|
PastorBlastor
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Lee
Country: United States
State: Washington
Gender: Male
Interests: Drawing, photography, fishing, critical thinking, well thought out discussions, writing, Biblical theology, current events, rational politics, and my wife of 33 years. These are not necessarily in the order they should be, but you get my drift. (My Savior comes first and my wife second.)We fight the "darkside" of being too serious about ourselves and theological laziness that relies on others instead of the Bible.Come to the Light and know the truth...
Expertise: Art, politics, and the thoughtful "Word."
Occupation: Southern Baptist Pastor
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
11/20/2004
|
|
| Today's Thoughts, 1 Timothy 5:17Today’s Thought…
by Pastor Lee Hemen
May 16, 2008
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. (1 Timothy 5:17)
Pastors and their families live in a fish bowl where Church members often scrutinize everything from their leaders’ socks to their children’s behavior. Yet there are many pastors that remain untouchable, aloof, and separated from the congregation they are supposed to serve. The word for “pastor” is derived from that of a shepherd. The sheep are to hear and know their leader’s voice. He is to be among his sheep. Many pastors remain on call day and night, they carry burdens and secrets they cannot tell anyone, and they often do so with grace and compassion. Churches far too often take advantage of a pastor’s availability and misuse his servant heart. They should be ashamed of their ungodly behavior. If you were to take a serious look at the compensation levels of pastors and contrast them to the compensation levels of other professionals, many pastors live a sacrificial lifestyle! This should not be! While other pastors take advantage of their congregations and use them as “stepping stones” to other more “important” denominational or higher paying jobs. The job of pastor has received both praise and condemnation in our day and age. Why? Because churches fail to be the churches they should be.
Paul encouraged Timothy to lead the church in honoring pastors who work hard. What a difference it makes when a church appropriately honors its pastor and staff! Such honor can be given in various ways, including the provision of an ample honorarium. But when a pastor needs to be disciplined, often churches are so embarrassed, because often they were the ones who pick him in the first place, they do not do the godly thing and resort to foolishness instead. Paul gives us four guidelines to consider: First, “Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.” Make sure that when you accuse a servant of God that you chose to be your leader in the first place is doing something wrong, you had better have witnesses to back your accusation up! Secondly, “Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning.” If the pastor is guilty of doing something evil enough to be rebuked, do it publicly. You elected him publically and shouted to the heavens he was “God’s man” for your church, now rebuke him publically as well. But do it with grace and mercy, always looking for redemption. And thirdly, Paul says do not hold favoritism above spiritually doing the righteous thing: “I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.” Picking pastors or rebuking them should not be done like a popularity contest. And finally, help you pastor and church to “not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.” (1 Timothy 5:19-22) Too many churches are quick to pick pastors, deacons, or elders that are not morally, spiritually, ethically, or familially qualified. All of the members of the church of Christ, His body, should “keep yourself pure.”
Dear child of the Lord, today pray that your pastor is taken care of appropriately. Pray for him daily and provide for his needs. Come alongside of him and expect noting more from him that you would not require of any leader of the Lord. He is not a spiritual superman, but a human being called by God to minister to you.
---
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety. | | |
| The Polar Bear Shuffle
by Lee Hemen
May 16, 2008
You may be unaware that the reason your gas prices are so
high is not because of the greedy oil companies, but the greedy
environmentalists. Environmental concerns have crippled our Nation’s ability to
compete in all aspects of energy and they threaten to keep third world nations
in the bounds of poverty through the same insane nearsighted constraints. If
you look closely at just the “extras” you pay for gasoline it should make you
seethe. When you pull up to the pump, you pay 18.5 cents in federal taxes, 35
cents in Washington State taxes, and about $1.35 in ethanol subsidies. So when
you buy gasoline, you pay for the ethanol you burn and you pay again for the
ethanol you do not burn in the form of subsidies.
