I have become aware of some disturbing things in the Body of Christ recently. There are some that are teaching that we can be sinless after we are born again and in church, etc. There are churches that oust people that are having problems with sin in their lives. And there are the ones that do not want their social circles invaded by people that do not share the same lifestyle, background, and status they have.
I recall when I was the Women’s Chaplain at the Montgomery County Jail, in Conroe, Texas, that I was asked by some of the Christian Church women in town, who knew of the success of my ministry with some of the women drug addicts, to help with some of their daughters, and daughters in law.
The facts are changed so that there is not a way to detect who I am speaking of here. One lady called me and was so thankful for the ministry to the women at the jail, and asked me about the ministry, and I told her of the way the Lord had instructed me to help those women.
When I knew that one of them who had a genuine experience with the Lord had gotten out of jail and gotten into trouble, i.e. back on the streets in prostitution or drugs, I would go to the drug areas and search for them to try and rescue them.
I brought several home, and some people in our church took some of them in to give them a chance to get their life straight. I took in an infant, born to a mother in jail that had nowhere else to put her. She was born Christmas day. A couple in our church took a newborn and kept her 18 months until her mother got out of prison.
I went to crack houses and put out the word on the streets that I was looking for someone, and they did not fear me, as a threat to their freedom, but they knew that I was motivated by the love of God for them.
I went into areas that are considered very dangerous, and I only went by the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I knew no fear when I did that, because I trusted the Lord that He would protect me when He wanted me to do something.
I had things stolen from me, and I had the most unusual experience of a drug dealer coming to me as I sat at the gas station at the edge of the drug neighborhood at 3:00 am. I was singing songs that the Lord led me to sing over the girl I was searching for, as that was the particular leadership of the Lord for that situation. I had already chased around that area for hours.
The drug dealer gave me back 2 ruby rings that the lady had stolen from me and used to buy crack. She said that I had helped her own daughter in jail, and that she knew they were mine, and that she wanted me to have them back! I learned from many people that no one ever gets their stuff back from a dealer like that. She also steered the lady I was looking for to me, and told her to let that Ms Ginny help you, and she did. That is the name the jail ladies always called me was Ms Ginny.
One lady stayed with us 9 years, a parolee, another stayed during that time, for 1 year, and there was another here for a month while the others were here. That was besides many other people we helped. So we took the homeless in and fed, mentored, and clothed them.
The Disturbing Elements of Ministry
The most disturbing thing that I encountered was not dark crack houses and addicts and thieves. It was the hypocrisy of Christians. The lady who was so interested in me helping her daughter, told me point blank that no one in her Sunday School class would allow someone like these women in their class, much less their homes. She belonged to a very large, prominent, historically evangelical denomination.
They were more than happy to anonymously send money to the inmates that were needy. They did not want to let them know who they were lest they get hit up for more. They would call me on the sly about their daughters that were out doing all these things, but wanted no one to know in their Christian circle!
I think of the scripture in Jude 20-23
"But, you, Beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life,
And have mercy on some who are doubting,
Save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some, have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh."
Isaiah 58:6-12
"Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free,
And break every yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry,
And bring the homeless poor into the house,
When you see the naked, to cover him,
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth,
And your righteousness will go before you,
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then, you will call and the Lord will answer,
You will cry, and the Lord will say, ‘Here I am’,
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
And if you give yourself to the hungry,
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness,
And your gloom will become like midday,
And the Lord will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones,
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins,
You will raise up the age old foundations,
You will be called the repairer of the breach,
The restorer of the streets in which to dwell."
You may notice as I did that merely donating money or food does not near cover this. Saying a prayer from afar, and keeping you back from the needy of God’s people do not fit this.
I know that people fast food for what they want. Yes, they may have noble desires of salvation or deliverance. But, this is the kind of attitude and action that is pleasing to God as a fast. You are fasting your own desires, and chancing losing things you love, and bringing people into your house that upset the status quo of our greatly prized privacy and self centeredness. You are fasting the ability to control your own environment, and make your home the haven we all expect it should be.
The very idea of not being welcoming or loving someone of a ‘considered’ different social standing in a church is ludicrous. To fear the opinions of others in a church because of trouble and needing to snatch someone out of the fires of their life is unbelievable.
The supposed sinless saints, that are too holy to get around the ones whose garments are polluted by the flesh and need help, are in dire sin for their pride and arrogance.
Let’s look at another passage that aptly describes these sinless saints, proper in every outward way.
Matthew 23:1-7
"Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;
Therefore, all they tell you, do, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things, and do not do them.
And they tie up heavy loads, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.
But, they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments.
And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
And respectful greetings in the market places, and being called by men, Rabbi….
Mathew 23:23-28
"Woe, to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, but you have neglected the weightier provisions of the law; justice and mercy and faithfulness, but these are the things you should have done
without neglecting the others.
You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
Even so, you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
Translation today:
These are those church people, who have seated themselves in the chair of Moses, the judge and leader over the people,
Teaching right things, to obey the Word of God, and yet they do not obey the Word of God and follow the Lordship of Jesus because of their self-indulgence and desire for the respect and honor. They tie up heavy loads upon people and are not willing to help them do anything to carry the load.
The carefully do the outward show of righteousness to be applauded of men, and ignore the things that really crucify the flesh and it’s self-indulgence. Ignoring the weightier things of the Spirit, the love and mercy of God toward those considered too dirty to touch personally.
HYPOCRISY ": a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion 2: an act or instance of hypocrisy"
From Merriam Webster Dictionary
I said all that to say this: I am not saying I have arrived by any means. I am saying that I have been through the fire of learning not to judge others and how to minister to them in their sinful condition. I pray and work to help them reach the place in the Lord that they want to be: the true Lordship of Jesus for their life. It is not easy for them or me, and I have to hear God to even know what to do, or when to not do anything.
But if you never do anything, chances are you are not truly following the lordship of Jesus. Do not be one who He says that you must depart from Him, that He never truly knew you. That "know" there, is from the word ginosko, which means ‘an approving relationship with’. The reference is Matthew 7:21-23
"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven.
Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name cast out demons, and in Your Name perform many miracles?’
And I will declare to them, "I never knew you, DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS’.
LAWLESSNESS by definition is being a law unto yourself, unruly, illegal.
There are so many traditions of men that make the power of God of no effect, and they are as treasured as the Word of God itself. There is a lack of love, and those that justify getting what they want by hook or crook, and think that it is okay. It is not. It is lawlessness.
The self-centered life has no room for the real Lordship of Jesus Christ. It requires too much. The soul that is more concerned for their social standing is not really concerned about their eternal destiny. The desire for other things in the world chokes out the word and makes it of no effect.
There is much more to say on these things, but this is all for this sitting. Go back and read the scriptures in Isaiah and Jude and see how your relationships to others line up. Look at Matthew 23 and see if you find yourself uncomfortable in the description.
For all you sinless saints, that think that somehow you are so superior that you do not sin anymore, you just did. Pride, and arrogance and the hidden sins of the heart, that you cannot know totally. The heart is deceitful above all else, who can know it, but the Lord, and if you do not truly submit to His Lordship for your life, the things that need dealing with that you cannot see, will not be dealt with at all, and you will remain in your sin. But get this, and get it good….
There are no second class citizens in God’s kingdom!
God Bless you. Ginny Alloway Baker
