The only way we can approach the throne of God is by Christ. We can not deserve it. I was watching a documentary of Evel Knevel. At the end of his life he started to ask if this was all, and turned to Christ. He then started talking to his mates, who basically said that you have been one really baaaaaad person, who are you to talk.

And they knew his scams and ability to spin bull. They said he was sincere about this. God can bring us to him. Even when we cause scandal.

Criticizing your husband in public is tacky to begin with. (Old rule: We don’t air our dirty laundry in front of strangers). Criticizing your husband as he’s exiting an Iranian jail? Excusable only by God’s grace.

IF her allegations were true, the way to deal with them would be to have a close confidante or two as support while her husband came home and got settled for a few months, then privately address them with him, in all humility. I’m sure he’s going to need therapy after his ordeal, so that would be a good time to gently bring marital discord up.

[In the comments, by a Internet friend I trust of the female half of the species. WordPress is mucking up comment links at this time]. I have no doubts, that in this sad case, both have sinned. But we have a saviour who is far greater than our sin.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

(Hebrews 10:11-25 ESV)

Which brings me to a conversation that I had while running. Well, I was running, the pro photographer is fitter and I am slow. She was walking. One of the elders in our church is a religious sociologist. He found himself in Dunedin after his ministry and marriage broke apart (I do not know the details). He got a job, as some clerics do, in the university. And he is sweating the reduction in people attending churches. He considers the total percentage of faithful as falling, and the churches that grow are simply shuffling people around. And he spends a lot of time reading the secular scholarly work about growth: of businesses, of churches. About the black art of marketing.

And I think he is missing the point. We are not called to be big. We are not to count numbers. We are called to be faithful.

The Pro photog basically looked at me and thought I was saying the crashingly obvious. We have both seen the consequences of liberalism within a congregation, and it is death. We have seen people try marketing tricks, and they have failed. It is when we do not pretend to be righteous, but we say instead that we are broken, that things become real.

Our church is fallen, and it full of fallen people. Elders included. And we need to pray for repentance. We need to pray for reform. For it matters not how big the offering is or how wealthy the congregation is. In the eyes of Christ we are broken, poor, and our finery is as filth. Nothing in this world is whole.

This world still holds the beauty of creation, but it is shattered. And we should not rejoice in this. Referring back to the sad case of Saeed and Nagameh, this comment is correct.

Anyone who knows her personally should have the decency to tell her to stay off social media and handle all of this privately. This is what happens when you have emotionally unstable people with access to social media who then use it like it’s a private diary.

It’s amazing because even if someone were to buy into the farcical notion that she has legitimate grounds for divorce, they would have to concede that the matter should be handled as discreetly as possible so as not to create unnecessary division or strife within the Church, or at the very least bring the least amount of shame to the children. Don’t we always get people telling us that it’s “about the children?” How are they being taken into consideration in all of this with their father’s name being dragged through the mud.

It is our job to be faithful. The spirit of this world wants us to shatter our marriages, destroy our chuldren, break up the old and beautiful and build something cheap and ugly instead. To damn those who preserve, and those who build. And to abuse those who warn.

I spend too much time patching the psyche of those wounded in this age. I have enough work. What seems to be happening is that the elite churchian, fully bought into the spirit of this age, wants to add to my case load. May this not be. May we repent. May we reform in tears.

For Christ, the only means to mercy, is the ruler of the church. And if we destroy his church, he will not be merciful. ON this issue our souls are indeed at peril.