If I tell you a lie, can we still be friends?

Part Four


Falsehood Number Four

Once again it has come to my attention that the church seems confused with just what the qualifications of a pastor really are by Biblical standards. I had a young lady write me lately with grave concerns that her local assembly wasn’t going to follow the Bible on choosing the right man of God. Her church had just lost their pastor who was looking for greener pastures. I believe she had enough insight to see what lay ahead and she was deeply concerned with what she saw. I don’t know what it means looking for greener pastures, considering that I believed God calls or matches the man for the flock that is in need. I cannot understand how it is that a so called man of God can just pull-up and move out when he went through arduous times of just getting where he is. Just getting the education that the denomination requires today is enough to push any man to the brink of mindless tedium and burnout. He hasn’t even started his career when he is pushed and prodded into the mold of the denomination, no matter which one. It is irrelevant considering they all believe they are the only one that wields the truth. Being indoctrinated by the denomination is just the first phase of many. After jumping through all the whoops to obtain proper credentials, then appears the mirage of being placed where the denomination desires. Just what he was called to do, I wonder. It seems to me that after seminary, the calling is lost to grandiose speculation of what the ministry should be by other than the man of God himself. How does the denomination assume it knows better than the LORD JESUS about whether or not the man is qualified? Much less, where it is he is supposed to go. How can a seminary better equip a man that has unction from Almighty God? I fear what the denominational seminary has done for the man of God is to teach him to question God. The man of God is trained not to trust in his LORD but trust the denomination instead.

According to this enlightenment, I am sorry to report that the Disciples and Apostles that the LORD JESUS called would not be qualified today to perform the ministry today’s congregations are in need of. Through further investigation, it seems that the Apostle Paul was the only one qualified by today’s denominational standards. Paul had high marks from his teachers which had very high aspirations of Paul and his future influence of Judaism. No doubt, Paul had a sure grip on the Mosaic Law. In today’s church I feel sure that he would have been rejected though on the grounds that it was God alone that gave Paul his ‘insider’s information’ and the direction in which he should lead the new found Church which Judaism didn’t have a clue was in the making. The mark against Paul now, is that he was pulled aside from the influence of religious dogma and was re-programmed by the Holy Spirit on the backside of the Arabian Desert for three years. Equipped by the Holy Spirit, Paul had in his arsenal of gifts the gift of tongues. Paul was known to speak fluent in seven different languages, capable of reaching far into countries which had never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul was sent into the mission field with orders straight from Almighty God to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, organize these new converts into a local assembly, and branch out from where they started into the entire world.

It was a well planned and organized task that God gave Paul until religion and its denominations gained the upper hand and revamped the commission from God. Today, the man of God must be loyal to the denomination rather than be loyal to the LORD JESUS. It seems that if the man of God does not adhere to the regiment of the denomination, he stands to lose all the privileges they offer. For the man of God, fear of losing the pulpit alone would make him stop and think before he does what God would have him to do. There is a lot at stake for the man of God which hangs in the balance. I dare say to speculate a little, there are many missions or journeys that God desires for His army of called men. Missions of God and His Kingdom are wanting and in need of fulfillment. The LORD JESUS is searching for men who will sell out to Him and Him alone.

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26

From my perspective, it seems that many denominations and their local assemblies do not possess the ability, much less the spiritual insight, to choose the man God wants for that particular congregation. I ask another question. Who is it that is doing the screening for the LORD JESUS? Who are these so called qualified men and just what do they look for in a man of God? Who are these people to assume they know better than God himself? God alone knows the intensions of a man’s heart.

I have come to the conclusion the reason many local assemblies do not have a pastor is because these usurpers’ enjoy their new found power of guiding the flock. They have bypassed the pastor/ shepherd and intend on running the church like a business. I mean after all, it does generate a lot of money and acquires many landholdings. Let us face the truth, these men and women are business minded people. Unfortunately, they have adopted the Human Resources ideology of the world’s corporations. On the other hand, the local assemblies which have been manned by the denomination appointed and approved man or woman, orchestrates the local assembly as a corporation would do and uses the same criteria to govern the man or woman for the job. I fear that Holy Ghost conviction and spiritual insight has been thrown out the window. I wonder do they realize that they will be held accountable to God alone? Would you really want that responsibility to rest upon your shoulders to be accountable to answer to God for the welfare of His people when in fact, God has a man handpicked instead to do His bidding? I am convinced they have no understanding of just what the calling from God entails for the called out man. There again, they assume they know and that is why some local assemblies flounder for years in search for their man. As I see it, no one fears Almighty God Jehovah anymore.

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” Colossians 1:12-20

I guess by now you can tell by this writing, I do not follow the drum beat of any denomination. But like the Apostle John, a humble nobody, follow rather the heartbeat of my LORD and SAVIOUR, JESUS the CHRIST, the SON of GOD.