What in the World is Happening? – Chad Thomas and Todd Hampson

Whom Do You Elevate: Christ or "Pastor"

As one brother (Larry Jones) described "pastors" as "pulpit people" these days, who elevate themselves causing "pew people" to elevate them too. God says this of these people:

Matthew 7:21-23

I Never Knew You

"21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

There are many "Christians" who are "pastors" today who have never been born again, they are very proud of themselves but have no relationship with Christ. God described them in Bible times too:

Matthew 23:4-6 "…4 They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues,…"

Figuratively speaking many "pastors" today have very large phylacteries.

Phylacteries Definition: "a small leather box containing Hebrew texts on vellum, worn by Jewish men at morning prayer as a reminder to keep the law."

The modern-day "phylacteries" look more like seminary degrees. They value these degrees above the Bible and above anything else.

Many pulpit people are more interested in intimidating the pew people to keep rules they make than growing their brothers and sisters in holiness. They spend more time entertaining the sheep to keep them locked into praising the pulpit person while neglecting the important matters.

Matthew 22:23 "“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others."

Our modern-day pulpit people are more interested in being seen as "scholarly" than they care about feeding the sheep and evangelism.

Matthew 23:6-7 "6 They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.…"

Often I am grieved at the mentality of the pew people who have every manner of praise and accolades for their "one man paid pastor" than they ever speak of Christ. In fact, I hear often pew people saying things like "Pastor so and so" as though this is an elevated position worthy of more respect than other born-again believers. We do not see anywhere in scripture the use of "Pastor" as a title or a position.

The term "pastor" is referring to a gift given to several men in any gathering, not ordained of man but given by the Holy Spirit as a place of service, not one of elevated status.

Luke 14:11

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Sadly many men who come out of seminaries are not even born again. They lack the fruit of the Spirit and a servant's heart. I have seen the pride in so many that prevent them from humility and correction from other brothers and sisters. As I have watched them over the years I see them growing more self-absorbed, pleasure seeking, and self-exalted. This is why so many use joking and life stories much more than they use the Bible, to keep the pew people entertained. Flattery and motivational speaking has become the norm in the pulpits today.

Sadly many men who come out of seminaries are not even born again. They lack the fruit of the Spirit and a servant's heart. I have seen the pride in so many that prevent them from humility and correction from other brothers and sisters. As I have watched them over the years I see them growing more self-absorbed, pleasure-seeking, and self-exalted. This is why so many use joking and life stories much more than they use the Bible, to keep the pew people entertained.

These pew people are hirelings concerned about their salaries while lacking concern for the holiness of God's people. They do not have a heart for the lost to evangelize them, they draw in the unsaved through "church growing practices" to ensure their salaries.

We are living in an apostate age in which the people hate doctrine from God's Word, they resent correction and will not listen to good teaching, so the pulpit people dumb everything down to keep the bodies flowing into the pews.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"

Young teens will be ruined by the large gatherings, their focus is fun, play and pride. There have been those I have met who raised their children in the large gatherings with all its perks who lamented that their teens were taken away from Christ and led into superficiality, arrogance, and "pastor worship", having little desire for Christ or His Word.

My humble advice to those seeking a church gathering is to worship at home with your families until God presents a small gathering. The large gatherings have gotten that way by diminishing the gospel in favor of social programs.

The first-century church met in homes, they were few in number but mighty in faith. If God grows your gathering in the home wonderful, if He brings you to another small gathering of faithful believers somewhere else then praise Him. Whatever the case He must be the One Who leads you to be wherever He wants.

The Devil Attempts to Weaken Believers

The devil attempts to weaken your support by turning family against you. If he can get others to torment you he may be able to control your emotional reactions thereby causing the believer to sin in their responses.

Proverbs 15:28-29 "28 The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil. 29 The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.…"

Satan placed evil thoughts in the mind of the Pharisees to discredit Christ. The Pharisees accused Christ of doing His miracles by the power of the devil.

If they will do this to our Lord, you can be sure they will do it to us too.

John 15:18-25

Disciples’ Relation to the World

18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.

21 But all these things they will do to you on account of My name because they do not know the One who sent Me."

A-Muse, the American Condition!

A-muse = "amuse", meaning not to think, think about it! Playing is what children do, pleasure-seekers tend not to think.

1 Corinthians 13:11

"11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I [a]became a man, I did away with childish things."

We Americans play far more than we realize. As I get older I like to think of working as my play, at the end of it something got accomplished that we can enjoy for years to come.

The more I am focused on Christ the less I enjoy "adventures" I prefer the small joys in life, friends, relaxing on the front porch in a rocking chair and the like. Perhaps this is what being content looks like.

