Healing the sick donkey

Being a pastor is a weird thing.  We enter ministry at the call of God to be His man among His people.  God gifted us in our physical birth and in our spiritual birth.  God intends that we minister in and through the package He put us in.  In other words God intends that the vehicle for our ministry is personal authenticity.  Obviously I am speaking of an authenticity that is Spirit shaped.

So what is weird about being a pastor?  Authenticity is key to ministry, but pastoral ministry tends to eat away at our personhood to the point that we forget who we are.  We become a reflection of the combined expectations of our church people, our seminary professors, and our own incorrect expectations of what a pastor ought to be.  Instead of being our unique God-designed self, we become some kind of lifeless automaton that is going through all the right motions, satisfying our own and everyone else’s expectations, but we are empty and personless inside.  Ever been there?

What is a pastor to do?  Tell all the church folks that continue to press you into their mold to take a hike!  Nope.  You and I my friend need to better live in the gospel we preach.  The way I say it to myself is, I need to have a healthy experience of the gospel in order to have a healthy expression of the gospel.  Next time we will talk more about how to take the “medicine” of the gospel.

 

What happens when the Donkey gets sick?

Pastor, do you know who and what you are?  I have noticed that the nature of pastoral ministry has a keen way of eroding a clear sense of who and what we are as people and pastors.  Simply put, sometimes pastors can think that they are different from other people.  Thinking such an unrealistic unfounded thought usually creates a monstrous spiritual pride in our hearts or it produces a sense of insufficiency and fear of man that are suffocating.

When we start to operate out of a sense of self that is not grounded in the gospel, our self-expectations move to the ridiculous.  If this occurs in our lives we are set for a bruising fall.  It is easy to pick on the guy who falls due to excessive spiritual pride (any spiritual pride is excessive!).  But, what about when we are not feeling quite so confident about our selves and our ministries, how do we fall then?  Usually we get sick.  We either get sick physically or psychologically.  I know that when I use the word “psychologically” some of you think I have dropped off the deep end of godless, liberal, worldly thought.  I do hope you have a soul.  Psychology my friend is simply the study of the soul.  So, because of the sneaky side of pride that causes us to think we are not as good as other pastors and causes us to be riddled with self-doubt – and because many of us have weird ideas about psychological or emotional sicknesses – we act like they do not exist, or if we suspect we might actually be “depressed” we are too ashamed to tell anyone.

Well for now I only have one question for you.  Do you really think that because you are a pastor that you ought to be above the dilemmas that “regular mere mortals” face?  Next time we will talk a little about how to make a sick donkey well (or how to turn a jack-ass into a true servant)

 

Saturday Nights

Saturday nights are indeed different nights for me.  I don’t know if they are for all pastors, but for me Saturday nights have an entirely different essence than any other night of the week.  It was just a little clear thinking about what is happening tomorrow that helped me finally get clarity on why Saturday nights are so different.  First, tomorrow is Sunday, the Lord”s Day.  It has been that way for 2000 years all because Jesus rose from the grave on the first day of the week.  Jesus rearranged the calendar then and He has been rearranging lives since then.  So, tomorrow I will be participating in the same thing that God’s people have done for two millenia – worship.  I will be speaking to a broad spectrum of people from believer to unbeliever, healthy to sick and dying, married and happy to divorced and broken, on and on it goes.  But, the Word that I am called on to deliver is God’s gospel that is His power unto salvation.  Someone’s eternal destiny could be changed tomorrow.  Someone’s marriage could be restored.  Someone’s rebellious child might hear God’s voice and return to Him with all his or her heart.  Wow!  No wonder Saturday nights are different!

 

The donkey talks again

I obviously have not made an entry for some time.  There are several reasons but one of the main reasons is that I have trouble keeping my life organized.  I have noted that a lot of my pastor friends have the same problem.  Because of my own struggles I have done a good bit of work trying to find out why I can get so disorganized in life.  There are temperamental reasons – I could be the poster person for adult ADD – and there are practical reasons.  The practical reasons are most easily identified and addressed.  Well, they are easy to identify and it is easy to make a plan for how you are going to change – if you can remember where you put your plan.

Seriously, I have discovered that many of us pastors simply have too little faith in God’s ability to lead His church.  This lack of faith is displayed in our continual practice of trying to do more than is humanly possible.  At the root of our problem is our lack of faith and a bit of dissatisfaction with our selves.  When we look at the ministries of others and wonder why we cannot do all our brother is doing we are essentially saying to God, “why didn’t you make me like him?”.  Strangely, when we rest in the ability and desire God has to shepherd His own people, and we are content with our own limits, we will become effective pastors.

So, it is Saturday.  Are you content with your message for tomorrow?  Or, are you looking at sermons.com? (please don’t)

 

Conflict in the Church

Have you ever experienced conflict in the church?  That is kind of like asking “do you ever breathe?”.  Some where along the line we got the idea that churches were not supposed to have conflict.  Where did we get that idea?  The same place we get a lot of our “Christianized” ideas – our imagination!  The Bible, our authoritative source for faith and practice, reveals that conflict is a normal part of church life.  What the Bible teaches is not that churches don’t have conflict but that church people are to handle their conflicts Christianly - that is like Christ.  I think the real reason we don’t like conflict is that it reveals the true, unplanned self.  Conflict brings out what we are really made of and sometimes it’s not very pretty.

However, since conflict is a revealer of the soul it holds great promise for our sanctification.  Conflict can become an accurate mirror in which I see myself for what I really am.  Yes, this hurts sometimes.  If we can take what we see and humble ourselves before the Lord and those we are in conflict with, our conflicts might become one of God’s greatest tools for shaping us to Christ-likeness.

