Bearing, Adopting and Other Parenting Issues

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? (Galatians 3:1)

Let us look at the church with a parent’s lens. It will help us appreciate the reason we have the issues we see in the church today. That a parent determines to a very huge extent how a child turns out is not in doubt.

The major reason is that the relationship between a child and parent will set in motion a path (I may call it a rut) the child may be unable to leave however hard he tries. That is the plain teaching of the Bible.

What do I mean? You may be wondering.

Do you know how hard it is to discipline a neighbor’s child, however undisciplined he may be? Do you know how disconcerting it may be to rebuke, even scold an adopted child?

Why is that?

The parental link is a loose one. And it is temporal however permanent you may want it to be. Sad to say the step-child step-parent bond for the most part fails due to that.

Your child on the other hand is yours and you made the connection that leaves no gaps, no options. You can therefore beat him sore and he won’t think of running away as he has no better place to run to. But it is also because he is assured of love and concern; they know that however painful it might be, it stems from love.

I have had a slight experience with an adopted son. And it was not a pleasant one. There are things I really wanted to say or do but couldn’t as I was not sure his past experiences enable him to handle the new things or facts I am presenting. Their past injuries, probably neglect may have predetermined them to be unable to receive my concern. There is a rebuke I may have but am unsure they may be able to even recognize it as such or may think of it as hatred.

You relate with them with gloves in your spiritual hands. Because they may just choose to walk away from all your love and concern like mine did without notice.

That is why discipleship is so important to spiritual growth. You see, spiritual relationships are not much different. One’s level and depth of involvement in the spiritual life of a believer determines their level of intervention especially if something goes wrong.

It explains the reason very few pastors preach against sin. They are scared their ‘flock’ will run away and look for another shepherd. Another reason is that they really are not spiritual parents as they are not interested in properly feeding in that flock.

If truth be told, they are just interested in the offerings those sheep keep bringing. But even if we overlooked the offering expectation, there is no real familial connection to warrant an open rebuke because the pastor is just one of the people the believer meets in his journey of life. He therefore has no spiritual ‘moral’ status to rebuke someone else’s child since their connection consists of the sermons he preaches. His sacrifice is therefore limited to the preparation of those sermons and nothing else.

That is the reason marriages are breaking all around us as no congregant trusts his pastor with his intimate and deep issues since he was never involved in their foundation. They do not trust you with their bosom matters. They will only call you when they are celebrating this or the other as that is what your sermons feed them on. Many pastors know their sheep has divorced from the rumors. And he is not ashamed to be called their pastor!

I have heard pastors complaining that people are filling other people’s offices (who are not employed as pastors) even as the pastors lie idle. One actually made that complaint in a staff meeting. They think the title pastor is all a person needs to approach someone for spiritual assistance. Some pastors get frustrated when they realize that their secretary is more spiritually sought than they are. They sometimes accuse their secretary of sabotage or insubordination without realizing that someone will always go where they are sure of getting the required assistance. It is therefore not strange to find a gateman handling more spiritual issues than the pastor who has employed him because he has a better father heart than his boss.

Why are churches so full of divorcees, single mothers and women who call men dogs? The pastor supports them. And I mean what I have just said.

Why does the Bible say that God hates divorce? It is simply that, God hates divorce. This directly means that He loves it when marriages are healing or healthy. That is God’s standard.

It therefore means that a pastor with God’s heart will seek healing for all those breaking or broken marriages. He will lack sleep looking for solutions for those relationships. And instead of preaching success and breakthrough he will concentrate on healing for those relationships. Because he seeks to deal with one thing he knows God hates.

Some talk of irreconcilable differences. What makes them so? What have you done to decide they are such if the only word you have is from one of the two parties? Has God told you? Has He told you He tried and failed to restore the relationship? How much prayer have you invested in the healing?

A hurting person kicks very hard to prove to the world that they are past the injury; and spiritual and emotional injury is even worse. They may be acquiring this and the other to prove that they have moved beyond the injury and especially to show the partner who was involved with the injury that their departure was of no consequence. That show of success is a very thin veneer to cover a very bleeding heart and spirit that only a genuine shepherd can see.

