***Warning*** This post may set you free and lower the tithes and offerings of a few ministries.
Matthew 23:15 (NKJV)
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
This verse from Jesus’s hard rebuke of the Pharisees is so powerful in that it distinctly identifies a ministry that is looking for bodies versus disciples of Christ. Further it shows an environment where there is a high probability that “church hurt” can take place. But one must ask why and what is the nature of this thing called church hurt? Well first, lets deal with the term “Church Hurt”. This phrase describes when a person who has the spirit of God or is new to the faith, comes in contact with a proselyte or “scab” within the ministry…this is not the same as a person in a ministry being offended or convicted by a true brother and sister in Christ who honestly confronts a member in the body (not a sinner) about their sin privately and in accordance with Matthew 18:15-17 (NKJV)
15 “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’
17 And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
The above is how saved folk or mature saints “should” deal with conflict. But what about scabs or sons/daughters of hell? Well that’s when things get interesting. Because when you are hurt by a scab you are being hurt by a person who has NOT fully healed themselves as there is a still a wound or infection underneath (internal cleansing). The Pastor or leader looks and preys upon these people because they use those same flaws as a form of control and promotes a culture that creates a high level of hypocrisy and when a sincere or new child of God enters into the wolves den they too become “scarred” by the walking contradictions. The victim thus leaves the ministry believing that “church folk are nothing but the devil”. In many cases they are right because the culture of hypocrisy or being “religious” has taken hold. To be clear, there are religious people everywhere and in good churches too but normally if the pastor truly has God’s true spirit, is transparent about their flaws and does not compromise the truth of Gods word even if it is at his own inconvenience, the scab will either heal or drop off…Leaving the congregation healthy and safer for new saints to enter in and be healed themselves.
Now for the hard part
If the pastor is a serial or unrepentant hypocrite then there is a high chance that many in the congregation are too. That’s why you have cussing, drinking, fornicating, lying or greedy preachers use the phrase “don’t judge me because you SIN too!” on a Sunday morning. This is a demonic strategy because when there is no standard, no one can righteously judge each other or call out sinfulness as Christians should. The devil spreads this deception because he knows that there are planks and sticks in everyone’s eyes, thus the term BLIND GUIDES and no one can speak against sin including the preacher which creates large crowds and money but no deliverance.
Finally, when people are blind to Jesus Christ, they will not see God…they will not see God if there is no Holiness, if there is no holiness set forth by the leader then HE/SHE is not saved but living an unrepentant double life openly before others. It then spreads to the church however big or small and that is what church hurt really is. So my prayer is that you find a good church or revisit the one that you may have overlooked because it wasn’t entertaining or “churchy” with the fake dancing or shouting, cufflinks, high collars, rockstar leaders, big hats or the (ahem) pushing of heads instead of the biblical laying of hands. Look for private and public authenticity, manifestation of what has been declared and not false perfection…look for a place that will not compromise the Gospel for you or your lifestyle. That is the true church…the “People of the Way”
~ Pastor Andre Martin
#churchhurt #peoplehurtpeople #scabsandwounds #divinetruthcc #findagoodchurchnotareligiousone #wolves #becarefulofreligion
