{"id":5455,"date":"2019-10-07T06:32:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T06:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5455"},"modified":"2019-10-07T06:32:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T06:32:29","slug":"a-faithful-minister-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5455","title":{"rendered":"A faithful minister!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>A faithful minister!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Letters of John Newton)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTychicus is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.\u201d Colossians 4:7<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dear fellow pastor,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You have desired a good work \u2014 may the Lord give you the desires of your heart. May He give you . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the wisdom of Daniel,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the meekness of Moses,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the courage of Joshua,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the zeal of Paul, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>that self-abasement and humility which Job and Isaiah felt \u2014 when they not only had heard of Him by the hearing of the ear \u2014 but when they saw His glory, and abhorred themselves in dust and ashes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May you be taught of God \u2014 for none teaches like Him \u2014 and come forth an able minister of the New Covenant, well instructed to rightly divide and faithfully distribute the Word of truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the school of Christ, you will have to learn some lessons which are not very pleasant to flesh and blood. You must learn to labor, to run, to fight, to wrestle \u2014 and many other hard exercises \u2014 some of which will try your strength, and others your patience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know the common expression, \u2018a jack of all trades\u2019. I am sure a minister had need be such a one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a brave soldier,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>an alert watchman,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a caring shepherd,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a hardworking farmer,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a skillful builder,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a wise counselor,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a competent physician,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>and a loving nurse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But do not be discouraged \u2014 you have a wonderful and a gracious Master, who does not only give instructions \u2014 but power and ability! He engages that His grace shall be sufficient, at all times and in all circumstances, for those who simply give themselves up to His teaching and His service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBe an example to all believers . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in what you teach,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in the way you live,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in your love, your faith, and your purity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Timothy 4:12<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A faithful minister! (Letters of John Newton) \u201cTychicus is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.\u201d Colossians 4:7 Dear fellow pastor, You have desired a good work \u2014 may the Lord give you the desires of your heart. May He give you . . . the wisdom of Daniel, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,44,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-newton","category-gospel-preaching","category-preaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455","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=5455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5456,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455\/revisions\/5456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}