That is why I am talking about a father’s heart. It is because a good father can see beyond braggadocio to an injury being covered. And it is because he is interested in the inner person as opposed to outside manifestations. He is aware that those outside accomplishments are temporal and have no capacity at all to offer real contentment or fulfillment. They are even worse as they might divert someone’s focus from the eternal. Imagine your sheep going to hell as you are applauding his earthly accomplishments!

The modern pastor is just a druggist specializing in pain killing medication (spiritual). He is not much different from the methamphetamines people take to dull their frustrations instead of facing them. His teaching dulls people from their injuries, making them live in denial as if the denial will make the issues disappear. Then they will start to pursue other interests to fortify that denial.

When was the last time you saw a pastor introducing a couple whose marriage he has helped restore? Have you even seen such an event in any church you have attended? Does it mean that all broken marriages have irreconcilable differences?

It is interesting, however, to find out that the hurting will rarely run to a pastor without a father’s heart, even if he does not have the title. It is just like with children who have a home with the best toys yet will never run there in a crisis but will run to the one with a heart sober enough to parent them.

Have you seen a pastor weeping for broken marriages in his church? Have you seen a pastor in pain because his young people are not seeking his blessing before starting to cohabit? Have you seen a pastor calling for a fast to reverse the tide of breaking and broken marriages? Ever heard a pastor threatening to resign if the leadership does not exhibit Christlikeness? Remember Ezra?

This points to a pastor who is an employee instead of a father. He is what Christ called the hireling. The state of his congregation does not warrant his pain, however agonizing their hurt is.

I simply want to state that a father experiences more pain than his hurting flock/ children.

That is what is lacking in the church today. Very few pastors have any empathy for their congregation. Their pain does not affect the pastor, unless it is those with resources to pamper him. And it lacks because very few pastors are interested in parenting their flock. That is why nowadays the only ‘sin’ warranting excommunication is disagreeing with the pastor or his leadership.

Paul could write those tough words because he was not scared the church could desert. And we see the same when we read his letters to the Corinthians and many other letters. He was writing as a father to churches he not only preached the Gospel to but was also involved in their discipleship. His position of authority over them was therefore not under any threat.

Another thing I will add is that a father is not a crisis handler. He sees ahead of time and therefore prepares the child to avoid danger ahead.

As an example, no failed marriage failed after the wedding. The grounds for the failure were laid much earlier, in the betrothment and the courtship and the preparation for the wedding. It many times starts with the company the two kept and their views on marriage. And of course the foundation was laid in the kind of marriage their parents had.

A good father (pastor) will therefore be more interested in the preparation for the marriage than he will be in the wedding ceremony. Some wedding ceremonies are the foundation for failed marriages for the simple reason that they elevate the event way above the relationship.

It therefore means that a godly pastor will ensure that the relationships of the people under his watch are real and healthy. That display for this or the other is minimized, if not killed altogether as it has a capacity of diverting attention from the real important issues.

Again this is what discipleship is and does.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42)

Instruction is a must, instruction on the scriptures. The youth will not be left to wander in the maze of relationships without fatherly (pastoral) instruction as it is a sure recipe for failed marriages.

This is just one aspect I have dealt with. Suppose pastors would ask God to give them His heart for His flock. Will they look at His flock in the same way?

I have not even touched on the hurting, especially the ones whose hurt or shame drove away and the fact that a father will look for them wherever they may have gone hiding. Again as a father he will spare no cost to restore. That is the plain teaching of the Bible. That is one reason David was elevated from shepherding sheep to reigning over God’s heritage. I remember reading the story of a father who became ‘homeless’ on the streets to be able to reach and rescue his drug addicted daughter.

A Biblically persuaded pastor will not only weep for the hurts of those he shepherds. He will actively seek those who even think they are beyond rescue. He will go to the dumpsters to rescue sheep that have sunk that low and have no capacity to even imagine rescue is possible.

