SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE PART II

By: NSUBUGA CHARLES

Ezekiel 11:16 - Therefore say thus saith the Lord God: Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries yet will I be to them as a little Sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.

As I am writing these things I feel very sorry and tears roll down my heart for many of our brothers and sisters that are still held captive not only in GAC but also in many other cult organizations around the world. I also feel sorry for those who have in one way or another come out of those cult movements but are still living with the effects of those cult movements. I know it is very hard to get out of a cult but it is harder to get the cult out of you. It takes God and good counseling to restore the victim of religious abuse.

Jesus said that the Pharisees travel land and sea to win one proselyte and when he is won, they make him twice as much a son of hell as themselves. (Mt. 23:15). This is what happened to many others as well as myself in Gospel Assembly Church, and I know it is still happening on many there right now. The system has worked on and in me for more than 10 years away since I came out from there. There are people that I know who were once there and up to now they are still spiritually and mentally disorganized. You lose your freethinking while in GAC. Personal choice and free will do not work for you once in GAC. You must hand over your brain to other men to think for you. You lose responsibility over yourself. The moment you begin to take control of yourself and start to question some things in church you are marked and isolated and a scripture is given to the congregation to back up their act. (Rom. 16:17).

It amazes me when I see the kind of great love they shewed out to me and many others when later on they were going to treat us like beasts. I could not imagine that the same pulpit that flowed with love towards me one time was to be used to curse me. I would like to believe that there is no sincere and perfect love from any destructive cult organization. The only love you can find there is just stage managed love, and that is what they offered many of us, just to woe us into something that was later to turn out to be very dangerous.

I remember my first 5 years in GAC that I received love than I have ever received since I was born. I felt very good, happy, joyful and inspired. I always longed for every service. The convention times were other beautiful moments of inspiration, exhibiting the spirit of love and unity, the fellowship and oneness of different assemblies. I remember the GAC convention I attended in Nairobi where I was left speechless as I watched the entrance of these pastors from Nairobi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda and other African countries into the conventional hall. They seemed to be in the spirit and loaded with the power of God. All were in dark suits, white shirts and black shoes. (So was the cord of dressing for ministers and saints). A long line of elders followed them from different Assemblies. As soon as all these ministers entered the convention hall there was a sudden start of the praise and worship by the General Assembly. The style of dancing and rejoicing, the friendly spirit that hovered over the convention hall moved me so much that instead of laughing for joy I just cried for joy. I thought I was alone crying but when I looked around almost everybody was in tears. I think I will never forget those first 5 five years of my stay in GAC. They were very refreshing and encouraging. By these first 5 years I was able to get started, and there was an impact left in my life.

But that was not so during my last 3 years in GAC. Because I started sensing and feeling something wrong either entering the church or just getting revealed. I remember when there was a growing misunderstanding between the pastor and one of the elders in the church; I faced a very hard moment of deciding between the two who was right and who was wrong because secretly, they both kept on accusing each other of this and that. The pastor won because he had the pulpit, which he used to fight off the other elder.

It was a tough time for the elder because he was belittled before the whole assembly. I remember when this elder found it difficult to explain his case and clear his name of the many accusations labeled against him. He simply said to me "Charles time and God will tell". Life became very unbearable for him and he moved out of the country. Whatever had happened to the first love he got from the church? He left his wife behind under the care of the pastor. Later the pastor sent this young lady to my single room to stay with me.

I really do not know why the pastor made such a move. I was single (unmarried) staying alone and here some young wife of somebody is sent by my spiritual leader to come and stay with me. On several occasions the pastor could refer to the husband of this sister as a two-legged beast. I know that those who were in the church between 1987 to 1989 know these things very well. The saints were stopped from having any communication with this elder. The pastor one time came to me and told me that I should not have any business with this elder. Now in the whole church we were only two having telephones, that is the pastor and I, so I asked him what if this brother calls me on telephone? He said "you just place back the receiver the moment you get to know that he is the one on the line".

Now I was wondering in my heart how I was going to behave in such a manner to somebody whose wife was staying with me. I knew that, if it is not my pastor planning this trap for me then Satan was planning it through him. So I ignored the pastor's advice and went ahead to have communication with this brother. The wife used to ask me a lot of questions regarding her husband's conduct towards the church and I always told her that "man of God" has better answers to all these questions.

