Aug 14
23
I will give you Pastors
Jeremiah 3:15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
I have heard someone say that the age of the local church is past and that there is no longer any use for God-ordained Pastors. It is easy for a weed to speak this way, because it can thrive upon that which is natural, without any tending, but the flower of God’s planting is not so. It is what it is because of the continual attention and masterful touch of the Husbandman.
The Master Gardener takes great care to continually water, prune, protect, defend from parasites and walk among His garden. He uses the same means He always has in order to accomplish this: Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
Since God gave gifts unto men, and men as gifts in order to accomplish these spiritual things, are we expected to believe that He no longer desires to bring His people to maturity, unity and greater knowledge in Christ, or that He has found a better way to do it that He has not revealed in His Book? The language of the goat is absurd to the sheep. The goat may wander and scrounge and eat whatever scrap lay in their path, but the great Shepherd tenderly loves His sheep, and so He still says to His men, in the timeless language of His glorious word, “If you love Me, feed my sheep.” Chris Cunningham.
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