Like Christ said, a pastor with His heart will not seek the healthy, but seek the sick to bring them Christ’s healing.

What kind of pastor are you? What kind of pastor shepherds you?

Of Shepherds and Sheep

I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. (John 8: 26 – 29)

Who is a pastor? Why does he get his operating instructions from? Is he also a sheep? Can he be a sheep? Must he be a sheep?

I am just wondering how modern pastors are so different from the pastors in the Bible and history. This is because they behave as autonomous as autonomy itself yet confess connection to Christ.

Sample this. A pastor goes to a prayer mountain and comes out with the whole sermon series and program for the whole year. In other words, all his sermons (even those to be preached by guest speakers, whatever that means) are released in that short or long time of prayer.

In those sermons are all the prophecies to his church, all the breakthroughs to be experienced by his church, even all the nitty gritty of his church, for the whole year.

Nothing can change in this church as that revelation is like the constitution of the Media-Persians. No other word can proceed from heaven if it is not in line with that release. Even God cannot do anything different as He ought to have finished His revelation on that mountain.

Is that pastor Christ’s sheep? Does he depend on Christ for his revelation?

Let us look at the passage above. Jesus did nothing but what He saw the Father doing. He said nothing but at the promptings of His Father. And you see that in many other passages, especially as you read the book of John.

It is clear from scripture that Jesus was the whole focus of creation and redemption (Colossians 1:16). Since He was there before the beginning, He knew the whole panorama (beginning to end) of everything and so could have functioned perfectly well without guidance from the Father as He had the whole picture. Why had He to see His Father working before He worked? Why couldn’t He just do things as He knew them?

Philippians 2 deals with that. Though He was God, His assignment required that He sheds His Godness and operates as a servant. And a servant does not originate commands or instructions. That is the reason He only said and did those things His Father was doing.

How come we can originate sermons for a whole year and still call ourselves ministers (servants)? What kind of servant refers his master once a year yet still claim he operates under his leadership and serves in his presence? How reasonable can that be?

I ask again. Is the shepherd a sheep?

This is because a sheep is completely dependent on its shepherd. A goat is the one that is independent. And it is imperative that the sheep maintains its relationship with its shepherd as it will not know its way home even if it has walked that road innumerable times.

We have enough stories of lost sheep in the Bible. We also have ones of defective shepherds.

A Biblical pastor is Christ’s sheep who will get lost if he loses close connection with Christ. As opposed to being bright and independent and creative, he is actually a lost sheep at best, and a goat at the worst.

Yet that is what most pastors, bishops etc. have become. They do not need prayer (though they will never confess it), they do not need guidance (they are educated enough), and they do not need fellowship (except with their ilk). They are smug in their practice of religion. No wonder they can come up with a yearly revelation, five year plan etc. yet they do not call on supporting prayer even when making smaller decisions.

A self-contained pastor is a goat. He needs Christ as a mention to defraud God’s people into believing he is a sheep like them.

Are you a sheep or a goat? Is your spiritual leader a sheep or a goat?

Simply speaking, a sheep is like Christ, someone who was always looking at what His Father was doing to be able to copy it. He only spoke what He heard His Father speaking.

He had no year plan of miracles He will perform, sermons He will preach, people He will rebuke and fight and so on.

How close is your pastor to that?

I know some of you are angry enough at me to pray bad things happen to me. But I am not scared. Just look for the verses to throw at me. They could knock me out completely.

Let me give my experience a bit.

As a teacher by calling and gifting, it is imperative that I study a lot. I do not hit sermons instinctively. But over the years I have come to learn that my study is not for the purposes of teaching or preaching. I simply study to know my Shepherd better. Then I can speak about Him with greater clarity.

Second is the fact that I do not have any ministry of my own. I minister unto Him, for Him and to Him. I therefore do not teach my study but about our Shepherd. I am also sheep after all. I therefore do not have any message of my own to preach or teach. I can only say what I am told to say.

