Category: Ministry
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2 Samuel 21:1–6 (ESV) 1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. 3 And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the LORD?” 4 The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” 5 They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, 6 let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
This largely ignored passage of Scripture coupled with another like: Proverbs 28:2 (ESV) “When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue.” – ought to give us great pause.
Recently, MSNBC ran a video op-ed by Lawrence O’Donnell regarding the current Native American protests over the oil pipeline proposed to traverse the Dakota territory. YOU CAN VIEW IT HERE – it is only a tad over 4 minutes.
What O’Donnell reminds us of in this piece, is the abominable way in which much of American history is stained with Native American blood, as settlers and pioneers invaded lands that were not their own.
As I watched, and contemplated things like the way in which our forefathers (in many cases) thought nothing of dispossessing and sometimes slaughtering whole people groups to take the land they wanted, I grieved. This too, is part of our American heritage. One of which we ought to be nationally ashamed and repentant. As the piece goes on however, we are reminded of how those wrongs have never been dealt with in any satisfactory way.
Then I considered the way America was plunged into the darkness of antebellum slavery. And I rejoiced that that institution was broken apart. But I also trembled at how in the aftermath, we’ve enslaved a vast part of the African American people group through government sponsored programs that rob so many of them of the dignity of work. Producing a deliberately handicapped segment of society, caught in a cycle of poverty, ignorance and moral decay.
And, I thought of abortion. Over 50 million children slaughtered in their mother’s wombs, with hearty government approval and assistance. Of unjust wars, where we did not come to the aide of those victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing, except where it impacted our financial bottom line.
And yet I rejoiced at how we entered the fray against the rise of Nazism and other fascist movements.
All said, I do fear the reality of how our national sins, unrepented of, are not somehow outweighed by the good we’ve done. Though there has been much and unprecedented good.
God does not ignore unrepentant sin, because one does good too.
And America, is in the larger case, unrepentant for her sins.
The beginning signs of judgment abound. Unbridled sexual immorality, rampant secularism, personal autonomy to the exclusion of all other authority, and bloated government of such proportion as to be unsustainable.
We do not need a new leader in the Whitehouse.
We need mass conversion to Jesus Christ as Lord; praying and pleading Christians and; a Spirit informed grief that leads to national repentance.
Apart from these, make no mistake – America WILL fall.
Sooner, rather than later.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.
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I was visiting a pastor friend of mine today (Tim Alexander of Perinton Community Church) when he said “hey, I need to read you something.” SOMETHING is the word. I was unable to identify the original author, but I found it later quoted (as anonymous) by John MacArthur. It is a powerful piece of work. One I hope to meditate upon more often for myself.
CLARIFICATION: When I first posted the material below, I did not adequately frame the piece so the reader understood best HOW to read it. I hope to clear that up here.
The best frame I can put around it is to imagine an old man – and old preacher, well past his active days. Later in life, the bulk of his preaching days behind him, he is reflecting on a question put to him: “What are the things that make for a good and useful preacher?” His response is one that shows many years of deep and thoughtful consideration upon those things which were most useful to him, and pulls no punches in laying out some of the hard but Oh so necessary experiences and conditions needed to make a man as useful and effective as possible in the pulpit ministry.
This is not sour grapes by someone who had been mistreated. It is in fact the furthest thing from it. Far from a compliant, it is a prayer. A prayer for those who come after, that they might be spared from merely trifling in preaching, and not getting to the real task and the real frame of heart and mind needed to serve God and His People well in this capacity. It is meant to shake those who would dare to ascend the sacred desk out of any self-importance or self-reliance, into the stark reality of the massive responsibility and privilege of speaking for God in this way.
It is a compendium of things learned too late or too slightly. And a petition of desire for God to do whatever it takes to make them all they can be under His hand.
How to make a preacher?
Fling him into his office. Tear the “Office” sign from the door and nail on the sign, “Study.” Take him off the mailing list. Lock him up with his books and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts and broken hearts and the flock of lives of a superficial flock and a holy God.
Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God. Throw him into the ring to box with God until he learns how short his arms are. Engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. And let him come out only when he’s bruised and beaten into being a blessing.
Shut his mouth forever spouting remarks, and stop his tongue forever tripping lightly over every nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dares break the silence. Bend his knees in the lonesome valley.
Burn his eyes with weary study. Wreck his emotional poise with worry for God. And make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk with God and man. Make him spend and be spent for the glory of God. Rip out his telephone. Burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets.
Put water in his gas tank. Give him a Bible and tie him to the pulpit. And make him preach the Word of the living God!
Test him. Quiz him. Examine him. Humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine. Shame him for his good comprehension of finances, batting averages, and political in-fighting. Laugh at his frustrated effort to play psychiatrist. Form a choir and raise a chant and haunt him with it night and day-“Sir, we would see Jesus.”
When at long last he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a word from God. If he does not, then dismiss him. Tell him you can read the morning paper and digest the television commentaries, and think through the day’s superficial problems, and manage the community’s weary drives, and bless the sordid baked potatoes and green beans, ad infinitum, better than he can.
Command him not to come back until he’s read and reread, written and rewritten, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Break him across the board of his ill-gotten popularity. Smack him hard with his own prestige. Corner him with questions about God. Cover him with demands for celestial wisdom. And give him no escape until he’s back against the wall of the Word.
And sit down before him and listen to the only word he has left-God’s Word. Let him be totally ignorant of the down-street gossip, but give him a chapter and order him to walk around it, camp on it, sup with it, and come at last to speak it backward and forward, until all he says about it rings with the truth of eternity.
And when he’s burned out by the flaming Word, when he’s consumed at last by the fiery grace blazing through him, and when he’s privileged to translate the truth of God to man, finally transferred from earth to heaven, then bear him away gently and blow a muted trumpet and lay him down softly. Place a two-edged sword in his coffin, and raise the tomb triumphant. For he was a brave soldier of the Word. And ere he died, he had become a man of God.
RAF: If I may add – Holy Father, be pleased to do all in me so that I might serve you to the highest degree of which I am capable by the power of your Spirit. Make this prayer – my history.
ResponsiveReiding 