Man of God

"Our people need a God-besotted man. Even if they criticize the fact that you are not available at the dinner on Saturday night because you must be with God, they need at least one man in their life who is radically and totally focused on God and the pursuit of the knowledge of God, and the ministry of the word of God.
How many people in your churches do you know that are laboring to know God, who are striving earnestly in study and prayer to enlarge their vision of God. Precious few.…")*

1 Timothy 6:11 KJV
But thou, O man of God ….

Over the years, as my relationship to the Lord has (I trust) grown, that which I would like to be known by has changed. Yea, even the concept of being known has changed for me because today I have no real desire to be known at all, but rather be completely unknown in Christ.

Early on I preferred the title, Pastor
I remember struggling in my early pastorate attempting to get people to call me by this name. While it is still the most common name my congregation address me by, I seldom introduce myself with that moniker any more.

Pastor is a title of office. I am convinced that the members of a church ought to respect this office. I just do not believe I must be identified with the title so much any more. I do, after all, still have the office.

My tastes fairly rapidly added to that title that of Preacher
This is can be considered a term of affection. When a church member calls me preacher they generally do so because I have progressed in their mind from one holding the official roll over them to one that has the emotional ministry to them.

The term preacher might also mark a degree of achievement in the ministry. If a pastor has developed skills in the pulpit so that his preaching is easier to listen to, e might be called preacher. If he has attained some level of skill in expositing the Bible and it is recognized by a congregation, the term preacher might be a reflection of that skill.

The term, Reverend, has never been a coveted title to me
However, under certain circumstances I have come to appreciate that title and even an occasional "Padre." I served as volunteer chaplain for the Astoria Police Department for several years. In that position, various officers referred to me addressed me as "Rev" or "Padre." I accepted those designations as gestures of warmth and was pleased to be addressed by them in those terms.

At one time I thought I liked to be addressed as Doctor.

When serving at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College and then Heartland Baptist Bible College, it seemed important that students and staff address me with that title as a reminder of the educational atmosphere we were in.

While I have earned degrees, they are not accredited by the world's standards and mean very little other than that I did benefit from those studies necessary to attain said degrees.

I am no longer interested in titles.

Mom and Dad named me Marvin. I am happy with that. I don't even really have to have the Christian "Brother" before it.  

But I do have a goal to pursue yet, not for a name, but for a quality. I long to be a man of God. Not merely a man of the book, or a man of the church. I recognize that I must be each of those to be a man of God. But I want to be a man of God. I want to be one who is wholly and completely devoted to God. I want to come to the place where my congregation recognizes me, not only as faithful to my responsibilities as a pastor, and not merely as skillful in my duties as a preacher; I want my congregation to see in me a man "who is radically and totally focused on God and the pursuit of the knowledge of God."

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields


*Excerpted from The Pastor as Theologian, by John Piper

Choosing

Joshua 24:15 KJV
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

John 15:16 KJV
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Though these passages seem to oppose the other, they are both true.

At least one explanation arises from the fact that the one is in the Old Testament and the other in the New Testament. Though salvation is always by grace through faith in both the Old Testament and in the New, God's dealings with people were different in the Old Testament than they are in the New Testament.

Another difference is in God's dealings with the nation of Israel and with individuals. Though Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples, who were Jewish, in John fifteen, He was addressing them as individuals and not as a part of the corporate Jewish nation.

There is also the fact that, once Joshua had admonished them to choose, and they responded apparently positively in choosing to serve the Lord, his next words indicate that their reaction was not the correct one and that they (and we) probably mistinterpret Joshua's intent. We cannot make this choice on our own. Joshua urged them to choose the Lord, but they chose to serve the Lord in their own power and not in the wooing of the Lord.

The reconciliation of the two passages is this; God chooses us. He makes that choosing apparent to us through some form of witness.
• It might be a gospel tract
• It might be an invitation to a church service
• It might be through the witness of a friend or neighbor
• It might be through a chance hearing of a TV or Radio message
• It might be through a Scripture billboard along the road
and when that choosing happens in our hearts, we have a choice to make: will we be obedient to the voice of the Lord, or will we ignore and disobey it?

Have you obeyed God's choosing of you?

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Fifty-Three

My 53rd birthday:

• The body is older
• The emotions are more worn
• The energy I once had is beginning to wane

but the blessing of salvation is better now than maybe even when I first got saved.

The world has not been easy but I doubt that it would have been without salvation. Satan not only hates the Christian, he hates all mankind as the object of God's love and grace. It's just that the lost don't realize it. The destruction in society is not merely a destruction of Christian principles, but of morality.

• Marriage
• The family
• Children, even
• Governments and other
• Social influences
are under the attack of the devil and the lost world doesn't know where to point the blame, if they even know something is wrong and must be blamed. No, the world would have been unkind these many years even if I had never trusted Christ or followed Him into ministry.

