Perry F Stone - The Judas Goat

PERRY STONE

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T HE J UDAS G OAT by Perry Stone
Published by Charisma House
Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are from the Amplified Bible. Old Testament copyright 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright 1954, 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Copyright 2013 by Perry Stone
All rights reserved

Cover design by Justin Evans
Design Director: Bill Johnson

Visit the authors website at www.voe.org .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Stone, Perry F.

The Judas goat : how to deal with false friendships, betrayals, and the temptation not to forgive / Perry Stone.

pages cm

Summary: "Betrayal by enemies is expected, but when it comes from family and friends, it can be devastating. In this book Perry Stone makes the correlation between the Judas goat (a goat who is trained to work in slaughterhouses, leading sheep to their death) and the people in our lives who betray us, demonstrating the biblical way to overcome these betrayals and find the strength to forgive"-- Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-62136-521-1 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-62136-522-8 (ebook)

1. Forgiveness--Religious aspects--Christianity. 2. Interpersonal relations--Religious aspects--Christianity. 3. Judas goats--Religious aspects--Christianity. I. Title.

BV4647.F55S75 2013

248.8'6--dc23

2013022551

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

I wish to dedicate this book to the greatest

woman I have ever known, my lovely

companion, Pam. Many people who do not

know her background are unaware of the

difficult circumstances she encountered as a

young teenager, including the divorce of her

parents and how a church family took her and

her two sisters into their home to live, treating

them as their own daughters. Her biological

father neither attended her wedding nor

walked her down the aisle, yet she has never

allowed her past circumstances to determine

her future. Since the age of seventeen she

has matured into a strong woman of faith

and is truly my Proverbs 31 womanI love

her dearly. By her example she has taught

others to move on past hurts, betrayals, and

disappointments and to live in righteousness

and peacea peace that no man or woman can

take from you. She is deserving of great honor

as a great woman of God for this generation.

Love you always, Pam,

Perry

Contents

I NEVER WILL FORGET a very sad phone call in February of 1990. Our son was about two months old, and my wife, Pam, and I were staying in the pastors home while conducting an annual revival in Deland, Florida. The voice on the other end of the phone informed us of a tragedy in Alabama. We learned that Pams closest friend, a precious Italian girl in her early twenties named Tracy, had been instantly killed in a car wreck. To say we were stunned and in total shock is an understatement. We immediately called the family for details, left the revival, and made plans to attend the home-going ceremony near Sumiton, Alabama. Losing your best friend at such an early age was not ever supposed to occur. Tracy had already told Pam she was moving to Cleveland to be close to her and to be in Jonathans life as his nanny. While Pam had numerous female friends from Alabama, weeks after the funeral I could see the friendship void created by Tracys death. My wife is much more relationship driven than me, and I began praying for the Lord to send someone to become as close a friend as Tracy had been to Pam.

As time passed, another young woman moved to town who was well received as a friend by Pam and by my little son, Jonathan. For several months things were going well, and I began to be grateful that finally Pam had a female friend she could hang with, share her burdens with, and just chill out with at times. However, as months passed, the experience with this person proved every person must be cautious as to whom you allow into the inner circle of your friendships. As humans, we often fill our friendship voids by inviting a first-chair person to sit in our third chair . (See chapter 4, Who Is Sitting in Your Third Chair?, for detailed understanding.)

The friendship abruptly ended in what I term as a betrayal. Personally I can handle an individual turning against me and I can move on, as I have dealt with negative attitudes and opinions since I was eighteen years of age, but in this case I was very upset that my sweet wife was emotionally hurt by words and actions. (I wont go into detail beyond this point.) For months following, I saw Pam put up a trust barrier. She remained a loving wife and mother, but with the exception of a few staff persons, she did not seek out new friendships. Time passed, and today she has long been removed from any hurt, has erased all possible offense, and has moved forward to become a spiritual mother to a generation of youth. Today she has more true friends than she can keep up with. She has learned, Forgive and go on.

I identify the act of a person betraying another with what I call the Judas goat . When I say the phrase, He (or she) is a Judas goat, is there a person or persons you know who immediately enter your mind? Christians know from the New Testament that Judas was an inner-circle-apostle-turned-traitor who betrayed Christ to the Jewish religious leaders. So, who in the church has hurt you recently?

As a fourth-generation minister, I believe we could label various members in most churches as the odd flock . The church is called the flock of God (1 Pet. 5:23), with sheep being a metaphor for the members and a shepherd the metaphor for pastors (John 10:1114). We are an odd flock , consisting of sheep, goats, a few barking dogs, and occasional stray pigs. Using the animal metaphor, sheep are believers who faithfully follow the shepherd and enjoy grouping in flocks with other sheep, grazing the green pastures, and drinking from the living water of the Holy Spirit (John 4:10). The goats are also a part of any flock grazers and are often seen in Israel intermingling in the same green grass with the sheep. However, because goats and sheep have different personalities, goats often graze among their own groups, as goats tend to be moody . On the more negative side, a dog is considered a backslider whose actions of turning away from Christ are as a metaphor of a dog returning to his own vomit (2 Pet. 2:22). In the New Testament a swine is a person who is more of a spiritual apostate. We read where Christ instructed: