Religious People, I can't take them...

A strange title for a blog post from a Pastor to be sure, but an accurate one. I find that the more deeply one studies the scriptures, the more seriously one takes what they read, and the more determined one becomes in the application of the Word of God in their daily lives, the more friction occurs with others of supposedly ‘like faith’. This was initially surprising to me, but I have now come to accept it for what it is, and more importantly I see that once again, Yahshuah/Jesus was quite right in his assessment of the religious world.

In America today, we are surrounded by ‘religion’. There are religions of all sorts, shapes, practices, and beliefs, and unfortunately much of it claims to be ‘Christian’. Am I of the belief that anyone is 100% correct, no. I would never make such a statement, it is far too naïve.

However, it is clear that far too many people in the ‘the church’ rely on the teachings of the men and women under whom they sit, and do not spend nearly enough time reading/studying the scriptures for themselves. When they do, too often, it is through the lens of the teacher/denomination/system to which they adhere, and folly ensues. The recent Harold Camping debacle is just the latest in a string going back to the beginning of what is now called ‘Christianity’. The Bible warns of it, explicitly, implicitly, but we will not listen. This is because we have decided that the warnings therein (if we read them) are either for ‘them’, not ‘us’, or not applicable today, or (insert your reason here).

But my heart is heavy today. Not for the Campingites (The Elect among them will find their way, they will hear His call, and the goats will fall away), not even for the woman who attacked me today, because I questioned the statement of a prominent Bishop, by holding it up to the scripture, (the exchange was actually catalytic, and I am grateful to God for it) but for the body at large.

Those of us who are called to Pastor must understand that this is our gift, not our rank. This must never leave our minds. Our gift from God to be used, as Ephesians 4 says:
For the training of the saints as servants in the church, for the building up of the body of Christ: Till we all come to the harmony of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to full growth, to the full measure of Christ: So that we may be no longer children, sent this way and that, turned about by every wind of teaching, by the twisting and tricks of men, by the deceits of error; But saying true words in love, may come to full growth in him, who is the head, even Christ; Through whom all the body, being rightly formed and united together, by the full working of every part, is increased to the building up of itself in love. - (Ephesians 4:12-16)

We (Pastors) as John MacArthur so aptly puts it, are ‘the stewards of the house of God’. Too often however, we believe however, that we are Kings, and that they whom we are called to serve should instead serve us. As such we allow the people to elevate us far above our station, and allow our gifts to be what people place their faith in, and not the Lord of Creation. We forget that it is Yahshuah/Jesus who is building HIS church, we are merely stewards (servants) in the House.

But because many of us walk around with our ostentatious trappings, golden cups, and armor bearers, instead of pails of fresh water and food for the sheep, they wander about in confusion. I see it every day, and if you care to think about it honestly, so do you.
Many, though they have ‘walked with the Lord’ for many years, have never eaten solid food, instead are so accustomed to milk, that anything solid is ‘hard’, anything honest is ‘unloving’ and any time sin is confronted it is considered ‘judging’. This is proof to me that we Pastors are failing the sheep. Badly.

If you are a Pastor, I earnestly plead with you to take a minute (or 60) to think about the way that you shepherd the flock. Are you standing in the way of Christ in the lives of your congregants, even inadvertently? Do they come to your church because of your personality? The way that you turn a phrase? Your charisma? Your facility? The choir? Please know that these are not things that will sustain them, and ultimately, any time that which is supposed to reflect the sun, blocks it, and eclipse happens, and looking at an eclipse will blind you.

Let us not ever be responsible for blinded sheep, brethren…