A ministry mentor, John MacArthur, has said to me on numerous occasions that “when a man falls, he doesn’t fall far.” In other words, a serious breach of leadership integrity does not occur in a vacuum. Men who have, by the grace of God, forged a pattern of moral veracity are not suddenly seduced by a life of lies and hypocrisy. Betrayal of this sort slowly percolates out of the heart over time with a host of smaller, virtually undetected compromises. When an integrity scandal breaks, the fall of that leader is more like a short hop!
Jerry Wragg

COLLECT

O Lord God, who didst at first deliver Thy
commandments from the mount which burned
with fire, amid blackness, and darkness, and
tempest, at which terrible sight even Moses
said, I exceedingly fear and quake: we
thank Thee that this same law is now pub-
lished unto us from Mount Zion, through the
Mediator of a new and better covenant; and
we humbly beseech Thee to put these words
into our minds, and write them in our hearts,
that we may delight in Thy law after the
inward man, and serve Thee in newness of
spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
with Thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and
reigneth, ever one God, world without end.
Amen.

PART VIII.