OUT OF THE BOX

  Religious people often substitute rituals and ceremony for real relationship with the Lord Himself. People who are short on intimacy with the Lord seem to find security in the outward forms. An organization can do the same. It is interesting that God gave Israel a portable tabernacle long before He gave them a stone temple. In Israel’s journeys across the wilderness, they had to follow the cloud of God’s presence that rested above the tabernacle. When the cloud of His presence moved, they moved. When the cloud rested, they remained still. The cloud did not rise or rest according to any rigid schedule. The Israelites could not prepare for movement by “watching the clock,” the sun, or the date. They had to observe and follow the cloud (Exodus 40: 34-38). In the same way, Jesus Christ desires that the church would know Him intimately and be genuinely led by the Spirit in its development. God’s people, however, tend to become sidetracked and to fall back on religious routine and ...

The book of Revelation refers to the apostate church as a harlot when she beds herself with the world system and false religions of the world, and when she compromises the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ in order not to offend the world and its ungodly values. The prophet Ezekiel said that Israel’s idolatry with the gods of foreign nations was spiritual harlotry. “You offered yourself to everyone who passed by and multiplied your acts of harlotry” Ezekiel 16:25. In their commentary on Ezekiel 16, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown said, “The wanton advances were all on Israel’s part; the idolatrous nations yielded to her nothing in return. She had yielded so much that, like a worn-out prostitute, her tempters became weary of her. When the church lowers her standards and lowers her testimony for God to the carnal tastes of the world, with a view to conciliation (with the world), she loses everything and gains nothing.” A church with a compromised message is useless to the purpo...

Years ago, there was a cartoon on TV whose main characters were Dudley Do-right who was the good guy, and Snidely Whiplash who was the bad guy. In our quarreling and conflicts we tend to see ourselves as Dudley Do-right, always right and good.   We tend to see the other person as Snidely Whiplash the villain who is always wrong and bad. This tendency causes self-deception and failure for both "Snidely" and " Dudley ." Self-justification prevents the one who is wrong from seeing himself and repenting and prevents the one who is right from hearing what God may be saying to him in terms of lessons, attitude, disposition, and procedure. In every situation, God has something to say to everyone involved. The one whose first response is to "flatter himself" will be busy in self-justification, self-defense, and making himself look good and will not hear what God is saying to him. The first principle to keep in mind is that fire tests the righteous as well as ...

Many years ago, a fellow from another church became interested in one of the girls in our church. It appeared the young man was considering a marriage proposal. But his pastor, along with his pastor’s wife, very strongly told him not to marry this girl. They had no objective reason for prohibiting or discouraging this relationship. Their reason was purely subjective. They personally did not “feel good” about it and so they told him it was “not of God” for him to marry her. I told this pastor that he can give counsel and his opinion but cannot make demands based on subjective reasoning alone. Leadership can speak dogmatically when there are clear, objective Biblical commands dealing with obvious moral issues, or when they see obvious problems of concern in the persons they are advising. You can dogmatically tell a man he should not lie, steal, or commit adultery, and you can advise a man not to marry someone who is a pagan and immoral person. But you cannot forbid a person from doing so...

I have written articles dealing with areas where pastors have tended to abuse or hurt the flock. This article, however, deals with advice to the pastor who feels he has been mistreated or abused by the flock or the body of elders or council of leaders. --- Billy Long When we face abuse or mistreatment and we do not resolve it properly in the grace of God, it becomes baggage that follows us around. It affects our spirit and clouds our discernment. It causes us to operate in a survivalist mode. Our first priority becomes to protect ourselves rather than taking up our cross. It means the refusal to become vulnerable. It is difficult to lay down our lives to the will of God when our primary or secondary goal is to protect ourselves from potential pain, loss, or suffering. Here is my advice to the pastor who has been hurt or has lost so much. SEE GOD AS SOVEREIGN ALMIGHTY GOD. The primary characters on the stage of your life are you and God. Other people and Satan are secondary. That’s wh...

    MANIPULATION AND CONTROL IN LEADERSHIP   UNHEALTHY CONTROL OF COMMUNICATION  This chapter deals with a couple problems seen in leadership. The issues are principles I learned while serving “as referee” in a couple difficult situations and were originally written with the intention of helping pastors understand these issues that get them into trouble. Initially I was reluctant to share these with a broader audience, but then realized the principles are apropos to any discussion of healthy leadership. Many readers will identify with the problems discussed. For every issue there is a flip side. There is always the “other side of the coin.” This “flip...