Great news, do you want it?
A beautiful incident of "helping one down" was directly witnessed on the spot
▲The "great news" is: Jesus Christ not only wants to be our Savior, but also the Lord of our lives, always walking with us in a life full of challenges and temptations!
great news
"I have good news and great news. Which one do you want to listen to?"
On a Sunday in the midsummer of 2011, I attended the morning service of a prestigious large American church in California. As soon as the senior pastor took the podium, he asked this exciting question. Thousands of people in the audience immediately responded in unison:
"I want both!"
The senior pastor explained: "The good news is: Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ and accepts Him as our Savior can become a child of Heavenly Father and receive eternal new life. What about the great news? That is, Jesus Christ will not only be our Savior , and more importantly, He must be the Lord of our lives. As long as we are willing to commit ourselves and obey, He will always walk with us in a life full of challenges and temptations until He has completed all good works in us!”
I remember that the message was extremely short, only about fifteen minutes. Immediately afterwards, the chairman of the trade union, who has always been low-key, unexpectedly came on stage. He said sincerely: "Today we are going to witness together how this great news is vividly implemented before our eyes." He succinctly described that in the summer of 2008, the music director of this church was asked to leave the ministry because he "committed a crime." post. He said, today we want to share with you how God has done good work in him since then.
Seek medical treatment in place
This is really a super shocking bomb! In this church, which has a choir of 100 people, a full symphony orchestra and a giant pipe organ, the music director is definitely a highly exposed figure. When this star minister, who was also the dean of the music department of a well-known Christian university, suddenly disappeared from the spotlight, the congregation was naturally surprised and discussed endlessly. However, because the church authorities remained tight-lipped, the turmoil gradually subsided over time, and the truth fell into a fog that the general congregation had no way of knowing.
The long-lost former music director (hereinafter referred to as Ken) suddenly appeared on the stage, and the audience suddenly heard a sound of astonishment.
In a plain and gentle tone, Ken shared his journey over the past three years. He said that after the crime occurred, his first reaction was to escape from here and sneak into another large church with a thousand people, hiding his name and licking his wounds alone.
However, after weeks of intense inner struggle and fighting, he and his wife finally decided to stay in the original church. After all, this is the spiritual family he was “born in and grew up in” from the day he decided to believe in the Lord as a boy. Here, not only are there a group of elders and co-workers who truly know him, and understand his strengths, weaknesses, and weaknesses; more importantly, this is the place that best knows how he fell and can best help him repent and rebuild.
Ken recalled that when he stepped into this century-old church for the first time after being dismissed, the core staff were surprised and sincerely accepted and welcomed him. When Ken expressed to them his wish to "seek medical treatment where he is", all the co-workers hugged him with tears streaming down their faces and assured him: "Ken, since you have chosen to stay in this big family, we, the family members, have also chosen to serve you. You must be responsible and watch until the end. We will accompany you on this road of repentance and reconstruction until Heavenly Father completes the good work in you!”
▲In this church, which has a choir of 100 people, a full symphony orchestra, and a giant pipe organ, the music director is definitely a highly exposed figure.
Entering a new stage
Ken briefly described how he had spent the past three years quietly among thousands of congregants, serving as the most ordinary believer. He also shared how the church quickly organized a seven-member reconstruction team, including core staff, senior pastors, and members who are proficient in psychology and law, etc., to accompany him and his wife in all-round physical, mental and spiritual recovery. Review, adjust and rehabilitate. In addition to the counseling, consultation and follow-up of the incident in the first year, if the group members are not traveling on business, all members must be present to accompany them to pray and talk with each other once a month, until now. Moreover, because Ken can no longer receive a salary from the church, the group members also use their own money to help cover the basic living needs of his family.
When Ken said this, he choked up and expressed his endless gratitude and gratitude to the Lord, the church family, and the group members.
Instantly, the audience stood up spontaneously and applauded warmly.
The chairman of the co-worker union, who had been accompanying the whole process, took the microphone and said, "As the convener of Brother Ken's reconstruction team, I hereby announce on behalf of the church that Brother Ken has passed the repentance stage under strict spiritual confirmation. Officially entering the recovery and reconstruction period!”
The congregation burst into even louder applause, with the usual American cheers and whistles heard from time to time.
The chairman added: "After discussion and evaluation, the group members believe that Brother Ken can start preparing to return to the service team. Although we still don't know when it will be? What kind of position it will be? But we firmly believe that the Lord will reveal His will!"
Turn curses into blessings
The chairman turned around and respectfully invited Mrs. Ken, who had been serving "silently" in the choir for three years, to come out of the choir and stand beside Ken. Then, all the members of the reconstruction team rushed up and hugged the couple warmly.
The audience who had been seated stood up and applauded again, and the whole audience burst into cheers and cheers.
After taking a break from the speech, the chairman invited all the members of the congregation to raise their hands to bless and intercede for the couple who had been reborn after suffering. In the closing prayer, the chairman prayed that Heavenly Father would show his power so that Brother Ken and the church would not suffer in vain, but would instead be able to witness how God can turn human weakness into His glory and turn curses into blessings.
After the person involved and other panel members had stepped down, the chairman said to the audience: "I know that now you will have thousands of questions in your mind - what happened in the first place? Who exactly was affected? How to deal with the harm and damage?... "
"So, with the consent of Brother Ken, we want to break the silence of the past three years. Here I want to publish the email addresses of myself and Elder D, the deputy convener of the group, as the official channel authorized by the church for inquiries. All questions will be raised by The two of us responded via email. We cannot guarantee that all questions will be answered, but we guarantee that we will answer all questions we deem appropriate in a sincere and responsible manner.”Postscript: On Christmas Sunday, 2011, I searched hard and discovered that Ken was serving as a pianist in a large symphony orchestra on stage for the first time.
Author profile
He Qishan, from Taiwan, loves to observe God’s wonderful actions in people’s lives and people’s response to God. Now lives in Southern California, USA.