I just heard that this is pastor appreciation week. I am grateful for the ministers at my church. Mike and I say all of the time, I cannot imagine not having that encouragement and conviction every week! While I am grateful for my ministers at church, I am also grateful for the "ministers" in my life that never went to divinity school. My godly mentors who know we are all called to the ministry.
I have been blessed to have many godly mentors in my life starting with my paternal grandmother and both of my parents. I am blessed to have godly friends who the Bible speaks of. Proverbs 18: 24, "One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." We hold each other accountable when it is not always fun, easy or convenient.
As my minister ends his prayers he says, “let us be challenged by it, let us be changed by it and may we never get over it.” Isn't that what we want when we go to God's Word? There are times when my minister steps on my toes but he does it in a gentle way! It is what I need to hear! That is conviction! I am reminded of him when I read Acts 20: 27, "Hang on for dear life to pastors and teachers who will not shrink back from declaring to (us) the whole counsel of God."
God expects us to know Scripture. I will never know all that I need to know but I can try to work in that direction. I have learned how important it is to know scripture and to be prepared for those times you may need them. 2 Timothy 2: 15, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." 2 Timothy 4: 2, "Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction." The godly people who taught me the most did it with great patience and careful instruction!
2 Timothy 4: 3, "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness."
We have a responsibility to know God's Word and to study it. Romans 16: 17-18, "I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people." The Bible has also told us, "But reject foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they breed quarrels." 2 Timothy 2: 23
2 Timothy 4: 5, "But you, keep your head in all situations." Notice He did not say your heart. 1 Timothy 6:20, "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith."
We have a responsibility as Christians to enrich the Kingdom of God. We are called to ministry and we are equipped by God's Word. God has entrusted us with His Word. 1 Thessalonians 2:13, "And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers."
What have you done with what God has entrusted to you?
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