Pastor..

Pastor… A job ? A gift? ….

Sometimes both? Sometimes not?

The word pastor was not in the vocabulary of my particular religious heritage. We had ‘preachers’. Sometimes the preacher was also an ‘elder’. The elders made the decisions for the congregation at that place. Other religious groups allow each person who has their name written on the document of the church roll to have a ‘vote’. Everybody has an official say-so.

I was surprised this morning to find that word only used nine times in the KJV. Eight of those times is in the book of Jeremiah. One time, it is used in Ephesians 4:11 “ And he gave some, apostles, and some, prophets: and some, evangelists: and some, pastors and teachers.”

“He gave…” Sounds like a gift to me. And surely there must be a difference in a pastor, a teacher, and an evangelist…else they wouldn’t all be listed. ??

The following verse states a purpose.. “ for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ.” (Eph. 4:12)

I looked into the word ‘shepherd’… (Read this with a little humor please….) “The hired hand is not the shepherd….” John 10:12

I’ve been pastored, I’ve been taught, and I’ve been preached to. In my opinion, there is a huge difference. Sometimes it was by the hired hand…often not.

I realize I have some radical views sometimes…especially when it comes to organized religion. I heard it said once that it was possible to organize the organism right out of the church.

The Body of Christ is alive. But it is often not well. I fear we have ‘paid’ someone to do so many things for so long that we’ve organized a monster that is often hard to feed.

Because of my religious past, I rely very little on preachers or pastors. They are just as absolutely human as I am, perhaps more educated or more experienced, but they have no more access to God than I do. Jesus intercedes for them just like He does for me.

When they are exercising a God-given gift appropriately, I have been blessed, nurtured, admonished, and encouraged. When they were exercising the description of the job, I’ve been hurt, shamed, angered, and humiliated.
That’s my baggage. I am sure you have your own…and we probably both need to unpack it, take it all out, look it over good, and ask the Lord to give it a good scrubbing.


“Whiter than snow…” (Ps. 51:7)

Fear...

Fear… It appears 400 times in the King James Translation, 258 times in the New International Version…

We are told to fear God, yet time and time again scripture says ‘fear not..’.

So which is it?

I struggled with the issue of fear for a very long time. Still I can’t wrap my mind completely around the concept at times. But we have a Helper Who aids our understanding.

“..if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure…THEN you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God..” (emphasis mine, Proverbs 2:1-5)

Understanding fear is possible. Scripture has lots to say about it. What it is, what it is not.

It is ‘ to hate evil, pride arrogance, and the evil ways..’ (Prov. 8:13)
It is ‘a fountain of life’. (Prov. 14:27)
It is ‘…required of thee…to fear the Lord and walk in all His ways..’ (Deut. 10:12)
Many many other times scripture tells us about ‘fear’.

The Hebrew word ‘yare’ is a verb and is translated some 330 times as ‘fear’. But it’s meaning can be both being afaid, or being reverent and respectful. There is a huge difference in the two.

As I look for answers and understanding, I take great comfort in these words…

“..Fear not…for I know that you seek Jesus…” (Mat.28:5)
“..God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid...” (Isa.12:2)
“In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid..” (Ps. 56:11)

Hallelujah

Nots...

Nots…. Or knots. Either, or both?

I remember a particular sermon from years ago. The preacher was one of those hell fire and brimstone kinda guys. He’d often turn absolutely red in the face standing in the pulpit, delivering his message to us.

This sermon was entitled “The Nots In The Devil‘s Tale”. It was all about how putting the little three letter word ‘not’ into a sentence was a way the devil worked his treachery.

There must have been some truth to the sermon, the sermon title stuck with me all these years. Certainly it made an impact…truth always does. Unfortunately, lies can as well.

I don’t remember what any of the ‘nots’ were. But I can think of some now..
The first was in the Garden. God had said not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or they would die. Satan added a not. “..ye shall not surely die’. (Gen.3:4)

One Knot in his tail…lots of knots in all human life thereafter.

I also think of Jesus’ words in John 14:6. “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.” The enemy would have us believe that Jesus is not the only way. That ‘not’ could bring eternal separation from God. Jesus IS the only way. The devil’s ‘not’ doesn’t change truth.

