I read something today that moved me to realize that there are so many wounded who has forgotten where the battle truly is.
This is what I read: “Pastors, preach from your scars, not from your wounds.”
There is so much going on in this world we live in. So much hurt. So much pain. But we must remember that God’s word tells that our battle is not with flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:11-12)
This is why a pastor should NOT preach from the place of his wound.
A wound is a fresh injury. It is a place that is not yet healed. A wound needs to be carefully (and prayerfully) cared for so that it doesn’t become infected. Something that is infected can spread and make matters worse.
But a scar, is a place that was once injured and is now healed. A scar is a reminder of what you once went thru without the pain.
The devotional that I read spoke of mass killings, and how the people would look to the pastor for a word. Depending on what happened, and how closely it affected the pastor, he or she might struggle to try to speak to the people of God a word of comfort because he is hurting too.
Anyway, Luke 17: 1 says that it is unavoidable that causes for offense and stumbling should come.
This says to me that mass murders is not the only reason why a pastor would find himself wounded.
At Luke 10:33, Jesus told a story of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem (the place of worship) to Jericho (a place of business dealings) and how he was accosted by robbers who stripped him and inflicted him with many blows then left him for dead.
Stopping here I remember how back in the day, long before my parent’s parents were thought of, the pastoral job was to maintain the pasturage only. Even with the early church, Peter and the other 11 hired men full of the spirit to handle everyday business of the church so that their focus could stay on the word of God.
But today…
Pastors are busy with many concerns. These concerns put them in positions to be wounded. Yes, wounds to the flesh can come on any occasion.
Having a title does not keep one in the spirit. Keeping ones heart and mind stayed on Jesus, and being geared up with the full armor of God on is what will keep one in the spirit.
So this man went thru some stuff. He was robbed and beat and left for dead. Sounds like there was a thief whose intent was to steal ( for he robbed), and whose intent was to kill (for the man was left… for dead), and whose intent was to destroy ( for the man was beat).
Am I supposed to expose here what it is the thief is really after so that people would stop wasting their time fighting other people?
(I think that I am allowed to continue without exposing at this time. I’m not feeling led to expose at this time.) But…
What concerns me is that a priest saw this man who was beaten, and he passed by him. he didn’t help the man.
Again, Daddy, you are making me address the second part of my book that I need to be working on now… Iron sharpens Iron, it’s business not personal, PART TWO: I Am my brother’s keeper.
The priest should have cared for the fallen man, but instead he crossed over him to go to the other side of the road.
This is challenging for me to write. I feel some type of way. I feel annoyed greatly, but wait…
… Am I also feeling guilty?
And as I ponder my feelings, I realize that I am also feeling convicted over behavior that I honestly don’t like. Smh.
How many times have I crossed over to the other side of the road (figuratively) when I would see someone, on social media, post of their pain and faith struggles. Or, how many times would I pass by someone who is panhandling because I judged how serious their homelessness is, or is not.
( Some might read this and say, “You can’t save everyone.” Or, regarding the panhandlers, “they will spend money on alcohol and/or drugs.”) For me, the conviction I feel is not even about them. It’s about my own heart condition towards the situation. I might not have the financial means to always be able to give or bless freely, but how much does it cost me to pray for that person?
I didn’t say with them. I didn’t say that I had to hold a conversation and allow someone to suck me into their quicksand moment. I said I didn’t stop for a second in my movement and offer up a word of prayer.
Does not James say that the fervent effectual prayer of the righteous avail much? Do I not believe that?
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. – James 5:16
Yes, I just got convicted, and rightly so. I receive that correction even as I continue with what was placed upon my heart to write.
When it came to what I would see on social media, my excuse was that I would have some strength, but not enough strength to deal with the draining that is experienced when talking with one who would want to focus on the bad and negative instead of call out to Jesus like he tells us to.
Jesus tells us what to do. He said, “call to me in the day of trouble and I will hear you and deliver you and you will honor me. – Psalm 50:15.
