No controversy with spiritual matters

Praise the Lord Saints.

First I want to invite everyone out Saturday and Sunday to our Family & Friends Day and our Bishop Joseph Lewis Pastor’s Appreciation. Sat. time is 5 p.m. and Sun. is 11:30 a.m. and in evening at 4:30.

Great food and preaching will be the order of the day, so come out and enjoy our hospitality.

These past few weeks I have been dealing with issues in our society that have created issues in the church as to what is right according to God’s Word and what man says.

I hope that above all I have laid to rest these so-called controversial issues and have made it quite clear that there is no controversy when it comes to spiritual matters.

This week however, I will defend this methodology so that you understand that the man of God, truly anointed, appointed, called, and chosen man of God is held to a much higher standard than most of them are actually upholding.

I have never and will never make excuses, but when a man decides to accept the calling on his life by God to preach and teach His Word, it’s almost like volunteering for a suicide mission. Just as the apostles of old did, we have to decide that to die in the Lord is gain and that heaven is our eternal destination.

While I will never question a man’s calling, I will however question the method and message if it doesn’t line up with the Word of God.

We are the body of Christ, Gentiles, and we must be taught accordingly from the lessons the Apostle Paul gave to us which was given to him by Jesus on the Damascus road after his conversion. (Acts 9)

While this is Old Testament scriptures, know that Ezekiel was known as the End-time prophet and many of his prophesies are still to happen. This particular passage has a great deal to do with the “jellyback” preachers that are bold enough to:

2 Timothy 4 (ESV) Preach the Word

4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Ezekiel 34 (ESV)

34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?

3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.

4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.

5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts.

6 My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep,

9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

10 Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.

16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.[a] I will feed them in justice.

Till next week,

God Bless.

Rev. Dr. Rob Harrison, PhD – pastorrobharrison@gmail.com, @drrobharrison

Chaplain – Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Pinellas

The Apostolic Open Door Church of God & True Holiness – 2800 41st Ave. N, St. Pete