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09: The Disappointed Pastor – Thought Starters — 6 Comments

  1. Any soul winner must learn from what CHRIST did, HE became a servant even though HE knew HE was not a servant. A soul winner should first learn and understand his people, meet them at their level then nurture them to maturity. A soul winner never gives up he or she must persevere all challenges with the love to win that particular soul to CHRIST whatever the cost. (This teaching aids are a blessing I that GOD for you)

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  2. Really this is touching, i am one of the people who is facing challenges of contrudictions within the church and outside the church(s.d.a). But what i know is that God is helping me to overcome those challenges especially with my fellows who are newly s.d.a. convency.

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    • Rebecca, be thankful, you acknowledge your weakness, and you know what the problem is the spirit of GOD is leading you. Matthew 7:7 says "Ask, and it shall be given you seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you: Vs.11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your FATHER which is in heaven give good things to them that ask HIM." (keep asking,seeking and knocking GOD will help you to overcome. Focus your mind totally on JESUS, what HE did while on earth is what we should do all of us as HIS followers.

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  3. "...He was saying that no doctrine, no teaching, no lifestyle issue, no Scriptural interpretation—nothing—was as important as the command to love one another.

    He dug in deeper. Righteousness by faith. A key doctrine. A vital cornerstone of Seventh-day Adventist theology. But not as important as loving one another. Eating and drinking the right things, living healthfully. Urgent, yes, but nowhere as urgent as our need to show love to one another. Living without transgressing the law. A noble objective. But useless unless there is love. Not just love to those who believe as we do, but love to the Buddhists, the Muslims, the pagans, the atheists, the Christians of every faith. As much as we like being right and as firmly as we believe we hold the truth, it’s as flimsy as gauze in the fire compared to the power of love for all...."
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    This world is not a "love boat" and never will be one! Yes love is the greatest force on earth and we should manifest it as much as possible but it's also an "H-bomb" in the hands of some. Gal.5:14 tells us, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Yet we hardly ever heard of "mass loving". Only "God, so loved the world... ." Certainly the greatest act of life was in the name of love. However, we do hear of "mass killings" and that from the beginning of earth's history: from king David to nearer us in 2 World Wars. We live in an unstable world where evil and good co-exist and constantly oppose but God's dynamic is love.

    The last 6 of the 10 Commandments: could sum up as,"Love thy neighbour as thyself" we often say and find the echo in Mark 12:31 "... 'Love your neighbour as yourself', a blue print attitude for past, present and future times.
    Some label a complement,"The Golden Rule", which admonishes to do unto others as we would have them do to us.
    John affirms,"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." ... 1John 4:8
    Loving our fellowmen and doing what is right qualify us to be called, Children of God.
    Paul writing to the Romans said, "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law."
    In 1 John 2:9-11 we read:

    "9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them."
    Leviticus 19:18 tells us, "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. ... "

    How often we err in loving! Not enough, too much, not at all. The command to love seems to be intrinsically tied to salvation. It's not only a matter of feeding or clothing the world's poor and homeless although those are important too. Nor is it diffusing love to everyone like oxygen.
    God's gift is love. He sent us love: Jesus our Saviour.
    "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent' (John 17:3).
    To love someone really then, is to want eternal life for him ultimately?
    How then should we relate to people practically?
    Should there be a gauge to love?
    Is everyone my neighbour?
    Is there some on whom should we not put our affection?
    Who should we love with all our heart?
    Before whom should we not cast our pearles?
    What does Christ say about this?
    What does the SOP instructs us?
    What does it mean, "first to the house of Israel?" Are some better positioned to receive love?
    Should chidren's bread be given to dogs?
    Who are dogs?
    Where are they?
    Are they already dogs ?
    What does it mean, "all Israel is not Israel"?
    To whom will He say, "I never knew you"?
    To whom will He say, "Come ye blessed of my
    Father... ."?

    Ginger

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    • Ginger, you have raised a lot of questions that tend to limit our love to our fellow man. Certainly we shouldn't love the devil nor should we love the world and all that it stands for (1 John 2:15). But what about the worst of the bad among us, how should we treat them?

      I think Jesus is the example we need to follow. While on the cross the worst He could say of those who nailed Him up there was, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34 NKJV). Furthermore, we find no place in scripture where he openly chastises Judas. At the end of his ministry He did prophesy what would happen to the one who would betray him and at the last supper He did say things that we see as rebuke but the other eleven disciples apparently didn’t see it that way, they still considered Judas as one of them. At best, what He said to Judas is certainly no worse than what He said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Mat 16:23 NKJV). But then Peter wasn’t his enemy but His injudicious friend instead.

      Then there are the scathing denunciations that He leveled at the Pharisees during the last week of His ministry. It doesn’t take a theologian to realize that He was making a last ditch effort to reach those hardened hearts. Even the verbal battering He lashed out didn’t work but He tried nonetheless. Oh yes, there is the two times that He chased the crooked traffic out of the temple but that wasn’t a flash of anger, it was premeditated days before the fact. If we would consider what Paul has said about our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19) we would see in His action an object lesson concerning how God relates to the sin that is within us and what His ministry on earth was to do for us.

      If we would contemplate the many villages and towns that Jesus went into where He healed everyone, good and bad alike we would understand what scripture means when Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat 5:44-45 NKJV).

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