Jesus also said “I am the Light of the world.” (John 8:12) The devil says ‘not’…he lies and says that there are other sources of light.

“He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power..” (2Thes. 1:8) A ‘not’ in that scripture is deadly. God will punish. Simply being cut off from His Presence is beyond horrible.

I serve the ‘God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth’(Gen. 14:19). He is the God of love (1 John 4:8), mercy (Eph. 2:4), and grace (1Peter 5:10). I love Him because He first loved me (1 John 4:19)

I can’t put a ‘not’ in one truth of scripture and leave the ‘nots’ out in others.

If He is the God of love…He is also the God of judgment. (Ps. 50:6, Ecc. 3:17)


The preacher who shouted this sermon seemed miserable to me. I felt that misery myself for years. But I’ve got the ‘nots’ out of places they don’t belong…and put them where they do belong.

My God is not mean and nasty.

He does not wait, anticipating when He might punish me for messing up.

But at the same time, He means what He says…and it’s always in my best interest to believe Him and do as He has said...


...Because HE WILL do as He says. No 'not' there....

Know-ye-nots...

Know-ye-nots… negative of knowing…

There are lots of things I don’t know. It is quite impossible to know every thing…lots of the things I DO know, I wish I did NOT. And…there are a lot of things I SHOULD know and NEED to know that I do not know.

Jesus knew about know-ye-nots. He taught that there were many things we should be concerned about knowing. We begin with the elementary.

“Don’t you understand (know-ye-not) this parable?…” …but He says we must not stop there… “How then will you understand any parable?”(Mark 4:13) The parable in this passage stresses to us the importance of understanding basic truth and building on it.

There is absolute truth. It is imperative to accept that fact, submit, and seek it.

Scripture has many know-ye-nots that we should be sure we benefit from.

“Know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God?”(James 4:4)

“Examine yourselves…do you not realize (know-ye-not) that Christ Jesus is in you- unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2Cor. 13:5)

“Know-ye-not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” (1 Cor. 9:24)

“ Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body?…flee fornicication…Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are ought with a price…”(1Cor. 6:16, 18,19,20) (Archaic you think? …It is written.)

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? (1Cor. 6:9)

“Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” (1Cor. 5:6)

“Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are…” (Rom.6:16)

“Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?”(Rom. 6:3)

Ignorance causes a lot of damage.

“God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better…but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and He’s calling for a radical life change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right.” (Acts 17:30,31 The Message)

Ignorance is no excuse. Not anymore. Especially when Truth is so readily available and easily accessed.

It is simply a choice.

Know what God has said.

Or know-ye-not.

Word...

Word…. What is a word but a vehicle of communication….

God has given His, and it’s the absolute. The list of ten were once referred to as ‘The Ten Words’. It’s a pretty remarkable set of ten words. Shalts and shalt nots. Ten words that would solve every problem of mankind if we would just follow them. (can’t be done, unfortunately…sin has entered the equation…)

My writing today is being done on a ‘word’ processor. It enables me to write and rewrite at will, corrects my spelling, all sorts of helping devices, most of which I’m unaware of or don’t know how to utilize. They are still available…even if I’m ignorant of them, even if I choose not to use them.

Communication has changed immensely in my lifetime. Once, I would have worn out two erasers on a writing like this, wasting much more paper than the one page it ends up on. All in an attempt to capture my thoughts, articulate them, and get them into ‘words’. My thoughts are just mine until they are processed into ‘words’. Then, you can share them, agree or disagree….like or dislike….be benefited, unimpressed, or even offended.

In the same way, God’s Word is not much use to me unless it is available to me and relative to my life.

God’s ‘Word’ is recorded… in the documents contained in our Bible. There are lots of translations that use languages from The King’s English, to the street language of today. What He has said is readily available in dozens of formats. It is available in words that I am able to fully understand and apply.

His ‘Word’ was communicated in an even greater way…in the Person of Jesus Christ. “In the beginning was the Word…..and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1-2)

Today, I speak words into cell phones, over Skype to the other side of the planet…I write words into machines that put them out into cyberspace for anyone to read. I can write them, publish them, broadcast them…I’m still fairly free to stand up and speak them.