Now least you mistakenly think that the gas companies are
getting rich by selling you gas at inflated prices, think again. They make, on
average, about 8 cents a gallon, period. So where does the rest go? It goes for
things like paying for lawyers in order to get environmentalists from filing
frivolous lawsuits over things like the polar bears. According to Robert Bluey,
director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation: “But environmentalists conveniently ignore
the facts about the bears’ growing populations in Alaska, Canada, Russia and
other countries. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, between
20,000 to 25,000 polar bears live around the world today, up significantly from
the 8,000 to 10,000 in the 1960s.” A lot of money goes toward trying to find
more oil, which by the way the USA has plenty of but is unable to drill,
refine, or use it because of radical environmentalists.
In fact, because of the idiotic laws enforced by the EPA,
gasoline refineries are now gearing up to make summer blends for US consumption.
They have to guess how much of each one to make, shut down and retool for each
grade, and then make each one. Why? Environmentalists have gotten us to use
literally dozens of blends, when just three could have the same effect. Plus,
no new refineries have been built for the past 20 years because of environmental
laws restricting them.
Did you know that right now we have plans for nuclear power
plants that are smaller, more efficient, and that are so safe they use about
half the radioactive material for longer periods, and give off less radiation
than burning coal does, but we cannot build them because of environmental laws?
Instead countries like France, Korea, and Japan do so quite effectively.
The USA has literally billions of gallons of natural gas and
oil sitting under the sea off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington,
and Alaska. Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, which contains an estimated 15 billion
barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Add to this the 15 to
25 billion barrels of oil estimated to be in ANWR and the billions more found
in oil shale throughout Montana, Utah, Wyoming, North and South Dakota and you
discover that the USA has plenty of oil and natural gas. When President Bush
recently made a speech concerning this, the Democratic response was to whine
about “all they do is talk about ANWR, ANWR,” but what the Democrats did not do
was say how they would drill for or help us to find more energy resources for
the USA. Instead we have become extremely venerable to and dependent upon
foreign oil. We cannot drill or get to 80-85% of the oil and natural gas this
nation has! This is dangerous for us domestically and if we have to go to war for
any reason. We are too dependent upon foreign oil.
You see the dirty little secret is that these liberal
environmentalists cannot get their communist buddies in oil rich countries like
Venezuela or Russia to go along with their idiotic notions. And, by the way, if
we went to war for oil in Iraq, as many of these left wing wackos would have
you believe, then when is it going to benefit us? When are the billions of
gallons of oil going to be sent here? Guess where it is all going? China,
Russia, and Europe. Why? Because the oil was sold to them by the Iraqis who
control their own oil production, not us!
When the natural gas and oil industry wanted to build a
pipeline recently through the pacific northwest, they were hindered and stopped
by liberal Democrats and radical environmentalists. So, now you pay higher
prices at the pump here because we do not have the ability to get these
products piped here. We have to depend on trucks and trains that raise the
prices sky high.
And what you may not also know is that much of medical
science is severely dependent upon oil for medical plastics, medications,
surgical needs, and more. In fact, you could not buy fresh cereal, milk, or
anything else you do even in your organic food store without the oil industry
making the needed materials to keep your organic tomatoes fresh and good
looking. But the price of these commodities will go up as gas does and the
manufacture of their containers do as well. The only alternative to the use of
plastics is guess what? TREES!
So when my child comes home from school spouting some absurd
notion abut polar bears dying, I could not care less. In fact, I want one for my
winter coat next year when I have to buy one for around the house when I cannot
afford to heat it any longer because of environmentalists. When the idiotic
Bush Administration just placed the polar bear on the endangered species list,
they have just contributed to higher heating oil, diesel and gasoline prices.
Watch as everything literally goes higher and as food riots continue because of
ethanol production. So, how much will you love polar bears when you are living
in the dark and eating worms for food protein?
---
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen ©
2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it,
email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you
must do so in its entirety.
| | |
| Today's Thoughts, 1 Timothy 5:8-15Today’s Thoughts…
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 15, 2008
If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds. As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan. (1 Timothy 5:8-15)
Contrary to popular opinion, we do not find the church in the New Testament involved in inviting the unsaved into its midst. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The Christian was not to have anything to do with the non-Christian nor were they to make the church into anything that remotely resembled the world around them! Why? It would lead them into areas that were not directed towards worship and discipleship. In fact, Paul addresses some of these very issues in reminding Timothy that “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever!” A Christian family needs to take care of their family!
