(1 Timothy 1:3-7)
In its most general sense, pastoral care refers to the ministries/services usually performed by a pastor. Some denominations of the Christian faith use the phrase to refer to more specific aspects of a pastor’s ministry, such as counseling and visitation. The core idea of “pastoral care” is that pastors are to care. The word pastor comes from the Latin word for “shepherd.” A pastor is to be a shepherd or caretaker of God’s flock. “Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-3, emphasis added).Many people have a misunderstanding of what exactly pastors do, thinking that their primary responsibility is preaching on Sunday. The joke that pastors only work one day a week could not be further from the truth. Beyond preparing and delivering a sermon, pastors provide biblical counseling, visit the sick and injured in hospitals, and disciple members of the congregation through phone calls, lunch meetings, and other social engagements. Many pastors serve as chaplains in hospitals, the military, workplaces, schools, and prisons. All of these ministries are aspects of pastoral care. In reality, pastoral-care ministries are just as valuable as the delivery of a sermon. Caring for a person who is struggling with difficulty, being present during a time of pain, praying with someone in a crisis. These are the moments when spiritual breakthroughs occur. However, I come to find out that many that are put in that position in a church with a Senior Pastor are disrespected. Although they love hard and people do not understand them because they also carried a mantle as a prophet. Misunderstood men and women of God. Only God know so please don’t judge. Least you also will be judged. Ministering through a good, biblically sound sermon is necessary. But ministering through personal touch, pastoral care, is just as important. And many silly women want that personal touch which is unspoken of. .There is another meaning of pastoral care that should be mentioned. Recognizing the tremendous amount of stress and burn-out many pastors experience, some ministries use the phrase “pastoral care” to refer to ministry to pastors. Secluded locations where pastors can get away for a time, counseling ministries to pastors and their families, and even the pastoring of pastors are aspects of this form of pastoral care. Perhaps the best understanding of pastoral care is that pastors are to care for us, and we are to care for our pastors. The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer1 must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, 2 sober-minded, and self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, babble to teach, three, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his household, how will he care for God's church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. The life filled with critical concerns no place to run nor hide from God as with Jonah Jonah’s reason for running was that, quite simply, he did not like the Assyrians. Assyria was an idolatrous, proud, and ruthless nation bent on world conquest and had long been a threat to Israel. When God sent Jonah as a missionary to the capital, Nineveh, the prophet balked. At the end of his story, Jonah specifies his reason for resistance: “That is why I was so quick to flee to Tar shish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2). In other words, Jonah wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. He felt they deserved God’s judgment. Jonah didn’t want to see God’s mercy extended to his enemies, and he knew in his heart that God intended to show mercy. Jonah discovered that God’s salvation is available to all who repent, not just to the people of Jonah’s choosing.is this more evident than in the pastoral responsibilities. There is so much responsibility of those that lead even Moses struck the rock in anger. There are times we too will strike at someone or something. This is our physical side; we must not fulfill the lust of the flesh but walk according to the spirit. Many Pastors having fallen from glory. Because they strike the rock instead of seeking the face of God when their flesh gets weak. God has entrusted to the leadership of the church. Because of the work of the adversary, these concerns have existed from the very early days of the church, but in view of Paul’s warnings in 2 Timothy 3 regarding the increase of apostasy in the last days and what we see today in the church, Paul’s instructions to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3-7 are tremendously significant. These instructions are pastoral and reveal what might be called critical concerns for pastoral ministry. These are matters important to the leaders themselves and the wellbeing of the flock of God as a whole. There are many more concerns dealt with throughout those epistles we generally call, the ‘pastoral epistles’ (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus). Since these instructions deal specifically with pastoral concerns and since 1 Timothy is the first of the three Pastoral Epistles, a word is in order concerning the nature and scope of the pastorals. If we obey the Lord our God, He will bless that which He gives us. Riches are no curse when blessed of the Lord. When men have more than they require for their immediate need, and begin to lay up in store-houses, the dry rot of covetousness or the blight of hard-heartedness is apt to follow the accumulation; but with God's blessing, it is not so. Prudence arranges the saving, liberality directs the spending, gratitude maintains consecration, and praise sweetens enjoyment. It is a great mercy to have God's blessing
4 The Bane of Jealousy
That which has been being that which will be and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun... However the Bane of Jealousy I have seen in the church people who pray for hurt upon women and men of God. Some may call their selves intercessors and some prophet, for God but intercessors for Satan. Satan has his intercessors too in the church as well. We command that Spirit to reap habit in hell and not on this earth that we are traveling railing God of love and peace will strike back on behalf of His anointed and prophet they will find their selves six feet under and wondering why this has happened to them because your carrying around this bane of jealousy God help you. It is an aggravated assault on God, it would ultimately extinguish the race feud, which is the great bane of the country. This has caused the great fallen away because of these ungodly actions. Separation and clicks in the church have risen to a high. It’s time to shut you down. This is not an act of love and is not an act of lifting up the Savior. Having selfish motives brings on Jealousy to get what you want. They will even try to separate those who God has joined together. It is a continuing cycle that has kill and destroys those who are married those who are called by God and those who have been faithful in the things of God in the church. Indeed, we learn from Scripture that there is such a thing as godly jealousy. We find the Apostle Paul declared to the Corinthian Church, "I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." He had an earnest, cautious, anxious concern for their holiness that the Lord Jesus might be honored in their lives. Let it be remembered then, that jealousy, like anger, is not evil in itself, or it could never be ascribed to God; his jealousy is ever a pure and holy flame. The passion of jealousy possesses an intense force, it fires the whole nature, its coals are juniper, which has a most vehement flame; it resides in the lowest depths of the heart, and takes so firm a hold that it remains most deeply rooted until the exciting cause is removed; it wells up from the inmost recesses of the nature, and like a torrent irresistibly sweeps all before it; it stops at nothing, for it is cruel as the grave (Cant. 8:6), it provokes wrath to the utmost, for it is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance (Proverbs 6:34), and it overthrows everything in the pursuit of its enemy, for "wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before jealousy?" For all these reasons jealousy is selected as some faint picture of that tender regard which God has for His own Deity, honor, and supremacy, and the holy indignation which he feels towards those who violate his laws, offend his majesty or impeach his character. Not that God is jealous so as to bring him down to the likeness of men, but that this is the nearest idea we can form of what the Divine Being feels—if it be right to use even that word toward him—when he beholds his throne occupied by false gods, his dignity insulted, and his glory usurped by others. We cannot speak of God except by using figures drawn from his works, or our own emotions; we ought, however, when we use the images, to caution ourselves and those who listen to us, against the idea that the Infinite mind is really to be compassed and described by any metaphors however lofty, or language however weighty. We might not have ventured to use the word, "jealousy" in connection with the Highest, but as we find it so many times in Scripture, let us with solemn awe survey this mysterious display of the Divine mind. Methinks I hear the thundering words of Nahum, "God is jealous and the Lord revenged, the Lord revenged and is furious, the Lord will take vengeance on is adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies , Its at these time we have to be aggressive in the Word of God to stop this selfish and ungodly act of love. It is dysfunction to the church the right hand of the Lord hath dashed in pieces the enemy and cast the ancient idols to the ground. Behold the heaps of Nineveh! Search for the desolations of Babylon! Look upon the broken temples of Greece! See the ruins of Pagan Rome! Journey where you will, you behold the old temples of the gods and the ruined empires of their foolish votaries. The moles and the bats have covered with forgetfulness the once famous deities of Chaldea and Assyria. The Lord hath made bare his arm and eased him of his adversaries, for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
No comments:
Post a Comment