It is an area God has called me into that I used to struggle somewhat with.However as I get more mature in the faith, the struggle has moved from preparation and delivery to Biblical sound (exegesis) and relevant application. This has now move from a personal struggle to have to listen to men and women from local church ,on the media:televison,radio,internet do injustice to the word, often out of ignorance, laziness and busyness.
I am hard on myself if I miss a crucial application and it the same reason I am hard on any and every preacher who abuse the pulpit by lack of study, lack of prayer,lack of Exegesis and constant Eisegesis…men and women who use terms like “you all, you, all yuh,them,etc placing themselves above the congregation.Example of good terms to use are “we, us, our …”
Of course of the worst thing to hear from the pulpit includes:naive arguments,assumptions and “prophetic gossip”. Let me give you an example. You hear preacher say “well, Cain marry his sister, because there weren’t any other women(female) on the face of the earth, he could have marry”,OK. You hear of and experience situations when a preacher say the Lord is telling me that “so and so needs this, ought to put away sin,etc etc etc”-when in fact he or she knows,based on the conversation he she had with the sister or brother of the friend of person they received this “prophetic word” for.Foolishness. Preaching is preaching ,because it is not gossip, or information, or data, or discussion, but it is the communicating of TRUTH by man to men.The prominent elements in this act of communication are truth,which is the message of preaching and the person communicating, which is the preacher of TRUTH-Phillips Brooks.
Yesterday I was awaiting pickup to travel to an “Open Air” session in Harford Village, St.Andrew. During the wait, I was listening to a preacher nearby.He said things to the effects…”youths stay away from drugs…keep away from fornication…work for your money”.These things are good warnings and admonitions. But there are some problems with those statements left “open”.
So let us dissect them:
-Firstly you and I know and youths also know that the police knows, the judges know, the lawyers know-in essence those in authority know WHO brings drugs into this country.The spiritual leaders knows also. So to blame the end user is trying to put a plaster on a bruise,that people and youths especially are being bled to death by. A prophet of God must preach against sin, the one who is the source of this sin, the mediators who encourages sin and the end users who are consummates of sin. What I am saying apart from doing the Biblical exegesis, he must be realistic and relevant and stop being naive or flawed in his or her thinking pattern.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is unrealistic to have youths spending time, together alone, and not to expect body chemistry to work. Fornication is sin.Yet few mature Christians will take the time to tell Grenada’s youths:guys and girls, I know what it is to be having sex everyday after school, or in the washrooms, or in the staff room pretending that I was being help by a teacher (with school work)studying. I thought I was right,but I was wrong. By the way the reason my husband divorced me is because I had an affair with another woman,etc etc,etc.Its time to get real…Youths continue to speak about the deacon and bishops who are sexing their friends’ wives and are asking what about the priest with young boys and the nuns with each other. Is this not fornication too!!!???, they retorted. Many maybe saying “it is better to “sex” now and get serious with God later, than to pretend to be serious with God later and to be spouse-less, but having sex. Hey people you can’t fool the youths.Don’t be shock or surprize that during church they sexting (sending nude images by text).
My daughter sometimes ask me some complex simple profound innocent questions .For example she asked,”daddy, I thought you said when a man and a woman marry they should have a child, but a young lady should have a baby outside of marriage, what about so and so?” How come you said we shouldn’t use obscene language, but so and so son or daughter using it…daddy do you want to hear what she said? “Daddy,what is a homosexual?”.”Daddy, how come two men are marrying ?” What did God said in Genesis?
The most shocking statement she told me was this,”daddy,I do not want to be marry,because dem man and dem just want to give woman ah whole heep of children and leave dem after.” My daughter is eight. You cannot fool the youths.
This is reality.While we are monkeying around with the word of God, our youths knows fully well that most of the people they see are fake.
The issue of work.It is all good to tell the youths to work,but is that the essence of what the preacher needed to convey? A youth could reply, well I will work,but as a drug don or as a “pusher”-those that lime by the secondary schools in particular selling the tings or those who I suspect sell food with the drugs hidden in the food. I cannot be sure. But one will say,preacher, you are asking me to work, the country donot have “traditional work”, after all we have over 50% of the working population unemployed. There, I will work as a farmer,but plant something which will make real money, that is marijuana.This is wide open for the preacher. He must deal with the original intention of work, and the integrity of work.
I was renegade, a drifter, a loser,a wretch, but thank God for amazing grace, that I am now righteous before God.
For ministry this means I will not be a church workaholic, a pastor pleaser, and a family hater, but nice man at church.It simple mean that God will be my guide.Consequently, everything I believe God wants me to be involved in,I will be obedient to. Yet I purpose in my heart not to be involve in everything. That the reason, as a preacher,if I am busy,didn’t study,lazy,disturbed,etc,etc,etc, I will not even bother to cover up such and pretend I am ready to give a word from God.
The conclusion of the whole matter is this,” I will either use the Alta to preach the word, preach truth or keep myself quiet and say nothing. It is the breaking of the Ten Commandments: the abuse of time, deceit, Idolatry,stealing,etc to pretend others.
Of course this is just my humble opinion. Lord, have mercy on us.
Discussion
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