I cannot forget one Sunday evening when she came and I think she was coming from the pastor's house, either for some bit of counseling or something near to that. She called for my opinion about her going to join her husband who seemed to have turned against the church, or she stays to serve God without the husband. She said she was ready for either but needed counseling. I asked her if she had talked to the pastor about the same, she said yes but the pastor was not straight forward and instead sent her to me. Here I knew she was being mentally charged to reject her husband. I remember telling her that "your husband has more legal right over you than an organization called the church", which was contrary to the teaching of the church. Because according to the teaching of the church, the man of God and the church are above everything and everybody on earth. That "man of God," God's representative on earth, and so he must be listened to more than any body else. I also told her that in any case if she were to make a negative decision towards her husband, then I would beg that such a decision be made when she is not staying under my care. Eventually we reached an understanding over that issue. When her husband called arrangements were made and she joined him.

This widening the rift between the pastor and me, especially when this couple (now abroad) started communicating with me through letters and telephone. Secretly saints were being warned against me, my mails were opened and some confiscated. Sunday and some other service days started to turn into judgment days for me (there would be no alarm if such judgment was of justice and for right and good causes). I remember entering church like somebody already guilty entering a judgment court for a capital offense. Saints had been turned into spies of and unto one another. There were spirits of insecurity all around the church. I was feeling unsafe. There was no more love for me. The joy that I used to feel when I had just come to church turned into sorrows.

I remember I owned a business, which employed a good number of church members (over 30). This business was also another source of trouble. This makes me to think that any saint who is in some kind of leadership position in GAC to be economically successful is another threat to top leadership. It is my feeling that it is on their secret agenda to have the financial control of every one in the church. They would also want you to attribute all your financial blessings to the man of God and to the church. Because of that they would want to reap as much as they could from you since they are the ones to have helped you to achieve what you have achieved. The pastor constantly referred to me in the church as an example of what God had used him to do. He used to tell the church that Brother Charles came poor wearing sandals, that this brother knew nothing, he could not even know how to talk, how to brush his teeth, was a poor ramshackle boy when the church picked him up. Now you can see God has blessed him with knowledge and finances. That and more is what God can do to any person who trusts and serves the man of God, he used to say. It is amazing to me how I used to enjoy such bragging of the pastor. I remember I used to sit behind there and say "Amen" backing up every statement he used to make. Many times he used to capture my mind by making good remarks about me. Such good remarks used to work on me to the point that I became a leading contributor to many church financial programs. Among those were pastor's missionary journeys, building fund, pastor's upkeep etc. I bought the first church public addressing system, also some music systems, I would contribute to this fund or that fund till I was drained completely.

I wonder how I was so much blinded that I could not care for my personal needs like catering for my retirement time a head. For example I remember at a time when I was employing over 30 church members on top of some outsiders who were also working in my business, I was hiring eleven commercial and residential buildings for business operations and accommodation of workers and church saints. I was dealing in bakery, poultry, and small-scale agricultural farming. I would like the reader to consider that I owned a business in:

1) Busia - town near Kenya border doing bakery -employing church saints and other workers

2) Iganga - town 23 miles from Jinja/Tororo road doing bakery - employing church saints and other workers.

3) Wairaka - Jinja District (this was the centre of my businesses) doing bakery - employing church saints and other workers.

4) I had a grocery shop on Jinja main-street, which employed 2 saints.

5) Bread wholesale shop at Jinja mpya – Jinja main-street.

6) A small agricultural farm at Walukuba growing tomatoes.

7) Poultry farming at Jinja College under the management of one saint in the church.

8) Poultry farming at Mwiri College under one saint - I have not given the names of the saints but some of those saints are still there in GAC now.

9) Ndeeba - Kampala - dealing in bakery employing only saints and also accommodating saints who were attending Kampala GAC.

Now I would like to say that it takes a mind control to have the owner of all these finance-generating centers stay and continue in a single room where he separated the bedroom from the sitting room by cotton curtains as his residence. I used to serve tea from plastic mugs using also plastic plates. I lived a life of a beggar when practically I was economically sustaining over 30 people of the church. Whenever I had bread and butter at my house it used to become a sermon in the pulpit on Sunday. The saints were rebuked for coming to my house looking for bread and butter. We were not supposed to live in fair conditions of life when the house of God was not catered for.

I remember when I started losing out with the pastor, he used some of these saints I was employing to financially disorganize me. Advice was given to those who were in marketing and sales to start being wise and do some secret (cheat) saving because the pastor was not seeing the future of the business. Those I was employing opened up secret bank accounts without my knowledge. I started receiving reports of financial losses from sales and marketing departments. Others reported that money was stolen from them while working. All this happened after the "man of God" had just borrowed part of the working capital from my business to help organize the 1987 Convention with the promise that the church would pay as soon as the convention was over (no money has ever been paid).