Paul gets pretty tough when he lays down some guidelines for Timothy concerning widows in his church: “No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.” How many widows, who belong to your church, meet these guidelines? I thought so, very few. But Paul goes on and says, “As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.” (1 Timothy 5:8-15) Can you imagine any pastor getting up in church today and saying such a thing? In our day we have to show concern and compassion for anyone, even the ungodly in our midst! Do you see Paul directing Timothy to do such a thing? Absolutely not!
Why would Paul say these things to Timothy? I believe it was because Timothy had allowed some of the women in his church to begin to control the spiritual and emotional attitude of the church in Ephesus. They were causing more harm than good. Enough of them had “become idlers, gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to!” Timothy needed to take control again and the church there needed to do what it was called to do in the first place. This church had become a social club instead of the body of Christ it was meant to be. Sound familiar? Far too many churches fall into this category today.
A church is not a weigh in station where the social gossip is to be preached, but rather the gospel of Christ! It is not a hearing aid station to sound off on every minor inconvenience that comes along either. The church is the called out of Christ. It is to be about discipling its members in the truths of the gospel to be the family of God it is supposed to be! Little one of the Lord, if you are a widow, a widower, a single parent, or a senior adult -- live a godly life in the Lord and mentor others around you to live godly lives as well! As the family of God, we are to live like it. I pray your church does and that you do as well.
---
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety. | | |
| Today's Thoughts, 1 Timothy 5:1-6Today’s Thoughts…
By Pastor lee Hemen
May 14, 2008
Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. (1 Timothy 5:1-6)
What should the ekklēsia, the Body of Christ, His church be doing in the world? Some think that it is to get as many people through its front doors as possible. This seems like a good idea, if you are Wal-Mart, but that is not the New Testament concept of the church nor what it is to be about. The idea of the local church changed dramatically in the early 1900s in America. It went from individuals evangelizing and discipling the lost, to a big box concept of the mass weekend revival every Sunday morning. The Billy Sunday-Dwight L. Moody concept of church Sunday morning evangelism! Yahoo! However, if one would pause for one moment and take a biblical look at Scripture, you do not find it anywhere in its pages nor do you find the Apostles or Jesus teaching it. Do not make the mistake of confusing the Sermon on the Mount or Pentecost with what the church is supposed to be and do as a local ekklēsia, even for Sunday worship. If you do, you are in biblical error.
We find Paul exhorting Timothy, a new pastor who was kind of timid in his leadership, to get some backbone and confront some ungodly issues in his church at Ephesus. The first were false teachers, but the rest dealt with how the church there was not being the local church it should have been. Paul tells Timothy to take care of the “widows,” or for today’s church, the senior adults “who are really in need.” Those who actually needed help because they had no immediate family to take care of them. In fact, these older adults were to be mentors for the younger men and women as godly examples. Those who were widows (or widowers) were to live godly lives by putting “their religion into practice by caring for their own family.” This would bring honor to their own “parents and grandparents” because they were living godly lives. Too many senior adults in our day and age “retire”’ from church and go and do their own thing. Not only is this not biblical, you cannot find retirement mentioned anywhere in Scripture! Not only is there no retirement from your daily duties as a parent or grandparent, but there is no retirement from doing the master’s business in His ekklēsia, church! We have lost sight of what it means to be part of the Body of Christ here in the world!
We find Paul relating that “If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.” (v. 16) Family is supposed to take care of family. Just as a church family is to take care of its own first, so too the Christian family is to make sure their own are provided for! Does your church do this? Many churches put great emphasis on missions, ministries for reaching the lost, but neglect their own members. We have turned the concept of church upside down. The church family is to take care of its own first, so much so that the outside world wonders at the beauty of it! Try getting that done during the next board meeting at your church where they are trying to decide if they want to buy a big screen TV for the youth room, a new fountain for the foyer, or shuttle cars for the parking lot to bring the Sunday morning tourists in.
