The Pastor’s wife …to be

A woman, who was commonly known to be addicted into alcohol, drugs, and does prostitution for her living, stood by the front of the church as she was struck by the message being preached. As she continually listen to the message, she felt the tug in her heart that she needed Jesus as her Savior. The Holy Spirit worked in her, and there he received Jesus.

 

Cleansed by the blood || Photo Courtesy of Moha Barakat

 

Her conversion was no longer questionable because the change and the fruit of the Spirit was so evident in her life. As years pass by, she became active in the church and was given the privilege to lead various ministries. She worked side by side with the pastor and soon they fell in love with each other.

As they were planning their wedding, the old people in the church was in any way disagreeing to their relationship. They spread the rumors about the past of the woman and convinced the congregation of the church to stop the wedding of the said couple. The news spread to all members of the church and the woman was in great tears as she was sitting in one side of the church. Members came by and continued to rant about their plea for the pastor to break-up with the woman, and stop the wedding.

The pastor caught all of these things happening. He then went to his condemned fiance, and tried to comfort her. But the tears couldn’t just stop flowing as she hears the old members telling the pastor to think very carefully of his decision. The members were telling him more filthy things her fiance did in the past. They said it is not enough that he would marry this kind of Christian with that kind of background. The pastor was so upset when he heard all these judgments and condemnations but he couldn’t do anything aside from comforting his fiance.

The elder of the church came and found out all the accusations being said against the pastor’s fiance. He was as well upset with the people, so he stood up in front of the congregation, got their attention, and spoke with all boldness:

Brothers and Sisters! We all believe that this woman is already a believer of our Lord Jesus. In that case, what is being tested now is not this woman anymore. What is put in the test is the blood of Jesus. Whether Jesus’ blood is efficacious to cleanse the past of this woman or not. The words you said against this woman, is not actually said against her, because you were pertaining to her past. Rather those words are against the blood of Christ. We, therefore have no right to condemn this woman anymore. Because “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, therefore, new things has come.”

With this speech, the congregation was rebuked and was silenced.

There is something in my NAME…

Did you ever wonder why most of the people in the bible live with the name that they have? This question actually made me so curios whether their names were given after they had done certain action that made them known as that kind of person by their performance.

For some instance, this thought might be true. Because we can observe number of people who have had different names after having the encounter with the LORD, or even with Jesus himself.

One widely-known apostle whose original name was Saul (which signifies a sense of pride; since it is derived from the name of the first King of Israel) was called Paul which actually means ‘little’… It somehow implies that in spite of the educational achievements and his social status and other things that he could have bragged about; he considered them and himself nothing/loss or in literal translation means: a dung (Phil 3)… Paul looks at himself as a little person who, like a child, depends on God’s grace alone.

But how about those who have been given their name when they were still a child? Daniel for instance, means the Lord is my judge. And as you would see, in the entire life of Daniel, he lived a life of integrity. Even though ‘the whole world’ is against him, he still stood on what is right, and indeed God was his judge! The most favorite story for children that we have in his experience is his face to face with the craving lions, yet he wasn’t even bothered by them. YES!!! He lived in accordance with his name! He might have in mind: ‘God is my judge so i won’t hesitate to do what is right and pleasing to him’.

 Joshua (the disciple of Moses), which means savior, on the same measure lived according to his name. He was the one who led the second generation of people of Israel to enter the promise land and thus was worthy be called a savior.

If we are to enumerate all of them, i would probably throw up your interest in reading this post. So i have to make it plain as early as now that names are not just for the sake of knowing and for classifying a person, they have meanings and they have a purpose.

In my case; Jobet (First name) Arpon (Middle name) Dela Cruz (Last name), is a very interesting name. This actually defines who i really am and how i want to live this life.

Jobet – Means Little Job… We all know Job. And we know how he lived and what great sufferings he experienced. We know how his closest friends condemned him -even without being declared as guilty- an uninvited guest, Eliphaz, bluntly accused him of what he did not really do. What’s so funny about this is; Eliphaz first rebuked Job’s three friends for rebuking falsely, but actually what he did was just exactly a repetition of what Job’s friends said… it was just a repackaged -in a more condemning way.

We also know Job, who in the last portion asked God; WHY? Thus, he was rebuked by God. As a conclusion, he now realized that… 

You (God) are perfect, you know everything

and you now them perfectly.

I am imperfect, and i only know little things.

And these little things that i know,

i know them imperfectly.

Many things in the life of Job is actually true to me (except when he was described as: there is no one as righteous as him.. ha-ha) …I am often tempted to question God especially when things aren’t doing well.

What has not yet occurred is the literal physical abnormal illness. But one thing is sure, whether literally or figuratively, i know i will SUFFER, for the sake of Him who died for me.

Dela Cruz – means of the Cross. Cross during the time of Jesus or even before him is the emblem of suffering and shame. People who will be hanged on that tree will suffer a lot and will have nothing in him to be  ashamed of since everything about him is exposed. And what’s more, they intentionally humiliate you in front of a crowd. Cross is a picture of Suffering… and just as what i have said, i know i will suffer.

Now, combine them together:

Jobet: little Job + Dela Cruz: of the Cross = Little Job of the Cross.

