The Scourge Of Racism
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Just as the Church on earth is the only divinely commissioned human agency to proclaim the Gospel and witness Christ, so, only its shepherds and teachers have the priority responsibility to teach those that respond to the message and become Christians. If the Church does not or cannot do her proclamation and witnessing job, God will send angels as He will in days shortly to come (Revelation 14:6-11). But if His chosen human shepherds fail to teach in developing and equipping disciples and especially men as the first priority, then there is no divine back up use of heaven sent angels. Also, we have the issues the Lord leads me to raise in this edited 2012 Commentary.
Originally Published November 2012
Having served the Lord in the ministry of shepherding His flock in local churches, I fully understand the joys and triumphs as well as the relentless pressures, difficulties, hardships and painful sorrows that come with the job. Being a pastor that pleases the Lord and does His will is doable for the man who has truly been gifted for and called to the task. Besides leading the flock to do God's will, central aspects of the task are feeding and tending the flock according to the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ's directive to His apostle, Peter (John 21:15-17). Of paramount importance is developing the men; something many pastors are failing to do for any number of reasons.
While the Lord proclaimed the Gospel, taught God's Word to and healed people from all walks of life and genders as they gathered to Him, He only gathered to Himself twelve men to be His apostles. This was not because He was keeping in step with the social customs of His day or attempting to please anybody but His Father. Men are God’s chosen leaders in the family, the foundation of human social organization and His churches on earth. Therefore, our Lord honored the divine design and order (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7; 1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:13) as well as after consulting with His Father, chose precisely which men to bring near to Himself (Luke 6:12-16).1
Even though one--Judas Iscariot--would eventually betray Him and perish, these men began an intensive time of instruction under Christ to learn about Him, His doctrine, God's program and plans so they might do His will as Christ was also doing (John 17:18, 20:19-23). The Lord has called pastors beginning with the apostles to imitate His example of developing men for leadership and Kingdom service (Ephesians 4:7-16). This does not mean women are neglected. Done biblically, though, it is the men as husbands and fathers that instruct their families in the faith and show suitability for leadership in the local church (1 Corinthians 14:34-35; 1 Timothy 2:11-12, 3:1-13).2
The apostle Paul foretold and Peter revealed one of the major reasons many pastors do not "shepherd the church of God" as He intends including purposely developing men: they have corrupt motives (Acts 20:17, 28-30; 1 Peter 5:1-3, NKJV). They also have the wrong idea about the purpose of church members. The flock of God does not exist to support a pastor's selfish ambitions and personal kingdom.3 He exists to build up the members as God also required of Israel's shepherds and was displeased with their failure (Ezekiel 34:1-10). The present hour bears out the devastating result of failed Christian shepherds in that churches have relatively few men and God is not pleased.4
How many men do I know in and beyond my family that are soured on the church and ruined as faithful disciples of Christ because some novice or greedy and corrupt pastor sought to exploit them for personal gain? How many men with a healthy self-concept and sense of dignity will never darken the doors of a church again because some insecure, overbearing and controlling pastor sought to lord it over them contrary to the teaching of Christ (Luke 22:24-27)? Truly, such pastors do not welcome aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ either! Even fallen, men are amazing creatures in that most will easily follow a man that has earned not demanded their respect (1 Samuel 21:10-22:2; Matthew 9:1-13; Acts 16:1-5).
Pastor, how many men sitting in the pews right now are having their need for your personal instruction in Christ to develop them as leaders in the home and church ignored while you are busy with other endeavors that serve your ambitions? As Christ to His apostles and Paul to Timothy, you, sir, are a spiritual father to the men you serve in the local church and equip them to be likewise (Isaiah 53:10; John 14:18, 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 4:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:1-2). If indeed, Christ has called you to serve His flock as a shepherd under Him, then He wills that you possess His motives and priorities as well as follow His example in your service to obtain His reward (1 Peter 5:4).
Sadly, as I write in my book, The Strong Of God: Back to Basics, many pastors also do not teach their men because they are weak in sin as professing Christians.5 While perfection is certainly not required by God to serve as a pastor, He does expect that each man has shown recognizable growth in spiritual maturity before his service to a local church and continuing growth thereafter. As such, local churches too must shoulder the blame for men absent from or sitting weak in their assemblies due to pastors not doing their job.6 They ignored God's Word and leading in the selection of their pastor (Titus 1:4-9). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 See all of this year’s blogs under the category, The Cause, but especially the series, In God’s Revival Men Are Restored, Jesus, Son Of Man and The Value Of Men for
a more thorough treatment of the points in this and the opening of the next paragraph.
