Fall is in the air today. Pumpkins and Pumpkin Spice are coming in the door of our lives. I relish the chill and the crispness of autumn. The forbearer of holidays and hot apple cider and sweaters…from L.L. Bean…and falling leaves and birthdays. Fall is a time for looking forward and for looking back. Our 2020 and 2021 Pandemic has been created two of the most challenging years that any of us have ever lived through. We pray for an end to our terrible scourge…
Fog creates uncertainty and shadows and things seen in silhouette. It is easy to believe that someone who speaks kind words to you and tells you what you want to hear…is your friend…but beware. There are some pastors and religious leaders who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. The Bible speaks of them. I know precious people who have been abused by cult leaders. They have been taken extreme advantage of and sexually abused. They have been emotionally and mentally abused. Their lives have been altered and changed by this heinous abuse for decades. They were told by their abusers to keep quiet and to tell no one…and many have obeyed the wolf’s command and have suffered and been in poor health and emotional distress for 40 years and more. Our minds and our emotions and our allegiances are malleable…especially when we are young. Much of the direction of our lives is commensurate on who we were listening to in our formative years. Studies have illustrated that a high percentage of sexual abuse is perpetrated by an abuser that the abused not only knows but is comfortable with. Authority figures pervert their authority in order to take advantage of the vulnerable.
When something seems too good to be true…it is. Listen to your gut feelings…tell someone when you are made to feel uncomfortable. When an authority figure tells you that you are special or that they need you to keep a secret until your dying day…they are preparing to use you for their own lust and satisfaction…and not only do not have your interest at heart…they despise you and hold no value for your humanity…
There are churches that seek the deed to your life. The want to control your daily movements and your private life…including your finances. Some from those fellowships will extoll you that the best way to healing is to keep the secret of the devils that abused you… Nothing could be further from the truth! The road to your healing is to shed sunlight on the darkness that these evil people operated in. When you hide the abuse that you suffered it is like giving the abuser carte blanche to continue to abuse.
The Sun is shining on the lives of many who have suffered under the perversion of the gospel of Christ. Many of these false prophets proclaim that to leave them and to think for yourself will cause you to get sick and die. On the contrary…you will heal and get well…while their perversions will consume them…
The Happy Traveler 
Paul tells us, ‘Do not be deceived, for the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God – He then went on to list a whole catalogue of wrongdoing. But then he gave us the most beautiful sentence in the whole of the New Testament when he said – And such were some of you, some of you were like that, but you were washed (in the blood of Crist) Sanctified (made holy) and Justified in the name of our saviour Jesus Christ, you see there is a cure.
The two things that guide me are forgiveness and restitution. we can not justify the crimes of man, more especially molestation, but we can not let it eat away at us either, if we can not forgive we will carry the hurt until death. and for the perpetrator restitution must be part of the cure. If I have done wrong to anything to anyone, be it sealing or anything else, and I can put it right – or even go part of the way to putting it right, then I must do that, that is what Christianity is all about. and maybe that should be better understood when it comes to justice in our courts and in our prisons. We lock people up in prison as punishment – not to be punished. Paul did not say ‘we will become saints’ he said We Are Saints’but sainthood comes with the responsibilities of a Saint. Living, as best we can, the living word and we will have a healthier happier life. We still need saints.