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About-Him.Com Devotional - 03-17-2007
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Jesus Placed the Ministry in the Church

As we mentioned last week: Jesus, as the head of the body has distributed gifts to His church to each man and woman as He best sees fit.  

Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,  


In addition to this, He has also set ministry in the church to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We find this reiterated in I Corinthians 12:28: The offices listed are apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healings, helps, governments, and then diversity of tongues.  

This is in accordance with the promise of God in Jeremiah 3:5 to give us pastors after His heart who would lead us in knowledge and understanding. We remember the commandment of Jesus at His ascension to go into all the world to teach all nations (Matthew 28:19). Paul in Romans 10:14-15 asks, How will the unbeliever believe without a preacher and how can they preach except they be sent.  

How blessed it is to have a pastor who has the heart and mind of God. Consider the words of the aged Apostle Peter:  
    I Peter 5:2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly,[a] not for dishonest gain but eagerly;
    3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;  
The ministry is to have  oversight but not as dictators over God's heritage. Obvious they need to be well taken care of, but money should not be the motivating force of their ministry.  They are to teach us by example. Friend, if you are blessed to have such a minister, be sure to let him know just how much you appreciate him.  

Ephesians 4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  


It would be good to meditate on verse 13 and consider the meaning of each each phrase.
The unity of the faith
The knowledge of the Son of God
A perfect man
The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ  

My take of this is that more that  we concentrate on the teachings of Jesus  and what He did for us on His cross and the gift of His Spirit that He gave us after His ascension, the more unified we will be.  We won't agree on every item of doctrine or have the same style of worship, but we will be functioning members of His body. We won't become a perfect man or realize just how big Jesus is until we see Him, but we have a long way to go while here on earth.  
Ephesians 4:14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,  


The church world is full of deceivers ever ready to sell you a product that is far removed from the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.  II Peter 2:3 tells us  that in the last days people, because of covetousness, would use feigned words and make merchandise of men. The sad thing is that folks will heap money at the feet of these deceivers and ignore man of God.  

Ephesians 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.  


When we concentrate of the simple gospel and the true manifestations of the Holy Ghost, we become unified in the Spirit with Jesus as our head. I'm not an apostle , prophet or pastor, nor do I desire to be. I am content to be just where Jesus placed me in His body and am thankful for the opportunity to be a functioning member of that body.  

As we've said before: We all have a gift. We all have something to contribute to the body.  We all have the work of the ministry to perform. when we see Jesus, We all will have arrived at a perfect knowledge of the Son of God and will then comprehend the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.  

Remember this song?  

What a day that will be, when my Jesus I will see
When I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace
And forever I will be, with the One who died for me
What a day, glorious day, that will be.  
 
Humor
  When the car engine developed a slight knock, the husband asked his wife if she had bought special non-leaded or regular gas, but she couldn't remember. 'You probably got the cheaper gas,' he said. 'That could account for the roughness of the engine.'  

'No, the gas wasn't cheaper!' she replied indignantly.  

'Well, how much did it cost?' asked the husband probingly.  

'It cost the same as always.' said the wife.  

'I told the man to put in the usual ten dollars worth.'  

Somebody Has Said
"Trees have their seasons at certain times of the year when they bring forth fruit; but a Christian is for all seasons."  Ralph  Brownrig

Keep Looking Up!

Don and Marie Spooner
About Him! Ministries

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