The truth of the matter is, the world is not attracted to the gospel of Jesus because we do not do enough post modern generation next things on Sunday morning, the world is not being attracted to the gospel because today’s church acts like the rest of the world! It has ceased being a family of God that takes care of its own first and foremost, making sure every member of the Body of Jesus is being taken care of correctly! The church today is more interested in how many camels will be on stage for next year’s Christmas pageant, than making sure its senior adults are taken care of. (And, no, I am not talking about taking another foliage tour or having a Senior Adult Day!)
Today, dear child of the King, pause and think for a moment about those in your church. How many do you know? How many are actually members? Are there those in your congregation that are being neglected because your church is going on another mission’s vacation instead of making sure its own family are properly mentored and provided for? Is your church a family of God or a Wal-Mart? Remember, Christians are not called to be in the “church business,” but to be the called out of God in their community. Pray for your church to be the church of God where you are.
---
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety.
| | |
| Today's Thoughts, 1 Timothy 5:7Today’s Thoughts…
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 13, 2008
Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. (1 Timothy 5:7)
Church for many in our day and age has just become a place they go to “worship God” on Sunday mornings. But what does that really mean? It is where they enjoy a good “talk”, great music, and the ability to get away from the kids for a time to relax and take pleasure in feeling, well, you know – kind of godly. Sounds good, huh? Yet did you know that much of that picture is not only unbiblical, it is leading many away from what the church is to really be about. The church, as defined by Jesus and the rest of the new Testament authors, takes its name from the word ekklēsia, pronounced “ek-klay-see'-ah.” It means a specific group of individuals that were called out to do a specific task. This is the context Jesus uses the word in Matthew 18 when He talks about going out and finding a church member that has wandered off, church discipline, church government, and the church’s purpose. It was His “body,” made up of His people who were called out to do His work and will. His ekklēsia. Paul taught that believers were to be members of the ekklēsia: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it,” (1 Corinthians 12:27) and, “It was [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13)
The church, the body of Christ, therefore is a specific local group of people who have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and are doing His work and will in the world by using the gifts He has given them. They are the ekklēsia, the called out of Christ in the world. Why then do we allow so many to treat it as weekend entertainment, a babysitting service for saints, or a mortuary? Why do we neglect those who are its members? Why do we never get involved, give very little to its work in our time, talent, or treasure, meaning actually TITHE?
You can have huge programs, draw large crowds, and have great music but not be the body of Christ. At best, you are part of great theater. You may as well sit in a darkened room, watching it projected images on a big screen… wait! There are so called “churches” that do just that! They have taken the next ungodly step in alienating people from one another and sterilizing the church. We have forgotten that the body of Christ is not for us, a free weekend show, but for the work and will of Jesus Christ in the community it exists in. It is supposed to be His body here on this earth, doing His will, and not a weekly stage production or simply “going through the motions.”
Small churches have lost contact with the body of Christ as well. They can become myopic and only worry about “us four and no more.” They can become filled with “dead men’s bones” waiting and wishing to die a slow but miserable death that they just show up on Sundays and go through the motions of worship. PEOPLE, never ever think that the size of the congregation or the amount of program determines the Spirit’s activity within a church because much of that is prepackaged and choreographed in our day and age. You cannot plan people’s actual worship, only what they may feel during your presentation. And generated feelings or canned emotions are not true worship no matter how much energy we put into them. (More about true worship some other time.)
Where is the church of Christ today? Paul tells Timothy, “Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame.” What were these “instructions?” Stay tuned for more information to come… but today pray that God will actually lead you to joining and serving in His body, His ekklēsia. Find a church home that is seeking to do His work and will in the world and is not so concerned about the show they put on. Find one that actually asks you to join and get involved. While no church is perfect, because it is made up of redeemed people, it should be seeking to do His work and will as you should be also. It should act as a family, lovingly caring for one another.
---
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety.
| | |
|
