Paul and the heart of a pastor

On Paul's pastoral heart in Acts 20:17-38 from the chapter The Focus of Paul's Ministry

"Here is a man sacrificial in love, selfless in service, earnest in labor, honest in dealing, conscientious in duty, sober in warning, fierce in defense, faithful in prayer, fixed upon Jesus, pouring himself out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of the faith of the church."  - A Portrait of Paul Ventura & Walker

The Church Needs MEN

BH Carroll was right on when he described the need of the Lord's men to act like men. Baptist churches need men to act like men. We need "creek swimming, brier cutting men" today. Men who will stand up and fulfill their roles God has called them to, namely to act like men. In I Corinthians 16:13 it says "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." God has challenged us, to BE A MAN. Carroll says:

"It is the creek-swimming men that shake the world—the brier-cutting men who will not allow obstacles to keep them from doing what God wants them to do.
Let a congregation get the idea of their pastor that he is pink of perfection, can beat anybody in town tying a cravat [neck tie], and wears the nicest little shoes, knows how to fasten a nose-gay in his vest, and how to enter a room and entertain company; carries an umbrella so as not to burn his delicate skin, then what will be his power to awaken and save the lost? An umbrella is all right in its place, but what I want to impress is this—that a stalwart man, a real man, will accomplish more of the great things in the work than all of these little fellows. He will not stop to consider a thousand things that absorb the mind of the trivial man, but will go right straightforward to the accomplishment of his great purpose. I have heard these dainty essayists preach. I have gone to their churches hungry and tried to -get something—and failed.
It reminds me of the story of a preacher who tells this of himself: During the civil war he went to a house to get some supper. Army rations were poor, and he was very hungry. They had just a little butter and they all wanted to make it go as far as possible, so each one tried to hurry through in order to get another chance at the butter before it disappeared. He said that he could not get rid of the butter in his plate. He even tried to sop it up with his bread, but it did not have any taste to it. At last he looked up and saw through knot-hole in the roof over his head that the moon was shining down through into his plate, and that all the time he had been sopping moonshine.”

Thankful for the Dentist

Eph 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

I don't like going to the dentist, but I'm thankful for them. Friday morning I had to go to an oral surgeon and have two impacted wisdom teeth removed. Today, my face is swollen to the point I look like a greedy chipmunk, but I am thankful. I'm thankful for the skill of the dentist. I'm thankful that he was able to use medicine to put me to sleep during the procedure. I'm thankful for the medicine that is used to protect from infection. I'm thankful that the removal of these problem teeth. I'm thankful that the worst part thus far is the swelling. I live in a country and in a time where I can have this procedure done. 100 years ago, I would have put up with the pain. In another country today, I would have had to put up with the pain. God is so good.

It's not about you

"People are brought to faith in Jesus Christ not because a preacher happens to be exceptionally dynamic one Sunday morning, or because he finishes his sermon with a spell-binding story. Rather, in a mysterious works that is both sovereign in expression and divine in origin, the power of God unites with the proclamation of the word of God and produces effects that are in keeping with the purposes of God."

Spirit Empowered Preaching by Art Azurdia

Happy in God's Word

Happy is the man who doesn't walk with the worldly. Who shuns the conventional wisdom of the ungodly. He will not be in the majority and he will not be popular - but he will be happy.

Happy is the man who is happy in the Word of God.

Want to be sound? 
Want to be fruitful? 
What to prosper spiritually? 
Get in the Word of God and meditate on it day and night.

Psalm 1:1-2  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.