| Greetings, fellow Ministers,
in the Name of Jesus :
In our last Talk to Ministers, we
pointed out how a Minister might destroy instead of building his flock
by using the Scriptures to cut down individual members of his church. In
publishing this article, we were not trying to hurt any ministers, but
to bring the ministerial responsibilities into clearer focus.
Elder Cross illustrates the point
uniquely with the following anecdote: "A woman was so busy praising the
lord that she didn't realize that a dog was grabing at her skirt. Seeing
what was happening, the elder started kicking at the dog until the irate
husband stopped him, 'Don't you go kicking at my wifel'
'I wasn't kicking at your wife,
I was kicking at what had a hold of her.' That's what we're trying to do.
Not kicking at each other, but at what's got ahold of our brothers."
Being a minister carries with it
one of the largest of all responsibilities a man can have. If you feed
your flock a balanced and nourishing diet, they stand the best chance of
remaining healthy, both in a natural and a spiritual sense. The person
whose mind is caught in the trap of self -centeredness is spiritually dead
already, and is headed for physical death at an ever accelerating rate.
As a minister, you are the one they look to for guidance into perfect
peace with God, which is the only true basis for peace and happiness
within or with other people. You are the one they look to for balanced
Spiritual Food. The comandment Jesus gave to the first pastor, Simon Peter
(whose theology came from three years with Tosus), applies equally to pastors
and shepherds of the flock of God's sheep today, "Feed My sheep. " (John
21:15-17). Therefore, It Is imperative that ministers teach the whole
truth and nothing but the truth.
Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., well known evangelist
and founder of Bob Jones University, put it this way, "It is never right
to do something wrong - even in order to get a chance to do something that
is rightl"
This, among other things, means
it is never right to tell even a little white lie just to keep in the spirit
of things. Yet how many ministers condoned Santa Claus or even helped to
perpetuate this lie to his little lambs? When they grow older, is it any
wonder if they have no respect for the ministry of a man whom they have
been told will tell them eternal truths when they learn he has lied to
them about Santa? And how about that cute little myth about the Faster
Bunny? What liarm is there in that little story? Only that by your pretending
that it is true, you are making a lie that will undermine your testimony
and influence as a man of God with these little ones, and likely also cast
doubts in their young minds about even |
the truthfulness of
the Bible I No matter how you may try to rationalize the telling of these
myths as being popular and cute, they are lies that can cost the very soul
of one of your lambs I Surely you know what Jesus had to say about this,"But
whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he
were drowned in the depth of Ithe sea." (Matthew 18:6).
Less easy to see, perhaps, is the
Good Friday myth, but it is perhaps even more damning than the other two
mentioned, for it destroys the only sure proof Jesus offered of His Messiahship.
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sigr4 and there shall
no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas
was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Sonof
Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew
12:39-40).
As a lad of about twelve years,
I remember that although I had completely dedicated my life to Jesus Christ
and received the baptism of the Holy Ghost before, I got to reading the
scriptures - no less than eight of them -that indicated Jesus must be in
the grave three days and nights, and I couldn't fit it in between Friday
afternoon and Sunday morning any way I triedl In a couple of weeks, my
faith had fallen to nothing and I began to question everything in the Bible
to the point that I actually claimed to reject the whole as falsel For
years afterward, I still had a problem over that one point, even though
God proved Himself real to me shortly after I first questioned this matter.
Going strictly by the threedays, I figured that the crucifixion had to
have been either Wednesday or Thursday, but I could find no reconciliation
between the teaching of the church and this three days and nights requirement
in the ScripturesIt was not until I was in Bible college, studying under
a retired missionary to Palestine, that I -learned that a misunderstanding
of the meaning of the word "Sabbath" by church leaders in the second century
caused them to understand the day before the regular weekly sabbath
instead of the Passover,The High Sabbath spoken of in John 19:14, 31. As
a reading of Leviticus 16:31; 23:249 26-32p 39, and Exodus 13; 3, 4, 10,
will quickly show, this Was a fixed date of the calendar year, subject
to come on any day of the week, and known as a sabbath. Num. 28:16,17 also
brings out this point. Exodus 12:2 declares that the month of Passover
shall be the first month and the Passover lamb was to be slain on the tenth
day of that month.
ww
Jesus Chri.st, the final Passover
Lamb, was also sacrificed on the day of preparation for the Passover
Continued on page 18
UP WAY FOR CHRISTIANS Spring
1973
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