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I am posting this short video by Paul Washer because it touches on many things I have spoken about here of late and it does not just apply to pastors but as the church of a whole. The bit he spoke about if his wife was attacked and people walked by out of fear of self preservation, that he would go looking for them afterwards as much as the men who had done the attacking should be a message we all tak to heart, as the good samaritans are few, in my experience, most will choose to walk on the other side of the road. Self preservation, and self-protection has no right to be tentets the Christian lives their life by and should not be part of our vocabulary nor our mindset. It was not part of Jesus Christ mindset or outlook, and He is the Son of God, and He suffered all He did for sinful man; how dare we think we deserve more than Him, and how dare we think its OK that we think so, if we do.
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God have mercy…
In many cases Christina, it doesn’t need God to have mercy for things like that, it is common human decency, in Christ or outside of it; things I have experienced from other professors much of the world or most of it even would not dream of doing likewise; but professors without mercy, is an oxymoron.
Sadly, this is too often the case for us pastors. Too many of us want to be liked, instead of wanting to please Jesus. The temptation comes to us all by times, and it’s truly grievous when we yield to such.
Yeah Richard Baxter has a very good quote on this subject, which I can’t quite bring to mind right now so can’t easily find it.
A preacher’s duty is to declare the Word of God without apology. Admittedly this will cause people to be offended, but then the Word of God itself will be offensive to people of other religions. e.g. Christ saying “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6) will offend people who believe that there are other ways to God.
By its very nature, Christianity is an exclusive religion. We cannot hide this truth from outsiders. If we were to keep silent about this at the beginning, in the hope that later on they would come to see the good points in Christianity and accept it, we would be telling a lie, since the biblical motive is to ultimately get them to deny all other religions.
Instead of hiding the truth, we should tell our friend that the preacher is only declaring what God Himself has said in the Bible. Then encourage him or her to read the Bible for himself or herself to see if this is really so. Our friend may not like this, but if God works in his or her heart, the truth will set him or her free from all previously held false assumptions.
@Sinner saved by God’s grace :
Thanks for your comment:
Amen. I believe to some extent your comments extend to the whole preiesthood of believer’s too, though in a different way, and not to detract from the office of the ministry by saying that.
John the Baptist lost his head for preaching Repent and believe; It has always been an unpopular message