When I'm with my church family during our Weekend Worship Gathering (currently on Sundays at 5:00pm), I usually "preach" as I understand preaching to be a direct word of exhortation/encouragement from God to them through me-a responsibility I'm afraid many pastors have neglected, whether intentionally or unintentionally, as it sure isn't "politically correct" nor is it convenient (it would be much easier and "safer" for me to not do it, easier but not better, as I wouldn't have to risk the fact that The Lord first uses the message on me, breaking me apart and then putting me back together again as a broken yet restored vessel through which He can now use the message that He first used on me through me for them so that we can all grow in becoming more like Him.

On the other hand, "teaching" is more of an academic exercise through which a Bible Teacher, for example, disseminates/shares information that he/she has been given with others to whom it is offered. I find it to be primarily about information rather than transformation, whereas preaching tends to be more involved in transformation than information-yet both teaching and preaching may involve both of these elements at various times.

Why am I mentioning all of this? Well, not only because we have many gifted teachers amongst us (some of the people of our church family, for example, are alreay quite actively teaching others what has been taught to them via a small group (be it focused on recovery, growth, or common cause) that they're leading, a ministry they're overseeing during the week, a Sunday School class for the children that they're teaching, or a book that they're going through one on one with another disciple, etc..Yet, I also mention it because I am concerned that many "pastors" look at themselves as "teachers" whereas being a pastor involves MUCH more than simply teaching or preaching, which I find takes up only a minimul amount of the time I in particular spend "pastoring" God's people. I'd say being a pastor involves 10%, if that, preaching, and 90% everything else included in being a Shepherd of God's sheep (counseling-i.e. a deeper form of "discipling" and "life coaching," teaching, officiating weddings, leading funerals, doing dedications, baptisms, visits to the sick, spending time as a public figure in the community as one who is not merely professional but spiritual, leading others to Christ, leading, equipping and administrating over others who are ministering to God's family, through God's family, and beyond God's family, and-most importantly-praying for others in light of studying God's Word and desiring God's will for others).

 

I may at one point post a letter I once wrote in anwer to the question "What's A Pastor For Anyway?" This leads me back to the question of when do I in parrticular have opportunities to teach?

For me, most of the opportunities I have to "teach" have been coming through this blog.  As a result, I'm thankful beyond expression for the gentleman who began this whole ordeal for me (and I hope you are too :) I hope and pray that you who read it, allowing me an opportunity to join in some of the teaching in your lives, as I love you and care for you as I pray to effectively guide you, will be blessed by it.

With Love in Christ Jesus,

Jim

 

Q: Being Saved-does it take more than one step? (asked by a friend)

 

A: YES and No, but thanks for asking, my dear friend.

 

Let me explain this unusual answer to your question. 

 

No, in the sense that Scripture teaches us that we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) and we read "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." In this same passage, God's Word tells us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13). Jesus Christ Himself made it clear that He and He Alone is the object upon which our faith must be based if we are to be saved (John 3:16-17, 5:24, 14:6). So in this sense it takes only one step, the step of believing, to be saved.

 

Nevertheless, I agree with what some theologians (including my own Professor of Systematic Theology in my seminary days in California) have proposed: That there may be such a thing as a "salvation cluster," or a series of events and experiences that transpire in one's life that all culminate into a "cluster" of elements of and relating to one's salvation, each element being a factor or contributor to, and an ingredient or step in the process of one's salvation. These may include the following:

 

First, seeing your need for forgiveness (i.e. repentance, or turning away from one's ways that are apart from God's ways-as expressed in Matthew 4:17, Romans 3:23 and elsewhere throughout all of Scripture. Second, receiving forgiveness from The One who forgives (Acts 10:43) if you ask for it (Matthew 7:7, John 3:16-17). Third, being reconciled to God through now having faith in Christ (Colossians 1:15-23) and thereby becoming a child of God (John 1:12-13) and this forever (John 10:28)! Fourth, when possible (as it wasn't in the case of the thief on the cross next to Jesus, whose salvation Jesus guaranteed, in Luke 23:43), be baptized as an integral, crucial, and extremely significant part of your salvation, for it is not only commanded by Christ (Matthew 28:19-20), but was demonstrated by Him as an example to us in "fulfilling all righteousness" (in other words, in "doing everything that is right to do"), as seen in Matthew 3:15. It is also an outward sign of an inward relationship, much like a wedding ring is amongst married couples, as it demonstrates our oneness and union with Christ and one another by His Spirit, and as it signifies our death to our own ways and a resurrection to His true ways (Romans 6:1ff.) and our new ways in our new life (2 Corinthians 5:17). Also, in Mark 16:16, Jesus says that if we believe and are baptized we are saved, but it is not by failing to be baptized but by failing to believe that we are condemned.

 

I thank God for His compassion and grace by which He has given us the opportunity to be saved in order to have abundant life now (John 10:10) and eternal life then (John 14:1ff.) in a place where there will be no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more sadness, and no more sickness because there will be no more sin thanks to our great Savior (Revelation 21:4)!

 

To Him be the glory!

 

Yours and His,

 

Jim

 

QUESTION from inquiring man: "Pastor Jim, how do you advise a divorced woman who comes to you for counseling and guidance regarding remarrying, in light of God's Word and specifically the Apostle Paul's teaching where he says 'not I but the Lord?'"

 

ANSWER from my "first thoughts" based on past and present counseling:

 

First let's consider what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, to which I believe you are referring:

 

"To the married I give this command-not I but the Lord: A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife (TNIV)."

 

In this Scripture passage, the Apostle Paul is communicating an unqualified (not modified or restricted by reservations) statement in line with the will of the Spirit of God Himself-The Holy Spirit, based on the Written Word-the Bible-alluding to what was spoken through the Living Word-Christ Jesus. That is reason enough to pay special attention to what is being communicated.

