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Depreciated Pastors

It’s Pastor Appreciation month, and if you have one you should indeed appreciate the fact. I guess it’s more relevant than ever this year as it is the first year since salvation that I’ve not had a Pastor. Those words really hit me hard this morning, because I’m a spoiled brat in the house of God. I don’t know why He chooses to bless us at Victory Baptist Church like He does, but in the absence of a Pastor on staff, God has sent not only one man, but multiple men who are qualified preachers in the site of God. So as a Pastor is sought I cannot say that I know what it’s like to be leaderless because I do not, nor has the Word of God been lack, we’re blessed. But a Pastor is not only a preacher and leader, (in the words of Matthew Henry) they are magistrates and ministers. Their role in the church is worthy of appreciation.

Jeremiah 3:15 says ~  And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

A Pastor after God’s Own Heart

Samuel said of David that the Lord had sought him because he was a man after His own heart,

1 Samuel 13:14

But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.

It is God’s heart desire to satisfy the body of Christ. To give each member what it stands in need of. Some need knowledge, some need understanding, and all need a captain. Inspired by God in Psalm 78:72 David wrote of himself as the leader of Israel “So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

A Pastor’s role is not just preaching on Sunday, it’s very much like David’s shepherd days when there would be sheep who stayed nicely in the pen, those who wandered off and the occasional black sheep to be dealt with. There were mild mannered sheep, and bullies. There were ewe’s who didn’t want the shepherd to boss her baby, and there were rams who thought they knew more than the shepherd. The shepherd fed them all. There were bears and lions on the outside that the shepherd defended the flock from; sometimes, they didn’t even know.

To put that metaphor in layman’s terms, there are steadfast members of the church who desire to know God deeper, to them the Pastor feeds knowledge. There are those who stray in and outside the church, to those the Pastor offers guidance and understanding. He is magistrate to those who stir strife inside the church, and minister to those who have struggles in their lives. And on his off hours he’s fighting a literal and spiritual warfare with those on the outside of the church who would desire to rip apart the work he’s doing on the inside.

The world continually depreciates their value, and unfortunately many churches do the same. Please don’t tell me that your Pastor doesn’t need a little lovin’ this Sunday. Give honor where honor is due.

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Will you ask?

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Handhewn 1860’s Log Church in Gilmer County, West Virginia

I pass Job’s Temple everyday going to and from my office. Although I have no ties to it, it’s actually in the county my husband was raised in, I’m still drawn to it. I love that God has preserved this old place of worship and I have to wonder what the saints of God that labored to build it would think about the Country they’d just fought for. For six years it sat unfinished while the civil war raged around it and was completed in 1866. They had strong political views then too, although I doubt they were as self-promoting as the United States today. I try to imagine the first service following the war. No doubt some that worshipped there had lost family in the battle, death was a harsh reality. It was battle on their own soil; fear had been present daily. Peace was sweet.

Word traveled to America in the same era that upward of 10,000 Christians were massacred in Syria by Islamic forces. But on American soil, on at least three occasions, President Lincoln proclaimed public fast days when he urged Americans to go to their houses of worship, to confess their sins humbly to the Almighty, and to ask God’s blessing. There may have been some that gathered at the site of the incomplete Job’s Temple, who prayed and fasted as their leader had ask… my how far we’ve come. While on foreign soil Christians were martyred for their faith, on American soil Christians where memorialized. There was no CNN or nightly news that broadcast images only belated newsprint that would make it’s away around eventually.

But the people of Job’s Temple were likely more concerned about their own soil than that of another nation. They had their own issues to contend with. They could not even imagine a day that America wouldn’t be a Christian nation and Islamic attacks would be an issue. What a difference 150 years can make.

One of my favorite verses has been brought to mind multiple times, I even tried using another for this post and then finally with God’s gentle prodding and these words being recalled to my mind again and again, I knew I’d better listen.

Jeremiah 6:16

Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

Three directions from God: Stand, See and Ask.

I’m reminded this morning of those men and women who throughout the years have stood on the foundational old paths of Christian faith. There are many still standing, regardless of what media reports.

I have Job’s Temple, an historic land mark that reminds me of a time when our nation was led by Christian values in the church house and in the White House. It could happen again if we’d take President Lincoln’s advice and confess our sins humbly to Almighty God and ask Him to bless this nation again. The arrogance of our leadership is set on destruction and we set knowing what needs to be done and yet doing nothing. Even those of us who are still on the path are not walking, we’re just waiting. It’s not biblical.

Isaiah 40:31 says  “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Wait is not to stand still, but to serve and to walk. Ever moving forward to the Kingdom of God.

We may or may never have the opportunity to go to Capitol Hill and speak our minds but we have a greater hill than that.

Psalm 121:1

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

ASK!!!

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If Your Life was a Project Proposal, Would God approve it?

Ephesians 5:21Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Submission. It’s almost a dirty word in society today. You can drop any vile, profane word in a room full of men, women and children and nobody turns their head; but speak about submission and you’ve got a fight on your hands. There are two definitions for submission, the one (which causes the fight) is the “The action or fact of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person.” I love the dictionaries use of it in a sentence. “They were forced into submission.” Even the dictionary thinks it’s a bad thing. And then there is the second definition, the one I want to focus on today (and not because I fear the first, I believe in submission as a wife and a servant of God). The second is thus: the action of presenting a proposal, application or other document for consideration or judgment. That doesn’t sound too painful does it?

As a matter of fact, in my world it sounds exciting. Submitting an idea to someone for consideration leaves open the possibility for a new project or venture and that’s the stuff excitement is made of. What if each one of us went into the house of the Lord, knelt at the altar and submitted our ideas before the Lord. He may in all reality send you back to the drawing board, I’ve experienced that many times. But He may just say, “Let’s do it!”

That apostrophe “s” in the word “let’s” is you and Jesus. That’s where the first submission definition comes back into play. I know… tricky, tricky…. Right? You were excited right? New projects do that to people. Or at least me! But take it from the queen of trial and error, leaning much heavier on the error side; if you want success in your life submission is key. Whether we’re talking about family, career or the church, there’s an order, and without it there’s a battle.

Life’s a project.

If you submitted your life for approval what do you think would be the result? I know the answer in my own life. ~ REJECTED: You need to do a little more work on this and resubmit, Shari. Clearly some of your ideas have not been well thought out.” Mainly because I set myself up for failure by not having submitted myself to Him. God knows we have great ideas, He gave them to us as an assignment. But He didn’t give them to us to be changed and manipulated into our own and for our own glory. They were His and for HIS glory.

He gave us a family as a project for us to work on together, and submit ourselves to each other in love and mutual respect, understanding authority and accountability to God, and for His glory.

He gave us a career as a project for us to work on together, and submit ourselves to each other in love and mutual respect, understanding authority and accountability to God, and for His glory.

He gave us the body of Christ as a project for us to work on together, and submit ourselves to each other in love and mutual respect, understanding authority and accountability to God, and for His glory.

So… what’s your project idea? Have you submitted it to God for approval? Have you submitted to the authorities involved to get it accomplished? And most of all, will it glorify God?