It's always saddening when a Christian friend falls away from the faith. As a graduate of Briercrest and having lived at the school for ten years I've made a lot of Christian friends and I've also seen some of them, and others, fall away.
The amount of students that stop going to church after their Christian education is concerning and nearly all of them slip into worldly habits and philosophies that reinforce their life in the flesh when we are commanded to live in the Spirit.
"But I say, walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do." (Galatians 5:16-17)
I have Christian friends who as soon as they left Christian community went back to drinking and partying and sleeping around which is tragic. They live in the flesh and not the Spirit; it is as if the teachings of Jesus and the traditions of the Church have made no difference in their lives and so they go on in their sins not realizing that they must repent if they are to be counted with the believers of Christ. (Matt 3:8, 4:17, 11:20, 12:41; Mark 1:4;15, 6:12, Luke 3:3;8, 10:13, 11:32, 13:1-10, 24:47; Acts 2:38, ... I could go on)
But this incident between my two friends shook me because we were so close and I honestly did not see it coming, although I believe The Lord prepared me for the news over time. He was a firecracker personality who cared deeply for others and had many spiritual gifts. He aced his premarital counseling course, was a spiritual leader in the community, and even lead within the Church. She was a gentle soul with gifts of teaching, counseling, and musical talent. She loved to build into new leaders, work with children, and organize / run summer camps. Together they were a pastoral force to be reckoned with, a potent power for good in the world. I stood with them at their wedding and they stood with me at mine.
Over time our friendship became strained as our lives took different directions. They left Caronport to pursue jobs elsewhere and aside from two brief points of contact we nary saw nor heard from them for three years. Then the news. He left her for a boyfriend.
I was shocked. Our mentor and pastor was physically ill and brought to tears. We reached out to her and found that her family and church were very supportive and we offered our support such as it was at a distance. After weeks of agonizing prayer and soul searching I confronted him. The message that continually came to me in my prayers, which became clearer, louder, and more forceful as time went on was that this was sin. Leaving your faithful wife is adultery, a black sin that is unquestionably wrong for one who knows the Lord and bound himself in Holy matrimony, especially to a Christian wife. The reasons for the divorce were not good enough, and he knows it. His new lifestyle was inherently sinful, instead of walking by the Spirit he gratifies the desires of the flesh. The Lord's grace will cover it but if he refuses to let it go but he will not be able to serve the Kingdom as he was intended to and the place that was appointed to him will be given to another. He must repent of his sins and be reconciled to The Lord and to his wife.
There were so many scripture verses and themes flowing through my mind I can not recount them now. He listened patiently to the message I had for him, He thanked me and said that he would take into consideration and that he knew that I cared for him because I called. My heart both sank and was strangely relieved. It sank because I know that line of conversation as his flowery and diplomatic rhetoric for making someone think the best of him while avoiding going any further into the topic. I suspect the Lord has sent him many messengers to tell him the same message I was given, mine being one of the last. I was strangely relieved because even though I could sense that he was deflecting and would not take the message to heart I had given him the message the Lord had commanded me to give.
What followed afterwards was a long process of meditating and praying upon what had happened. I may write more about this topic later.
Greg Out.
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