Praise the Lord saints.
Well, just as soon as I stated back with services, we are back to holding off until Aug. 18.
The reason is quite simple.
As I have done for more than six years of writing this column, I said I would not call people out by their name, but I would call out their deeds.
I’ve been saved some 30 years and holiness since 2003. What that simply means is I found out that holiness is the only doctrine or way of conducting business as it relates to Jesus. It’s what He and many others stated is what God expects.
I’m not going to get into that right now, but if you have bible apps on your phone, and I’m sure you do, just search holy and the variations of the word and see what you come up with.
So, we joined our first church that taught holiness, and we stayed up until it was time to move. I won’t go into details, but it was not a good leave but a necessary one. You can come at me all day long, but the one time you come at my family, it would not end well, so I decided to take the high road.
The next church we joined, we are still members today, and if you have been reading my column and read the article in the July 25 edition of The Weekly Challenger, I’ve been elevated to the highest position you could obtain, bishop-elect.
The reason for the elect is that I now have to have at least three other churches that want to join our organization, which is international in size, Church of God and True Holiness, Intl. www.cogath.org.
It doesn’t mean you have to change anything, you conduct business as usual, but you would have an international umbrella that also brings credentialing and academics up to and including a D.D., which I’m working on currently.
I know it seems I’m running on a tangent, but far from it.
You would think that as God elevates you in the kingdom that everyone, especially ones you would call your family, spiritual family, would be happy for you.
Well, this is not only not the case, it’s almost like they have resented the very fact, to the point that they would intentionally try to bring harm to you. Maybe not so much physically — let’s be clear we are talking about me — but from a financial standpoint.
They have decided to break a lease that they were in even after we met face to face and it was agreed that everything would remain the same. Oh, I forgot to mention, I purchased the property.
So, to be careful not to call anyone out and actually say what I feel, I will say that this has been the most stressful and hurtful time this year for me. One whose kids grew up in the church with your kids, has decided that they could care less about what kind of position wrongfully breaking a lease does to a property owner.
This is the kind of mess you would expect in the world, and I’m quite sure it happens all the time, but the church and close ties.
From the outside looking in, one would say or think, “Well, they are still at the same position in the church that you were when you first joined, and you have surpassed them. And if that wasn’t enough, you are now their landlord, and they remember when you didn’t have two nickels to rub together.”
I know, I know, none of that should matter, and they should be happy for you because the Bible states that as spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ when one weeps, we all weep, when one rejoices, we all rejoice.
Except in this case.
The funny thing is that some people believe that once they are over you spiritually and financially, they are always over you.
Unbelievable but true and so sad.
Although God has a hierarchy in church leadership, He decides who is to be elevated and when it is to happen. It’s solely based on your ability to grow His kingdom. If your words have no more power, God can’t use you.
The evidence simply is if you have been in leadership for any amount of time, look at the saints that you personally have added to the kingdom and where they are spiritually.
I hear so many claim to have been pastoring for decades, but one glance says something entirely different.
Being in a leadership position never qualifies you to be a leader. That’s a joke, but many think this. Just because you are popular and you have a compromising personality, wanting everyone to like you, God reveals your true worth to Him in His kingdom.
Till next week,
God Bless.
Bishop-Elect Rev. Dr. Robert L. Harrison, Ph.D.
