{"id":12988,"date":"2022-05-04T01:11:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T01:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=12988"},"modified":"2022-05-04T01:11:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T01:11:00","slug":"a-true-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/12988\/a-true-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"A True Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"

John,<\/span><\/p>\n

There seems to be a lot happening lately, especially today with a bad accident and reports of illness.\u00a0 That said, I would like to tell about something good that Jesus did for me today.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been going through the\u00a0Thought for Today<\/em>\u00a0book, particularly in the morning before the day gets going. Today, I read,\u00a0On the Death of a True Pastor<\/em> (April 20)* and\u00a0On the Nature of a True Pastor<\/em>, (April 21).**\u00a0 I enjoyed reading again the events that took place surrounding your father\u2019s death.\u00a0 The last two sentences in the April 20 message reads, \u201cIf a man is a pastor sent by God, he cannot retire, any more than Israel\u2019s High Priest could retire.\u00a0 A pastor is a gift from God, not to be refused if one would grow in the grace and knowledge of God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After reading those two sentences, I asked myself if I really believe that my pastor is a gift from God, or has the many years of knowing you caused me to take for granted what God has done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The April 21 message,\u00a0On the Nature of a True Pastor<\/em>\u00a0talks about Christianity\u2019s method of hiring and firing pastors.\u00a0 You tell the story of how in the 1950\u2019s, the local cotton mill in your hometown of Henderson, NC, shut down.\u00a0 \u201cSome Christian pastors left town because contributions were few.\u201d\u00a0 You wrote that these ministers left \u201cbecause they were hired, and the pay was not good enough. Being a pastor is what they DID; it was not who they WERE.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There are many other nuggets mentioned in both these messages.\u00a0 One nugget that really stood out is, \u201cGeorge Clark was not elected to his post. He was appointed to it by God.\u00a0 And the Lord sent him sheep for whom he was responsible to God until death.\u201d \u201cThe transfer of authority over the flock\u201d was passed on to you.”<\/span><\/p>\n

When I finished reading, I closed the book, sat back, closed my eyes and started to pray.\u00a0 I could not help but thank Jesus for giving me (us) a true pastor.\u00a0 However, I wanted to be honest with myself.\u00a0 I asked Jesus to show me how I really feel about my pastor.\u00a0 Do I really love him, and the gift that he is?<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon after breakfast, I told Suzi that I was going to deliver the mail I had collected for Richard and Amy while they were on their trip.\u00a0 Suzi was disappointed that I was leaving so soon because she wanted to go with me.\u00a0 I told her that I would take a walk first and then we could go together.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had not gone too far down Preacher Holmes Road before I saw a vehicle coming towards me.\u00a0 When it got closer to me, I saw that it was you.\u00a0 You stopped, and we said hello to each other. Although you were only there for a minute, I was very glad to see you, and your smile.<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as you drove off, I felt tears come to my eyes because of the love I felt for you.\u00a0 I knew that Jesus had set that whole thing up.\u00a0 He wanted me to know how I felt about my pastor, just as I had asked him to do.\u00a0 If I had delivered the French\u2019s mail earlier, I would have missed seeing you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus is so good to us!<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom<\/span><\/p>\n

* https:\/\/goingtojesus.com\/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=tft04-20<\/span><\/p>\n

** https:\/\/goingtojesus.com\/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=tft04-21<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John, There seems to be a lot happening lately, especially today with a bad accident and reports of illness.\u00a0 That said, I would like to tell about something good that Jesus did for me today. I have been going through the\u00a0Thought for Today\u00a0book, particularly in the morning before the day gets going. Today, I read,\u00a0On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}