That's right.
Call it a part of the end times "great falling away" or whatever you want to; but the facts are that the pretty whore ran off with a man who claimed to be a born again, Spirit-filled Christian for the past two decades.
She started attending our house church. She brought her big Bible and ready smile. She also treated us all to her luscious fudge. And when anyone needed help, she was there on the spot.
This was the businesswoman of the city who knew most of Congress Street's street people as well as merchants like unto herself. She'd been in business a long, long time.
Now turning 51, she was desperate for a long-term man. She wanted him for sex, dismantling her air conditioner come winter, sitting down to her decorated table for evening meals and going to church in the same auto.
She openly told us all about her relationships prior to being saved several years ago. But she would always underline that such escapades with the handsome and wealthy were prior to committing her life to Christ. Concerning the latter, she was known in several evangelical churches in the area for on occasion in past years she attended services there.
My wife and I particularly enjoyed her company. She was vivacious, compassionate and knew her Scripture. She would tell me about my sermons, "Preach them straight. I don't mind coming under conviction."
Now in our same worship gathering there was the man who had attended services for years on end. He was the first in line to inform us of prophesies fulfilled, the world going to hell, the church turning lazy, and the need for strong preaching from pulpits that had gone lame.
This man could encourage any biblical pastor for he backed him up with a holy lifestyle that was equal to none-as far as we knew, that is. He faithfully attended worship, maintained daily devotions, passed out Bibles to new converts and sent money supporting evangelical organizations worldwide.
How many times had our house church friends ate at his table, treated to his hospitality without limit?
However, he had a wife who was no help to God, the Bible and the church. She quietly boycotted all three. She was one stubborn character who enjoyed her nicotine more than her soul.
Eventually she developed lung problems filled with holes that sent her to the oxygen machine 24/7. Daily her husband came home from work to find her bent over in her chair, hardly able to walk across the living room to her bedroom for the night. This was his depression milieu for evenings. In other words, this is what he was going to be stuck with for God only knew how long.
My wife and I were going out of country this fall. Before we left, the unknown-to-us whore asked for the man's phone number. I rolled it off my tongue for I knew it by heart. As soon as I did that, I knew she was up to no good.
While we were driving out of town for our two-week get-away, I said to myself, "They'll have sex while we're gone."
Upon our return, she said she had something to tell my wife and me. That Wednesday evening prior to mid-week worship, she spilled everything.
The man we had sworn holy drove to the church on Sunday morning where he figured she would be attending while our house church took a brief hiatus. After worship, she invited him to her summer cabin. There she proceeded to undress into night attire.
"I didn't know he could see me from the living room," she whined. My wife and I knew that was a lie for we have sat in her cabin and know what can be seen from the living room.
In short order, the two of them were in bed. Fill in the blanks.
Days following the two came to know too much about one another. In the meantime, he scooted his wife to town hall for signing divorce papers, telling us later that it was consensual, she agreeing to leave her house and get into a low-income rental.
All sorts of flags went up on that score. She would not have agreed to separate from a husband who knew when her oxygen tank was low, ordered on the spot another one for her life's sake, and depended on him for numerous basics every day and night. In other words, I could only conclude that this man high jacked his wife, quit his job, and bedded down the whore for future keeping.
When my wife and I returned from the two-week stint, we found the whore seated on our couch confessing everything-and I mean every tiny detail. Just as she finished, the man walked through our door to attend mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study. He had no hint that we had just been handed the dirty goods.
With that, we proceeded with others gathered to sing hymns, pray and study our usual Scripture lesson.
"That was a powerful lesson," he said to me at the close, playing the holiness role to the hilt. When he left, I was so exhausted fighting off the demons that I went straight to bed.
Since then we at the house church have not seen the man or woman, know nothing about the wife betrayed, and so keep intercessory vigil for their souls.
It is so utterly sad to realize that in these times, everyone is vulnerable. Take heed by taking in these specifics about the whore who ran off with our man. Of course, his free will choices made the backsliding travesty all horrifically possible.
It takes two to tango. The whore, now that we recall past conversations with her about her ties with various men-both homosexual and heterosexual, now reveal her to by a pathological liar nymphomaniac exhibitionist, nothing short of.
The man years ago had various divorces tallied in his own bio detail.
One plus one in this instance doesn't add up to anything worthwhile for present or eternity. In the end times, the Bible warns that there will be a "great falling away."
J. Grant Swank Jr.
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Read: http://jgrantswankjr.blogspot.com/
Eastern Nazarene College Anti-Christian Play Presented
Eastern Nazerene College Anti-Christian Play Warbles it's Reason for Being
