Jesus’ first rebuke to the Pharisees in Matthew 23 is that
they tell the people what to do and place heavy burdens on them, but refuse to
move as much as a finger to themselves.
As pastors, we can far too easily fall into this same temptation of seeing what everyone else should do, but feel that we don’t need to do the same. It is way easier to give advice than it is to follow it. If you have ever taught a parenting class, it is the most convicting experience.
As a result, we look like a fool who is trying to remove a “speck of sawdust” from his brother’s eye, all the while having a “log” in his own (Matt 7:3-5).
As pastors, we can far too easily fall into this same temptation of seeing what everyone else should do, but feel that we don’t need to do the same. It is way easier to give advice than it is to follow it. If you have ever taught a parenting class, it is the most convicting experience.
As a result, we look like a fool who is trying to remove a “speck of sawdust” from his brother’s eye, all the while having a “log” in his own (Matt 7:3-5).
But if we want to be faithful to the ministry God has called
me to, it doesn’t start with trying to fix others: it starts with me.
God cares far more about my personal holiness, my relationship with Him, and me knowing Him, than He does about how effective my ministry is. He can get rocks to cry out for Him if I am not there (Luke 19:40). To Paul, all things, including his ministry successes were rubbish in comparison to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ (Phil 3:8).
God cares far more about my personal holiness, my relationship with Him, and me knowing Him, than He does about how effective my ministry is. He can get rocks to cry out for Him if I am not there (Luke 19:40). To Paul, all things, including his ministry successes were rubbish in comparison to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ (Phil 3:8).
In our lives, we desire to take God’s Word and first let it speak to us
and change us. Let it deal with the many
logs that are in my eyes first. As we
deal with the logs in our own eyes, I am sure it will benefit others with
specks in theirs, but first and foremost it is about God teaching, changing,
and sanctifying me.
We want to be "optical lumberjacks" removing the planks from our eyes first.
We want to be "optical lumberjacks" removing the planks from our eyes first.
As we are no longer writing papers for seminary about
various theological issues, BJ and I want to write about how Scripture is applied and
cutting out the logs in our eyes. We
pray our musing and thoughts posted in the blog are a blessing to you.
