In the still rumbling aftermath of the bombshell news that Robert Morris, former pastor of Gateway Church in Texas sexually abused a 12-year-old girl over an extensive period of time, many members of the church and Christian community find themselves wondering: well, what do we do now?
This area of confusion, fear and anxiety is what Pastor Levi Lusko, founder and lead pastor of Fresh Life Church located in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and online, addressed before the congregation that just witnessed a shaking of God-like proportions in their church.
Lusko and his wife are no strangers to going through a season of pain, hurt and lack of understanding, as they lost their daughter Lenya, who is with her heavenly Father now, to an asthmatic attack in December of 2012 when she was five years old.
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“That’s what Isaiah tells us [in] Isaiah 45:3. God promises in every storm we face, in Christ, that He will give us the treasures, the rich treasures of darkness and the secret riches of hidden places. None of us ask for, none of us want, the storms that come our way in this life, but when they come we can be convinced that it’s because God wants to do something that’s amazing in our lives,” Lusko says.
So Lusko asks the question that many within the Gateway community are now asking themselves in light of the current situation they are now facing: Where do we go from here?
“If we’re going to figure out ‘where do we go from here?’ we need to understand the connection between grief on the one hand, and glory on the other,” Lusko explains.
To navigate this process of understanding, Lusko points to three essential connections to help guide believers out of the storm, and into God’s glory.
- Grief and Glory: “So many of the stories in Scripture illustrate this theme. God’s rules are for a reason, and when we take as trivial something as essential as God’s holiness and God’s preferred way of doing things, when we scorn what God has told us to do and to not do, we invite judgment on ourselves.”
- Repentance and Refreshment: Speaking of Isaiah and his consecration before the Lord, “‘The best thing about me, I’m throwing that away to the wayside, because I see the excellence of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. I’m repenting of trusting in me and I’m looking to you.’ And so what happened? Refreshment came through a coal brought to him by an angel,” Lusko shares.
- Availability and Opportunity: “Why do some people get used and others don’t? I submit to you it’s not because they have bigger, better gifts than others. It is simply because some people make themselves available and God has never been looking for great ability, but He has always been looking for those who have great availability,” Lusko says.
Lusko reveals the key to navigating this path that many in the Gateway community now find themselves rather unexpectedly on, thanks in part to his own journey through grief and ending up on the other side: God’s glory.
“In my grief I have experienced what I want you to experience in these difficult days: glory,” Lusko shares. “So how do we get from here to there if we know where we want to go? It’s God’s glory.
“…how do we actually process grief in a healthy way? We do so with Jesus. So when we face hard times, we don’t have to pretend those hard times are good. We don’t have to pretend those hard times are pleasant. We don’t have to put rosy language on it, but we do have to choose to slowly make our way through the grief. We do have to choose to be honest with each other and honest with God about exactly what we’re feeling.”
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
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