Mingling and Mixing . . . in the PULPIT ?

Are We Putting The LORD JESUS FIRST ?
Commentary by Samson7able

Ye shall keep MY statutes.
Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind:
thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed:
neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen
come upon thee. Leviticus 19:19 

Are We Putting The LORD JESUS FIRST ?

Oh, YES ! We all proclaim . . . loud and long, and with great offense.

How could anyone dare to question if we are putting The LORD first in our lives, first in the Church Assembly, first at work, first in our hearts and homes ? Can't they TELL that we are ?

Well, let's merely look at the apparent, obvious, visible witness going forth.

Let's start with the pulpit. 

Who is in the pulpit ?   

Do we have God-fearing men, brothers, who are careful to follow in their own lives The HOLY Word+ of GOD ? 

If we do have such men in the pulpit, we will KNOW IT .

We will leave that worship service full of the Presence of CHRIST JESUS. We will leave that time of worship FILLED with the desire to commit more of our own lives to CHRIST+, no matter the cost. 

We will leave that place, knowing we had TIME WITH CHRIST. We will be filled with a cleansing humility and a burning desire to make it right with our fellow-man and with GOD.  

The measure of such a man in the Pulpit is the amount of conviction that falls when The LORD JESUS is shared. 

As the SPIRIT of GOD has brought conviction upon such a man, even his presence will bring conviction upon the congregation, through the SPIRIT.  The LORD HIMSELF+ will see to that . . . and no-one can trick the HOLY SPIRIT.

In this way, The LORD uses Men of GOD to feed the congregation through the HOLY SPIRIT.

We are not talking about eloquence nor even great learning, here.

We are talking about men FIT to fill the Pulpit.

If a man has not walked with the LORD, how can he possibly lead others to do so ?  The SPIRIT of GOD will not anoint the sharing of this one.

There will be no conviction from the SPIRIT of GOD to call forth the congregation unto a deeper, more consecrated walk with The LORD. . . the kind of walk that CHANGES people deeply on the inside.

It is the power of GOD changing hearts which heals , restores, refreshes, and renews with vigor that should occur at each and every worship service, coming forth from the Message from the Pulpit.  

It is not a matter of learning, education, of being able to read Greek and Hebrew, but a matter of how YIELDED that man in the Pulpit is to the LORD.

Who are in our pulpits ?  Are they men of GOD. . . or men who savor this world ? 

Are they able to SHARE the LORD JESUS  from their own experience of walking humbly with HIM+ ? 

Have they yielded their OWN lives over to the CONTROL of The HOLY SPIRIT ?  Their thoughts... are they always focused upon The LORD ? [ Their conversations will reveal this, for out of the heart, the mouth speaks. ]

Do they yearn to have every single soul in that congregation alive in The LORD, walking with HIM+ with all their strength, time, energy, and focus ?  Do they work to that end ?

Or, are they rather men who spend most of their waking hours doing their career or preparing for it ?

Well, we might say, there is nothing wrong with learning a skill, going to institutes of higher learning, building a business or working at a profession.  "After all, we have to feed our families," they say. ALL TRUE. 

But the Early Christian church found in the New Testament saw the leaders of the congregations LEAVE THEIR FISHING NETS, leave their tax-collection stations, leave their physician's robes, and leave their Scrolls to follow CHRIST JESUS . 

HE+ was first and foremost in their lives.  They ordered their homes aright and their wives followed The LORD JESUS too.

They had met The LORD  . . . on His+ terms.  They had repented of following after careers, houses and lands, and even families and family businesses.

Their only goal in life was to proclaim HIM+ in every thing they did, in every place they went, with every word they spoke.

Yes, they still fished, at times. And undoubtedly, they still ministered health and healing where needed. But they, even as young men, set aside these earth-bound goals and whole-heartedly followed CHRIST JESUS. 

Who are we placing in our pulpits ?  Are they men such as these Early Christians were ?

Or, do we have men ENTANGLED with the affairs of this life, mingling Christianity as they savor their business ... skills ... education ... careers ?

Those entangled men might very well be sitting in our congregations, but  Should They Be Standing in Our Pulpits ?

And that, with the approval of the church brethren or elders ?

If so, they will certainly lead the congregation directly into holding the same spiritually-mingled values which they hold.

Their mixed, entangled spirits will rule, having the tacit approval of the elders, deacons, and brethren of the church.

The HOLY SPIRIT will have an up-hill battle to awaken the flock, which doth so easily drop the spiritual and run after the temporal values, the values of the Adamic man instead of the values of a New Creature in CHRIST .

Yes, Men of GOD can have families, houses, lands, and careers. However, such Men of CHRIST  refuse to savor those temporal things, with a fear of displeasing The LORD JESUS CHRIST.

And they NEVER, EVER would lead others to savor those dead things, either. Indeed, Men of CHRIST will warn others to flee from savoring such.  

Men of the church who are NOT of GOD ( but of this world ) justify  the savoring of their natural lives, as "gifts given" by GOD.

If the New Testament church would have had "Christian" men who savored their natural , "GOD-given" gifts, they would have continued to fish, collect taxes, ,wear the robes of a physician, and teach the Scrolls in the Temple, among other things.

Who are we placing in the Pulpit ? 

The mingled  . . . or the pure ? 

+  +  +

No man that warreth entangleth himself

with the affairs of this life;

that he may please HIM+

WHO+ hath chosen him to be a soldier.

2 Timothy 2:4

+  +  +

Cultivating luke-warmness is a very dangerous thing to do. Luke-warmness mingles the hot with the cold. The Risen CHRIST has promised to SPEW THE LUKEWARM out of His+ Body.

So then

because thou art lukewarm,

and neither cold nor hot,

I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Revelation 3:16,

Words of CHRIST JESUS.

+  +  +

The mingling leads directly to luke-warmness. 

That is why HE+ hates it.