Podcast 14—FAST Day 39/40
Fearing the Lord
Learn from the Ghosts of Corruption
Live in the Light of Integrity
Love Truth, Peace, People
Live in the Light of Integrity
Love Truth, Peace, People
Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity,
and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.
For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth.
and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.
For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth.
Opening
Welcome to Into Integrity.
This is Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell.
Thanks for joining us as we follow Jesus, living integrity and confronting corruption.
This is Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell.
Thanks for joining us as we follow Jesus, living integrity and confronting corruption.
Today is day 39 of the 40 day Into Integrity FAST. And it is the 19th day of Kelly’s combined food-fast and hunger strike. This is our seventh and closing podcast-blogpost for Part Two of the FAST.
Our theme today is Fearing the Lord: Learn from the Ghosts of
Corruption—Live in the Light of Integrity—Love Truth, Peace, and People. His theme also serves to summarize the
messages from all seven podcasts-blogposts.
We share three powerful exhortations that can inform our
efforts to stand in solidarity; to promote god practice and integrity; and to
bring healing to the international Church Mission Community and to the specific
organizations, leaders, and people affected by the international NCI
fraud.
--Exhortation 1. Learn from the Ghosts of Corruption. An excerpt from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas, in which Scrooge is solemnly warned by Marley’s ghost. Repent while you have time. You still have a chance to influence human matters for good.
--Exhortation 2. Live in the Light of Integrity. The conclusion from Rand Guebert’s Professional Review about the NCI fraud, organizations/networks, and the overlapping wrongful dismissals. It is not too late to act with integrity and to seek redress both publicly and privately.
--Exhortation 3. Love Truth, Peace, and People. Three of the core Scriptures that have guided us over the past 12 years in confronting corruption and living in integrity, from Jesus the Lord and Zechariah the prophet. Fear God. Seek truth not popularity. And love truth, peace, and people.
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A reminder of the purpose of
the Into Integrity FAST. It is to call attention to--and confront--the lack of
disclosures by specific organizations, leaders, people affected by the
international Nordic Capital Investment KB fraud (NCI) as well as the related
dismissals that we have experienced. This is a combined food FAst for
genuine contrition and a hunger STrike for resolute action by specific people and
organizations primarily within the Church Mission Community (CMC).
A
reminder also that the Into Integrity FAST is done in the spirit of the solemn,
national fast for repentance and healing, called by the Prophet Joel:
Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. (Joel 1:14)“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:12-13)
You can access this podcast along with related resources and links, on the Into Integrityweblog.
Join together in solidarity.
Put on the full armor of God.
Fear God. Confront corruption.
Love truth, peace, and people.
Take a stand, speak up, and live in integrity.
Put on the full armor of God.
Fear God. Confront corruption.
Love truth, peace, and people.
Take a stand, speak up, and live in integrity.
“...you have
yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate.”
Illustration by
John Leach, A Christmas Carol,
1843, original edition
1. Learning from the Ghosts of Corruption.
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
“Hear me!” cried
the Ghost. “My time is nearly gone.”….“I am here to-night to warn you, that
you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate”…. “You will be
haunted,” resumed the Ghost, “by Three Spirits.”….The apparition walked
backward from him; and at every step it took, the window raised itself a
little, so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open. It beckoned
Scrooge to approach, which he did. When they were within two paces of each
other, Marley’s Ghost held up its hand, warning him to come no nearer.
Scrooge stopped. Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear: for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night. Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked out.
The air was filled
with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as
they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they
might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had
been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar
with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached
to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman
with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them
all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and
had lost the power forever. Stave One, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, December 1843
“The air was filled with phantoms, wandering...restless...moaning...”
Illustration by Arthur Rackham, A Christmas Carol, 1915 edition
Illustration by Arthur Rackham, A Christmas Carol, 1915 edition
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2. Living in the Light of Integrity.
Professional Review, Rand Guebert
.
Professional Review, Rand Guebert
.
"This review [investigates]
several overlapping matters that have affected the mission, member care, and
church community...[and] aspires to promote transparency, accountability, good
practice, and healthy relationships." (Proposal, p.
