{"id":2976,"date":"2014-08-23T11:07:49","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T11:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=2976"},"modified":"2014-08-23T11:07:49","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T11:07:49","slug":"a-faithful-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=2976","title":{"rendered":"A faithful minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A faithful minister<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n(Letters of John Newton)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.\u201d\u00a0Colossians 4:7<\/p>\n<p>Dear fellow pastor,<br \/>\nYou have desired a good work\u2014may the Lord give you the desires of your heart. May He give you . . .<br \/>\nthe\u00a0<em>wisdom <\/em>of Daniel,<br \/>\nthe\u00a0<em>meekness <\/em>of Moses,<br \/>\nthe\u00a0<em>courage <\/em>of Joshua,<br \/>\nthe\u00a0<em>zeal <\/em>of Paul, and<br \/>\nthat\u00a0<em>self-abasement <\/em>and\u00a0<em>humility <\/em>which Job and Isaiah felt\u2014when they not only had\u00a0<em>heard <\/em>of Him by the hearing of the ear\u2014but when they\u00a0<em>saw <\/em>His glory, and abhorred themselves in dust and ashes!<\/p>\n<p>May you be taught of God\u2014for none teaches like Him\u2014and come forth an able minister of the New Covenant, well instructed rightly to divide and faithfully to distribute the Word of truth.<\/p>\n<p>In the\u00a0<em>school of Christ<\/em>, you will have to learn some lessons which are not very pleasant to flesh and blood. You must learn to\u00a0<em>labor<\/em>, to\u00a0<em>run<\/em>, to\u00a0<em>fight<\/em>, to\u00a0<em>wrestle\u2014<\/em>and many other hard exercises\u2014some of which will try your strength, and others your patience.<\/p>\n<p>You know the common expression,\u00a0<em>\u2018a jack of all trades\u2019.<\/em> I am sure a minister had need be such a one:<br \/>\na brave\u00a0<em>soldier<\/em>,<br \/>\nan alert\u00a0<em>watchman<\/em>,<br \/>\na caring\u00a0<em>shepherd<\/em>,<br \/>\na hardworking\u00a0<em>farmer<\/em>,<br \/>\na skillful\u00a0<em>builder<\/em>,<br \/>\na wise\u00a0<em>counselor<\/em>,<br \/>\na competent\u00a0<em>physician<\/em>,<br \/>\nand a loving\u00a0<em>nurse<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But do not be discouraged\u2014you have a wonderful and a gracious\u00a0<em>Master<\/em>, who does not only give\u00a0<em>instructions<\/em>\u2014but\u00a0<em>power <\/em>and\u00a0<em>ability!<\/em> He engages that His grace shall be sufficient, at all<em>times<\/em> and in all\u00a0<em>circumstances<\/em>, for those who simply give themselves up to His teaching and His service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe an example to all believers . . .<br \/>\nin what you\u00a0<em>teach<\/em>,<br \/>\nin the way you\u00a0<em>live<\/em>,<br \/>\nin your\u00a0<em>love<\/em>, your\u00a0<em>faith<\/em>, and your\u00a0<em>purity<\/em>.\u201d<br \/>\n1 Timothy 4:12<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A faithful minister (Letters of John Newton) \u201cHe is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.\u201d\u00a0Colossians 4:7 Dear fellow pastor, You have desired a good work\u2014may the Lord give you the desires of your heart. May He give you . . . the\u00a0wisdom of Daniel, the\u00a0meekness of Moses, the\u00a0courage of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-newton","category-gospel-preaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2977,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions\/2977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}