Scripture

All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!

~Numbers 14:2, CSB

Quote

The simplest way to get rid of your pastor is to pray for him. Your heart felt prayers will make him better and someone else will take him off of your hands.

~Jack Taylor

My good friend Kevin Beal gave me a book yesterday. It is a book for laymen and the title is, Fighting For Your Pastor. In the first chapter he says, “We should fight for our pastor, not fight with him.” In chapter two he talks about our default setting. It is natural for humans to complain. I got into a discussion with three women some years ago. I said something from the pulpit about the female bible study groups that do prayer and share which end up with gossip and complaining– about the pastor mostly. They told me to my face, “You complain as much as anyone.” I argued with them for a minute and then they challenged me to do a diary for one week and to note all my complaints. I had to apologize to them the next week because I was doing a lot of complaining. Nothing has changed unfortunately. I don’t like commercials on TV or Radio, I hate political ads, I despise traffic and I shun noise and crowded places. This is just the tip of the iceberg; there is a lot more that I do not like such as the media, the democrats, the RINO’s, Marxism, Islam and Hollywood to mention a few. It is natural for me to complain.

The painful truth is not only is it natural to complain, it takes much less effort and energy. It doesn’t take much forethought to complain but to compliment, praise or encourage another takes lots of effort. For me it takes prayer and premeditation. Sometimes I pray for the LORD to show me a way to encourage others. It is easy to discourage but it takes effort to encourage. Dr. Landrum Level said, “Any old jackass can kick a barn down but it takes effort and skill to build one.” It is not hard to be critical of leaders; especially our spiritual leaders. Moses was a good leader and yet the Israelites complained about his leadership incessantly. They fought with him, not for him. Think of what could have been accomplished if they had worked with Moses. There is no doubt in my mind, they would have become the greatest nation on the planet, but they neither followed Moses or respected him. They spent their time murmuring and complaining. Some folks are discouraging their pastor and don’t even know it. First, they lay out of church for the least reason; they forsake the assembly as if their absence means nothing. Then you have those who talk during the message, clean out their finger nails, sleep, draw on the bulletin, play with infants that should be in the nursery and parade in and out like they were at the county fair. How can they not realize what a distraction they are and how difficult they make it on the pastor who is trying to deliver the message.

Looking on the brighter side, God in His great mercy and grace has put at least one encouraging soul in every church. Currently I am blessed with more than one but thank God for those folks who are active listeners and great encouragers. I have them and I thank God for them. With a little forethought, prayer and effort, you can be an encourager. I may not be one but I want to be one. As a matter of fact, I pray that this blog will encourage someone.

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I hope you have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.