Tag / pastors

by In Light Of The Cross

All Disciples Are Full Time, Not Part Time Pastors

I am writing tonight from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

I am writing tonight from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

I have many friends who are ordained ministers and many friends who are lay pastors, who have a “regular” job and ministry. Some lay pastors say they work all day to support themselves and their ministry, and then after they get off work they then work for God. I don’t see it that way. I believe they are full time pastors, working for God even while doing their “regular” job.

For years I too was a lay pastor while working for UPS. I supervised the early shift starting around 3 AM. I was not the only Christian or even the only pastor working at UPS. Students from a nearby Baptist seminary and other lay pastors of various denominations worked there as well. One morning I had to call and wake up one of my employees who overslept. He apalogized, realizing he was already supposed to be at work. He was a Christian, so I told him, “Get in here as fast as you can, after you have your prayer and Bible time.” First I was a pastor. Second I was a UPS supervisor with a deadline to meet.

As Gospel Workers we always pray before entering the pulpit where we preach for thirty minutes. How much more so should we pray before going to our regular jobs, where we will be preaching by word and example, not a mere thirty minutes but rather 8-10 hours.

This is how it was with Jesus.

Christ was just as truly doing His Father’s business when toiling at the carpenter’s bench as when working miracles for the multitude. –Ellen White, Heavenly Places, Page 214

You might think a “regular” job might get in the way of your ministry, but it does not have to be that way. I talked to a lady, who told me she had a gift and card shop that was just breaking even for many years. She said she kept it open because people were coming in all the time who needed encouragement, and it was a great way to meet people. One morning while working on the sort isle at UPS, the guy sorting next to me started asking me questions about Revelation. While we were working hard at 3 in the morning, I was able to share some Christ centered teachings from Revelation. In all my years as a paid Bible Worker I was never able to give a Bible study at 3 am, but that morning I had the opportunity to share Jesus with someone that I may not have had the opportunity to meet any other time or place.

There’s a story of a Romanian prisoner who was always talking about Jesus. Finally the guard had enough and told him, he could make one last sentence about Jesus, and then could say no more.

What would you say if you could only say one sentence about Jesus?

The Christian prisoner did something very wise. He said as his last sentence, “Jesus is like me.” You may think that statement was a bold and presumptuous. But it was actually very wise and humble. Knowing he could talk about Jesus no more, he simply used those words to let everyone know, watch me, and I will show you Jesus. 

As disciples for Jesus we do not just use our “regular” jobs to support our ministry. We make our “regular” jobs a part of our ministry. We don’t leave our “regular” jobs at the end of the day to go do our ministry. We do our ministry while at our “regular” jobs, preaching by example, and reaching people we never would have met during our “gospel worker” job.

Some police officers wear the uniform, but other police officers find they are actually more effective in accomplishing their mission if they dress just like everyone else. They are called “plain clothes officers” or “undercover detectives.” In plain clothes or in uniform, they are police officers just the same. If you are a disciple of Jesus, you may be wearing a suit like a regular minister, or you may be wearing a delivery uniform or restaurant uniform, or medical scrubs or what have you. Either way, what you really are is a pastor!

You may study this week’s SS lesson here.

by In Light Of The Cross

Glimpses of Grace; Hope For The Hopeless

I am writing today from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Matthew 9:12

Its the sick who need a doctor. It is the sinner who needs a Savior, and it is the hopeless who need hope. Often we are inclined to help those in whom we see potential, or who at least show us some promise. If we think they can make it then we will help them. But isn’t it the hopeless who need hope? Isn’t it those who are lost who need a guide? This year, ask God to send all the hopeless people your way. Ask God to send your church all the rebel youth that nobody else wants at their church. Tell God to send them all over to your church! You’ll love and care for them and give them hope. Ask God to send you the winos, the drug addicts that nobdoy else wants to deal with. You will love them.

Jesus did not die to give hope to those with potential. No, He died to give hope to the hopeless!

 “Often He met those who had drifted under Satan’s control, and who had no power to break from his snare. To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted, and fallen, Jesus would speak words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood. Others He met who were fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win; for angels of God were on their side, and would give them the victory. –The Desire of Ages, p. 91.”

If you are in need of hope, please contact us at the Tampa First Seventh-day Adventist Church. God loves you and so do we!

Find a caring church anywhere in the world by clicking here!

