Jan 15 2013

Beware of Gossips


I have long appreciated what are referred to as the Apostle Paul’s “Pastoral letters”, 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. His obvious love for those two pastor/teachers is evident throughout both books. Wouldn’t it be a grand thing if every young preacher had some wise old sage to give him the loving advice and spiritual foundation Paul carefully provided for these two?

Some of the more practical advice is found in 1 Timothy chapter 5.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says,“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. (1 Timothy 5:17-20)

First, here’s the passage for those of you who object to paying your pastor. Those who labor for the Lord deserve their wages just like others who work on a job. I’m confident that many people will on day be very ashamed of the way they have treated those honorable servants who have taught them the Word of God and cared for their spiritual well-being over the years. I have heard far too many derogatory comments about the pulpit man, the youth minister, etc, and usually from someone whose primary job in the Kingdom of God is to warm a pew on Sunday morning and not much else.

My focus though is on this sentence.

Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

I will never forget hearing a beloved old evangelist tell the following story. He had preached in a large meeting with participants from all across the country. After the service as people were greeting each other and talking a pastor he had known for some time came to him and asked, “Have you heard about brother so-and-so? I heard he is having an affair with his secretary and his marriage will end and the church will split and ….”, and on and on he went. The old man stopped him and said to him. “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it, and I don’t want to believe it, and I will not believe it!” “But”, the man protested, “I heard it on good authority.” The old man who was now in tears said, “No you didn’t, you heard if from a gossip just like you are. You should repent being in the ungodly rumor business and keep your trap shut!” (If that isn’t his exact words they are very close) Shocked the man spun on his heel and hurried away.gossip

The old man of God went on to tell how months later, after he had prayed for the accused every day, he learned that one couple in the church who wanted the pastor out had started an ugly rumor and upon being discovered were put out of the church after several meeting with church leaders and having refused to confess and repent.

This story happened in the mid 1970’s. Just think how much easier it is to spread rumors, to gossip, and spread untruths using the technology we have today. Please follow Paul’s advice and the example of this old preacher in the story and refuse to listen to, or believe gossip about God’s servants. Unless there are two or three persons who can testify to the truth of some allegation our disposition should be to not hear it and to remind the tattler of this passage of scripture.

I love preachers, pastors, elders, and every other man and woman whose main work is caring for the flock of God and teaching the Bible. They are special to God and we MUST treat them so.

Royce Ogle
Monroe, LA

Jan 13 2013

Duck Dynasty, The Story Behind the Story, An Update


As Alan Robertson put it, “Duck Dynasty strikes again!”

At the invitation this morning Alan, (the oldest son of the Robertson family), told the congregation about a family from Georgia that had driven 12 hours to visit the White’s Ferry Road Church. Influenced by watching the hit Duck Dynasty TV show, one of the sons had decided to turn himself in.

Alan explained that after visiting with the young man and carefully explaining the good news about Jesus this fine young teenager wanted to be baptized. He made a public declaration of his faith in Jesus and soon Alan baptized him, where he reenacted the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Here at Grace Digest I have received many, many comments about how a funny TV show about a family who loves God, each other, and the outdoors, has in one way or another impacted their lives. It is so rare to see a functional family on TV that the Robertson clan is extremely rare in the world of entertainment. I join the chorus of millions who heartily approve of the antics of some good old boys and glimpses into the family lives of genuine followers of Jesus.

Christians can hunt and fish, play practical jokes on each other, work hard and play hard, and keep Jesus first in everything. Nothing lasts forever and most things not even a long time, but I hope Duck Dynasty is on my TV for a very long time. God is using the Duck Commander crew to make a difference in the lives of many people for both time and eternity! I am honored to call them my friends and forever family.

Royce Ogle
Monroe, Louisiana

 

Jan 3 2013

Accepted by God? You didn’t do that!


Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:9)

God did that! No man can truthfully lay claim to any part of his own justification. It is wholly a work of God accomplished by the sinless life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus.

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)

“ALL this is from God”! “God through Christ reconciled us to himself.”, God “gave us the ministry of reconciliation”. It is God who is “not counting their trespasses against them”.

Remember the story of the tax collector and Jesus? Jesus invited himself to dine with this little man, Zacchaeus, and was roundly condemned for eating with sinners. Jesus announced to those who were present “Today salvation has come to this house”. (Luke 19:9). When Jesus showed up salvation showed up! Then Jesus defined his mission in no uncertain terms.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

Jesus does both the “seeking” and the “saving”. Ungodly men and women are not looking for Him, He is looking for them. People do not save themselves, Christ saves them.

A man centered gospel is no gospel at all. A gospel that is accomplished through rites and rituals is no gospel at all. A gospel of do’s and don’t’s is no gospel at all. A gospel that is accomplished by the goodness of man is no gospel at all.

The Bible pictures those who are not Christians as being spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1) and the cure is that God makes sinners live! (Ephesians 2:5-6). Christians are said to have been adopted (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:5, Ephesians 1:5) into the family of the faithful. Is anyone so naive as to think someone who is dead can give himself life? Can an orphan baby cause his own adoption? Of course not!

The reason the story of the worth and work of Jesus for sinners is “gospel”, or “good news” is that sinful men and women are helpless to fix themselves, but God has made reconciliation by the blood of Jesus! The offering of Jesus’ perfect life satisfied God’s demand that you and I be perfectly righteous. And in His sacrificial death by crucifixion God’s holy wrath against your sins and mine was absorbed fully in that horrific punishment of rejection and death.

Not only did Jesus live for us the life we couldn’t live, and die the death we should have died, He was raised out of death to die no more so that we too can live forever!

None of this, no tiny part of this is our own doing. the old song says, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe”. If Jesus did all that needs to be done for God to justify sinners like me and you we can boldly reject every voice that claims something different and declare the good news that Jesus saves!

 

Jan 1 2013

The Gospel of Christ in the Old Testament


1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.
(Isaiah 53)