I remember over thirty years, shortly after I had responded to God’s call, being invited to preach. I prayerfully prepared a sermon for a week, filling all gaps and making the sermon as clear and understandable as I could. I made all the notes, references etc.

I was about to be called to preach when God told me to put the notes down.

Of course I resist. First thing I ask is what then will I preach? He tells me to put the notes down. Why then did He give me the direction and leading as I prepared the sermon? Put the notes down.

I finally decide to obey and put the notes down. Then I open my Bible and my eyes fall on John 9.

We now will invite the speaker. The service leader says even before I get to read what the passage is about.

I stood up, read the passage and preached. I do not know what I said or how I said it. But at the end of it several people walked in front to receive the Shepherd.

Since that time I stopped being uptight about what I will preach or teach. I still prepare messages as thoroughly as I can. But I know God has called me to speak about Him and not impress people about my knowledge. To this day I will once in a while be ordered to put aside the notes I have prepared and give another message He wants me to share with His people.

Or do you think they are your people?

Sometime I will even tell the congregation that God has changed the message I had prepared, especially when it was a series of teachings going on. At other times He will have you teach a topic for long, like recently when I taught about worship, music and singing for over eight months without a break because God would not allow me to move on to another topic.

I am a sheep and strive to make the people I teach sheep too.

I do not want to be a goat. Do you?

When Zeal Kills

When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken. (Deuteronomy 24:5)

I want to play the devil’s advocate today.

I have said that I suspect that Bathsheba set up David for that fling that brought so much pain on the man of God and his kingdom. And of course there are verses that demonstrate her complicity. But today I want to see whether she can be defended for doing so.

But we will first look at her husband. Who was Uriah?

He hailed from the Hittites, a heathen nation, one of the ones that were to be cleared for Israel to occupy the Promised Land.

How did he get a Hebrew name? He must have converted to the faith of Israel so completely that he wanted no trace of his past that would remind him of the gods he had served previously. He joined that faith alone as we are not told that he had siblings. Also according to the Bible David could not have married his wife after his death as his brother was the one permitted by law to take her.

How did he join Israel and David? Allow me poetic license as I recreate a scenario that may possibly have led to his conversion.

Let us imagine him with the Philistines as they were the most powerful army around. You know that armies and their generals ascribed their victories to their gods. It is possible in his spiritual pursuit he ended up in Gath, Goliath’s city. And it held him spellbound as it was a city of giants who could fight.

We therefore have him side by side with Goliath as the giant taunts Israel and their gods. And he is feeling the greatest thrill serving an unbeatable army especially when the Israeli army runs to hide after Goliath appears.

Then the other army sends a small boy to face his hero, the indomitable Goliath. He does not have armor or weapon. He joins his army at laughing at this folly.

Then Goliath speaks with a voice that shakes the hills, the same voice that had sent his army scampering, but the boy does not show any fright.

They keep quiet when they realize he has started to speak so as to catch his words. And what words he speaks!

You come with weapons, I come with a name. That catches every one’s attention.

Then he rushes toward Goliath with sling. Just like that and Goliath goes down, totally.

He decides he must have that God. As the rest of the army is fleeing he flees them to the direction of Israel with raised hands shouting that he wants that God. And they accept him. They do not even have a problem having him joining their army.

In a short while, David, his small hero is chased from the palace and he decides to follow him though he had no issues in the palace. He just decided he must be close to the one person who knew enough about his God to face a giant without weapons or armor. He even enjoys the adventure of fleeing and hiding that was their lot especially because he was able to see David’s faith even better.

When David becomes king, the wars reduce but do not end. Every so often they have an enemy or other to deal with.

It is in Jerusalem that his faith is confirmed when he is given a Hebrew girl to marry. But even then he is in and out due to the many wars David was involved in; especially that he had gone up in rank. He therefore does not get to spend as much time with his young wife as he may have wanted.

This is the situation the girl found herself in. She had a ‘tourist’ for a husband and so was thoroughly frustrated. She was all alone in a huge house with a husband who would come for a break and not even sleep in his house if the army was not also around.

