Prophetic Focus

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 6:5)

We talk a lot about prophets and prophecy. I have actually been teaching on prophets in church the past few weeks.

Today I want us to look at one aspect that will never confuse anyone to distinguish between false and true prophets, focus.

Where does the prophet direct his people to? Who or what is the object the prophet leads his people to? Whose word can be called unmistakably his?

You see, fulfillment of prophecy is a small part of a prophet’s ministry. Though even one failed prophecy among thousands qualifies a prophet as false, the accuracy of all prophecies does not necessarily qualify a prophet as true.

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. (Deuteronomy 13: 1 – 5)

A prophet’s only focus should be on God. Everything about him should always direct your focus from anything and everything and centre it on God.

He has no name to protect. He has no property to guard. He has no ministry to hold on to as God is his all compassing focus.

A prophet who seeks to remind people of his prophecies is a false prophet. A prophet who parades his prophecies and miracles is a false prophet. And a prophet who demands to be recognized as a prophet is false.

Look at John the Baptist; the one Christ called the greatest.

And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3: 26 – 30)

The joy of John the prophet was that Christ takes the ministry he had started. Remember that even when he pointed Jesus out two of his disciples left him for Jesus? Yet that to him, instead of being a disaster was his greatest joy.

And the study of any other prophet will lead to the same conclusion. A prophet points people to the God he serves. He therefore has no bones to pick with people along the way as his focus is fixed.

Moses’ wife goes back to her father and he has no time to go looking, let alone negotiating for her return. It is her father who has to look for time to return her.

Remember when people old Moses that some people were prophesying outside the prescribed place? Moses said that his desire was that every Israelite prophesied. God’s glory and revelation was paramount to him. The more people connecting to God, the better.

That was how Isaiah could walk naked for three years, a whole prince with a wife and children. That was how David could dance so crazily that his wife despised him. That was how Ezekiel refused to mourn his wife. It was the reason Jeremiah could waste money buying land when the captivity he had prophesied was being actualized.

Prophets were killed for the most part because their comfort, even life was subject to God and His revelation. Even death could not pose any threat to that focus.

In 2 Kings 1, we see Elijah sending messengers to Ahab’s son. How is it that they do not recognize this great prophet the king had to ask them to describe him yet not a very short time had passed after his last encounter with Ahab? It is doubtless because his concern was God’s message as opposed to his prominence. He would thus just give God’s message and disappear. We see that when he prophesies famine and after dealing with idolatrous prophets.

I do not know whether you realize when you read the Bible that prophets were normally looked for unless God sent them with a message. They never established offices or organized congregations. The few who organized anything had schools of prophets, which I believe were centres where the prophetic gift was polished as they sought God together. I doubt it is what modern ‘prophets’ are trying to do, schools where people are taught to prophesy. It must have been a place where young prophets would join a more established prophet to rightly grow the gift. It must also have been for the purposes of comradeship as prophets were normally estranged from society, many times because, as it is now, hearing God clearly is queer to the majority.

A true prophet has no name to protect. His concern is God’s name and word. He has no reputation to guard. He has no class to maintain. No wonder we see Elijah and John the Baptist so coarsely dressed.

Does it surprise you that no prophet made any monument or memorial? That even Moses’ grave was hidden by God Himself? Do you realize that we only know one name of most of the prophets, and probably where they came from?

The records we have of them are the prophecy they were given, the greatest being the Bible we read.

If a prophet is directing you to his prophecies, please run away for your own good. If he is hearing what God is saying concerning your resources, especially moving them to him, treat him as a fraudster, because that is who he is. Forget how many of his prophecies have been fulfilled. If a prophet is seeking recognition, treat him as an attention seeking fraudster also because no prophet seeks his own.

And finally, please remember that a prophet does not speak in a vacuum. A prophet is normally sent to God’s people who know the workings of God and therefore are able to hear God’s voice independent of a prophet. A prophet therefore comes to reconnect people to God’s voice, or confirm God’s guidance. Call a prophet an accessory.

A prophet who is the only one who hears God’s voice is highly suspect.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)

Be wary of a prophet who sees the money in your pocket. Flee a prophet who seeks loyalty from you. And do not even give a cup of water to a prophet whose prophecies have no relation at all with the scriptures.

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2Peter 1: 19 – 21)

Refer any prophecy you are given to the scriptures.

In summary let me say this. A prophet from God will point people to God and not himself or his prophecy. He will also relate his prophecy to the plain teaching of scripture.

If he does not do that, like God Himself said, do not fear him. Do not fear his curses. Do not fear his counter prophesies when you refuse to give him what he says God has told him you give him.

Hold fast to God. He is stronger than any damage the fraudster may, and will, attempt on you.

I have fought many such battles. And the Bible is the only weapon I use. And I am still strong and safe. I know that even now many are throwing anything they can as I am taking food from their mouths. But I will continue being faithful to God and His word as that is our greatest security.

Petty Preaching

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (Matthew 23:24)

Preaching is a noble engagement, especially for someone who has been called to it by God.