Saints that were working under me were advised to start up personal small businesses and prepare to leave my business as soon as possible.

I remember one day when I was in my bakery workshop working with some Saints when the Head usher came to me and called me outside. With a straightforward face looked into my face and said these words, "it is being rumored around that you, brother "Nsubuga Charles" are a very dangerous person in our midst and that you have plans with other Saints in the other Assemblies to blow up the church. Secondary that you are planning to marry some body's wife and that there is all evidence to this, and thirdly that you are a thief, and whatever you have stolen is what we would want to know. What have you got to say about these underground accusations?

I remember I took about five minutes without saying a word, till he reminded me that he wanted my answer to these allegations now. I asked him who was responsible for these rumors, to which he answered, “the pastor.” It was not making sense to deny or believe these allegations, because the "man of God" was the most believed person in the church and on earth. We were told he stands in the place of God. No body believed that he can lie, but here he was, telling lies, and the only person who knew that the "man of God" was telling lies was me. To come out and convince church members that "man of God" is speaking lies was something that I would not even dare start, because I knew no body would want to believe me. Instead I would be manifesting another demon on top of the many demons I was alleged to have. The new demon would be called self-defense. In my dilemma, when I looked at him, I sensed that he had an idea. By then some other two brothers had already joined us. I told him to repeat what he had talked to me in the presence of these other two brothers, to which he said he wanted to protect me that is why he called me out and spoke to me alone.

I told him it's no longer necessary since you said it's rumored around and they could be having that rumor already. Then he repeated with more details and asked again for my answer to these because they did not want to risk being seen with me. Then I said to him that what would you want me to do which could help you to prove these allegations to be true or not.

The head usher without mincing a word, said this is what he was going to do. He was going to write down all these allegations and wait for Sunday service. That he would stand up in the middle of the service, and read them out openly to every body's hearing. He said he would then call upon the pastor to come forward and prove them to the church openly. He concluded by saying that this is my plan of dealing with gossiping in church and I beg you to endorse it if you know that these allegations are not true, but if you know that they are true then we stop here.

I remember telling him that go ahead and do what you think will help you, me and every body else to retain our salvation in these matters.

I had a lot of fear in my heart for so many things. First, I feared to stop this brother from going ahead with this kind of plan because I thought he and others would think these allegations to be true. Secondly, if they went ahead I feared what the outcome was going to be.

I certainly failed to know at that time who was responsible for all these, God or Satan? What was becoming of the church that I had so dearly loved?

I remembered the message one time we got "Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm" What was going to happen? Was it not amounting to touching the anointed of the Lord?

Should not I rather take wrong than causing antagonism in leadership as we had received a message some time back? When I failed to know which is which I resorted to prayer and trusting God for whatever will come next.

Come Sunday, the brother did exactly as he had planed, howbeit a little later than he had planned. Because he wanted to stand up during the time of giving testimonies after praising and worship. But the pastor came forward without allowing any single testimony. So this brother (Head usher) waited till the pastor finished preaching.

It was during the time of collection of offerings that he stood up and took about 15 minutes. It was tense moments for the whole congregation. It was as though the whole church had been taken hostage by the brother. He shouted at the top of his voice. With deep silence in the whole congregation, the brother continued to blast about the gossiping and rumor mongering going on around. While some were wondering (yet some knew) who was responsible for all these, the brother concluded by calling upon the pastor to come forward and put things right because he (pastor) was the one responsible for this gossiping. He also reminded the pastor to come out openly and explain about the wife and children he (the pastor) abandoned somewhere in Kenya and decided to marry another sister in the church. With many other words the brother went and sat down while talking, and even continued talking while seated.

The pastor did not stand up immediately but told his assistant to stand up and say something in closing the service. It was unbelievable to most of the Saints and other elders and maybe even the pastor himself because the brother who stood to speak these things was the closest person to the pastor. When the Assistant pastor stood, he straight a way started engaging in a direct verbal fight with the brother. There was real chaos in the church as these two exchanged words. I never liked it but I had no way of stopping it, until the assistant pastor ordered the head usher to move out. When the brother refused, other ushers were ordered to move him out in whatever style. In a military style they carried him by the shoulders high as he was trying to resist. As he was being carried out he kept on shouting that the pastor must explain the status of his former wife and children, are they widow and orphans or fatherless? He asked. Somehow the service was closed in a mood that had never been there before.

