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Should Christians Complain?Tonight in Prayer and Bible study Marcus Led us to Psalm 13. There was quite a bit of discussion when the question of Christians and complaining was discussed. I wanted to write down some of my thoughts and since blogs are good for people rambling about things that only they care about, but they think other people want to hear their opinion on, here we go. Please feel free to comment, I know you want to.
Psalm 13
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts 3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. 4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," 5 But I trust in your unfailing love; 6 I will sing to the LORD, 2/3 of the Psalms are laments. Laments and complaints are kinda the same, but laments are more raw. They reveal true, deep frustration. Is it wrong for a Christian to express emotions like this to their creator? Our God is all sufficent and provides all we need. We are created as emotional beings. In the right time the spectrum of our emotions make us whole. God made us that way. To be completely honest and vulnerable before Him sometimes a lament is all we can utter. A lament is not just a complaint. It is an honest expression of frustration tempered by the belief of God's soverignty and provision. So, do Christians have the right to complain? Maybe not, but a lament is perhaps one of the times of most intimate communion with our creator. He is personal and more than interested in us. He cannot be hurt by our questions and venting. CallingThis morning our staff devotional was on "Your Calling and Success." It seemed to warrent an entry in the blog.
Evidently, God's calling on a person's life is meant to benefit the body of Christ, not the individual. That does not take away the fact that God's gifting is an expression of His love for the individual. Through our circumstances and passions God communicates our calling and when we put ourselves in a place God can speak to us through His Word and Spirit we can find fulfillment through living out His purpose for us.
Calling is such an important part of being employed at a church, minister or non-minister. There are ups and downs and sometimes calling is all you have to keep you at it. Bro. Wally Goodman told me when I was ordained, "remember your calling." To this day I keep that reminder taped to the back of my office door so when those times happen that I close it shaking my head, I remember and press on.
MasterWork: Essential Messages from God's Servants, Spring 2007 Hearing GodI have come under the conviction there are three things every Christian should be doing. (At least) three parts to the cycles of discipleship: worship and growing closer to God, learning in a small group setting of accountability, and ministry or serving others. What does that have to do with hearing God? Other than a call to repentance and return God rarely speaks to those who are not walking in obedience to Him. Especially when it comes to hearing the direction/vision for his church. As a minister I am talking specifically about ministers, not laypeople.
I am 100% Southern Baptist. Local churches are autonomous and bound together by a set of basic beliefs. Outside that stated faith local churches chart their own courses and are accountable to God, not their association or convention. And they may remove themselves at anytime from those relationships. The same goes for membership in most Southern Baptist churches. You may join through a common faith and little is required after initially joining. You have full voting rights in any church decision no matter what your participation or (for the most part) lifestyle. In Southern Baptist churches a democratic form of decision making is used for determining the running of churches. Administrative as well as spiritual decisions are made in this way. What level of decision making done this way is also up to the local church because we are afterall, Southern Baptist.
Because of our job duties ministers can go very heavy on the ministry side with complete neglect for worship and small group Bible study. I do not think we can count double dipping: worship in the service we are leading and small group Bible study in the group we are solely responsible for. Corporate worship and small group Bible study are however essential to our ability to hear clearly how we should lead God's people. If a minister can not be a consistent member (not leader) of a small group Bible study during Sunday School (Sunday morning) he should be so sometime during the week, preferably with the people he has been given to lead. Somehow we must make a way to consistently (if not weekly) participate in corporate worship we are not responsible for, again preferably with those we have been given to lead. |
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