112) “[It] has been organized to draw together the various events that
have led to the dismissal of Drs. Kelly and Michele O’Donnell from YWAM [and
other organizations/networks] and to the potential loss of millions of dollars
by investors in Nordic Capital Investments (NCI) and Stichting Dutch Investments
(SDI). Many of these events are related and overlap, and this review
attempts to place them in context." (page 1). [The
purpose is to] review and learn from what happened, support good practice, and restore
relationships." (p. 113)
"YWAM and other
groups are only being challenged now because of the integrity and perseverance
of the O’Donnells and those who have stood by them in these last difficult
years. The need for accountability and restitution in varying degrees
clearly lies with [Youth
With A Mission, Le Rucher Ministries, World Evangelical Alliance-Mission Commission, Crossroads Church etc.]. In authoritarian settings nearly
everyone is too vulnerable to stand up to the power of the leaders—staff have
limited rights and limited resources on which to rely. The time has come
for the truth to be known and justice to prevail, without which there can be no
proper basis for organizational health and reconciliation. For
everyone involved it is not too late to act with integrity and seek redress,
both publicly and privately." (concluding paragraph of the Integrated
Executive Summary
----------------------------------------
Loving Truth, Peace, and People.
New and Old Testaments, Jesus and Zechariah
.
New and Old Testaments, Jesus and Zechariah
.
"Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to
be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don’t
hesitate to go public now. Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of
bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save
your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands." Matthew 10: 26-28, The Message.
“There’s trouble
ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them,
doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how
many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true,
not popular…. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are,
not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true
words and deeds.” Luke 6: 26, 45, The Message
“These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to
each other and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot
evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all
this,” declares the Lord…Therefore love truth and peace.” Zechariah 8:16,19
I note here that a solemn, yet joyful consequence, from the concluding verses in Zechariah 8 is this: when we resolutely seek to get our relationships right, at all levels, permeated by truth and peace, people from every nation, ethne, and language will be blessed also, and they will come to seek the Lord and the favor of the LORD.
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I note here that a solemn, yet joyful consequence, from the concluding verses in Zechariah 8 is this: when we resolutely seek to get our relationships right, at all levels, permeated by truth and peace, people from every nation, ethne, and language will be blessed also, and they will come to seek the Lord and the favor of the LORD.
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Closing
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Into Integrity. Our summary theme is Fearing the Lord: Learn from the Ghosts of Corruption—Live in the
Light of Integrity—Love Truth, Peace, and People.
You can access a transcript of this podcast along
with related resources and links, on the Into Integrity weblog. We invite you to also review the 15 special blog entries on Loving
Truth and Peace which you can find on our CORE Member Care
weblog.
We encourage you to carefully look over the
materials featured in this podcast-posting as well as in all seven
podcasts-postings during Part Two of the Into Integrity FAST (6-26 December). There
is much to learn from the lingering ghosts of corruption that continue to haunt
and wreak havoc via the lack of disclosures and via
the wrongful dismissals addressed in these podcasts-blogposts.
And
for those of you who have wrongfully discredited and dismissed us, we want to
clearly say this to you: We forgive you. And we ask you to reconsider what you
have done. Acknowledge. Apologize. Amend.
It
is crucial for people—and people just like you--to arise in solidarity and call
for and pray for repentance and healing in the international Church Mission
Community. Bring the ghosts of the NCI fraud and the related dismissals into
the full light. And join in the call for the
assistance and integrity of specific organizations, leaders, and people
affected by the international NCI fraud: verifiably disclose via internal
and independent reviews and do what is “good, right, and true before the Lord your
God" (2
Chronicles 31:20).
So in summary:
So in summary:
Join together in solidarity.
Put on the full armor of God.
Fear God. Confront corruption.
Love truth, peace, and people.
------------------------------------
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Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity,
and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.
For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth.
and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.
For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth.
We wish you all a very good new year for 2020.
May it be filled with:
May it be filled with:
Honoring the Father of Lights
Listening to the Spirit of Truth
Listening to the Spirit of Truth
Followiing the Prince of Peace
ad majorem Dei gloriam—for God’s greater glory.
Take a stand, speak up, and live in integrity.
And spread the word.
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