 

Volumes have been written in answer to this type of question and much hard work has gone into the communication of such topics throughout the centuries. As a result, I could not expect to "do justice" in giving a thorough answer to such an important question. Nevertheless, I will "take a shot at it." Yet, for the sake of time-stewardship, I will limit my answer here to one that I hope is not only concise but clarifying, being willing to share more thoughts should there be the need or should we deem it helpful in our dialogue regarding this issue.

 

With issues like this one, I have to admit that I enter into a dialogue somewhat hesitantly as I'm very aware of many pastors and their people who tend to engage in what has been called "Pharisaical Gymnastics" (as you may or may not know about the Pharisees, the religious leaders with whom Christ so often had conflict due to their legalistic attitudes and their tendancy to be all about the truth and never about grace, whereas Christ calls us to walk not in legalism nor in licentiousness, but in truth, yet without being condeming, and in grace, without being compromising, as He did and still does (John 1:14). As a result, I'm answering your question with "fear and trembling" as I know The One to Whom I must give an account.

 

So, here goes:

 

Paul is alluding to not only what was spoken through the prophet Malachi hundreds of years before Jesus came to us in human form (see Malachi 2:14-16), but also what came out of the mouth of Jesus Himself while He walked upon this earth (see Matthew 5:32, 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12; Luke 16:18).

 

When I consider not only the historical, cultural, and literary context in which each of these passages is written (as a student of "hermeneutics" a fancy Greek word for "Bible Interpretation) and take into account the principle addressed by God's Word in each case, I find that I'd counsel a woman who asks this question of me in the same way in which I would counsel a man. I would share, in light of God's Word, that I believe marriage is not only ontological but also covenantal. As such, if a wife separates from her husband, she must remain "unmarried" (i.e. remaining single and celebate, not emotionally or physcially involved with another person-based upon the Greek word from which "unmarried" is translated) or else reunite with her husband.

 

Yet, if your husband has broken his covenant (i.e. has been unfaithful to you) and has not repented (i.e. has not truly had a heart that is sorrowful, being sorry not only in words but also in atttitudes, actions, and behavioral patterns towards rebuilding trust and a new "track record" that would allow you to see that he is truly repenting not only in words but also in actions), then in effect he is the one who "ended" the marriage (not necessarily the one who "filed" for divorce, but more likely than not the one who has "cheated," being unfaithful to his wife via breaking his marriage vows-in essence breaking the "covenant").

 

All of this is true in the reversal of roles (i.e. if it's a man who's wanting to remarry, and to the best of his knowledge his wife has been unfaithful to him).

 

Forgiveness (not getting revenge or "righting" the wrongs yourself rather than leaving the other person in God's Hands-Romans 12:17-21) does not equate to reconciliaton. I'd like to share this equation: Forgiveness (on the part of the offended) + Repentance (on the part of the offender) = Reconciliation.

 

If you reconcile, or pretend to be reconciled (in the sense of continuing to act as if nothing is wrong) with the other person before he/she has repented, then you may not be forgiving the other person but may actually be excusing or even enabling the other person to continue in his/her sin/sickness/harmful attitudes, actions and behavioral patterns, hurting not only others but himself/herself, allowing them to be stuck in their sins-which is anything but loving! 

 

With all of this in mind, if a reasonable amount of time has transpired and the "unrepentant" person has not yet repented, nor shown any hope of repenting, or any admission of the infidelity, and if you have done everything in your power, with God's help, to examine your own heart (repenting where you need to repent, seeking forgiveness where you need to be forgiven, and "turning over a new leaf" in your own attitudes, actions, and behavioral patterns to the extent to which it is necessary according to the guidance of not only God's Word but also God's Spirit even through God's People-the church-who have His Spirit in them-and any consensus in their thoughts and even particularly the thoughts of your shepherd/pastor/spiritual leader, under the Great Shepherd, with Psalm 139:23-24, Matthew 7:1-6, and Hebrews 13:17 in mind), then you can remarry faithfully (i.e. "in the faith," marrying someone who shares your faith in Christ-if that's Who your faith is in).

 

For Christians, when it comes to remarriage, it's a "must" in regard to not being unequally yoked (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 7:39, especially in regard to understanding that in God's eyes, only "death" was supposed to determine eligibility for remarriage, which explains why having sex with anyone other than one's spouse is the equivalent of adultery-a "legal piece of paper" doesn't change a spiritual, ontological union).

 

With the above in mind, remarriage is pretty much the same as adultery, as Jesus clearly communicated (and which I think is logically and psychologically understandable), because you would then, by divorcing your spouse, practically "force" or at least "enable" your spouse to be involved with someone else (in the case that your spouse was faithful to you), which is the same as someone who is currently married to you becoming emotionally and physically involved with another (i.e. adultery).

 

Thankfully, although we have God's truth, we are also invited to receive God's grace (Romans 3:23, 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9, etc.).

 

Yet, in all of this, I'd say that we must remember that God grants us His forgiveness as long as we don't take His forgiveness for granted. If we do, we may be demonstrating a soul that isn't saved in the first place, and so doesn't belong to Christ anyway (John 3:3, 16-17, 14:6), planning to sin (i.e.  to quit on a marriage, or to manipulate the other person who you no longer "love" in such a way that he or she wants to cheat on you or feels no choice but to cheat on you so that you can "legitimately" divorce them-but God sees right through all of our deception, yet offers His redemption, if we truly have repentance).

 

I hope this is helpful to you in your quest and your journey with Jesus who embodied not only grace but also truth (John 1:14) and calls His followers to do the same out of love not only for themselves but even more importantly for others. 

 

I welcome any further question(s) or dialogue.

 

Yours in Christ,

 

Jim