A Response

"And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will."
2 Timothy 2:24-26

I have written over fifty blogs, and the only one I have received any comments on is the one titled "The Glimpse." And they have all been anonymous. It is to the point that I want to respond to the criticism. Evidently, I did not articulate it well enough, or correctly portray with my words, the other individual being written about. As a pastor, I must encourage, admonish, to convince, rebuke, and to exhort, and I try to do this with gentleness and patience, in being obedient to the Word of God and the calling He has placed on my life.. I am the first to admit that I don't have it all together yet. Paul used the words "not that I have arrived." Just because I am a teacher of the Word, because that is what God has called me to do, doesn't mean that I have arrived, that I have it all down. I am a human being just like the rest of us. I have a whole list of faults that God is working out of me, but I am pretty much a diamond encased in an ugly lump of coal. Little by little, God is knocking off the rough edges.

I come across many kinds of people in my line of work. The human being is by far the most interesting of God's creation. There are those in the Body of Christ who are the most lovely, who display the love of Christ in their lives, and it just flows out of their lives because it runs over in their hearts. I truly want to be around those people. I even have a couple of those people as my friends. They have earned the right to speak into my life, for one of several reasons. Either they are close to me, personally as a friend, or we have been friends for a long time (more than one or two years) and they know my history, or I have given them permission to speak into my life, such as the pastor friends I have to whom I am accountable. I even have a "life coach" whom I have given permission to point out my blind spots, to critique my teaching, to give me encouragement and exhortation when and where needed. These people I have given permission to speak into my life. When these guys say something to me, and bring Scripture to my attention, I listen. They have earned the right to speak into my life. Now, I know that comment will perhaps prompt more response from those of you out there who are legalists. So be it. It is hard to put down in words the emotion and facial expressions that are called non-verbal communication, and make up at least eighty percent (80%) or our verbal conversations

Occasionally, there are those who come along who do no wrong, who think they have it all together, who call themselves Christians, yet are not receptive to the very Word of God. This individual about whom I am writing in "The Glimpse" was one such person. Any time there would be a situation where I would have to sit down and have conversation with them, the Word was not received, and would try to be used back in my direction, trying to avert the focus on their own life. Perhaps even now my words fall short in trying to describe the situation. It was like, "Here is the Word of God and how it applies to your life," and "Well, you never...," or "You are the one who needs to receive this." This always causes me to look inward, regardless of the source. When God's Word is aimed at me, I don't just brush it off, but evaluate the Word, and look at my life, to see if there is application. Paul says to "examine yourself" and that is what I try to do.

What I think it is, is that today there is such a glut of information in our world, even in our Christian world, that we perhaps think that because we have the knowledge, the information, we have the practice. We think that because we know how to do it, that equates with doing it, or practicing it, or having that Word manifest in our lives. And I am the first to admit that is not true.

I guess what I am trying to say, is yes I do want to be accountable (and am - to God and to certain others), and yes I truly believe that as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. But there has to be an allowance in the relationship. I have so many things that the Lord through His Word is working on me, and my close friends point out, with gentleness and encouragement, that if you come up to me with a megaphone and start yelling "Repent! Repent!" at close range, I will probably turn you off. Perhaps that is what I did to this individual. I don't think so, but perhaps because of their defensiveness at being called to meet with me, that is how it was perceived. Anyway, my intent was not to come across as one who cannot receive from anyone, and as one who has it all together. No way! (Just ask my wife) My intent was to illustrate the lack of reception not only in this individual, but I see it across the board in the Body. It is a failure to be responsible for one's own actions. It is prevalent in our world today. Shalom.