TEN WAYS PAUL DID NOT MINISTER

How Paul Preached Approached Preaching from cwhisnant on Vimeo. Part One
Since I can only upload 1GB (that is over 1billion byes). (Which is about 23 minutes. And I had a 43 minute sermon. So guess what? I will have part two. I hope soon..... But it does take forever for the process to happen.

PERSONAL STRUGGLES AND MINISTRY

SOME JUST FALL DOWN

Last week I found myself in a discussion with someone, and the topic came up about God's Will. (I am not going to mention the person name. And since there have been a number of preachers who have resigned their church in the last year, I am sure there will be those who will say I am talking about the one they know.) "And I am sure any number of people could have asked the same questions of their pastor who resigned the church.

My purpose of this post is to address those who have resigned a church due to struggles within the church, or who have suffered a personal tragedy.

• "Do you believe it was God's will for (preacher) to leave the church he was the pastor and come to his current church?"
• "Do you believe its God's will for (another pastor) to leave and go to another church?" And I gave my answer.
• The response was "How can you know that was God's will or not?"
  

Many preachers will say this, "The Lord is moving me to leave this church, and go to another church." I hear that a lot. It is true? 90% of the time, its not the will of God for a preacher to leave a church, if God has called him to that church. Nor do I believe its God's will for a church to call another pastor of a church to come to their church. But this is my opinion.

NOR DO I BELIEVE A PREACHER SHOULD QUIT.

Here I am talking about, quiting the ministry as a result of bad experiences in ministry. If I had quit as a result of getting fired from my first paid position (Southall Baptist Church in 1967) I would have never finished Seminary. We can fall down on our faces in ministry. But we should never quit.

Here I am talking about all those who have been in any kind of church ministry. DON'T QUIT.

There are times we need to leave a ministry, I understand that, what I am talking about is quiting doing what we believe the Lord has called us to do. For four years I was unable to preach and teach in a local church on a regular basis. I found myself rather discouraged. Until one Sunday, one of the members of the church said, "Charles, you will always have an attitude of a pastor, and it shows while you are in this church." While the leadership of the church was not willing, the people in the church knew it. So I came to understand, there are more than one way to be used of the Lord.

THERE ARE MANY IT SEEMS WHO JUST QUIT ALTOGETHER.

What is sad, some of these preachers who are the pastor of some larger churches quit and then go into hiding and as Phil Johnson said, "Then after a year or three, the person resurfaces as an agnostic, and after "coming out," becomes increasingly aggressive and militant in spreading the gospel of skepticism."

And so often these men who were in these churches that quit, one was addicted to pornography, another was having an extramarital affair, and the third had decided to openly indulge a homosexual bent he had struggled with secretly for years. No I am not talking about those in the music field, nor the Hollywood crowd, nor in the political field, but those in the Christian field.

TWO POINTS I AM MAKING HERE:

ONE: Good men who really love the Lord, and they get slammed by the ministry, I say to them, DON'T QUIT. Check your motives, check your soul, spirit and heart to see if its right with Christ, and if it is DON'T QUIT. Don't let other people, preachers, and ministries be the last word. Talk to your wife, talk to your children, talk to your close friends, ask them what they see in you. Keep a clear channel with Christ. Listen to and learn what the Lord is doing in your life.

SECOND: Those who are in ministry and are living a secret live of sin, QUIT. No, not the ministry but your SIN. On the other hand, you might need to step down, until you are able to seek the right kind of help you need.

NETWORKING? IS THIS A GOOD WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS?

I have found, I don't have close personal follow preachers who really are interested in you and your problems. I had one just friend in Neodesah, Kansas who I would have feel conformable to ask for any kind of help.

AND I DON'T KNOW IF 'NETWORKING ' ON THE WEB IS THE RIGHT WAY TO GO EITHER. I AM SPEAKING ABOUT PERSONAL ISSUES.

• E-mailing is really a poor way of talking about personal issues. Believe me I have failed in this area. Click and send an email can be damaging to one's friendship with others. ' And some will keep emails for a year, and then send them all at once to others.