God has spoken in lots of ways. He certainly didn’t have to. He is God. He gets the final say.

But His desire is that we hear and understand Him. He has gone to great lengths to make Himself available and approachable. He has shown us His character, His love…the good intentions He has for us. Time and time again in scripture, we see how He relates to mankind, whom He has created to be in relationship with. None of it because we deserved another chance…all of it because He will do whatever it takes to reach out to us….anything required to restore and redeem….everything. Even to the death.

The only thing God will not do is take away our choice, or change the rules of what is right and wrong….good and evil.

He has not nor will He ever change the absolutes of Himself. What He says…IS…and will never change. Right, as He has dictated will never change. Likewise, wrong will always be wrong.

While He is unchanging, we are not. Our culture changes, our methods change…and our enemy sees to it that he uses every change to our disadvantage and disaster. Make no mistake, he has no pride or shame. There is no honor in his methods.

From walking in the cool of the day, leading by pillars of fire, writing with His Finger on tablets of stone….to leaving heaven and moving into a barn…. God has done so very much to communicate and relate to us.

He hasn’t required me to carry around a stone tablet, hasn’t required me to learn to read and understand Greek or Hebrew… My methods of hearing what He has said don’t matter to Him. It just matters that I listen.

Recover...

Recover… There’s not a single one of us that doesn’t need to….

We all suffer from the same fatal disease. The horrible truth is that if we lose the battle with this disease, the death is eternal.

There is One Cure. One. It’s not a pill. Not a diet. Not a set of exercises. It’s not a lifestyle. It’s a Person.

His Name is Jesus.

We are wise to cling to Him.

There is a lot to a name. Especially His Name. In our culture, we’ve lost the concept of the meaning of names. Pity.

There were twins born to Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 25. One of the twin boys came forth from the birth canal hanging onto his brother’s foot. They named that baby Jacob. It means ‘heel holder’.

That baby was born hanging on…and his name would always bring that to mind.

And hang on he did. His life’s story examples both good and bad aspects of that part of his personality.

Jacob was an ambitious deceiver. He grabbed hold of life and got all he could get. Sometimes underhanded.

Eventually, he’d made a pretty bad situation for himself, and was trying to find the way out. That’s when he had an encounter with a messenger from heaven.

“..and Jacob was left alone. And there, he wrestled….’ (Genesis 32:24)

God had allowed Jacob his choices and methods. Then when Jacob used up all his resources, all his ideas and schemes…when he needed help in preserving his life and the lives of his family, he had a meeting with God.

“…and Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Genesis 32:30)

Peniel. Facing God.

Hallelujah. May we keep our faces turned to Him.

Reason...

Reason… Ever hear ‘everything happens for a reason’?….

Well, yes it does. Everything that happens is because of something. Mostly, it’s because of either my choice or someone else’s.

We are all in this big ole’ pool of life together. The wind stirs the surface of the water as storms of varying degrees and varieties come and go. I don’t splash much in the pool…but those around me may splash quite a bit, and when they do…it often gets on me.

Everything does happen for a reason…but it’s not because God ordained every single thing to be so. Remember that thing called ‘free will’? He has given us that, and it is the one limitation He has placed on Himself. He will not intervene and over rule my choice. Or yours.

So….when I decide to make some big splashes in the pool, go out into water over my head…sometimes right into a coming storm…He lets me. Oh, He reminds me of the danger, and if I am sensitive to His Spirit, I hear…and if I’m trusting Him to know best, I listen and heed the warnings.

Often though, I think I’m strong and smart enough to outwit the storm and keep myself afloat in that deep water, so off I go, plunging right in, oblivious to the rough waters that lay in wait….some of it the results of somebody else’s ideas about how to play in the pool.

If I’d just listened…I’d have avoided the splashes of somebody else’s idea of how to manipulate in the water of the pool. Instead, I find myself soaked, sputtering and gasping for breath….far away from shore and way too deep.

And remembering that He told me not to go there.

Yes, everything happens for a reason. And thank God that “all things work together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Even when I’ve chosen poorly. Even when I went out too deep. Even when I splashed too much. Even when I got too close to someone else’s splashing.

( Thanks to “The Shack” for the imagery of life’s pool )