The following Sunday was another historic Sunday in my life. Something was going to happen but no one knew what exactly. Because the pastor believed I was behind all these things. As Saints kept on arriving and taking up their seats the whole place was in a very unusual silence, the church sounded like a courtroom with the judge (Pastor) being awaited. I would like to say that their saints do not respect the pastors of Gospel Assembly Church but they are just feared by the real fear of dread but not of love.

So on this Sunday there was extra fear, no body talked to any body, only ushers moved up and down putting everything in place for the service to start. The pastor came in and the service started, he preached and ended by telling the congregation that he had very important announcements to make, "so I request that nobody should move after the collection of offerings" he said.

He started his announcements by saying he was going to rearrange the church. He did read some names from the band/choir and told them to move from the choir and go down to the congregation (Demotion).

Then he said that brother Nsubuga Charles has been very good right from the beginning till iniquity has been found in him. He said the brother is planting evil and planning with a certain group of brothers that are giving trouble to the work of God to blow up this work. Now here, because he had already heard that people wanted evidence to some of these allegations, he pulled out a letter written from one brother in Nairobi church to another brother in Tororo GAC Church.

In this letter the brother was complaining and accusing Pastor Thomas Oundo of financial, administrational and sexual scandals. (Here I would like to say that he betrayed him self and his fellow ministers by reading such a letter to the congregation, because after the service one brother was heard saying, "but the letter contained some elements of truth")

He said this is a group of brothers and sisters in Nairobi Church that is troubling the church and brother Charles is part of it because he is in good communication with these people.

Secondly he said Charles is a thief. Thirdly Charles has a secret underground arrangement to marry somebody's wife. He said, we even intercepted a letter written from the other brother's wife having all the details and money in dollars to arrange for this marriage (he did not read this letter). He said that Charles also went to his house and insulted his (pastor’s) wife. He spoke many other things and said that basing on those things the church cannot afford to continue having Charles around, from today he is excommunicated from the church.

To me this was like death sentence. Because the Church was not only a place of worship for me, but it had been made to be the only world for me. I new I was now going to die, why? Because we were told that no one ever left the "body" and survived. They used to give us examples of those who left and they were either dead by that time or near to death.

This is something that sometimes gets me bothered when I used to look at these examples because to an extent they were true. Sure there were some people who left the church and started speaking against the church, later on to hear they were either dead or very sick. There was not a single example of one person who left Gospel Assembly Church and lived on with a normal life. Here I knew that I was not going to be an exception. My heart started pumping faster, and there was a shaking in my bowels. Some saints seemed not to have been happy with what had just happened to me, others looked at me with faces of contempt for the first time I started feeling as if I was a real devil.

But again others looked at me with concern and expressed faces of allegiance although they could not dare come out openly and express their allegiance to me. Others were just in wondering spirits as to what was going on, they seemed to be moving in corridors or of decision. Now I already heard that there was going to be Church Council Seating after the service. I requested to appear in that council, like a miracle to my life the request was granted. The chairman was the "man of God". I was asked why I wanted to meet them. I do not remember being organized in my way of answering that question, but I remember telling the council that I was requesting them to allow me plead my case and if possible for the church council to revisit my sentence for my spiritual life.

In this council the pastor and his assistant dominated the talking although there were more council members present. The pastor accused me of a lot of things among them was sabotage of his work through conspiracy with his enemies. I was accused of pride and arrogance. He even reminded me of how he got me when I had just come to church, very poor and almost naked, that I was very ignorant of almost all things in life, but now that I was feeling great and was challenging him. He went on with many other things and concluded that he was feeling guided by God to put me outside for some time till I learn my lessons right.

Here I thought that if I go ahead to plead and defend myself I was simply complicating things. I decided to plead guilty of all the accusations if that could help me secure my pardon and to be allowed to stay in church regardless of whether I had any leadership position or not. I promised to be this and that good when I am restored back to church, when I finished speaking the "man of God" was to say the last word before closing the council meeting. There I do not remember the many other words he used apart from those last words "My word is final Charles, you're excommunicated from church".

I had been part of the church council before, and I do not remember having had any single council meeting that took us beyond 6.00 p.m., but this time it was close to 9.00 p.m. There was nothing like any light, somebody could mistake us for a group of murderers planning on an evil move. The darkness that was surrounding was not at any way to be compared with the darkness in my soul, spirit and heart at that moment. I was shattered spiritually, dashed against the well with the merciless man of God of our day.

