"A PASTOR'S HEART"
Posted by: Shalomyshua <Shalomyshua@...>
Someone said; "Before they care how much you know, they must know how much you care!" Rabbi Sha'ul {Paul} had a pastor's heart, he loved his fellow Jews and wanted them all to know Y'shua as Messiah!
Concerning Jews who rejected Y'shua, Paul writes: How great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart, for my people, my own flesh and blood." {Romans 9: 2-3}.
Paul had a burden, a love, for the unsaved Jews, that had not met "The man from Galilee, who was the living way." Do we as pastors have that same love and compassion and burden that Paul had?
An old preacher was working long into the night on a sermon for his tiny congregation. His wife challenged him on the wisdom of spending so much time and effort for so few people. The old man was unmoved by her words and kept right on working. The old pastor's flock was far more important to him than any sleep or rest.
Paul possessed that same readiness to sacrifice generously for his Jewish brothers and sisters. He as their "pastor" was ready to endure any hardship to be able to share with them the same love and peace that Y'shua had shared with him. Even to the point of being beaten and left for dead, and left in a Roman prison.
How can we account for the generosity and true love that motivates people like Paul? Saint Vincent De Paul said: "It is not good enough for me to love G-d if my neighbor does not love G-d."
Pastors that are shepherding a flock of Y'shua's lambs need to be filled with joy, hope and peace and most of all a love that ministers unconditionally. Our first focus and goal is to show Y'shua to everyone we meet just like Paul did. Not be bogged down with church growth, new programs, the daily attacks from the enemy! How do we do this? How are we able to maintain that posture when we are living in a world like this?
It's so easy to get depressed in a negative world. Our daily television programs tell us all the bad news and how everything is getting worse and worse. Even some Christian ministries and media seem to concentrate on all of the evil things that are going on. G-d is not asking us to deny reality and live in a bubble! But in the midst of a chaotic world the Holy Spirit can fill us with joy and peace, and we can literally abound with hope! If we draw on G=d's "Ruach ha' Kadosh" {Holy Spirit}, through worship, prayer, and praise to G-d, we can be filled with supernatural hope, joy and Shalom!
Joyce Kilmer wrote a beautiful poem called " I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree" An unknown author read that poem and changed the words below: Listen to it:
" I think that I shall never see
a Church that is all it ought to be:
A Church whose members never stray,
beyond the straight and narrow way
A Church that has no empty pews,
whose pastor never has the blues.
A church whose deacon's always "Deak",
and none are proud and all are meek.
Such perfect Churches there may be,
but none of them are known to me.
But still, we'll work and pray and plan
to make our own the best we can,
Billy Graham said: " If you find a perfect church, by all means join it! Then it will not be perfect anymore!
His bondservants, Pastor Dick and Jo-ann