To subscribe to the daily “Glimpses of the Cross” devotionals just click on the top right of this page,  where it says “Subscibe to In Light of The Cross by e-mail.”

by In Light Of The Cross

Revelation 1; In Jesus’ Hands

I am writing today from the Beautiful Tampa Bay area.

The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.  Revelation 1:20

How comforting it is to know that Jesus holds the gospel minister in His hands! And as far as Jesus is concerned, all who are united in His effort of saving the lost are ministers or priests. See verse 6. Angels in the Bible are messengers, either celestial or terrestrial. As Jesus dictates His letters to the seven churches we see that the angels John is writing to are those who minister in the churches. Isn’t it wonderful to know that if you are a sincere worker for Christ, that you are in His hand and not in the hands of the enemy?

  God’s ministers are symbolized by the seven stars, which He who is the first and the last has under His special care and protection. The sweet influences that are to be abundant in the church are bound up with these ministers of God, who are to represent the love of Christ. The stars of heaven are under God’s control. He fills them with light. He guides and directs their movements. If He did not, they would become fallen stars. So with His ministers. They are but instruments in His hands, and all the good they accomplish is done through His power. 

     It is to the honor of Christ that He makes His ministers a greater blessing to the church, through the working of the Holy Spirit, than are the stars to the world. The Saviour is to be their efficiency. If they will look to Him as He looked to His Father, they will do His works. As they make God their dependence, He will give them His brightness to reflect to the world.  {Gospel Workers, p 13- 14}

by In Light Of The Cross

Luke 3; Pointed Testimony

I am writing today from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

Luke 3:7 Then said he [John] to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 

 3:8         Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to [our] father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 

 3:9         And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 

John does not sound like the evangelists we have today! His appeal, if you can say he even had one, was not very cordial. John did have a burden for souls. So much so, that he did not want to lull anyone into a fatal sense of false security. His burden was so deep, that he wanted them to know that baptism is not just about getting wet, but about truly washing away your past. Repentance is a turning away from sin, and just like a groom must fall in love with his bride before the wedding, as he forsakes all others, so must the one being baptized forsake his love affair with sin and the world before being baptized. John was being faithful not only to God but even to those he preached to. He ended up getting his head literally chopped off, because he loved Herod so much that he would not lie to him and help him feel comfortable in his sin. Likewise today, we must overcome the temptation to lessen the guilt of those who trample God’s law and still want to be baptized. When we do lessen their guilt we are doing no favor to them or God or even ourselves.

     The gospel is now opposed on every side. Never was the confederacy of evil stronger than at the present time. Spirits of evil are combining with human agencies to war against the commandments of God. Tradition and falsehood are exalted above the Scriptures; reason and science above revelation; human talent above the teaching of the Spirit; forms and ceremonies above the vital power of godliness. Grievous sins have separated the people from God. Infidelity is fast becoming fashionable. “We will not have this man to reign over us,” is the language of thousands. God’s ministers must lift up the voice like a trumpet, and show the people their transgressions. The smooth sermons so often preached make no lasting impression. Men are not cut to the heart, because the plain, sharp truths of the word of God are not spoken to them. 

     Many of those who profess to believe the truth would say, if they expressed their real sentiments, What need is there of speaking so plainly? They might as well ask, Why need John the Baptist have said to the Pharisees, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” [Matthew 3:7.] Why need he have provoked the anger of Herodias by telling Herod that it was unlawful for him to live with his brother’s wife? He lost his life by speaking so plainly. Why could he not have moved along without incurring the anger of Herodias?

     So men have argued, till policy has taken the place of faithfulness. Sin is allowed to go unrebuked. When will be heard once more in the church the voice of faithful rebuke, “Thou art the man”? [See 2 Samuel 12:7.] If these words were not so rare, we should see more of the power of God. The Lord’s messengers should not complain of their efforts’ being fruitless until they repent of their love of approbation, their desire to please men, which leads them to suppress the truth, and to cry, Peace, when God has not spoken peace.   

     Would that every minister of God realized the holiness of his work and the sacredness of his calling. As divinely appointed messengers, ministers are in a position of awful responsibility. In Christ’s stead they are to labor as stewards of the mysteries of heaven, encouraging the obedient and warning the disobedient. Worldly policy is to have no weight with them. Never are they to swerve from the path in which Jesus has bidden them walk. They are to go forward in faith, remembering that they are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. They are not to speak their own words, but the words that One greater than the potentates of earth has bidden them speak. Their message is to be, “Thus saith the Lord. –Gospel Workers, p. 149-150