Clarence E. McClendon 5

I think that we all need to understand that this is a man. He has the word of God in his mouth. The problem with the church today is that we are soooo close to the world that we have fairy tale expectations for the preachers that we see. It's amazing; the people who have these terrible comments to say about this man of God must not read their Bible. Noah was a drunk. Twice, Abraham (Abram) lied and told people that Sarah (Sari) was not his wife but his sister. His son, Isaac, did the same thing. Jacob deceived his own father to steal the blessing from his brother. David took another man's wife and had her husband killed mafia style. And he was a man considered after God's own heart. And there are many more historical accounts of individuals who would seemingly be disqualified from the standards and expectations of our holier than thou society. When you read the story in Epistle of Hebrews, the violations that they committed (where we would have written them off) are not even mentioned. This shows us that God has made that part of your story null and void. Now there are consequences to the decisions that he has made, and we must allow him and his family to privately deal with those choices. This is our problem. We are so busy rating people that we do not grasp the opportunity for us to grow and develop our relationship with God. Who is rating you? Who is rating me? We must consider taking that which has been given to us by God and being sure that we double it. This is the only way that we get a good rating from God. Well done thy Good and faithful servant. Those who do not produce are placed in outer darkness where there is not revelation of who God is (Matt 25). Again, He is a man. Not perfect, but heading toward perfection in Christ. The Bible declares, "...He who begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6). I would encourage you to see the performance of God in Bishop McClendon's life. It is God who is performing and will continue to perform until Christ be fully-formed in him.