BUT A POOR REFLECTION: No gurus, only pastors

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

No gurus, only pastors

“There are to be no gurus in the Christian community – only pastors (shepherds). But shepherds do not feed their sheep. Instead they lead them to good, green pasture where the sheep feed themselves. Thus all preaching should lead people into the Scriptures and encourage them to browse there for themselves.”

“It is not easy to combine prophetic witness and pastoral care, firmness and gentleness, discipline and compassion. I think it was Chad Walsh, an American Episcopal layman, who first defined preaching as ‘disturbing the comfortable and comforting the disturbed’.”

John Stott in his latest book 'The Living Church'

3 comments:

Art said...: Very true, Paul. But I think part of the problem is that so many of us are looking for Gurus instead of shepherds...; 6/06/2007 9:33 am
John said...: Ahhh, Paul, you continue to refresh my heart. I am a shepherd and Stott's words ring true. I agree with Paul that many are seeking guru's...until they find a shepherd! Here's to faithfully carrying on the work of the chief shepherd.; 6/06/2007 10:54 pm
Paul said...: Thanks for your comments, guys!
Today I finished reading Stott's 50th book THE LIVING CHURCH. I highly recommend this book to you. I have the feeling that this is some sort of a testament that Stott wants to leave behind. He quotes Paul, who is passing on wise instructions to Timothy. We need a new generation of faithful shepherds like John Stott. I don't want to put people on a pedestal, but this man deserves my respect. He is a bright shining light for Messiah Jesus and I do hope that he will receive strength, energy and wisdom to write some more books (the man is 86 years old now!). Read this book, brothers! (I am looking forward to publishing the Dutch edition soon. By the way, if you have good suggestions for books that I need to read, please let me know!!) Blessings; 6/07/2007 12:14 am

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God loves us

Have you ever wondered why God gives so much? We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and grey; we wouldn’t have known the difference. But he didn’t. He splashed orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue. And if you love to see geese as they gather, chances are you’ll see that too. Did he have to make the squirrel’s tail furry? Was he obliged to make the birds sing? And the funny way that chickens scurry or the majesty of thunder when it rings? Why give a flower fragrance? Why give food its taste? Could it be he loves to see that look upon your face?

Max Lucado - He Chose the Nails

Sadhu Sundar Singh

I do not condemn theologians wholesale, but it is unfortunately the fashion in Western thinking to doubt and deny everything. I protest this tendency. I never advise anyone to consult theologians, because all too often they have completely lost all sense of spiritual reality. They can explain Greek words and all that, but they spend too much time among their books and not enough time with the Master in prayer. It is not that I oppose all education, but education without life is certainly dangerous. You must stop examining spiritual truths like dry bones! You must break open the bones and take in the life-giving marrow.

Oswald Chambers

In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. "The clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness. (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 29th)