However, there are some preachers who have trivialized the same to a contest of creativity and popularity, crafting a discourse without using the Bible text. To the Bible student, not only is it inappropriate and misleading, it is as coarse as the coarse jesting we are warned against in Ephesians 5. Yet it is all done in the pursuit of relevance in preaching using human effort. And it is normally called motivational.

These will make a sermon out of anything and nothing just to keep their congregations entertained, not exhorted. They will pick a word or a small portion of a sentence in a verse and create a message completely unconnected to what even the verse is saying.

I will give a couple of the most notorious I have heard repeatedly over the years. And I quote them because they divert the listener’s attention from the lesson in the scriptures and to the intellect and creativity of the preacher.

The first one comes from Isaiah 6. In the year king Uzziah died. I have heard this countless times. It is sad because Uzziah’s death takes flight and completely obliterates the message found in the rest of the chapter, which is the presence and glory of God. Instead of the death being a point of reference, it becomes the primary focus of the narrative. God’s presence and revelation disappear from the message, as do Isaiah’s conviction and commission.

‘Let Uzziah die in your life’ becomes the rallying point of the discourse. Unfortunately I never even once heard Uzziah defined. It is akin to killing a ghost you cannot see, one you have created in your fancy.

The second comes from Ezekiel. Son of man, stand on your own feet. You would wonder whether someone can stand on someone else’s feet. But the same is preached so powerfully and becomes the only thing God requires from His people, to stand on your feet. I never even once also heard the reasons people were required to stand on their own feet or what they were standing on previously?

Yet we know Ezekiel was just being prepared to handle the message andassignment God had for him to His people.

The third one comes from the Gospels. Jesus passed between them and went his way. Again people are not given the context or even the purpose, just the encouragement that God will make you pass between people to your destiny. Yet we know that only pastoralists and herders pass between animals. It feeds on the people’s competitive pursuit of an edge over others, and especially demonstrates their superiority.

Yet probably the most notorious is the numerologist. The numbers must be used to prove that your time has come according to the numbers. It is not much different from astrology, only that this has been sanitized with a verse here and another there. In astrology it is the stars that align and in numerology it is the numbers that are arranged. They will address from years to months to dates.

Sadly, the numerologist pastors do not agree about the significance or value of each number. What a number would mean for one expert is completely different from another. Even the numbers themselves do not agree amongst themselves to mean one thing even to one expert. When it fits the pastor, 11 is eleven. When it does not agree with his math, it can mean 1+1 or two. 23 can be twenty three or 2+3, five. It can even be 2x3 or six. It all depends on what the numerologist is aiming at. At times even a zero can have a value.

The numerologist forces numbers to pass the message he has prepared. And especially in these times when revelation only comes once a year and so must set the year’s revelation in the right frame.

Anyway, let me boil your brain (a direct translation from Kiswahili)

On Sunday many of you will be encountering numerologists, especially at this time of the year. This is because they will be adding all those numbers to promise you heaven and breakthrough in the year. All because it is their new year, never mind that it is a secular year with enough demonic connections and connotations.

Expect some of the following.

This is 2018, two thousand and eighteen. But I doubt there is any numerologist capable of giving numbers value that far. Therefore many will make the two thousand disappear. Or call it the 18^th year of the third millennium (or second depending on their education).

Many also do not have the value of 18 as a number. They have to split it.

It can be 3x6 but that will be discarded because it can easily mean the antichrist, 6, 6, 6.

So it has to be 2 x 9, which will be double the meaning attached to 9. It will be interpreted to mean a double portion of what 9 means.

Others will add 1 and 8 to make 9.

Still others will resurrect the 2 and add it to the 1 and 8 to make 11, and then make a meaning out of it.

And even that 9 can be further split to be 4 and 5, or 3 and 6 (6 is not a good number normally) or even 2 and 7.

Yet others will choose to ignore all other numbers and be left with8.

And any other combination will be worked out to mean what the preacher wants his congregation to run with this year.

Yet there is a sacred year, a year that God commanded in the scriptures, though I doubt He wanted it to be a clutch to help His people stop reading His word for revelation and guidance.

The saddest thing for these petty peddlers of the spiritual is that they never encourage people to grow to search the scriptures for themselves. They literally stand in lieu of the scriptures and God’s revelation. They are the experts on all things spiritual. And they are still proud of the reformation, even calling themselves Protestants.

They never hold their people to a godly standard. They do not challenge them toward holiness. Their aim is to teach them to expect a breakthrough or the other even as they give to activate that breakthrough. To them grace is an abstract term meaning God does not care how you live provided the numbers and revelations are arranged to favor you.

Will we get back to the public reading and proclamation of the scriptures?

I long for the day preachers will revert to the plain teaching of the Bible irrespective of whether it motivates people or not. I pray to see preachers making God’s grace so real and hell so hot until people literally run to the altar for salvation.

Enough of motivational and entertainment pretending to be preaching.

It is sad that most entertainers get their groove in church. It is sad that most comedians start their trade in church by making fun of those petty sermons and dramatics from preachers.

Why not just read the Bible and ask God for eyes that are open to see beauty in that word alone?