MY SUGGESTING TO THOSE WHO STRUGGLE WITH MINISTRY or PERSONAL TRAGEDY.

• If you find yourself resentful and doubting in the wake of personal tragedy, or you get resentful of working in a church, a failed ministry, or whatever, don't cultivate a kind of emotionally-driven doubt about what you know God has put in your soul, spirit and heart. (And if you do, don't salve your mind by assuring yourself that your doubts are "rational.") I do understand and sympathize with the depth of grief suffered by someone who is suffering personal loss such as the death of one's children or the loss of one's health, or getting fired from a position that was successful, or whatever. Job lost everything at once, and his response is the model of true faith: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15) That didn't keep him from saying (later in that very same verse), "Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him." But if the opening phrase of that verse doesn't describe the quality of your belief in God, your "faith" probably will not survive the inevitable sorrows and hardships of life in this sin-cursed world.

PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Having received this QuickNotes from John G. Miller, the content fits my article on what to do about the high rise of gasoline prices. Part Three

QBQ! (The Question Behind the Question) QuickNote

QBQ! QuickNotes™ may be forwarded by email to others or printed in their entirety for personal and group use. © QBQ, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

The ultimate system of personal accountability? A supply and demand based economy. What a great place to live and prosper.

And the crowd said AMEN!

Have you ever voted with your feet? Sure, we all have. Tough steak? Pass up that restaurant next time. Uncomfortable, lumpy bed? Skip that hotel chain. Clothes that shrink 30% with the first wash? Drop that brand. Gasoline at $4/gallon???

Drive less. Drive differently. Drive something different.

Yep, we can whine and complain about the price of gas and blame those "greedy, evil oil company executives" with their ginormous compensation packages and corporate profits. Or we can have the heated political debate of "to drill or not to drill" in the pristine areas of our land. Or—if we dare—we can recognize our personal accountability in it all.

Let's see, remembering my Economics 101 class at Cornell University 30 year ago, it went something like this: When demand is higher than supply, prices go up. When demand slacks, sellers everywhere, not wanting to miss business, lose customers, and see revenues drop, lower their prices.

And no matter the product, this truth applies. Ever complained about the culture-destroying garbage put out by Hollywood?

Well, someone's buying it. Wonder why an iPhone costs so darn much? Someone's buying it. Feeling angry over gasoline prices rising every single day for a month? Guess what? You and I are buying it.

You might say, "But, John, I have no choice but to buy gas." For the most part, true. But the accountability piece is all about me asking myself, "How do my choices affect the current situation and what can I do to change my choices?" Recently a favorite neighbor pulled up along my wife and I while we were taking a Tuesday morning walk. Her SUV looked great. Shiny, clean—like new! We asked, "Where've you been, Susan?" She responded, "I needed my Starbucks!!!"

Well, I'm sure Starbucks is pleased with their powerful draw—the ability to suck people out of their homes on a weekday morning for an 8 mile round trip for a caramel frappachino—but multiply our nice neighbor's choice a million-fold and—excuse me!?—who do we blame??? Oh, yes, those bad, bad oil company execs, our legislators, and the man in the Oval Office.

The truth is, by their very nature, economies are cyclical. They are monstrous, dynamic organisms comprised of hundreds of millions of consumer choices—people everywhere living a life of volition, or said differently, exercising their free will in a free country built on a fantastic idea called capitalism. Very rarely is anyone "at fault." Unless maybe, just maybe, we are responsible. You see, our choices are often cyclical. For many, it's excess followed by belt tightening followed by excess followed by budget cutting, and so on. And somewhere in the cycle things get out of hand—both for the economy and in our personal world—and we start buying the lie that's it's not about us and our personal decisions. So we blame, play victim, point fingers, whine and complain.

But we don't have to travel that route. We can take the high road where citizens everywhere demand of themselves ownership of individual choices, because it's through our own choices that we—you and I—are actually in control of it all. The power of personal choice is simply amazing. So, today, let's vote with our feet and walk the accountable path. It could make all the difference.
AMEN.

