The last church I attended was as cold as ice – even the pastors were shallow and thin-skinned and eager to avenge themselves from my constructive criticism.
Having been in the entertainment business for nearly all my life – I know something about presentation and upstaging another actor. Our head pastor, while well-taught, fails to abide by these golden rules, such as: never wear something so distracting that it takes the focus off what you are saying or doing, something like white socks. Although the old comedian David Letterman wore white socks; it was because he had a bad case of athlete’s foot, and as everyone knows, white cotton socks defeat this common condition.
I thought it was my duty to mention it to this younger man, but I was ostracized by the entire group of pastors in this congregation of thin-skinned Presbyterian pastors. They went on and on about the constructive criticism I gave the head pastor. While I can understand the others standing up for their leader and paymaster, they made a mountain out of a molehill.
The choir director leads the music; with white-gloved hands, he plays bells that can hardly be heard in this huge church with bad acoustics.
Worse than that, this head pastor upstages the pastor whose turn it is to preach, as the two sit side by side before the service. While the speaker is giving his sermon, the head pastor sits pretending to listen and taking notes as he does so; to me, that is called upstaging. I’d bet that if one were to see what he’s written in his little black book, it would probably be filled with doodlings and nothing more.
Ah, but people – true to form – will be people. As Shakespeare said, and I quote, “The whole world is a stage in which we are all actors.” And indeed, we are. Jesus ascribed to this fact when he said, “As a man thinketh, so is he.” And many of us men think of ourselves as Clint Eastwood or John Wayne.
Albeit all this time I was receiving a church newsletter from the church with all the pastors writing about – wouldn’t you know it? Love. Each of them had something to say about love. But for me, it was all psychobabble since they don’t have any idea what love really entails. And for many pastors like them, the office they hold is only their day job and nothing more. Evidently, the aforementioned never read the following passages of scripture.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Romans 12:10 – “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
1 Peter 4:8 – “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Ephesians 5:25 – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
1 Corinthians 16:14 – “Do everything in love.”
Colossians 3:14 – “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
1 Thessalonians 3:12 – “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.”
1 John 4:19 – “We love because he first loved us.”
My second book (Encountering God Outside the Box) deals with the deeper things of God. At first glance, it would seem like I’m saying that the Bible isn’t enough – but I want to make it clear that the Bible IS enough! But if you really want to know the mind of God, you must communicate with him daily and often. He really wants to hear from you. So much so that he often must get our attention by letting us stumble due to our listening to manmade folly. When we rely on manmade wisdom, logic, and common sense, we always fail to meet God’s standards.
Therefore, as the Bible says, we must live by faith, believing that God has our best interests at heart, saying – “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: human logic and the wisdom of God are incompatible.
As I said, my second book is Encountering God Outside the Box. Of course, it has nothing to do with the nice, tidy box we Christians have confined him to, one in which we have decided what God is like and limiting his power – saying foolish things like ‘Oh, that was then, and today we serve an impotent God who doesn’t know or care about us.’ While it may appear to be so, I can assure you that you will be held accountable for every idle word, as well as backbiting, selfish gain, lying, and cheating. You can add most all human attributes to this list, including lust of the flesh – a desire for something that’s not yours.
Having said that, I am guilty as charged – but alas, I know this: if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
“God, the same yesterday, today and forevermore.”
YBIC
Jim Towers
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You can write me at jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com or visit me at www.dropzonedelta.com. You can also find me on my newly restructured website www.propheticsignsandwonders.com, which now features the Gospel and videos of worldwide events taking place in the present time, as well as proof of God’s existence, the reality of Biblical places, and Moses himself.