Philippians 4:11-13

"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

What a wonderful place to be, contented in the Lord every single day!!!

Hallelujah!!

When the Narcissist Accuses You!

When the narcissist accuses you of something you know you did not do, they are really telling on themselves.

I heard a daughter-in-law tell her husband, "your mother hates me." Based on the evidence of the way the daughter-in-law was treating her mother-in-law it was clear that the daughter-in-law was, in reality, saying; "I hate your mother. "

When I was searching the internet for articles about daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law I found hundreds of articles by daughters-in-laws who were railing on their mothers-in-law, proclaiming how much they hated them. I could not possibly read all the articles but their titles alone were appalling.

I saw silly statements like; "my mother-in-law just dropped in without calling" as though something was wrong with this. They even decided to cut off the mother-in-law from the grandchildren because they didn't like something they said.

One daughter-in-law complained that her mother-in-law tried to teach her something, she saw this as offensive and rude.

Then I read one article out of many written by a sweet Christian daughter-in-law who proclaimed loudly how much she loved her mother-in-law. I wanted to cry, what a wonderful loving daughter-in-law who valued the mother of her husband.

We live in an age where in-law spouses are working to destroy the relationships between their spouses and their spouse's parents. When I first began to see this 30 years ago I was astounded at the way many young people were acting, cutting the children and grandchildren off from the spouses. I began to pray for understanding. Then the Lord opened my eyes to what was going on, here was what God told me:

Luke 12:52-53 "…52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” '

Another passage God gave me was even more clear jumping off the page showing me what is going on.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Difficult (ragingly insane) Times Will Come

3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

Notice words like; "arrogant, unloving, gossips, brutal and much more. What is the answer for the born-again believer? God does not want us to become like those who have wicked hearts by responding in kind.

We are to remain Christlike no matter what is going on around us or what people are doing to us.

When we stay grounded in the Word of God and prayer we can maintain our pure hearts without being tainted by the world around us.

Proverbs 26:4 "4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him."

We need not defend ourselves or make sure the foolish person understands, they will not want to understand. The keyword here is "want", even if we were able to explain things clearly the fool will choose not to understand.

Those with wicked hearts never want to hear the truth, they love lies and gossip, this is why God says in verse 5 of second Timothy 3, "get away from such as these."

Be thankful that Christ in us can help us be what we should be no matter what is happening. Keep focused on Him continually.

How Should We Be in these Terrible Times

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears, they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"

We are living in a culture that considers it rude and even a personal attack to be corrected, do not let this deter you from your path or the leading of the Holy Spirit.

There are going to be so few people telling the truth to help others see their need for Christ, that we will be viewed as strange for doing so. Never allow this to deter you from continuing to obey God.

There may also come a time when the loneliness for lack of companionship feels more like peace than abandonment. It is a struggle to attempt to keep happy those who refuse to turn to Christ. What a relief when God removes the narcissist for a time.

Peace is preferred to continual senseless drama, at least in my opinion. The world around us is working every day to shape us into their image, when we do not comply they attack, either overtly or covertly.

The world is all around us, in our extended families, in our communities, even in our homes. How does one deal with all this mess, especially if they cannot get away from it?

A suggestion or two may be of help to some of you. My suggestion is to pray continually, ignore insults since a response will only feed the narcissist escalating into an argument, this is the devil's plan.

Speak the truth and ignore the responses to it. DO NOT FIGHT BACK, but remove yourself for a time to gather your composure. The narcissist wants to fight their pokes are calculated and deliberate.

If the trouble maker claims to be a Christian repeat God's word without commentary. If God's word is rejected, say no more and go to prayer.

If we are to endure this wicked world full of devil who love conflict we are going to have to remain in prayer a lot, obey what God says and above all, ask the Lord to help you to be what He wants you to be, that His ways will be our ways.

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts."

We can only know what we should say and do if the Holy Spirit is saying and doing it through us.

It's Probably Not You!

I wrote this to a dear friend who has expressed what many are feeling, that is wondering what is wrong with them because they have few and sometimes no friends. Here was my answer to her.

" It's not you Sis, it's the culture of our time, the 2 Timothy 3 generation that has no interest in anyone but self. Most of my "close" friends are on Facebook, God has allowed us to find one another, those who are like-minded and in need of love and encouragement.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

Imagine how few friends Noah or Lot had in their times! I am sure they grieved at times over the way people were acting and their rejection of God.

Also over the years, God has shown me that we don't have to do anything at all to be hated because those who are in rebellion sense Christ in us and He is the One they hate."