3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy having regenerated us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5 (translated from the NA28 Greek text to English)
First a short commentary. A few weeks ago in our small group we were discussing some recent pastoral actions by some of our pastors at our church which we all agreed were extremely godly….
Then I overheard a very quiet comment from one of our long-time members who stated how much she appreciated those pastors we have now compared to those from about 10 to 15 years ago. The comparison went something like this. We have had a lot of “preachers” and very few “pastors!” No one disagreed with her. I firmly agreed. Yes, I know I lean heavily on the side of preaching deeply from God’s Word. You should not be surprised by that if you read what I post here. However, pastors are also shepherds of God’s sheep and that includes a lot more than just preaching and teaching. I will give one example and I hope you will tell me if I am wrong about my perception here. I was in the blast zone of the Oklahoma City Federal Center bombing. I was in my office in the Bank of Oklahoma building just one block South of the Federal building. Our building was damaged. However, I was not exposed to the blast since I was in the basement at the time of the explosion. <Continue reading post>