Upon knowing this, i felt a mixture of emotions. Excitement, joy, fear, and a sense of privilege since i know that all sufferings i will experience, i will do for him. And these sufferings cannot be compared to the glory that i will someday receive.

I have a great name to live by. Means i have to be more prepared. 

You have your name!

If  your name’s meaning is great; prove to the world that it describes you!

If  your name’s meaning is not so good, prove to the world that the ‘not so good’ can do way beyond best for the glory of God. 

 

“Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God.”

-1 Corinthians 10:31

The Goat Shepherds

Prophets has always been my interest ever since I began reading and studying the bible. I used to think they were good and special people, so they were chosen by God. But I was wrong. I began to understand that they were just like me, an ordinary person who serves the Extra-Ordinary God. And what they have become –a prophet– is not because of what they have done in the past, but what God did to them is part of God’s plan to make them what God wants them to be in the future. Indeed, God’s grace has helped them understand that what they do is theprivilege that not everyone will have. Inasmuch as the work is a privilege, the work also demands commitment to the calling, compassion for the called, and cognizance that the One who called is the most powerful, loving, and faithful God, who cannot be compared to anything or anyone, which becomes the source of motivation of any prophets that ever lived. Any other motivation aside from this would fall to the opposite of being a privileged prophet, the condemned false prophet. Being God’s prophet is a privilege, but the moment you fail to include a single iota to what God wants to communicate, you will be what this paper will talk about;  The Goat Shepherds.

False prophets are real. They existed, and still exist. Jesus would have not said; “beware of false prophets” if there were none. You would not put in your garden; “beware of dogs” if what you have at home are just cats, and lovebirds. So are the false prophets, they are real and are ready to destroy your life as they have destroyed many lives before. They are the one whom the book of Deuteronomy (13:1-5) pertains, that if what they prophesied did not come to pass, they are to be stoned to death –they are false prophets!

Prophet Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah (and many more) faced them (Ezek 13; Jer 2; Isa 30). False prophets were telling there is peace, enjoy life, continue on doing what you do, but what God was really saying was; there is judgment coming, repent now! The influence of false prophets are great, to the point that most people listened to them; or maybe people during their time just preferred to listen to them. Jeremiah, in his entire ministry, has never seen even one person who repented of his sins, because of the existence of the instruction of false prophets that what they do is okay. People were like saying; why listen to something hard to apply if there are more smooth prophecies and teachings that fit my lifestyle now? Their fondness to hear more of these comforting words was like saying: Tell us more lies! We don’t want what these prophets are saying, so tell us what we want! Give us more false prophets! This is sad. But this was true. Israelites failed to listen to the real prophets, thus came consequences. But these accounts are detailed specifically for us not to repeat the same mistakes they have committed.

False prophets can be recognized as you observe these things:

They won’t tell you the TRUTH. This is the easiest way of pointing out false prophets. In Jeremiah 6:14, it says; ‘false prophets were declaring peace, when there is no peace’. To know if what a person said is false; we should master the truth, for it will set us free from anything.

They will tell you only HALF of the TRUTH. For the sake of argument: maybe not all false prophets are liars. It’s just because they have selfish reasons, so they won’t tell you everything. But telling half of the truth would also result to a false statement. In logic, it can be simply stated as invalid, and is therefore false. It is true that the LORD (covenant name of God) himself said many times, before they step at the promise land, that He will give them rest. In fact God confirmed it to Joshua (Josh 1:13). And this mightbe what some of the false prophets had in mind when they were saying; there is peace! God promised it! We are Israel! We are God’s people called by His name! And it is true, isn’t it? But they forgot that there were conditions; they have to continuously obey the law. This doesn’t mean they obtained the promise land BY obeying the law. It means they obtained the promise land SO they will obey the law to continue enjoy the privileges. Israelites have nothing in them that made them worthy to receive the promise land. Yet, after many generations, it came to the point that they don’t want to keep the law. God has been gracious many times. But He also had to show the consequences of disobeying the law –There has to be a warning. And this is what the false prophets did not do. Because they were afraid nobody would listen to them, and so, they won’t be popular, they won’t be in demand, they won’t be heard, and they won’t earn money. Only if they have told the truth, they won’t be false prophets, and there won’t be exile.

Jesus was described by John as full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14). Jesus does not condemn people by showing grace that they could embrace, yet he doesn’t tolerate them by presenting the truth that they need to apply. One good example is the prostitute in John 8; ‘Go, and sin no more’. Now, if preachers are consistent in failing to present the things to do as prescribed by the bible, there is a great imbalance and similarity with the story in the Old Testament. And so what do we call them? The Goat Shepherds.

Sincerity is not good enough to qualify truthfulness. There were many people who were sincere; sincerely wrong. We were. We once sold all our belongings, even our house, land title, our business, everything. And then went to a remote place. Waiting for nothing, and nothing happened, except that we don’t have anything when we came back to Manila. I realized I should master the truth and proclaim it to people, that’s why I’m here in Febias. And by the grace of God, I stood; I stand, and will stand. Not for anyone, not for anything, but for him –my source of motivation alone. I will be God’s prophet!