Remember, you are not in conflict to win – that only produces losers.  You are in conflict to be made like Christ.  How are you doing?

 

Do you know where you live?

When the Lord Jesus addressed the church at Pergamum in Revelation chapter two, he said, “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.”  One could get quite fantastic in his interpretation of the Lord’s words here but, we would miss His powerful point.  Pergamum was the seat of Roman government in Asia.  It was also the center of emperor worship.  The pagan Roman system was the devil’s tool to persecute God’s people.  I think it would have been plain to John’s original readers that he was speaking of Rome’s opposition to this new “cult” of Christianity. I know this interpretation does not contain the sizzle of some more imaginative views but it does put Christian living in the realm of reality. Let me explain.

The word “dwell” makes it plain that these believers were permanent residents in Pergamum.  According to our Lord, Satan’s throne was there and Satan dwelt there.  He did mean that there is a real devil, opposing God and God’s people.  He did mean that the devil was doing it through the Roman system of life and of emperor worship.  And, Jesus meant chiefly for His followers to understand they must live in their reality.  There would be no running from it and no ignoring of it and no compromising with it.

Do you know where you live?  Someone once said, “life would not be so hard if we did not think it was supposed to be so easy.”  Believing the “plastic” gospel of our day, many believers are knocked off their feet because of a little trouble.  Hey, the devil lives next door.  No wonder life is hard some days. Oh, but don’t run, resist!  Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).  Open your eyes.  Recognize, according to God’s description, where you live.  Then, do just that, LIVE!  This is how Jesus is made known.

 

Prayer and Imagination

How well do you use your imagination in prayer?  You may have to think about that for a minute.  Some may even wonder if it is appropriate to use your imagination in prayer.  Let me answer that for you . . . YES it is not only appropriate but necessary.

Just consider one phrase from the Psalms with me.  Psalm 86: 1 says, “Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me.”  If that is not a great use of one’s imagination in prayer I don’t know what it is.  David somehow imagines the omnipresent, formless God stooping low and bending over to listen intently to what he is asking.  This is both a great imagination and a great faith.  Do you genuinely anticipate God listening to you when you pray?  David did.  David was so convinced of God’s willingness to hear him pray that he asked God to bend down and get close so that He could clearly hear and pay close attention to David.

Is your mind saturated with God’s revelation of Himself so that you can fruitfully use your imagination to enhance the liveliness of your praying?  David was obviously convinced that God delighted in His children’s prayers.  Why not give God some delight in your praying!  Faith pleases God.

 

Are you being you?

God made you as He wished you to be.  Your personality, looks, abilities – everything about you was designed by God.  Are you being you?  I have learned that being a pastor can take its toll on your identity.  There are multiple forces that tend to exert force on your personhood as you engage in the calling of the pastorate.  You have your own pictures in mind of what a pastor is to be like, and so does everyone else in your congregation.  Who’s picture is the correct one?  Is your picture even accurate?  Are you spending your energies trying to be someone who you are not?

The best way to gain your identity is to lose it!  That’s right.  If we will lose our life in Jesus we will find it.  You know that is not original to me, but it is original to Jesus.  The only place where we find the security we need to be ourselves and not be arrogant is to know that we have died and our lives are now hidden in with Christ in God.  That my friend is the greatest place of humble confidence that there is.  Get there and be you.  God chose you to use you.  He did not choose you to spend all your energies trying to be someone you are not.

 

A refresher on the Word of God

When the Apostle John turned to see the voice that spoke to him on the Isle of Patmos he was struck with fear.  His description of what he saw can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  We know that John’s description does not tell us what Jesus looks like, but tells us what He is like.  Jesus is the Living Word of God and when He speaks, He speaks the Written Word of God.  The sword coming out of Jesus’ mouth symbolizes the discerning, un-foolable power of Christ and His Word.

How is your “wow” factor with the Word of God presently?  When you read it privately (and I hope you do!) are you in awe of the God who spoke it?  When you preach it, do you want people to be impressed with you or stunned by the greatness of the God you proclaim?

The gospel is the POWER of God unto salvation!  When you teach and preach the Word do you believe, I mean really believe, that God will work in the souls of people?  If not maybe you need a refresher on the Word of God.  The best refresher that I know of is to turn the Word loose on your own soul.  Be warned, “it is sharper than any two-edged sword.”

 

Simple Thinking

Sometimes I make life far more difficult than it is. In reality I am a ball of dust into which God has breathed life.  Now that will keep you from thinking too highly of yourself!  Truthfully, are there not times that we pastors get lost in the complexities of theological arguements of the day and forget that our people need a clear and sustaining word from God.

Complex personal thinking, without a translator, makes for complicated preaching.  Complicated preaching does not bring clarity to overly crowded and complex lives.  Think about your sermon for Sunday.  How are you going to apply it?  Will your people actually be able to do anythiing with your message that effects their daily lives?  Translate your thinking for them.  Put the food on the bottom shelf where everyone can reach it.

Why not start simple?  Ask God’s people to wake up on Monday and listen to their heart beat.  Ask them to stop and listen to their breath going in and out of their lungs.  Then ask them to listen to their spouses or their childrens heart beats.  Then, you, along with them, contemplate on the mystery of this thing we call life.  Why do we listen for the heart beat during the expectant mother’s ultra sound?  We want to know if this mystery of life has been granted and is being sustained by God.

The beating of your heart, the breathing of your lungs are under the command of God. All of life is.  So, keep it simple.  Preach the gospel in such a way that God’s people can take it home, take it to work, to the ball game, and take it to heart!  Quit over trying in your sermon preparation.  Look at life from your “dusty” perspective and marvel at the God who made and sustains you . . . and LIVE!