One Fatal Mistake

One Fatal Mistake
NUMBERS 20: 1-13

A few years ago a bright young church leader in England whom I knew slightly made one mistake, and his ministry was finished. It must have been devastating for him; it was devastating for people who had set their hopes on him as a symbol of something God was doing in the church. The mistake arose out of the fact that his wife was chronically ill, which meant he had someone helping him look after her and living in their home. This was really a necessity if he was to fulfill his ministry, but one day there was a scandalized column in a newspaper about there being an improper relationship between the man and the person they employed. I don’t know how wrong the relationship actually was; for all I know it may have been pretty innocent, but if that was so, then (more tragically in a way) he had behaved in a way that could give the impression that he was being unfaithful to his wife. One way or the other he made one mistake, and the scandal terminated his ministry...