Why did God issue that commandment? The army calls for sacrifice. Someone must therefore be ready to die at any time in the course of their service and had to consider his wife.

The one year was to give them enough time to bond as a couple. That bonding would also have produced a child who could have kept his wife busy in his absence as well as ensure the continuity of his name should he die. And Uriah had failed that test. Deuteronomy 20: 5 – 7 also deals with that.

Why did he fail? I believe he was not properly inducted into the faith of the Hebrews. He was not introduced to the scriptures. The only priest on their team had enough problems to think of teaching foreign converts religion.

He therefore changed gods but failed to know the dictates of his new God and thus dealt with Him as he had dealt with the gods he had served previously. And we know those gods do not have provisions for marriage and family. Their only interest is self-interest.

It is no wonder that he could come on an errand to the city and go back before seeing his wife as we saw when he was being set up by the king.

What does a young and attractive girl do under those circumstances?

Now assume that she went through as much religious instruction as her husband. Will she have the knowledge to resist the temptations and urges her body will place upon her? Will she be able to resist the pressure of her worldly wiser sisters who do not care what God demands? Will she be able to counter the suggestions and accusations her age mates will on her and her husband sleeping out in the cold whereas she was in his house, alone?

Does this mean I support her? Of course not. Sin is sin and the scriptures do not have any room or excuses for sin.

But I write this not just as a post mortem of sin. I write this to help us appreciate that similar things are happening in the church of Christ for the same reasons. We have neglected instruction on the scriptures. We have no place for the public reading of the Bible in our churches. But saddest of all we do not even think the Bible is pivotal to a healthy Christian life.

The successful pastor is not one who expounds scripture accurately but the one who gathers information from all over to expound on a single verse of the Bible. Worship is singing that makes us feel nice instead of challenging us to be holy.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28: 19, 20)

Where is the place for discipleship in our generation? What actually do we understand discipleship to mean?

A secular musician gets saved (we assume genuinely) and before we even understand where he comes from we get him singing in church, many times making him a key leader in the singing (many would call him a worship leader). All the worship he knows is in the other kingdom. Then we are hurt and even feel betrayed when he breaks down, gets into sin or even backslides.

A dreaded criminal, say a thief gets saved in prison. His testimony leaks even before he leaves prison. He comes back to society and he is received with open arms by a church that needs a pastor. And they hire him. And they will be shocked when hard times come that the offering starts disappearing!

You see, a conversion, however drastic it may be, has no capacity to build spiritual muscle instantly. That is the reason for this verse dealing with leadership.

Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. (1Timothy 3:6)

It is like planting a fruit tree and expecting to harvest the next day!

There must be adequate time between conversion and commissioning. And that duration should be infused with instruction to the faith. This is because I know enough believers who have been saved for decades yet are spiritual infants. You find them taking milk at fifty

What do I mean? There are many of you out there who have never noticed a preacher incorrectly quote or apply scripture as they hang on his every word. They do not countercheck those notes they take with the scriptures. They do not question the outrageous prophetic pronouncements even when they fall flat. They do not question the openly sinful tendencies some of those pastors and bishops do not even attempt to cover up. They think ‘touch not my anointed’ applies only to the big man/ woman. And only because they are deceived to think Martin Luther protested to replace the catholic pope with their bishop or pastor emeritus. Yet the foundation of that protest was to have every believer able to read and understand the scriptures without needing the clutches that are the clergy.

Don’t you know that the presence of the Holy Spirit in you makes you anointed too?

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1Peter 2:9)

A public anointing is not an introduction to anointing, just the confirmation of the same for public spiritual service.

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1John 2:27)

And there are many verses proving that the believer has the anointing and does not need other anointings to be anointed of God. Sadly, some of those anointed are anointed with other oils just like Aaron’s sons presented a strange fire. That is why they display arrogance and pride. And we know Christ’s anointing produces humility and servant hood.

