Have you noticed that one of the most difficult tasks that one faces is that of balance? It is true for both the secular or religious person. It is a struggle for the common man but it seems an almost impossible task for a pastor!

There seems always something that is trying to push me into one extreme or the other. I am drawn to either fanaticism or complacency. In 1976, I was pastoring a small country church in Eupora, Mississippi. I was visiting in the little hospital (about 20 beds) and I noticed that an elder minister from my congregation was standing outside the door to one of the rooms. He was dressed in suit and tie so I assumed that he was visiting someone but  had to leave for a short time while the doctor or a nurse was in the room tending to the patient. I walked over and spoke to him and asked who he was visiting. He lifted his wrist and showed me the name-band and said that HE was the patient – dressed in suit, coat & tie!! It was his belief that he should be in the “uniform” of a minister – even when he was a patient in the hospital. To me, it was a LOT over the top! The last time I was a patient in the hospital, I wore pj’s and house shoes. Read the rest of this entry »

Any fishermen here?

Bryan Strickland on his blog, “Louisiana Bishop” offered the following guide for fishermen with excuses for not catching fish. (An analogy to “fishers of men.”) I can especially identify with the one about fishing “where God has placed you.” Or, as I have stated it, “grow where you are planted!”

• The fish weren’t biting! Study the fish’s habits. Know what to use for bait, when the best time of day is to catch it, and how to cast your line.
• The weather was wrong – it was too hot or too cold to catch anything! In the church, you create your own spiritual climate with those you touch, regardless of those around you.
• My hook was dull! The blunt hook of human wisdom will never convict like the sharp truth of the Word of God. You can win an argument and lose the soul!
• I was in the wrong spot! “The fish are really biting on the foreign field.” Fish where God has placed you.
• The water was too rough! Fishing can still be successful regardless of the rough waters you are in personally.
• I ran out of gas! If you are spiritually drained, just come back to Calvary and ask God to renew your passion.

Pretty good response. Thanks, Bryan! There is one more that I have heard…

• The “big one” got away! This may be true at times, but it most likely is just a “smoke screen” for one not actually catching anything. In the spiritual realm, such excuses may suggest that the “numbers” (attendance, conversions, etc) we report are not entirely true either.

Do you have any “fishermen’s excuses” that have spiritual applications? Leave a comment and let us in on it. Ray

Updated on Oct 25, 2008.

During my Bible Study time, I was reading in John chapter 3 when something “popped out” at me! In verse 23, the Scripture says, “Now Jesus was about thirty yeas old when he began his ministry.” Does that strike a note of interest in you? Or, maybe you have already examined this and recognized the enigma (something not easily explained or understood) that it poses?

Although I have read this many times before, the question that occurred to me – this time – was, “Why did Jesus WAIT?”

There are several similar situations that come to mind. One is the case of Lazarus who was dead and had already been in the tomb for four days (John 11:17)! Why didn’t Jesus do something a the first notice of Lazarus’ sickness? Or what about some of the healings? Like the case of the blind man in John chapter 9 where Jesus told the man to walk a half mile down a very steep slope to the Pool of Siloam in order to wash off the mud that Jesus put there. Robin Sampson in her excellent blog (Heart of Wisdom) asks the question, “why didn’t Jesus just heal him there?”
In John 2:46,47 (when Jesus was only 12 yrs old) Mary & Joseph found Jesus “in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Emphasis mine) If Jesus was so smart at 12 that he “amazed” the Bible scholars of his day, why didn’t he go on the road as a child evangelist? Why did he wait another 18 years and then only have 3 or so years left for ministry?

Read the rest of this entry »

As a pastor, how do you measure SUCCESS?