Counselors/Pastors

Objectively, Jesus is at work in us; “He Who began a good work in you, will carry it unto completion.” Subjectively, we may see characteristics about one another in relationship. Because Christ is at work in both of us as believers, we can: “encourage one another, build one another up, pray for one another, love one another. Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

‘Some believers…’ I’ve heard, ‘tend (not) to…’. This quote has been spoken many times, yet God has also spoken; it is the Lord’s Word which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. By His Word, were the heavens made (Hebrews 11:3), and “by the breath of His mouth all their host..” (Psalm 33) Jesus is the Author and Perfector of our faith. We can set our eyes on Him. (Hebrews 12)

Does a pastor encourage a congregation in speaking of their: ‘tendencies’? Having the Word of the Lord, does he rather choose to focus upon what he thinks he understands to be in people? Those persons who are set before him, are done so by the grace of the Lord. It is also a gift from and of the Lord to have breathe to breathe, ability to speak, and to even be given the very engagement opportunity of using the gift of preaching or teaching.

For the sake of administering God’s grace in its various forms, do Christians have any gifts of the Spirit. (1 Peter 4). “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us…” The pastor has a privilege to look at how faith and grace has been given to and is living in the congregation of believers.

Reality is, we are part of the beautiful Bride of Jesus. He has declared that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will join in worshipping Him together in unity. He has prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one, and, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her  to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless…”

How many stories of failure, personal struggle, and accusation must the children of God be faced with until the local leader is satisfied? The Lord is our Shepherd, we shall not be in want. He makes us lie down in green pastures- He leads us in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Pastors and other people can think that they know those the Lord counsels. They can speak of this or that person and the past they’ve experienced. Truly, the Lord knows.

“For you formed (my) inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them. 

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
  If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain.
  Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
  I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
     Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!