So, in my heart I would say, “No I don’t have the mental energy to deal with a situation where one would rather whine and complain instead of throw their burden on King Jesus and look to Him for and wait for HIS deliverance (its what I do in my own situations and so i have learned that it works), and with that I have unknowingly “crossed over to the other side of the street” in my heart; and if I don’t check that, it will be a problem.
King Jesus, forgive me. I didn’t know that this is what I was doing. I need to and want to fix this. I agree with what you said to me thru the church of Sardis. My deeds are uncomplete. Revelation 3:2.
Thank you for revealing these things to me. Starting now, I want to fix this. I want to correct this attitude. This is not the type of “Be” attitude that i want to have. I don’t want my live to cool off. Thank you for exposing me to myself.
I didn’t know. I didn’t realize that I was doing this very thing myself as I judged those in the account that I read. Smh. It saddens me now. Yet, let me reel it in so I can continue.)
Next, a Levite (a minister in the temple of God; using today’s titles. – an elder, an evangelist, a… Whatever the titles men like to use today) saw this man in the road and they imitated the example of the priest in crossing over the man that was robbed injured and left for dead.
Ok Dad I’m angry. My spirit is vexed. This man was hurt and those who had the first responsibility to help him didn’t.
Lord God!!! 😡😠😡😠😡😠
Now knowing what I know, that I can’t just point a finger because the Holy Spirit has shown me how I have been guilty of this too… It saddens me. Breaks my heart. And embarrasses me to see my own guilt.
“Be angry yet do not sin.” Ephesians 4:26
I am more hurt than anything at reading this.
“Its only natural to hurt over the pain of others because every joint supplieth. (Ephesians 4:16) Therefore, if one person in the body of Christ suffers, all other parts suffer also. (1 Corinthians 12:26)”
I am a cup being tempered. I am put in the fire where my anger arises. Then I am pulled out of the fire where I am cooled off. I am being prepared to hold some thing of great value. I am being prepared to hold something cold, and something hot.
Speak Lord, your servant is listening.
Back in the day, before I or my parent’s parents were thought of, the pastors were the doctors.
It makes sense because Jesus Christ was, and is, the greatest healer. He didn’t just prescribe medicines (“go and sin no more). He spoke to the root. He addressed the core and took authority.
Whew Lord, the revelation you gave me earlier on that.
Even in the new testament, James said “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.” – James 5:14-15
The Pastor’s job is to watch over, minister to, and apply God’s healing balm to those who are sick. So when the priest, and the Levite, stepped over this man that was robbed, beaten, and left for dead, at that point they were wrong – they didn’t do their job. Why?
Was it because a platform would not be involved? Was it because it didn’t come with accolades?
No matter how religious a person is. No matter what title a person holds. If they do not reach out to help the person in front of them that is hurting, then they are wrong. End of story, no buts.
But…
I get that most in positions of authority would feel that we are all going thru in this world – and that is true. Everyone is going thru something, even I, but I am not whining and complaining about my lot in life.
I have learned that HOW we go through a storm matters more than the storm. Because I trust the Lord, then complaining and venting is not the lot that I would take because I also know that what we speak matters.
A person would hear that and say that their faith is not as strong as mine. We said no excuse though. So what they would hear from me is how it was how I went thru all of the trials and sufferings that I have had to experience that made me like this. It is a choice to trust King Jesus frfr. I made the choice. And they must make the same choice. But how they choose is on them
CHOOSE YE THIS DAY (Joshua 24:15)
I also get that leaders get tired of (excuse the pun) pointing thirsty horses to water only for them not to drink. I get how frustrating it is to know that Jesus is the answer, and all we have to do is believe Him, and obey him, and how annoying it us to hear that a person say they do believe, only to have to listen to them complain with the next breath they take.
Heck, even Jesus said…
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? – Luke 6:46
Yes sir, King Jesus, I understand that you don’t want me to focus on the two religious _ I will watch my mouth__ at this time. Neither am I to justify why I have been quick to judge them on behaviors that I also have been shown now to be guilty of. Yes sir… I will redirect my focus now…
(Again smh. So embarrassing. )
Instead, you are making me look at this third man.
