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Frankly, I never did much like the style and content of the programmes, and some of the preachers were, well, driven by a suspect theology, but that’s only my view. I also hated the fact that a lot of the emphasis at times was on fundraising, with some of the ‘performers’ promising miracles for money. The frequent theme was, ‘Your generous gift helps us take the gospel to the nations! Please sow a generous seed-gift into the fertile soil of this ministry today - donate now!’ I found that nauseating.

Having said that there is no doubt that much good work has been done across the world by the preaching of God’s word, but let’s not forget that ‘God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise’ - that should keep us all humble!

I met Rory and Wendy on a number of occasions, I liked them both, they seemed good genuine people. Hard working, maybe too hard working, for now that their marriage of 27 years is in ruins, sad as it is, perhaps it was predictable.

One of Rory’s colleagues recently said, ‘A moral failure was almost inevitable, for Rory had been carrying the entire financial burden of the operation alone for 20 years.’ Therein might I suggest lies the first lesson we can learn from this heartbreaking event. If, as it is often said, this is God’s work, why was Rory carrying the burden? Didn’t Jesus say, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’

Rory always struck me as one who had time for people. Wendy, she was quite different; driven,busy, not as approachable, but that said, she was happy to contribute a chapter to a book I published a few years ago; ‘The Jesus I Know.’ And it was a wonderful addition.

But I think the most salutary warning that we all should bear in mind is the comment I heard Wendy make several times in her recent broadcasts. ‘This woman (with whom Rory is currently living) said she’d heard an audible voice from God telling her that Rory was the man of her life.’

She went on to say, ‘The devil got in very, very easily.’ Allow me to elaborate. I frequently visit a young man in Maghaberry Prison. The first time I did it was embarrassing for him for I had known the lad for more than a decade, and he began what turned out to be a difficult conversation by saying, ‘Dark forces made me do it.’

I quickly reminded him that he had made choices and if he persisted with his ‘blame game’ then he could never learn vital lessons that could be life-changing for him. Rehabilitation won’t happen if we fail to acknowledge when we do wrong, if we refuse to acknowledge that when we are faced with temptation we can choose to say yes, or we can choose to say no. But much more importantly, particularly in my young friend’s case, he might never know the warmth of Father’s arms around him in tender love and forgiveness, even behind his prison walls. Not that God won’t forgive him, for didn’t Paul tell the church in Colosse, ‘He purchased our freedom and forgave our sins’ - past tense! No, he is forgiven, but he risks never knowing it.