Wednesday, 05 August 2009

• A Resolution Response to "Is the Church Forcing Me Into Idolatry?"

  Last night, I sat down and talked to a person I know and trust in the Lord. They are a very seasoned person and have been on both sides of the spectrum (lost and saved). They have gone to school for ministry as well and are currently on a sabbatical as they are dealing with raising a family. They are anxiously awaiting their ability to teach. 

  Their response to me was this: God will hold the pastor accountable. If you choose to be at this church and feel called to the community specifically and feel God has called you to THIS specific church then you need to obviously submit to God who is allowing this to happen, right or wrong. As far as the right or wrong part, I am not accountable for feeling like I am not doing what God has given me to do as man has his own will.  This man could very well be following his own flesh in his discomfort of having me serve under him, for whatever reason. God and he will talk one day long after this and he will be faced to force the punishment for causing another to not be able to do what God wanted them to do. 

  If indeed God has been guiding him in his judgment, then I will be able to learn whatever God has to teach me as I will have chosen to stay and feel called to the area. If I didn't feel called to the specific area, then maybe this was God's wake-up call to stop lingering in my home town because it is a place where I find friends, comfort, and recognition from people who love me. Maybe God is directing me out of my comfort zone and into yet another new season of traveling. 
  

  Either way, I have to decide what my calling truly is. Is it to stay here and await my ability to minister to this area specifically?  Is it worth the wait for me, regardless of whether the wait is occurring because of the pastors foul up or if God's trying to teach me something?  Do I feel released from here because the pastor has made his decision and God is doing one of two things, releasing me from a call because the man he put in charge rejected me based on his own flesh, or is calling me away from the place because it was my own heart and flesh wanting to stay even though God is calling me into ministry somewhere else by closing the door here and revealing to me an obstinate spirit within the pastor?

  I appreciated your responses to my first post and have peace with them because they blamed no one for the incident and encouraged me. You didn't tell me that I'm obviously spiritually sick or bad for talking about the heart conflict I'm having. Job had an entire book speaking of how these "Godly counselors" and "wise counsel" continued to rebuke him. That book ended with God rebuking those men even though they were speaking of scriptures and accurately about the character of God. I would advise rereading those last few chapters, because they say a lot about the character of God and mans understanding of rebuke, teaching, and complaining/mourning/questioning God.  Ultimately there were a few posts I appreciated but most were condemning, which is not a Christian's job. That's God's job.
  

  What do you think about the response my trusted friend gave me about this situation?
  

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