A Very Hard Thing to do...

I have been reading a book entitled "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara. If you are familiar at all with the American Civil War you have probably ran across this book. I love to study history, and I have finally gotten around to reading this book. After all the author was awarded a Pulitzer prize for this book back in the mid 1970's so I figured it would be a good read. Anyway, why am I sharing this.

One of the quotes in the book attributed to General Robert E. Lee says, "To be a good soldier you must love the army. But to be a good officer you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love. That is...a very hard thing to do. No other profession requires it. That is one reason why there are so very few good officers. Although there are many good men."

Normally I would just think this a good thought and ponder its historical significance, but for some reason God keeps bringing this thought to mind when it comes to ministry, the church, and being a pastor. Most pastors would say that they love the church, but it the same breath the use that as a reason why the must protect the church. They feel that it is there duty. I know this feeling having been a pastor in an evangelical church. This thought process flies in the face of what God has said in His Word, the Bible. Why do I say this. Listen to the words of Jesus.

In Mathew 16 Christ is having a conversation with Peter and Peter realizes that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah the Jews had been waiting. Listen to the conversation:

"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:13-18)

You see it is neither our job to build the church or to protect the church. God does both. Until pastors are willing to trust God with this they will be just good men and not shepherds in the church. They must be willing to let God do what He does. So often though we just do what we want and pray that God will bless what we have done. What we have done is built our own kingdom. We must let our kingdom pass away, we must send our kingdoms to die and this is a "very hard thing to do."

Listen now to the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17. It says,

"When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

"I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17)

What an awesome thing to know that Christ has lifted us before the Father. Christ is our protector. Christ is the head of the body of Christ, the church. We need to stop acting like the head and follow what Christ has commanded. Let the church die to Christ. Yes it may mean that the institution that we think we must protect will go away but isn't it better to follow Christ then to protect what we have built. But it is a "very hard thing to do." This is why there are so very few good pastors.

Seeking His supremacy in my life.