daily java

Daily Java:

Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me. If I announce that some wicked people are sure to die and you fail to tell them to change their ways, then they will die in their sins, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. But if you warn them to repent and they don’t repent, they will die in their sins, but you will have saved yourself. (Ezekiel 33:7-9)

Son of man, your people talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors. They say to each other, "Come on, let’s go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying!" So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money. You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don’t act on it! But when all these terrible things happen to them—as they certainly will—then they will know a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 33:30-33)

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people,
‘Listen carefully, but do not understand.
    Watch closely, but learn nothing.’
Harden the hearts of these people.
    Plug their ears and shut their eyes.
That way, they will not see with their eyes,
    nor hear with their ears,
nor understand with their hearts
    and turn to me for healing.” (Isaiah 6:8-10)

I like being a preacher. I have been in the ministry for almost forty years and I choose to remain in it.

But there are downsides.

First is that God holds me more accountable than my church for what I teach them. He said I am a watchman. He was speaking to Ezekiel, but his message goes for all prophets, all “forth-tellers” of truth. We have a great obligation to get it right.

Second is that people, when they listen, do so insincerely entirely too much of the time. Someone once said that preaching is telling people things that they do not believe but want to pretend they do. And in some churches that is the case. They come, listen to the preacher, sing along with the band, throw a little money in the plate, maybe take a little communion and then go home thinking they have fulfilled their duties to God.

In this one, you are nothing more than a stop in the line of entertainment. And that is depressing to one who really cares.

Third is that they will not listen to you. I suppose this and number two kind of tie for worst. It is hard to choose between the worst: either you as entertainment or you as background noise. But God told Isaiah that they were not going to listen when he spoke. They would pretend to and even compliment his sermon, but they really were not listening. But he was to speak anyway.

It is a hard  job being a preacher. It has its rewards, but it also has its drawbacks. And it is true that unless God calls you into it, you are not going to stay. It is too heartbreaking at times for the man who is not committed or called.

And it is a fact that the call of God is not always a happy thing. Look at Hebrews 11 to see that. John the Baptizer, who spend all of six months in his profession before being beheaded. Jesus for that matter who spent only three years before being brutally killed.

But at the same time, thanks be to God. As 2 Timothy 1:11 said: And God chose me to be a preacher and preacher I will remain.

daily java

Daily Java:

This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. (2 Corinthians 12:1)

Sometimes you get tired of being put down. Sometimes people say things and rake you over the coals for no good reason and you get tired of it. Sometimes you just have to stand up for yourself, even when you know it will probably do no good.

Jesus did this himself. In John 8, they were telling him he was no good and a liar. He told them in verse 58 that Before Abraham was, I am. He came out and told them he was from God.

He knew it would do not good and it would more than likely make them mad. And sure enough, it did. The started to stone him, but he slipped away in the crowd.

Then there were times in which he knew it would do no good and was, as he said in Matthew 6, casting pearls before swine. When he stood before Herod at his “trial,” he said nothing.

He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. Meanwhile, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations. (Luke 23:9-10)

In the passage above, the apostle Paul had been maligned by those who had come to Corinth after he had left. They told the Corinthians that Paul was not all that great, that he was not that good a speaker, that all he was doing was using them to further his career, that he didn’t really like them, that he was a bully, that he was weak. In other words, they said anything and everything they could to put him down in the eyes of those who loved him.

In 2 Corinthians 11 and 12 Paul recounts what he had gone through in his ministry. And it was a lot. Beatings, shipwreck, homelessness, everything you can imagine, all endured in the name of Jesus and in the preaching of the gospel and travel to do so.

And to top it all off, I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not (2 Corinthians 11:26). Not only did he have trouble from those who did not want the gospel preached, he also had as much trouble and danger from those who only wanted it preached their way.

People who only want the gospel preached their way can be worse than infidels. And they do not care how they hurt a minister or his family. They want their way regardless of who gets destroyed in the process. What is worse, every church has them. The church that allows them to continue and do their unholy mission will answer to God one day.

Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself. And Paul did here. I like to think he won the day, but I do not know.