The Fighting Fundamental Forums

1Ti 5:21  I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. 

I love the Scriptures. I do. They always put things in perspective. 

I often see articles titled along the lines of 

"10 things you should do for your pastor". 
"Why you should support the "man of God". 
"What a pastor really needs".

I often want to almost scream....... and ask... WHY do you want to focus on the pastor at the expense of everyone else?

I know people think a pastor is something special. Somehow he's fighting things no one else is fighting. Experiencing emotions that no one else is experiencing. Face troubles no one else is facing.....

Yeah. Right. There is no temptation taken you but such as common to man. 

You know what "pastors" are so much in focus these days?

I tell you why. Because Satan doesn't care that you're focusing more on your pastor than you are on your own Master. He doesn't care if you praise your pastor more than you praise your Master. He doesn't care if you want to follow your pastor MORE... than you want to follow your Master. 

All the time you're focusing on your pastor... being this supper human "man of God"..... you're missing the fact that we are all equal in Christ. That we all face the exact same things. We all need each others help. 

Next "pastor appreciation day"..... why don't you skip it and demand a "member appreciation day".

my honest opinion on this?........ which i can already imagine the objections some would have to it, before i even write it...... ...mankind is a creature who feels an undeniable need to worship..... ...anything..... anyone..... as long as it is something he can look up to or place on a pedestal.... ....it;s something that was created in man by God and made a part of his dna..... ....where ever you find mankind...in every little hidden and remote part of the world.... he is either kneeling to something..... lying on his face in front of it...... sacrificing or slaughtering some thing or someone precious to him to offer up to what he worships...... . or desparately trying to find something to kneel before and slaughter to if nothing is redily available. ..... ... ....... it cannot be escaped..... ..it cannot be denied...... .. .... and in most cases those false and contrived gods they kneel to are cruel and vicious..... demanding the blood of the worshippers... their body.....their life ..... their soul...... and often even demanding the lives, blood and souls of their children..... which they shred .. consume ...... and destroy..... without reward or remorse....... the worshippers of such live a life governed by fear and guilt..... 

but for christians.... who know the God that created them.... .. there is no desparate search.....and their is no demand for blood... .... God commands us to kneel only before Him and to no other.... but does so in love.... and He is the keeper of our souls who allows no harm to come to them until we are brought into His presence in heaven..... no matter what else happens here on earth... ... .... He tells us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice and to serve Him in love without fear or guilt..... and to walk by faith.....

but for a large portion of mankind ... even many of those embedded within christianity..... ... walking by faith is the hardest part.... even harder for them than sacrificing themselves or their children to idols...... and so they continue on their search for something to place on a pedestal and kneel to....... ... 

this is where the narcisist with the god complex .. that calls himself "pastor" walks in.... ...immitating many if not most of the qualities of a real pastor.....but possessing little or none of the faith that a real pastor has..... and he offers those who find it hard to place their faith in God an alternative person to place their faith in.... and alternative person to idolize and worship.... while at the same time telling them they are doing it all for God..... often taking from the members of their congregations some of the very same things the pagan worshipper of idols give up to their gods..... then controlling the people that look to them with fear and guilt.... 

no real servant of God would ever allow himself to be fawned over or worshipped..... or even placed on a pedestal above the rest of the congregation.....he would never try to exert such control over others.....  ... in fact he would not even allow himself to be used as a role model..... .....in revelation when john tried to kneel before an angel and worship him the angel warned him "see thou do it not".... and told him that even he, as an angel, is nothing more than a fellow servant of God.... and that only God is worthy of worship..... 

if i was some of these pastors i would cringe every time i came across that passage of scripture.... ... because many of them have done the very thing that angel refused to do.... ....maybe not in a literal since of allowing their congregations to kneel before them..... but in other ways by doing and allowing the things that set them above the rest of the congregation and cause other servants of God to see and treat them as special..... someone worthy of and needing more special attention than even God Himself.... .....in the end it;s a sin they will not be able to deny.... and will not able to escape..... and neither will their congregations who fell for it........