But what has happened in the last several years is that I have come to look more deeply into myself and the heart and soul of my own motivations. I cannot say I have arrived at anything. Only that I recognize something that is grander than even Christianity has offered me to this date. I am sure that, despite the mess sin has made of everything, even Christianity, Jesus Christ has a glorious resolution. I want to see Him. And until that day I stand before Him I trust that all things, even the more terrible things that happen in this realm of life, will work together to bring about that glorious resolution.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Can the Gospel Go to the Wrong Door?

When I was in Bible College a preacher came through encouraging missions and soul winning.

One of the statements he made was, "The Gospel Cannot Go to the Wrong Door."

I want ask the question, "Can We Go To the Wrong House?" Is the phrase "The Gospel Cannot Go to the Wrong Door" a biblical concept? What about the home of someone who gets upset? What about if no one is home? What if the people at the home are from a different religion?

I. God would have all saved
1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3:9 KJV
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

II. God commissions to us is to go to all the world
Matthew 28:18-20 KJV
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

III. Salvation requires both the planting and cultivating of the seed
1 Corinthians 3:5-9 KJV
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

Matthew 13:3-9 KJV
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

God may use means we can't understand in the planting and watering

IV. Therefore to go to a home, even if that home is unresponsive can never be wrong

Eudaimonia

Aristotle believed that a man lived his life to achieve something he called eudaimonia, (pronounced "you die moan ee a") which is translated "happiness" in its simplest form. And happiness seems to be a key goal in many of the philosophers. But for Aristotle, happiness is not the mental state that we often think of as defining the word "happiness." For Aristotle, eudaimonia, happiness, meant to successfully achieve one's purpose for living.

Therefore, for Aristotle, a man could not be truly happy until he died. He could not know that he had successfully completed his purpose in life until then. For Aristotle (and I wonder if this is what Jefferson meant as our unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness) the reason to live for moral and intellectual virtue was so that in the end of one's life, we might have eudaimonia.

Now there are some immediate theological objections that come to mind for me.
• The Bible tells me I may "rejoice evermore."
• The Bible tells me I may know I have eternal life (which is man's ultimate purpose)
• The Bible tells me I do not have to wonder if, when I die, I will be happy. I can know today that I will be in the presence of the Lord and experiencing eternal joys

But I also see some incredible significance here for men seeking their unalienable right to pursue happiness.
• Happiness is not a momentary, fleeting thing; it a goal
• Happiness is not something we obtain immediately, it is a prize we gain in heaven

A person may live a lifetime seeking a temporary mental state of happiness only to come to the end of life and discover they have missed the real prize. On the other hand
A person might suffer some degree of hardship in this life in their pursuit of happiness find that in the next life they have gotten from God something far greater; eudaimonia.

Romans 8:18 KJV
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Has Christ's Church Failed?

I am responding to a book review I saw at, Patheos.com. The book is called I Knew Jesus Before He Was a Christian... And I Like Him Better Then. First off, I have got to hand it to the author, Ruby Shelly. That title grabs the attention, even if it is irreverent. I have not read the book so I offer no response to it. However the two blogs at Patheos do elicit certain observations I would now like to make.

In post number one the blogger quotes the book and holds the quote up as an ideal. He urges us to, "Print that out, paste it on your desk or shelf or mirror and let us all remind ourselves. We have a challenge." The quote?
“People who read the Gospel stories from the life of Jesus are attracted to him. People who know Christ only through his followers often can’t stand him”

I have a challenge. Prove to me that people who read the Gospel stories are attracted to Jesus. I take my thoughts from the Gospels themselves and the fact that Jesus was far from "attractive" in His own time. Sure, He did have a period of popularity as people began to follow Him. But they quickly learned that they followed for the wrong reasons. They thought Jesus would feed them and heal them and do all sorts of miracles that would help them. At the very least they thought He would take over the kingdom of Israel and deliver them from Roman oppression. When Christ confronted their wrong thinking, His attractiveness wore off and the multitude was gone, perhaps joining in the final crowd that surrounded Jesus, calling for His crucifixion. It is an assumption to believe that Christianity is naturally attractive if practiced as Christ would do it. That there are crowds that gather in Jesus' name means little. A Christianity that does not confront the culture, a Christianity that does not draw men and women away from the world is nothing more than a means to exploit the religious nature of man for personal gain.

In post number two the blogger writes, "All of which leads Shelly to the preposterous — and he knows it — claim that for 1700 years (since Constantine) the church has failed miserably." And again I say, "Prove it."
• Prove to me that Christ's church has failed.
• Prove to me that the church that Jesus said He would build and the gates of hell would not prevail against has somehow been prevailed against.
• Prove to me that Christ's own prophecy concerning His church is in error.
I do not see any such failure; only the fulfillment of exactly what Christ said would happen; evil men have waxed worse and worse and faith is waining in the last days.

Besides that, who said the church had to succeed?

I like something my son told me this weekend, "Our problem is not that we have wrongly defined success, but that we define success at all." Ours is not to evualate the success or merit of the work Christ is doing. Ours is only to do the work Christ sets us to do.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields