You can advise Endures to seek the counsel of her church but I don't feel you have a right to tell WAT to butt out on this forum. This is not the church's forum. And just for the record, I am a Christian who believes in God.
Shattered, for the record, I did NOT tell WAT, or anyone else, to "butt out" of the forum. I advised Endures4ever, to be very discerning in what advice he accepts and implements BECAUSE there was, and is, going to be advice being thrown at him from ALL posters, including those who DO NOT accept Jesus Christ.
If you look at the progression, it was WAT who jumped all over ANY suggestion that a Christian should seek God's "advice" first, and that Chrsitians should seek and accept God's commands and "advice" over any secular advice that might be in conflict with God's "advice column" known as Scripture. Furthermore, it is WAT who decided that he was being "attacked" and needed to "fire back" with all guns blazing directly at me. That's because WAT and I have "history." WAT is violently and dogmatically against ANY "hint" of Christianity, let alone any "hint" that Christian thought should be taught as being "right" and/or "superior" to secular thought. WAT is a proponent (from past discussions that I have had with him) that SOCIETY should determine what is moral and right and NOT God and God's Word.
It is WAT who is tossing around terms like "slut" and acting like a bigoted fool against anything Scriptural. WAT thinks that Christian churches should follow secular "corporate-like," instead of "Christ-like," rules for dealing with "sin" and misbehavior of members. I disagree. I would think that other Christians would think the same, but a lot of that will depend upon whether or not a person claiming to be a Christian BELIEVES the Scripture to be the "Word of God." If Scripture is NOT the Word of God, then on WHAT basis would a "Christian" decide what is "Right and Wrong" and what is "God's will" and what is not? Toss out the Scripture and supplant it with "human reason" and elevate "human thought" above God's thought's?
"Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than you ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:6-9 NIV)
As Jesus put it, if we can apply the teaching to this situation, Christians are to "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's."
Christianity IS a "separating" religion NOT because "Christians" say so, but because GOD says so.
[color:"red"]"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For have come to you to turn
"'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man's enemies will be members of his own household.'
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his one or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." [/color] (Matthew 10:32-39 NIV)
We, all peoples, are either FOR or AGAINST Christ. There is no "middle ground," no "parallel path." THE WAY is a narrow road BY God's command and design, not by "man's" creation.
In matters affecting the Church, the Church must deal with it, through those who are "elected" to serve as "overseers" of the faith. God entrusts them with the position and holds them accountable for upholding HIS commands and teaching.
So far, all that Endures4ever has reported is the APPEARANCE of an affair, certainly of the EA variety and possibly NOT of the PA variety. There IS an apparant emotional connection between the two, and it is at the very least, "inapproprite," given that that they are both married. But the matter must be dealt with forthrightly, according to God's teaching in HOW to deal with things of this nature, for the good of the body AS WELL AS for those who "might" be caught up in the "fog" of sin. Pastors, Pastor's wives, Deacons, Elders, Christians are NO different from unbelievers in ONE respect.....we ALL, saved and unsaved alike, continue to live in a fallen, sin-natured, body for as long as we live on this earth. THAT is what the process of Sanctification addresses, the conforming of our lives, DESPITE our human nature, to more "Christ-likeness." It is WHY forgiveness is necessary because NONE of us "sinless" in our own right. Our "sinlessness" is imputed to us BY Christ, not in our own right. Christ IS "head of the body," not us. We "stand in" for him, and are held accountable for HOW we "stand in."
In dealing with an affair, by the husbands and wives directly involved in an attempt to end an affair and recover their marriages, Marriage Builders concepts CAN be used and ARE effective in many areas. But for Christians, it goes BEYOND just the MB concepts and INTO humble obedience to God's command regardless of what we might be feeling at any given time.
As Peter has warned all Christians:
"But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies,
even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them - bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth of into disrepute.
In their greed these teachers will exploit you wiht stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to he11, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he say and heaerd) - if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature (Or
the flesh) and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed - an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness." (2Peter 2:1-15 emphasis added)
... "Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through the apostles.
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." But they deliberately forget (as in
"choose") that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and with water. By water also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for the day of judgment adn destruction of ungodly men.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. but in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of the righteous.
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all of his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (2Peter 3:1-18 emphasis added)
Shattered, ALL that I have been saying is that for Christians, God's Word, should "reign supreme" as the instrument of "teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in all righteousness." (2Tim 3:16) If NOT the Scripture, then what?
Shattered, I previously quoted 1Cor 6:9-11, so I won't repeat it now. What I want to emphasize, however, is the CONCLUSION that is the great promise and hope....."And that is what some of you
WERE. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (v.11, emphasis added)
Repentance and forgiveness, and restoration, are what we all strive for "in Christ."
God bless.