Jews hated Samaritans. Yet thus jew was left for dead by his brothers and helped by the very one he would have hated had he not been in that humbling condition.
This man, the Samaritan, is not a native. He was one who was simply passing thru. And he saw the Jew. The native that was hurt, and he stopped to help.
He didn’t hesitate to approach the man. He bound up the man’s wounds. He poured oil on the man’s wounds He poured wine on the man’s wounds.
He lifted the man up He placed the man on his beast of burden.
Jesus you are my burden bearer, I am to follow in your footsteps. So, to lift up someone, and place them in your hands is symbolic of what the Samaritan man did to the Jew. It is the love that you require of me as your servant to have for others.
He brought him to an inn and took care of him. That means he got a little personal with him. That means that he took him into an inner room and addressed his issues. It’s what intercessors do in prayer.
This Samaritan spent with the innkeeper and asked the innkeeper to take care of him.
Today, when I take someone into my inner room to care for their wounds I am in effect lifting them up to God. The time I spend in prayer for the individual is the time spent with the innkeeper. Where I ask the innkeeper to “take care of him”
Jesus ended this story by telling his disciples that they were to be like the Samaritan. Not like the priest or levite.
That was a command.
It’s an amazing story, yet it doesnt get past me that the man who was beated robbed and left for dead could have been a priest himself.
Yes, many pastors are wounded too. Thus, the initial word was, to the pastors, to not preach from the wound, but from the scar.
Do not preach from your place of brokenness, your place of injury, your wound, because it is in that place that you can infect others.
Who then ministers to the wounded minister?
Jesus does.
But when the priest passes over the wounded…
And the Levite passes over the wounded…
Nowhere do we read that the Jew who hated Samaritans refused the help of the Samaritan when he was the only one who would stop to help.
Pastors…
The help you are asking for The help you need. Might just come from where you least expect it. Expect the help to come. But beware of trying to define what it looks like. Because the priest and the Levite didn’t help the Jew. The despised Samaritan did.
So much is spoken into me over this. At 12:45pm I had an amazing morning and much confirmation along with reprimand.
It is taking me too long to get these books finished. Whew Lord. They are coming. They are on my desktop.
And I didn’t miss the fact that I am only passing through; and that this is a pit stop for me.
I don’t know where I am being sent next, but I do know that right now my assignment is to approach the man that was robbed, beaten, and left for dead. To bind up his wounds; and pour oil, and wine on them. To lift him up on my beast of burden and take him to the inn and care… I am to pay … The innkeeper.
I am the Samaritan. The one who is not a native. Yet the one who will not pass by the one that is hurting regardless of his status.
Daddy, this is amazing. I no longer feel the anger. My heart feels sad. Sad that this is missed by so many, and was even being missed by me. Grateful that those who need to see it will – including the fallen Jew, and the priest, and Levite.
Daddy, you created the eyes and ears. I ask, in the name of Jesus, that those who are meant to read and get this word have their eyes and ears opened by you; and that their minds and hearts are clear to receive it. I ask that the birds not be allowed to snatch this seed.
Your people need healing Daddy, and the birds have gotten in the way because we couldn’t see to shew them away.
It’s funny how people are asking for 20/20 vision. Daddy. Along with the clarity, may a repentful heart come also, followed by obedience to your Word – starting with me. I’ll be first in line. Thank you for showing me myself.
In the name of Jesus, thank you for the rest also. Thank you for letting me know this is temporary. Thank you for the instruction as to how to proceed… From the scar, not the wound. Thank you for the Balm, the anointed salve.
Oh Lord God… This is a huge work Thank you for the help
Lord Jesus have your way. Take the lead Holy Spirit For the Kingdom of God
Thank you for healing my wounds and turning them into beautiful scars.
Between a Father and HIS daughter 