As a pastor I am an example. I am “paid to be good.” The rest of you are good for nothing. Haha…. <\/p>\n
People expect me to match up to what I preach. And I admit that I often feel uneasy about this. How can I preach, how can I teach from the Bible, when I don’t follow it in every regard? I may not even be living out very well the very thing I am preaching at that moment. <\/p>\n
Well, to be honest, when I preach I wear two hats. I wear the preacher’s hat and I wear the listener’s hat. For me preaching reminds me of what God is trying to say. Often God will bring to the forefront in my own life the very thing I am preaching about that week. Yes, I might find it more convenient to have a division of labor — I preach, you live it out. But of course that would be silly. <\/p>\n
I’ve been on both sides. I’ve raised a family while working, and even gone to seminary at the same time. So I am “like you in every respect.” I know what it means to be tempted by the things of the world. I am not innocent or sheltered. <\/p>\n
In fact, I’m your brother. I relate to where you are — though I admit that I’ve gotten to be a bit of an old fuddy-duddy. I’ve seen a lot and thought a lot and it has given me a perspective on the present that younger people may not have. That all goes into what I preach. But I am no paragon. I say this not in false humility but knowing many of my own limitations. <\/p>\n
So how do I go on? Well, first, I urge you to follow me — as I follow Christ. Be imitators of me as I imitate Christ. That means you have to have discernment. Don’t follow your pastor off a cliff. Test all things: cling to the good while avoiding every form of evil. <\/p>\n
And most of all understand that I’m just like you. Pray for me. Also don’t be surprised when I’m weak, or flustered, or otherwise reveal my shortcomings. In fact, we already know that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. <\/p>\n
And that’s where I want to land. We sometimes think that God uses us in spite of our weaknesses. The fact is that God uses us through our weaknesses<\/i>! This is the surprising thing that we see over and over. <\/p>\n
Because God is not limited by our weaknesses. In fact, God seems to get a kind of kick out of being strong through our weaknesses. He’s glorified not when he gets things done through strong, capable people but through broken weak people. <\/p>\n
And so, with Paul, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” At least, I’ll do it when I’m not too embarrassed to let you all know how weak I really am! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a pastor I am an example. I am “paid to be good.” The rest of you are good for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[96,95],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditation","tag-last-word","tag-pastor","has-excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}