Leaders - Shepherds of the Flock

1Pe 5:5  Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."

 

I was talking to someone the other day who has been so disappointed with leadership that they have left the church.  Their expectation was high and sometimes we feel rightly so.  God has given them a heart to pastor, yet in the seeming busyness of life and running a church, there does not seem to be much one-on-one pastoring.  Then again, churches grow, thankfully, and to get around to everyone on a personal visitation would leave them NO time at all to tend to preparing their sermons or the everyday running of the church.

 

So do we have too high an expectation for our leaders?  I think not but I do think perhaps we need to look at this with a different perspective.

I have taken a good look at this – having struggled personally being overwhelmed to the point of losing all my joy.  Apparently this was noticed by leadership, yet I did not have one call me in and sincerely ask, "How are you REALLY doing?"  In pondering this, I realised a few things that I feel the Holy Spirit was whispering to my heart.  Firstly, where was my focus?!  Planted fairly and squarely on myself!  No wonder I was in a bit of a bother!  I have access to the throne room, and I did visit frequently over this period of time, but why do I feel that others should go running to the throne room on my behalf.  Sure it would have been nice to have someone say they are concerned that I seem to be struggling with something, but as Joyce Meyer always says, we need to run to the throne and not to the phone.  God is the one with the answers and He faithfully brought me through this "valley of the shadow of death" teaching me a lesson or two about myself and Him.

Secondly, more than this, I realised that just because I felt like this with my feelings running high on "self", I now have NO excuse to sincerely ask those around me, "How are you REALLY doing.  Can I pray for you?  Do you need someone to talk to; shall we go out for a coffee?"  What if I asked my leaders these questions instead of waiting for them to ask me? We expect them to drop everything to run to our aid at our first call but do we run to their aid or the aid of someone else in the church?  This is a question that begs answering, for each of us to search our hearts.  If we did love our leaders and care for them in this way, how would it help them serve the church?  WOW! What a thought!

 

"...For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ"  Eph 4:12 

 

Thirdly, and please get this, "Judgement begins at the house of God".  That's not just judgement on the leadership (and they will have the harshest judgement) but that includes you and me.  Leaders, as the above scripture teaches, are to equip us for the work of ministry.  Are we ministering to fellow believers as well as those in the market place?  Are we doing, what we expect of our leaders, any better than they?  Have we laid aside ourselves to help our fellow brothers and sisters?  Do we give heaps of grace for our own short fallings but condemn our leaders and church family to judgement and criticism?  Have we stepped out in faith and obedience to plant a church and have to put up with a congregation like us?  Isn't it a bit two-faced for us to expect only the best Christian wisdom, behaviour and love from the leadership, yet, we can gossip about the way they run the church, and, criticise and judge our family in the church. We seem to have two standards – one for them and one for us.

 

There is no perfect church and certainly are no perfect people.  Do we go to church for the benefits or, do we go to meet with Almighty God and be filled with His Love so that we can pour this overflowing love onto others?  Let us do what the Apostle Paul urges us to do:-

 

"For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." Rom 12:3 

 

Let us give grace to each other, for when we stand before the judgement seat of Christ, we might be begging for God's grace upon us.

Tempering Righteousness with Love and Mercy

Psa 85:10  Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!

Psa 85:11  Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven.

Psa 85:12  Yes, the LORD pours down His blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest.

Psa 85:13  Righteousness goes as a herald before Him, preparing the way for His steps.

 

In contemplating God's righteousness vs man's, I thought about the elder brother of the prodigal son.  He was full of his own righteousness and so was condemning and judgemental towards his younger brother who had squandered his heritance on riotous living. (Luk 15:11-32) Angrily he looked at what he had done "right" as opposed to what the younger brother had done "wrong" and this comparison made him bitter, unloving and unforgiving.  He did not see, or understand that the self-centred younger brother left saying, "Father give me" and returned in a spirit of repentance, humbled and changed with a contrite heart that said, "Father make me". The older brother wanted judgement to be passed and did not consider giving mercy.

 

Psa 71:19  Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Who can compare with You, O God?

 

Isa 28:17  I will test you with the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness

 

God is the only standard of Righteousness that we have and will be judged upon.  No wonder it is something we can't attain too, yet God is His great mercy "made Him [Jesus Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2Co 5:21  We appropriate this righteousness by faith and though we work out our salvation with "fear and trembling", we need always remember that it comes not of our own "works" but with the sanctifying help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.  It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us when we displease the Father and we heed His voice to repent and obey.  We have no basis for pride that would cause us to not give mercy or grace to others, when we have received mercy and grace in abundance by the Father.  As the old proverb goes, "There by the grace of God, go I."

 

We are purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ and brought into right relationship with Him and are given new life. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2Co 5:17 

If we have been a Christian for a long time, we must remember that the changes we see in ourselves is purely the work of the Holy Spirit in us and our obedience to His gentle conviction.  Let us not be like the elder brother who can tick off the list of right living like some badge and then use that as our standard by which to compare others.  We are all on a journey in Christ and at different stages of maturity.  Sure our obedience and faith play a role in our growth but we don't know the struggles and hurts that others harbour in their souls and the struggle towards glorious freedom in Christ.  I am convinced that all of us struggle in some area in our life in total surrender to Jesus Christ.  We cannot see what goes on in another person's heart and their heart cry to God the Father in their battle of surrender.

