Friday, May 14, 2010

Pastors Make Hard Decisions

Pastors have a difficult job in many way, contrary to the 'He only works on Sundays' mindset that many people have. For one thing, spiritual stress is very strong. It's why some pastors die young, on average. Some decisions that one must make are very hard.
Sometimes we just should do nothing but the hard thing to do is be obedient in the right thing. A good pastor will be a good undershepherd who is willing to do the hard things...like Paul.
In II Corinthians 7: 1 Paul said "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and Spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
Paul is talking about the promises at the end of chapter 6. If we will obey Him He will be a real Father to us. He can deal with us in that close relationship. It's not talking about us coming out and being separate or we'll lose our salvation. It does mean if we do not lead a clean life, God can't treat us as a Father would want to treat His child. We'll not experience His power in that relationship. God wants to be a real Father to us.
The blood of Christ cleanses us from our sin but we must have a daily cleansing from the contamination that enters our life so easily. When I receive the Word in faith and I act upon that Word, I am cleansed from all the filthiness of the flesh. John said "Sanctify them through they truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). The best cleanser in the world is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will use it to clean us up and enable us to deal with the sin in our lives.
During my years in the ministry it has been hard to live down the failures of so many famous TV preachers who failed morally in some manner. Respect for a pastor is something that must be earned these days by living an exemplary life. For respect is not automatically given for all of us are lumped into the same mold as the famous failures. It's important we live clean lives.

1 comment:

  1. Reminds me of the fact that most police officers are good people doing a good job, with only a few bad apples. Same as teachers, lawyers...well, there may be more bad lawyers than just a few!

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