Yet this false display of anointing may be the clearest pointer of the fact that we do not properly prepare and equip those we put in spiritual positions. We do not prepare their spiritual muscle to handle the spiritual rigors of the exertions those positions require. Like with Uriah and Bathsheba we care only for the fact that they will fight our battles without caring that their world could be falling apart.

Just imagine with me that Uriah did not die and came to learn that the king whose God he had followed, had slept with his wife. What could have happened to his faith?

Do you know for a fact that many people have suffered the same, and worse, at the hands of those spiritual superstars they follow? I for one have had a few such experiences and so am not just writing. I understand the pain. Many people gave up on the faith because of what they went through those ‘giants’ of faith.

Yet do you know what the real problem is? The injured and the injurer have not had a real encounter with God. They therefore know God from a distance, what they hear or have read about God, and certainly not from the Bible. They landed to those positions and relationships without much spiritual effort on their side. They therefore have no one to take their pain to when their world crashes.

I could have crashed were it not for the fact that I had experienced God outside those people and structures. I therefore knew where to take my pain. And He was more than sufficient to bring healing. Many however do not have that option as they were thrust to the deep end of ministry without preparation. I have counseled with ministers who had given up, some who had even attempted suicide because the pressures of ministry were immense. This comes about many times because a youth pastor, missions’ pastor, house group leader, choir master/ worship leader gives responsibility and forgets that the same young person has other responsibilities at home or school/ college. And the mindset that church work is worthier than their ‘unspiritual’ responsibilities. They will therefore cave in when the parent or teacher rightly stands his ground.

Many very successful ministers (in the worldly sense) are spiritual toddlers yet they are treated as spiritual giants. They simply can’t handle the pressure their ministry exposure brings their way.

How many crybabies do we see when a cyber-bully trashes their testimony or even asks a very personal question on their page? How many think they are being persecuted when they are invited to a function to perform and something changes at the last minute? How many are unable to keep their word? How many have no private devotional life? And how many wrack their minds to remember the last time they read the Bible for its own sake?

It all boils down to foundations. Like with Uriah and Bathsheba, we become content with zeal and gifts and overlook character and its development. We are happy provided people are serving God and do not care the cost of that service to them.

We are not much different from the capitalist who revels at getting maximum output from minimum input as profit is the king of the enterprise. We forget that God operates on a completely different plane from that when we decide to seek the scriptures for direction. And it is that plane He expects us to operate ALL the time without any excuse.

Since creation, God develops someone before using him. He never calls someone He has not heavily invested in. That is His expectation for His people. It simply means that if you use readymade people you are not operating in His Spirit and leadership. And there is no short cut to this.

We therefore sow in the lives of people before reaping any spiritual harvest from them. We must invest heavily in their discipleship before commissioning them to join our program even if we will call it ministry. Otherwise we are spiritual thieves! And we must reap our spiritual thievery.

I am also talking about giving. Just because you excite the people who are under your voice any Sunday does not qualify you to eat any of their offering. You may discover that there are other people who have invested heavily in their spiritual stability before they came for your entertainment. There are some you trashed and others were not ashamed to lift them up, yet you still think they owe you that offering because they came to you after others were involved in their healing and lifting. Maybe that pastor who agonizes preaching and making a difference in the slums is the reason you are enjoying that success as very few raised in the slums ever want to be identified with them when they ‘succeed’. They therefore will leave their struggling church for your successful one especially because they have space to park their cars. You forget that there was a minister who invested in their spiritual formation when they were not visible in any radar, when they were being called nothings.

How many can you say are spiritually stable and bearing fruit because of your spiritual investment? And reading books you sold to them does not count. It is business. Seminars you taught may also not qualify as you knew you will be given honorarium. We are talking of parenting the way a parent takes care of an infant when it has no capacity to even manage its poop, let alone taking care of itself.

I long for the day when decisions will not be the only spoils of evangelism. I pray for the day when decisions will, instead of bringing celebrations, will raise a great cry and concern for follow up and discipleship to ensure that Christ’s army grows as we deal with spiritual infant mortality.