P.S. You know what? I think today, I just might park my truck and choose to go on eBay to re-purchase the neon orange 49cc Honda Express scooter I rode to those Cornell classes in the late 1970s. Looking back, a zillion miles per gallon was a good thing.

John G. Miller

Author of QBQ! and Flipping the Switch

GASOLINE PRICES WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THEM?

Daily Complaining But Little Adjustments. Gasoline Prices, The Work Place, Church, Living Life, Finances, Marriage, Relationships, etc.

Part One

I was asked this week “What was the lowest gasoline price that you can remember?” I don’t remember what the price was growing up!

In 1960 the gasoline pricewas $0.25. In 1966 we attended Bible Baptist Seminary; and in Arlington Texas, the price of gasoline was $0.17. I worked at a gas station for $1.00 per hour. In 1971 while pastor of Madison Baptist Church, the gasoline price was $0.30; and in 1973 the price went to $0.50, and we felt we were going to go broke at those prices. Then the price went to $1.00 in 1999, and of course, the rest is history. In 2007 the price went to $3 and in 2008 the price is now at $4.

I can remember thinking at each increase of gasoline, the price has to come back down. Yet for a while they would come back down, then up they would go again.

You can take several approaches to this issue.

1. Get mad and fuss all you want. Complain, complain, and complain, or
2. Learn Econ 101 and 201 then
3. Take personal responsibility, and do what needs to be done and learn to
4. Take up the system of personal accountability.
   

But remember this, government intervention is not going to prevent the rise of oil prices. Secondly, boycotts at the local BP, Super Quick or Kroger, or Speedway are not going to work. Thirdly, the current President of the United State or the next President of the United State is not going to change the fluctuation of the gasoline prices. And you really can do something about the gasoline you use.

SO HOW ARE WE GOING TO DEAL WITH THE RISING OF GASOLINE PRICES, THE RISING COST OF FOOD, AND THE HIGH COST OF EATING OUT, OR FLYING ON AMERICAN AIRLINE?

HINT:

• If you are going to buy a Mercedes 500 SL, or a Ferrari F512M or a Lamborghini! Buy a Hot Wheel. They are still 95 cents at your local store.

FIRST A LOOK AT THE GASOLINE PRICES:

(If you Google gasoline prices, you will learn a great deal about this issue: Like the following:)

Oil prices fluctuate wildly. So do gasoline prices. No amount of government intervention is going to prevent the market from fluctuating.

Every spring gas prices go up. They hike even more in the run-up to the Memorial Day weekend and remain high until after Labor Day. Every year we grumble about price gouging and ruthless profiteering just as the higher travel season of summer comes on. Those stinking oil companies have us over a barrel, right? This year it’s far worse. $4 gallon gas with record oil industry profits! What’s up with that?

So what happens you hear like clockwork: Let’s boycott the gas stations, Somebody comes up with some grand plan to punish those filthy rich oil companies. It usually boils down to some kind of targeted boycott. One year the plan was to boycott all Exxon stations. Another year it was to not buy gas on a given day of the week. Another year it was to boycott both Exxon and Shell stations. BP, Super Quick, etc.

It’s my understanding, the whole idea behind these efforts is to create some kind of collective bargaining power, to show consumer muscle in order to ultimately force lower gasoline prices. While it is natural to want to do something to attack the perceived injustice, all of the efforts I have seen suggested suffer from shocking ignorance of how the free market works coupled with childish ignorance of the oil industry.

Most calls for government intervention are founded in frustration and/or a desire to protect one’s turf. Turf protection is why you can’t legally pump your own gas in Oregon, for example. That’s not where Wright is coming from. Many consumers are frustrated with gasoline prices right now. That is understandable.

But most frustrated calls for government intervention are also founded in ignorance of how things really work. I suggest that except for emergency cases, any call for government intervention should be approached calmly and deliberately with an eye on getting a firm grasp on how the matter actually works and what effects intervention is likely to cause. I am not saying that there is never a place for government intervention. I’m simply saying that there is a right way to approach such questions.

From what I have been reading, government intervention or boycotts of gas stations will not work.

But there is a way we all can get through this: “Personal accountability.”

I will give you a website next to give some answers to the above.