Seth Barnes - Bless the impostor in your life

Item 1: An AIM staff member and leader criticized me behind my back, quit to join a nearby ministry, and hired away two of our best leaders. What do you do?

Item 2: A church group goes with you to Africa. The team has a wonderful experience, but the leaders claim it was disorganized and ask for their money back. What do you do?

Item 3: Another leader on staff commits a serious moral failure, defends himself, and claims ministry property as his own. What do you do?

In every one of these real-life incidents let me tell you, I wanted to sock it to 'em! Righteous indignation boiled over inside me. They call themselves Christians, but they're impostors! We had been wronged and the facts were clearly on our side.

Then I read Romans 12 and God speaks to my justice-loving heart:

"Bless those who persecute you."
"Live in harmony."
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil."

What do I do with that?

Well, in the first instance, we gave the guy $8,000 as a blessing. In the second instance, we gave the church close to $7,000. And in the third case, after trying to reason, we followed Matthew 18 and stood to lose upwards of $80,000 depending on how it went. In each of these cases, the people involved became more reasonable; I think the kingdom advanced.

I'm telling you folks, Jesus didn't call his road a narrow one for no good reason. If you're going to bless someone who is hurting you, it's going to cost you.

I don't understand these Christians who go to court and who fight and who lose track of the fact that we all play for an audience of one. We all go before the Father of lights when we've breathed our last breath. We all get to review our life in Panavision with him.

We all give an account. And only love remains.