2 Lord willing, I will have more to say about this in my next post.
3 Read the September 27, 2015 post, Empire Building On God’s Program, under the category, Call To Repent.
4 Read my July 16, 2017 blog, Pastors In The Two Minute Drill, under the category, The Cause to understand how urgent it is before God for pastors to get their heads back
in the game!
5 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available at all major internet booksellers and in the Strong Man Store.
6 The companion resource to my book, The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study, is an excellent tool pastors can use to intentionally develop men. Learn more and what
men say about it here.
Reflecting on the past year of writing the Strong Man Of God Blog, I am thankful to God to have served you in serving His purpose to stir up willing Christians to His cause to restore men and more accurately discern where we are at prophetically. The six blog July 30-September 3 series, “Restoring Men In The Two Minute Drill” capped off the focused effort that began with my first post of 2017. Out of His persistent love, grace and mercy, of course, God is not done speaking through me on these matters since my calling in major part as a watchman/prophet, the cause and work of the Ministry I lead are inextricably bound up together by Him (2 Chronicles 36:15-16; Luke 1:17; Acts 11:27-30).
I greatly rejoice that men wiser than I have been used of God in these latter days to also stir up the Body of His Son. One such man was Chuck Colson who was not as biblically audacious as me to consider his contribution to be from a calling to the prophetic office--though, certainly besides being an excellent evangelist, apologist for and teacher of the faith, he spoke to my heart as one; burdened as he was for us to understand the times. This edited 2012 blog repost is my tribute to Chuck Colson in gratitude for how his writings such as the book I name in it impacted me and follows appropriately after my November 12 post under the category, Bible Prophecy, “God’s Throwaways?”
Originally Posted October 21, 2012
With all due honor to the memory of Chuck Colson who with Nancy Pearcey wrote the 1999 Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. book, How Now Shall We Live?, this blog is similarly titled. I was gifted a copy of and read the nearly five hundred page work I believe contains one of the stellar, biblically solid evangelical voices of our time that will echo in the ears of the saints as darkening days continue to press in upon us. Brother Colson departed home to the Lord back in April of this year and left us many great incisive and urgent works of exhortation and instruction on living out the Christian faith with a biblical worldview in an increasingly overtly hostile world and American society.
I reference Colson and Pearcey’s, How Now Shall We Live? in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics in discussing how fathers as teachers must be intentional to demonstrate what they teach in a post-modern culture where absolute truth is no longer accepted. Colson was right in this work and so many others to warn us about the dangers of navigating this world in rebellion without a biblical worldview. He was also right to appeal for us to get our act together. Instead of hunkering down in fear waiting for "the rapture" or to suffer as the end approaches, engage our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors that are still a mission field as the culture.
Truly, we are commissioned by our Lord to preach the Gospel and be faithful to Him to the end (Matthew 28:19-20). The Lord had to know and did; warning His apostles and us that times such as we now live in and worse would come (Mark 13:9-13; Luke 23:26-31; John 15:18-16:4). How then should we live? God is calling for Christian men and women to become strong men and great women of God in the image of Jesus Christ not because it sounds cute, but because this is the only kind of Christian the Bible has only ever presented to begin with and that will accomplish His purposes; standing by faith and faithful to the end (Matthew 16:24-27; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 3:7-16; Hebrews 11-12:2; Revelation 12:7-11)!
This call from God is obviously being made because just as the many churches have watered down the Gospel and salvation, so they have also invented their own kind of Christian foreign to the Bible. I am deeply humbled as I understand the true weightiness of the strong man of God message and cause in terms of potential impact on Christians in distilling into action the Word of God along with the work of Chuck Colson and others of our time. For the moment has come to move beyond the philosophical and analytical into the battlefield of day to day experience. Aspiring strong men and great women of God are persons completely sold out with godly hearts aflame to please Him in all obedience to His whole will, way and Word!
Only they are equipped to engage first the churches in confronting the sin and worldly compromises among those professing to be Christians--plucking some from Hell’s fire (James 5:19-20; Jude 20-23). Second, only they will care enough to engage the hostile culture bearing the cost, yet winning many souls to Christ and leaving an enduring witness to the glory of God in these latter days. A major part of their engagement in both camps is the restoration of men, families and communities to the extent our gracious God permits. Get my book inspired of the Holy Spirit, drawn from the Bible and built on the foundational work of Christians such as Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey to learn more about what is involved in becoming a strong man or great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ.1
1 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available at all major internet booksellers and in the Strong Man Store.
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