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“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath,” so, laments Jeremiah the prophet in the aftermath of God’s judgment on Judah which he witnessed after years of warning the people it was coming unless they repented (Lamentations 3:1, NKJV). Nearly twenty-six hundred years later, I have experienced the prophet’s travail of soul in the midst of the painful fall of great Babylon in progress; the judgment of God within the churches as a prelude to pouring out His full wrath upon the whole world. In the face of falling great Babylon under His judgment, God calls to the faithful: ‘“Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues,’” (Revelation 18:4, NKJV).
The warning of divine judgment and appeal to come up out of great Babylon is exactly what I have been urging spiritually speaking (the day of the urgent physical call out draws near) in all of my service to the Lord and the churches for over the past thirty years as a watchman/prophet (Ezekiel 33:1-9) and two stints as a pastor. It is my most recently completed service as a pastor that I write about in the following 2011 blog repost and the two that follow. To seem to fail at anything hurts, but even more hurtful is to see God’s judgment fall because people refused to give heed to His Word. That was the experience of Jeremiah that became mine and will be every godly leader’s own until the end of God’s judgment in His house comes at the completed destruction of great Babylon.
Originally Posted July 10, 2011
One of the most profound images of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament is His weeping over the city of Jerusalem because of the dark days of judgment that were coming in light of the people’s rejection of Him as their Messiah (Luke 19:41-44). Surely this was the humanly unfathomable heart break of God voiced many times through the prophets of the Old Testament but now seen in the tears that ran down the cheeks of the Son of Man. While we can never know His pain in absolute terms, God has seen to it that we who serve humanity in and outside of the churches can feel it in some small measure (2 Corinthians 2:1-4). Even so, it is still no lightweight experience.
As of July 1st I became the retired pastor of the St. Mark Baptist Church. I was brought to this circumstance because our church disbanded this past June 30th. As the church’s last pastor I take full responsibility for our dissolution due officially to a lack of numerical growth and inability to meet our financial obligations. I take responsibility for several reasons. First, for fourteen and one half years I have preached the Gospel and the whole counsel of God uncompromised. Many do not want to hear about sin and holy living anymore but only what God will do to meet their felt needs.
Second, I was unwilling to adopt constant entertainment, worldly tricks and gimmicks as methodology for getting people into our church. We did do many creative outreach events including block parties, Vacation Bible School and evangelistic concerts featuring Christian artists. We also went door to door in our neighborhood several times and taught our people friendship evangelism. We did community ministry involving mentoring, sports and prison evangelism, direct mail etc. Thousands were reached, some visited but not enough stayed to take root. Third, in fear and honor of the Lord I ran an orderly and tight ship of integrity--too tight for many religion minded persons.
Last, of course, my stand on God’s fixed order for the family in the home and His church thoroughly explained in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics served as a bone of contention in and outside of our congregation. My stand invited slanderous verbal persecution against me, much of it from professed Christians. In all these things I have wept before the Lord and been comforted by Him as He made me understand His own pain from sinful humanity including that which I too had brought Him. True to His ways, the Lord was not letting the man commissioned by Him to write urging other men to become strong in Him escape the painful process.
In the same way I am not a perfect man, in no way do I wish to convey I was a perfect pastor who was a victim of all the things I have written. I made some people skill and judgment mistakes along the way. Reflecting back, in spite of the difficulties I had much joy seeing the few “get it.” I also closed the eyes of a number of saints I look forward to seeing again in glory--praise the Lord!
In the end, our remaining members acted with nobility in being willing to dissolve the church rather than fire their pastor because they found no fault with my essential doctrines, lifestyle or leadership. I am honored and blessed that they should think so highly of me. With the tears of God’s heart break in my heart, I have given myself over fully to the work of restoring men, their families and communities as my future that perhaps there will be many as a result that escape the world’s turn to experience His foretold dark days of judgment drawing ever closer.
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