The Pulpit is not for Wimps..

1 Corinthians 16.13-14, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all you do be done in love".

Gene Cunningham, a Pastor-Teacher and a friend of mine was teaching at a youth camp a couple of years ago. I remember him teaching from the passage above. In my Bible, I wrote down the following points from that lesson.

1. Be alert-for danger.
2. Stand firm-be ready to fight in the faith.
3. Act like men-be courageous.
4. Be strong-work against resistance.
5. All done in love-Sacrifice yourself for someone else.

He taught this verse to a group of men and male teenagers. He was making the point that a Godly man displays the principles above in his daily life.

I then read this article and realized that far too many men who occupy pulpits in this country today have forgotten what being a man of God entails. As Pastors, Teachers, and Evangelists, our job is to "TEACH" the Word of God...period.. I am fed up with wimpy, feel good, pandering pastors in this country who teach a touchy-feely Jesus. Men who tell their congregations what they want to hear instead what the Word of God states. As the author of the article writes, "the pulpit is not for wimps." Indeed, it is not.

Time grows short. As each day passes, we grow closer and closer to the rapture of the church. The lines are being drawn and each person must decide where he/she stands. As for Pastors, there is only ONE side we stand on and it better be the side of truth. For we have been given the responsibility of leading people in the ways of God, and we better get it right. There is absolutely no excuse for any man who stands in a pulpit to teach anything other than the truth as it is laid out in the Word of God.

In his first letter to Timothy (who was a young pastor-teacher) Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote this, "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. 1 Timothy 6.12-16.

He concludes the letter to Timothy with this verse, "O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding world and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge", which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith". 1 Timothy 6.20-21.

Pulpits in this country (not all) are full of men who speak empty and worldly chatter and false knowledge.

Pastors:

Fish or cut bait. Play or sit on the bench but good grief get it right.