With tears rolling on my cheeks I moved out slowly in the dark to find my way to my rented room. The following Sunday I tried to go to one of these Pentecostal churches called Miracle Centre Church. With a spiritual and mental battle between me and those Christians, within me I could only afford to go a quarter way of their service and I left. That was my first time ever since I joined GAC to spend a Sunday service outside GAC.

For me to be outside GAC for 7 days was such a long time for me, now if the man of God had put me out for "some time", as he said when he was excommunicating me, I thought seven days outside GAC and still alive was just enough to me to be that "some time". I planned to go back to the pastor and tell him that one-week can also be enough "sometime". I moved and got two elders of the church who I requested to go and plead for me before the pastor. Three days later they told me I might need to go myself to the pastor and talk to him while he was alone. I went to the pastor's house from where I got to learn that the church was already divided over my issue and he told me that it looked like I was out to spoil his work, which he had been building for a long time. He told me that whatever I was doing I was going to see the fire of my life and that I was digging my grave deeper. However much I tried to explain my case that I had gone there just to plead for my restoration, he refused and repeated that his word was final. He could not reverse like a dog to its vomits.

This is when I got to know that I was wasting my time with GAC. Suddenly like half mad and half sober person I raised my head and looked straight into his (pastor's) face and said some things among them is that it seems like you want me to choose from these three steps:

1. You want me to go back to that past sinful, hopeless, wicked life the church got me from.

2. You want me to go and join with these other Pentecostal Churches around yet you have never had any kind work for them as per the doctrine of the church.

3. You want me to start up what you may never regard as a church.

This is what I am thinking of doing - for the good of my spiritual life I will take up the third step. I do not care what you are going to call it. Certainly it will be something else and let me be prepared for what will come ahead of me. After saying these words I stood up and said I wish you best and you may wish me anything.

The following Sunday I visited one brother called Fred Mukasa who had also been thrown out of the church with me as he was accused of standing for my side. We had a service of two people in his room. Little did we know that there was still a lot of fire still going on in the GAC. While we were still thinking of the next move, one sister knocked at our door and entered, she gave us news that she had also been thrown out and that the whole congregation was still in confusion. Some saints were indicating that they were not happy with the steps taken against us and others were even threatening to help the pastor by excommunicating themselves before he does. While she was still talking we were joined by another two brothers who were not excommunicated but just wanted to know where we were. So we continued talking and the topic was GAC current affairs.

It was not easy to come out with a suggestion of either starting up a fellowship or joining any other churches around. But as the week rolled I took courage and moved that suggestion of starting up a fellowship and Mukasa liked the idea. We contacted the headmaster of Main Street Primary School to allow us have fellowship meetings in his school and he accepted. We knew if we did this we would be saving some souls that were likely to get lost due to some chaos in the GAC.

In our first service we were five and our first verse was:

These two scriptures gave us a very good spiritual and conscious power to start off. We started regarding GAC as the big and main sanctuary. But the Lord had said that even those that had been cast out, the lord were to become a little sanctuary over them. So we regarded our selves to be that church in Babylon, and there was no doubt the Lord had become a little sanctuary over us. Soon many in GAC got to know that we had started up a fellowship nearby. Within about two months GAC was less than half of its congregation. But practically down at our new fellowship we had received about only 15, the rest we had not yet known where they were. I had already chosen a name for our church and that is Gospel of Peace Church and later on it was changed to Gospel of Peace Ministries and we registered it with the Government of Uganda. We got one elder from GAC Nairobi (Kenya) who came and joined us.

In one of those days the pastor of GAC came to my house where I was staying, this is after he had realized that we had started up and many saints had joined us down to our fellowship, and I think he was expecting more to move. He said he had just come to visit me and to see how I was fairing. He also said he wanted to know more about the church, he hears, we had started. I told him that I was surprised to hear him calling it a church because for us we were even not sure unless somebody tells us that it is a church.

It is more of a fellowship to us than church (I said those words sarcastically. I told him we were
excommunicated from the church and we were now looking for a way to keep our spiritual life on course. He said he would have accepted it if it was only the excommunicated in that so called fellowship, but he had all evidence that some church members who were not excommunicated were with us. Yet we knew the teaching of the bible (meaning there must be one church in a city). He said this was causing rebellion, which can go with a punishment from God. I left him to talk more because it would give me an opportunity to learn more. He concluded by saying that even when he excommunicated he was simply trying to discipline me like any father would discipline his child. He recalled some verses in the bible in regard to this and winded up by calling me back to church and also instructed me to tell those who had followed me to go back to church.

