Scripture
He said, “I pray that God will punish me terribly, if Elisha’s head is still on his shoulders by this time tomorrow.”
~II Kings 6:31, CEV
Quote
Blaming and criticizing others is a way to avoid the truth about yourself.
~Ya’akov {Constructed the quote but borrowed the thought}
I’ve been in the ministry for 50 years and I am telling you from experience that people do not want to take the blame for anything that goes wrong and since the preacher is a hireling, why not make him the scapegoat. As one man told me some years ago, “Preachers are a dime a dozen: we didn’t have any trouble finding you and we want have any trouble finding someone to replace you.” That’s a real edifier for the pastor. In the old days, it was the way things were, just blame the preacher because he’ll be moving on anyway. I never got any sympathy from my members but outsiders would show some now and then. One man asks John Tanner, with me standing there, “Why do you folks blame everything on Bro. Jack?” John didn’t hesitate, he said promptly, “Because 90% of the time, it is his fault.” I laughed, I thought it was funny but I’ve yet to hear an apology for the 10% of the time when I was right and they were wrong.
If you are the least bit curious as to the truth of the matter, read 2 Kings 6 entirely. We believe the king of Israel at this time was Jehoram the son of Ahab and Jezebel. He was not as bad as his father and mother but neither was he a good man. The reason he blamed Elisha the preacher was that he, in his heart, blamed God. You will see it in the last verse of the chapter… “The Lord has made all these terrible things happen to us. Why should I think he will help us now?” These are the words of Jehoram’s assistant but I don’t think it is a stretch to say that he was articulating the feelings of the king. To survive in the ministry, you have to understand human nature and the principle illustrated in this story. When people are angry or upset with God, they always blame the preacher. They have no way of getting to God directly but they can get to His human representative. I like the way one preacher handled this: an irate woman came into the church office and she was mad as an old sitting hen, she flew into the secretary and when the pastor came out, she lit into him. He listened patiently until she ran out of soap. Then he said, “Do you mind stepping into the sanctuary with me?” She said, “What for?” He said, “I want you to pray for me.” Reluctantly she followed him to the altar, he got on his knees and asks her to lay her hands on his head and pray for the LORD to forgive him of his transgression against her.” She couldn’t pray. She turned and left but she never came to him with another complaint. Our attitude is something we have to take responsibility for–our attitude is never someone else fault.
Burning the old proverbial candle at both ends this week: graduation parties the last two nights with early appointments in the mornings. I was so exhausted yesterday evening, I had to take a nap before going to the party. Congrats to Ben Mause and all the DHS Seniors. Ben asks me to say the blessing at his party: I was honored.
New poll out: two out of every three Americans are in favor of enforcing our immigration laws. Isn’t it sad that the democrats don’t care what the majority things. We are just peasants in their little kingdom; we don’t have enough sense to know what we need or don’t need. We need them to tell us what we need! Right right: Thomas Jefferson had more brains than the entire democratic party combined.