STANDARDS
At a preacher's conference, I stood in the foyer before the meeting, and I listened. One preacher was holding court in a group who were bragging on how many decisions for salvation, baptism, and bus riders they had. What a waste of lung power.
But, the group that made me sick was the pastors who were trading stories about enforcing "Baptist Standards". One preacher was very proud that he had excommunicated a violator of his standards.
Any denomination or local church that majors on "Standards" is driven by conformity. They want all those who attend to be like sausages coming off the assembly line..... they must all look exactly alike.
So, let us do a bit of reminiscing based on our years of Bible reading.
Visualize please the disciple Peter next to Matthew. A rugged fisherman next to a tax collector who was a civil servant of the Roman Government.
Visualize the crafty Jacob next to Samuel who was said to never say a word that was vain.
Visualize the hot rodder Jehu next to Barnabas the son of consolation.
You see, God has chosen to do his work in this world by using people who are NOT alike.
It is time for you pastors and church leaders to STOP trying to make all the saints look alike and march in lock step. Jesus purposely selected twelve men to teach who were NOT alike.
I was preaching the first sermon in a series to the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church which I recorded and later sent to the Vatican. In the door walked five young adults who were startling. A man and wife in field jackets..... only the beard told me which was which. Another man had a long pony tail. They all were very unlike us folks in the church.
I asked the Lord to help me respond in love to them instead of freak out. I was prepared for the possibility that they had read my ad in the newspaper on the sermon series and were sent by a Catholic priest to disrupt.
What a shock later. After the service, I went to greet them, and two of them were carrying a pamphlet called the Bible Believer's Bulletin, possibly the most fiery defender of the King James Bible in America. I found out that all five of these people were totally committed to Christ. In the end, they asked me to travel to their city and do a Bible study with them.
In the years I grew up in a pastors home, a missionary's home, and as a pastor myself, I have had nothing but people who were very much NOT alike. By taking them as God sent them, and by letting them be who the Holy Spirit wanted them to be, I now have the most amazing list of war stories to tell. Look alike people are boring, my friend.
So, how do you make sure the people God sends you are not a lot of clones of YOU?
Answer:
Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
If the saints are led by YOU, preacher, they will not mind the things of the Holy Spirit. You do NOT know the mind of the Holy Spirit for every saint in front of you. This is why so many of the people in your church are carnal. They are minding you and some man made "Standards". Neither they nor you will ever be what the Holy Spirit wants them to be as long as you keep trying to command conformity.
And..... I have been putting the hammer to Baptist preachers here. But, you of other denominations have the very same problem. You too demand conformity and get clones of you or your confessions and standards. It is time to hand your friends in Christ over to the Holy Spirit to make them what he wants them to be.
Philippians 2:13
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Let us all rejoice in the people God sends our way and encourage them to be like Jesus instead of like our preconceived notion of what an ideal saint looks like.