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. (Psalm 119:18)

Because God’s word is beautiful.

Harmless Dynamite

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

I was reminded of something that I have been saying for a long time. Why does the proclamation of the Gospel seem not to bring the transformational power we see when we read the Bible or church history? Why do we appear to be plowing and sowing only on rocky grounds? Is our generation immune to the Gospel or we are presenting a faulty gospel, a gospel that does not activate the dynamite that is the product of the Gospel of the kingdom of God?

Where I come from, there is a market centre that can be called ancient as it had shops in 1900; yet it is still a small market centre, but with more and bigger buildings.

Some years ago I had a workshop on the circumference of the centre and so saw everything that was going on.

Incidentally, there was no weekend that lacked a crusade where the Gospel was proclaimed. It seemed as if the churches around the area and even from afar had a timetable to ensure that the market was saturated with the Gospel. There were times when the crusades went for weeks, every day of the week.

Sadly, the people who got saved were the same. But the churches would not know as each was focused on their ‘harvest’. I remember this former classmate of mine who always came drunk and would repent and get saved, only to repeat the same performance when another team came. Nothing in that centre changed, from morality to petty envies despite all that saturation with the Gospel.

Some time ago I moved to a place outside the city and have discovered a similar trait. There are very many crusades yet the area can be described as unreached if you looked at the residents, especially the natives. And there are very many churches; some so big you wonder who fills them considering the state of the residents.

What are we proclaiming as the Gospel? How are we proclaiming it? What is our spiritual state when we are proclaiming it? And what is the church according to our definitions?

Why is our country sinking to witchcraft to solve sin problems? Why doesn’t it shock us that people are turning to witchcraft to deal with infidelity, theft, insecurity? Does it mean that we fear the devil more than we fear God?

Some time ago there was an article about this wealthy witch. For me the shocking thing was that she was a member of a church. How is that even possible? But don’t we hear of pastors and bishops who look for drawing power from the other side? This is a really sad state of affairs.

A friend recently told me of his passion to remove witchdoctors’ posters on posts for a long time. If you are not aware one amazing thing is that you will find those posters in places where posters are forbidden and are an eyesore and you wonder whether city councils are also scared of witches as they will arrest any owner of any other poster not paid for, but not those, and they all have a phone contact.

Anyway my friend took it upon himself to be removing them when he found them in his way. Then one day he looked closely at Gospel crusade posters and was shocked to discover that they promised the same reliefs (services) as those of the witchdoctors.

I also remember once seeing a church in a slum I visited that had on its wall almost word for word services advertised by witchdoctors, but this time advertised as ministry.

I also recently read about the oldest harlot in the city in another paper. Interesting enough she was reported to be a very staunch Christian who never failed to attend church on Sunday.

We have the latest fad where ‘worship leaders’ take their worship events in bars at night with the entry requirement (charges) being beer.

I am not even talking about the openly homosexual clergy and worship leaders who see no problem with their lifestyle. Or the tenderpreneurs whose commitment to church and its ministry is limited to the amount of money they get in the deals involving the church or ministry that they broker. Or the ministry heads who will bless any business provided it has a package for him to activate that prayer and blessing.

How does an elder/ deacon run a bar and probably a brothel and not even blush when he is sitting on the front pews, even leading programs and ministries in church? How does a pastor not feel ashamed in front of the congregation when he knows he has broken a marriage by sleeping with a member’s spouse? Where does a preacher gather the courage to preach when he knows he has neglected his pastoral responsibilities to the extent that some things and relationships are falling or have even fallen apart?

Where did conviction disappear to? Where did the clear Gospel message that made people fall exclaiming ‘what must I do to be saved?’ disappear to?

What would God say if we gave Him the chance to define our spiritual state? Are we even interested to know whether He even has an opinion on the same?

I am just asking a question so that we can prayerfully seek God for a solution. And we must be ready to shed anything God points us to.

Let us pray that God sheds light to our eyes concerning the Gospel because it is the Gospel of His kingdom. Otherwise we may be peddling another gospel, a gospel whose reward is eternal lostness.

Ananias and his wife died because they exaggerated their giving. Herod rotted as he stood because he was deified for his excellence. Barjesus became blind for trying to obstruct the presentation of the Gospel. And of course miracles happened when the Gospel was presented and received.

Why don’t we have that in our presentation?

I am not condemning all Christendom. I just want to state that the church of Christ is not the church as we know it. Yes, His remnant is in those structures. But we must seek to seek to know whether we are that remnant or not. We could be filling the rolls of a membership that Christ does not recognize, numbers that are opposed to His agenda of winning the world to Himself.

And I hope you realize that as the days of His return draw near, the church structures will for the most part be answerable to the antichrist. Otherwise what does this mean?

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (Matthew 24:24)

Or this?

They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. (John 16:2)

Could we be living in the times of the false prophet without realizing? Could we be raising worshippers of other gods to lead in our worship of the true God?

Once again, out of deep concern I will ask. What is the true Gospel, the Gospel of the kingdom that Christ promised? And why are we not looking to the Bible to define it?

Does my life reflect the transformation of the Gospel?

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?