This is because it is impossible to have ten people getting saved in a village without a visible change everywhere. In the first century only a very small percentage of the world was saved, yet the few were able to turn the world upside down. And their strength was discipleship and instruction in the scriptures.

Let me mention something else that troubles me, especially because it is spiritual leaders who are involved in it. So much time is being wasted debating on the best and worse translation of the Bible. Are the people you want to impress read their Bible? Do they even see the Bible as instrumental in their spiritual life?

Could we be playing the devil’s game by giving believers a reason to stop reading the Bible since they do not know the best translation or the one with removed or added verses?

God inspires the scriptures when we are reading just as He inspired those who wrote them.

My conviction is that a believer who reads the Jehovah’s Witness Bible is way better than the one with the best translation on his shelf. In fact even the Muslim who reads his Quran might find Christ faster and easier than the believer with all the ancient manuscripts that he doesn’t read.

That is not to say there are no ‘bad’ translations. It does not mean that verses have not been removed in some. It simply means that God will use the Bible you read to bring His truth to you. He is the one who will inspire the scriptures as you read them.

I like it when someone approaches me after getting confused about a passage or words that do not connect as they read a particular Bible. That is the person I can engage about versions as he consistently reads, so much that he has been able to see some inconsistencies. Otherwise I just tell people to read the Bible they have.

Let me give an analogy. Who needs to learn nutrition? Is it people with food or those who are starving? Just imagine with me that you are taking relief food to a starving village. Before you leave you see them start to prepare food and you see them pick a jar of animal fat to fry food with.

That is bad cholesterol, you shout to them. It will clog your arteries and kill you with high blood pressure. Will they listen to you? Does it even make sense to them? Would you listen to yourself if you were in their situation? In fact they need that cholesterol to take care of their bodies when they do not have food.

That is how it is with the Bible. It is only the consistent readers of the Bible who should be speaking about translations, and not on social media but in the privacy of their studies. Otherwise you are helping the evil one dissuade believers from reading God’s word.

How central is the Bible to the Christian life Christian leader?

My greatest joy and fulfillment is when I meet a person I gave a Bible Reading Plan less than a week before proclaiming how they are enjoying reading the Bible and the kind of impact it is having on their life. I am excited when like yesterday I released a mission team going to a church outside the country to a church I had invited their leader to accompany me. Now he does not need my name or invitation to go. He just requires my blessing, a blessing I full heartedly release.

I rejoice when people I have discipled will invite me to see them ministering as appreciation for my ministry to them. And of course it gives me great delight to see people I have ministered to supporting ministry, some being pillars of ministries. No money can equate that. No windfall can compensate the feeling a parent has seeing his child making it in life.

Interestingly, that could be the reason we see believers, even pastors getting into gambling through what is called sport betting. They do not know how spiritual sweat is shed. It is the reason pastors are becoming sales people and executives, because they have never experienced the joy of raising spiritual children in the Bible way. They think of the spiritual life as a short cut.

And it is the main reason pastors are scared of preaching against sin, because they do not have their own children and so are scared of scaring them away. A person you disciple will take anything you dish out without running away to the neighbor because they know you have earned that position, just like a parent is not scared of his children running off to the neighbor if they punish or beat them.

Are you a parent to those you call spiritual children? Did you change their spiritual diapers and clean their spiritual poop? Did you teach them to spiritually walk and talk and manners?

If not, you are not their parent, however much you enjoy being called papa and mama. In fact you probably need to look for a papa or mama to start raising you even with your thousands of fake children. Get off that fake perch and ask God to lead you to a father in the faith to raise you properly in the faith. This is especially true if your church is composed of most that joined you from other congregations. Forget the programs you are creating to make you appear like a parent because you are not.

And of course if you are a spiritual pastoralist, running from this church to the other because you always find something wrong somewhere, also ask God to direct you to a parent who will raise you and will therefore qualify to rebuke you because he was involved in growing you. Run away from motivators as they will motivate you to hell since they fear to rebuke you so that you do not run away.

Pray. Let God confirm whether what I am sharing is from Him. Then act accordingly.