All of us desire mercy.  Let us extend mercy too, even if it means we may err on the side of mercy over judgement, knowing that God the Father will call each of us to account one day.  Let us rather cry out to Him on behalf of those we deem "less spiritual" and be an encourager in their faith rather than a stumbling block to their healing.  And let us constantly go to the Father to ask for His grace and mercy on our lives and on the lives of others.

Let us keep our eyes on Jesus so we don't have the time to look around and judge but ask Him to open our eyes instead to the one who needs a helping hand.  Let us not be too righteous in our own eyes to help and instead harden our hearts toward those God has called us to love.

 

And this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever. Isa 32:17 

 

Righteousness yields the fruit of peace; peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with others.  I encourage all of us to pursue right and holy living and to keep short accounts with God and our neighbour, remembering......

 

Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honour. Pro 21:21 

 

The Natural, The Spiritual

"For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him."  Col 1:16

I have just been thinking about creation (as I often do) and the vastness and variety of everything Jesus created, and realised afresh that all was created for us.  God's abundance is seen in creation.  Not only did He create on a practical level, for He gave man dominion over the work of His Hands, He also created it to be pleasing to our eyes, to surround us with beauty and to capture our inquisitiveness and imagination.

The works of the LORD are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them. Psa 111:2 

When I see the blue skies, the canvas of God's Hand, on which He hung the sun and paints the most incredible and awesome sunsets, I'm reminded of His goodness, His glory and His incredible order of things. 

God gave Adam the job of tending His garden.  He created us to do.  We have a great sense of achievement when we accomplish something and bring order too.  Work is a God given gift which gives us a sense of self worth and success.  Our Father works and we are made in His image.  He runs the universe for us, upholding all by the power of His Word.  Jesus told us that He only did the works He saw the Father doing, and the works He does are good and benefit society.

Creation should lead us to God as the natural often gives us clues into the spiritual.  When we look into creation, we see God's amazing wisdom and power.  Even Job encouraged us to:-

"Just ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish in the sea speak to you." Job 12:7 -8

When we study the how and why of creation, the order of the universe, the incredible information stored in the DNA, these things should point us back in reverence and awe to a Holy God from whom all good gifts flow.  When we see the rain bring a drought-dry landscape back to life, we should equally see how much we need the rain of the Spirit upon us, the presence of God, to stay "green" and alive, flourishing under His care.

Jesus often used the natural in parables to bring out a spiritual truth.  He is the vine, we the branches and even as a branch is cut away from the vine it perishes. So it is imperative that we remain in Him.  Yet if a branch is pruned it brings forth more fruit.  We need to allow Him to prune us and to cut out all the things that damage our relationship with Him.

He is the Shepherd, we the sheep.  If we go astray, He'll look for us, He'll tend to us and feed us.  Spiritually we need to cling to Him as the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, knowing that we can trust Him to take care of us through any and all situations.

I challenge you, when you gaze upon the nature around us, to think about God's abundant Hand and love for us that He would create such beauty and colour for our enjoyment and pleasure.  A gift from the Creator's Hand for us to unwrap each and every day!

 

 

Eternal Purpose

"...according to the eternal purpose He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord" Eph 3:11

God has never had a short-sighted plan for humankind.  He has never had a short-sighted plan for any of us on a personal basis either.  He is from everlasting to everlasting and lives in the eternities of the eternities. (Ps 90:2)

Christ's death and resurrection had eternal consequences for us and for as many as God will call.  The act of the cross and His resurrection has lost no power in the time that has passed by.  The healing Christ paid for 2000 years ago,  the redemption and the forgiveness of our sins, are all recorded in the eternal realm of the Kingdom of God, and will facilitate healing and salvation as long as the sun shall rise and set on humanity.  The bible teaches us that Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

 

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev 13:8 

It blows my mind and is beyond my finite thinking that God planned things before He actually created them and the effectiveness of His plan will go on to the eternal realm. 

Amazingly, before the world was created, He knew us and He already had a plan and work for us to do. (Eph 2:10)  If any of us thought we were a mistake – we were wrong.  Ps 139 teaches us that all our days are already "fashioned" for us.  And God gave us gifts and talents so that we, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will complete all He has called us to do.  These works have eternal value and eternal consequences.   I wonder if we live our lives with the eternal purpose in mind.  Jesus was very clear in His teaching that the fruit we produce on earth will result in our eternal destiny as to whether we live with Him or have to depart from Him.

Therefore by their fruits you will know them. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Mat 7:20 - 23

God's plan for us is two-fold.  We were created to love Him and we are to love others and so reach them for eternity.  Each and every one of us is a minister of reconciliation and this is the "will of the Father", the eternal work that will bring the most reward.

 
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.  So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" 2Co 5:18-20

 Jesus lived His life with eternal purpose and focus.  And His focus was purely on people.  He went to the cross to give us eternal life and to reconcile us to Father to whom we now have access to the very throne room as children of God.  Let us live our lives with an eternity focus for His glory and bring as many as He will call through us into the eternal realm.