Reflections: Riva Tims "When It All Falls Apart" & "When It All Comes Together"

This is an encouraging woman and her courage will never be forgotten. The Dunamis Word continues to pray for her, her children and their continued healing and wellbeing. In this life, we can only guess what we will ever experience. How we respond makes all the difference. 

Pastors PLEASE know that ministry IS family, not that there is ministry and then family...you are out of order. Ministry IS being a a game that the kids participate in, or simply sitting in front of a TV on a Friday night, talking with and enjoying one another's company...THAT is ministry!

"When It All Falls Apart"

"When It All Comes Together"

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New Destiny...Same Ole Sins

Bishop Dr. I V Hilliard has announced his resignation from the Board of Bishops that were to help secure the transition of leadership for New Destiny Christian Center, the church which Pastor Zachery Tims pastored. In a video announcement he stated the following among other things:

“Now after being involved for sometime in the process, I have decided to resign my position in this bishop’s council. Now my commitment to integrity will not allow me to support something that I believe is deceptive and that compromises previously agreed upon procedures and protocol.”

He also stated this by twitter:

“Who stands by and watches a theft take place and does not sound the alarm? Only the irresponsible and the uncaring..NDCC members we care...” 

Dr. Hilliard's video announcement can be found HERE.

Now, I ask: Can a devil be trusted to follow any agreement? The obvious answer is no. How did Dr. Hilliard feel that the unrepentant devil of New Destiny Christian Center (NDCC) representative leadership was going to honor any agreements or even desire a reversion to spiritual renewal? Keep reading, my statement will become very clear. 

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Zachery Tims, New York & A Good Name

Prov. 22:1 ~ "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold."

The public may never know what caused the death of Pastor Zachery Tims, what the substance was in his pocket or if the "real" Tims stood up before his death. According to reports over the last couple of weeks, Mr. Tims mother has sued  to withhold information from public records. 

While we certainly understand the love of a mother toward her son and the preservation of his memory toward the public and for the benefit of his children; those that followed and supported his ministry deserve to be confronted with the truth. After all, many people contributed to this man's ministry and bought his material with their hard earned money. Many viewed him regularly on TV, and had confidence in his insights.  Zachery appeared in multiple conferences and collected hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in part based on his testimony, portrayed lifestyle and statements of public encouragement. He didn't do this alone. He did this with friends and other mega star Christian ministers some of which have already said that they knew Zachery had problems and certain issues.

"I thought I was the only one who know how unhappy Zach was, how broken he was, how afraid he was if anybody was to see any flaw in him. He tried hard to heal himself, to fix himself,"~ Bishop T. D. Jakes

Mr. Tims family weren't sole contributors toward his perceived success or the lifestyle that he managed to live as one in the service of the Lord. Just as the family

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Did The Real Tims Stand Up Before His Death?

Bishop T. D. Jakes

Over the weeks since the death of Dr. Zachery Tims, one thing has become crystal clear, Zachery Tims had a historic struggle with addiction in the form of drugs, sexuality and lifestyle. He also a current and very real struggle that ultimately effected not only his life, but also his ministry. What is also clear is that many of not most of his most close associates did not provide an intervention or review of the most important issues, bringing their friend to accountability.

"I don't know what happened in that room in New York,...but I can only hope that as Zach was dying, Dr. Tims stood up." ~ Bishop T. D. Jakes

Please be clear, noone can make an individual do anything right or wrong. Individuals have an opportunity to choose their own path by which they live and make decisions. Ultimately, Zachery chose his own path and paid the price that comes along with it. I'm not surprised that individuals can hold secrets and those secrets can get by even the most close friends and associates. However, I am very surprised when I hear that individuals knew about the secrets well before the secret was exposed to the general public. In those cases, I wonder what did the individuals that knew the "secret" do, if anything, to eliminate the secret or the problems at hand? 

With all of that said, aside from the "powdery white substance" found in his pocket, nothing has arisen the speculations more than the commentary of Tims' eulogist, Bishop T. D. Jakes.  Jakes Not only describes two persons, a "Dr. Tims" and a "Zach",  but he also clearly admits that he knew Tims had a problem. During the course of his admission he opens up that it (the problem) was a very large and serious one:

"I thought I was the only one who know how unhappy Zach was, how broken he was, how afraid he was if anybody was to see any flaw in him. He tried hard to heal himself, to fix himself," ~ Bishop T. D. Jakes

Not only did Jakes see two different people or persons within this man, it would seem that he also admitted that Zachery's problems were well known to himself, but were hidden, as far as he knew, from others. Jakes described the man as not simply having a problem, but a man "broken" and one that tried to "hide" as well as "heal" himself.  What Jakes describes are the signs, acts and behaviors of a person suffering from addiction and possible mental illness. 

What I am confident of from Jakes description is that a stage of addiction is shame and covering up the shame of addiction provides an intimate personal reflection. From one who is addicted, it is usually described in the following manner:

"They won't like me if they really knew me" or "I must keep this to myself, because if someone else knows, they will not like me"

Therefore the addict makes a deliberate attempt to hide himself and disassociate himself from his behavior in

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Zachery Tims..."W" Can Mean Many Things

Dead at age 42, Zachery Tims Jr. was one of the modern churches most prolific personalities. He wrote a book (selling roughly 23,000 copies) which was geared toward teaching people how to be spiritually free and wealthy.  He himself was financially well off. In fact according to divorce papers  filed by ex-wife Riva Tims, Zachery once earned about $33,400 a month in 2009, owned a $2.2 million Windermere home, spent $1,500 a month on clothing, had $437,300 in the bank, and drove both a 2004 Hummer and a 2008 BMW.  He was gracious enough to support the church with a $3,500 a month tithe too.

He was and international minister and regular guest host on TBN sharing his vision of God to potentially over 100 Million homes worldwide almost daily. He was the founder and pastor of the 8,000 member New Destiny Christian Center church in Apopka, Fl. that engaged regularly in such ministries as

"food, clothing, personal toiletries, haircuts, medical screening, and a job fair, and toys for children at Christmas,"

Not to mention a full schedule of services designed to mesmerize and inspire.

Without a doubt, there were and will continue to be many good things that will be said about Pastor Tims. There was so much ministry to yet be accomplished and so much life yet to live. On the surface the horizon seemed bright and the potential was yet undiscovered. On the surface, at least for many.

The Last Testimony

In life we write our own eulogy. TO deny and turn our heads to certain aspects of our being and life's decisions is to deny the person and individual that we choose to be and reconstruct a person that suits one own selfish needs. It is amazing that this is the plight and direction of the Christian community and especially its leaders. For example, look at Creflo Dollar stating that Eddie Long was his "friend" and that friendship was greater than the "wreck" he had. Remember that "wreck" that cost $15 to $25 Million  to settle that had over 400 counts against Long and his assorted ministries??? "Friend". Then we remember Paula White stating that she and Randy were simply at an impasse and ready for a new "season" which included walking away from their marriage announcing this at a weekly bible study as if, it was a nothing to worry about...Then there was the infamous Swilley who simply stated that he had become a homosexual while pastoring and that the church was better because of it.

Well the Christian leaders have shown up again to make lemonade out of what is otherwise a big fat sour lemon. The death of a pastor who left his wife and 4 kids (one with Cerebral Palsy) to pursue sex with a stripper (possibly two) and who was found dead in a hotel with a "powdery substance" in his pant pocket last Friday August 12th morning.

Quite naturally this leads to a few questions:

"W" Could Mean, "What" Went WRONG?

What went wrong? Certainly God has all power in his hands and nothing lasts forever...not even sin!

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