know that You will see me through… I will walk on.No end in view, at times I feel alone.
And the signs are few, but at least they all say home.
You my Lord, You’re the hope I hold.
Strength from my soul.” ♫♪
Friends… When you think you are in the absolute worse situation, and you’re staring at a dead end, God is all around you. When you feel that someone has wronged you, God is there too. When you feel that you are the most alone… That’s when God is there. You must continue the walk. You must walk on. The great thing about continuing the walk is that you never do it alone. God’s there. When your pastor, or even his boss refuses to support you, you have the support of the Father. The proof is in
Romans 8:35-39
“35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“Because of love there was an awful hill You climbed
And because of love, we live our faith one step at a time.
The course is set, life’s hard but yet, we will walk on.
Around each bend, until the end, we will walk on.”
So, walk on! There are so many things that are in that portion of scripture that tells us that we will face nothing that will separate us from Him. Just don’t walk away from Him. Stay in constant fellowship with Him, and He will show you your way. Don’t allow the enemy to get into your head and convince you that it’s over. It’s not. Jesus has the final word. Walk with Him. He will guide you through the roughest times.
The Alarida Journey 