I told him that I was going to take his request to the church council and see what next move to take. This is when he asked me which council and I said Gospel of Peace Ministries council. For the first time I think it dawned on him that I am no longer the other Charles he knew some time back. In my house I had about 300 tapes of Goodwin's messages and he asked for all of them and any other church property I had around. I handed over these tapes and other church properties I had. When I did that I thought I was now delivered from the system. It's true I had come out of the system, but the system was still to stay within me for other more than ten years.

As I conclude this part of my story I would like to call upon all those former GAC members to come out wherever you are and stand to believe that you were delivered from the grip of a spiritual mental, social, physical and economical torturing organization. I call upon these that are also still being held captive in GAC and also in any other similar organization that we are meant to believe in Jesus for our salvation not man. I REMEMBER WE USED TO CALL MAN OF GOD OUR SAVIOR.

Certainly I cannot undermine the roll that man plays in our salvation. But the role of man in man's salvation is very important but of small percentage and that is of preaching the gospel and not enforcing the gospel. Noah was a preacher of righteousness but not an enforcer of righteousness. I would like some body to believe that it's not only GAC and other organizations that have tried to pocket, monopolize God. They are not the first ones to preach and enforce the gospel. Even in the bible we see men of God who tried to pocket and monopolize God. Take an example of Elijah when he was telling God that ......... I a lone am left; and they are seeking to take my life! But God told him that there were more seven thousand Elijah did not know about. So Elijah's preaching of one man of God in a city did not go very far.

Again we see Peter John and James who preached and also wanted to enforce the gospel by either stopping those that were not in their group or burning up those who did not believe their gospel. In both cases Jesus rebuked and corrected their ways of handling the gospel. These and others were men of God, the only difference is that the men of God we see in the bible were more humble and willing to change whenever they realized that they were following a wrong way of handling God's people and the gospel, which is not so with the men of God of our day.

I don't so much blame the late apostle Goodwin for having uttered false prophecies, but I blame him for not being humble and flexible enough to repent and change. As much as he believed that he was man of God, he should have realized and believe that he was not the first man of God to have uttered prophecies that were not fulfilled.

Jonah was a man of God sent by God to give prophecy over Nineveh ...... so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Lord ....... then he cried out and said "yet forty days and Nineveh shall be over thrown". I think Goodwin and all other Ministers of God should have known that Nineveh lived beyond those prophetic forty days of doom. I also remember that Apostle Paul one time uttered a prophetic utterance when he said ..... "we shall not all sleep (die) .... and the dead will be raised ..... and we shall be changed" .... I Cor.15:51-52. Again he said in I Thess 4:15-17. "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are a live and remain until the coming of the Lord..... Then we who are a live and remain shall be caught up together .... to meet the lord in the air" ....

I would like to think that Paul had a very strong belief that Jesus was coming back in his (Paul) life-span. He is the very one who said in Romans that the night is far spent and the day break is about, implying that they had lived and waited the biggest part of their waiting for Jesus to return. I don't think that in his mind he had another one thousand nine hundred years to our time before Jesus comes back. Certainly I believe that Paul was a man of God. But the difference of Paul and the men of God today is that Paul was quick to humble himself and corrected his prophetic utterances, as we see it in II Thes. 2:1-3.

That is why I even call upon the ministers in GAC who are calling themselves men of God, to look at, and take the examples of men of God in the bible, to be humble and repent and change. All God's people should know that repentance is not an optional but a necessity. Repentance makes one more of a man of God and more of a child of God. Repentance to God where we have sinned against God, and repentance to one another where we have sinned against one another or hurt one another. Certainly we are not Angels (even some Angels onetime failed), even God knows we're not.

We cannot fail to have failures here or there. What make a difference are one's attitude, response and reaction towards different situations. I would want to avoid myself acting out a preacher to these GAC and other Ministers. Why should I preach to them that the link between Man and God is repentance through Jesus Christ?

Also the great linking words between man to man are excuse me, sorry, forgive me and thank you. Anybody, be it the man of God, Christians or any other person who does not have those seemingly simple but powerful words, then he / she does not have any link neither to God nor to Man. We need to be flexible enough into repentance to be strong in our salvation. The flexibility of the chain is the strength thereof.

Speaking The Truth In Love Part I: By Nsubuga Charles

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