{"id":3586,"date":"2024-05-10T12:18:42","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T12:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/67.223.117.105\/~gracetruthpress\/?p=3586"},"modified":"2024-05-10T12:18:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T12:18:42","slug":"the-pastor-and-his-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/10\/the-pastor-and-his-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pastor and His Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"sp-block sp-text-block \" data-type=\"text\" data-id=\"4\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-text-block \" data-type=\"text\" data-id=\"4\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<p>The pastor of a local church is also the worship leader of the church. While there may be someone else leading in songs, the ultimate leader of the congregation\u2019s worship is the pastor or pastors of the church.<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s post, I want to talk about why the pastor must be a daily Bible reader. Ultimately, it is for two primary reasons. First, the pastor needs to know God himself. Secondly, the pastor must lead his people out of the overflow of his own worship of God. His preaching, praying, and teaching must come out of a well that has been deeply dug through personal time in The Scriptures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-spacer-block \" data-type=\"spacer\" data-id=\"5\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<div class=\"spacer-holder\" data-height=\"30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-heading-block \" data-type=\"heading\" data-id=\"6\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<h2>A Reminder<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-text-block \" data-type=\"text\" data-id=\"7\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<p>There are so many places we can go to be reminded of the value of God\u2019s Word, but we will visit\u00a0<a class=\"rtBibleRef\" href=\"https:\/\/ref.ly\/Ps%2019.7-9;esv?t=biblia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-reference=\"Ps 19.7-9\" data-version=\"esv\" data-purpose=\"bible-reference\">Psalm 19:7-9<\/a>\u00a0for a moment. There David shows us that the Scriptures are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i><u>Perfect<\/u><\/i>\u00a0\u2015 The Bible is whole, complete, it is not lacking- it can \u201crevive\u201d the soul and transform the person.<\/li>\n<li><i><u>Sure<\/u><\/i>\u00a0\u2015 The Bible is trustworthy. Convincing. The Spirit uses it to take a simple undiscerning mind and make it skilled in all issues of a godly life.<\/li>\n<li><i><u>Right<\/u><\/i>\u00a0\u2015 The Bible points to the one way. The narrow road. \u00a0It points us to Christ who is the only source of eternal joy.<\/li>\n<li><u><i>Pure<\/i><\/u><i>\u00a0<\/i>\u2015 The Bible is clear. \u00a0God gave us a clear and understandable Word so that our eyes might be enlightened through the power of the Holy Spirit.<\/li>\n<li><i><u>Clean<\/u><\/i>\u00a0\u2015 Undefiled. \u00a0Inerrant, infallible, does not pass away.<\/li>\n<li><i><u>True<\/u><\/i>\u00a0\u2015 It is this Book that is the standard for judging the life and eternal destiny of every person. The Word is reliable. \u00a0It gives us the very will of God for our lives!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>David goes on to say that the Scriptures are more valuable to us than gold and sweeter to the taste than honey. Oh what a treasure the Scriptures are to us!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-spacer-block \" data-type=\"spacer\" data-id=\"8\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<div class=\"spacer-holder\" data-height=\"30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-heading-block \" data-type=\"heading\" data-id=\"9\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<h2>A Reality<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-text-block \" data-type=\"text\" data-id=\"10\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<p>David only had access to a certain portion of God\u2019s Word. We have more. David could not carry around all of God\u2019s Word he had access to. We carry around the full canon of Scripture in our pockets.<\/p>\n<p>Through the ages, God\u2019s people have had minimal access to God\u2019s Word compared to today. We read the Bible in our own language. We can access all 66 books of the Bible in multiple translations. We can read. We have the time and ability to search the Scriptures.<\/p>\n<p>What a great grace God has given to us today!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-spacer-block \" data-type=\"spacer\" data-id=\"11\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<div class=\"spacer-holder\" data-height=\"30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-heading-block \" data-type=\"heading\" data-id=\"12\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<h2>A Reward<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-block sp-text-block \" data-type=\"text\" data-id=\"13\">\n<div class=\"sp-block-content\">\n<p>A pastor should be in his Bible every day. And this does not count sermon preparation. This is personal time in the Bible outside of texts one is studying for teaching and preaching.<\/p>\n<p>This is not an extra burden, but a delight. There is great reward in seeking God.<\/p>\n<p>But the rejoinder comes from some:\u00a0<i>\u201cThe Bible never commands us to read it every day!\u201d<\/i>\u00a0Well, in one sense, that\u2019s true. There is no explicit command to read the Bible every day. Neither is there an explicit command for a husband to listen to his wife every day. But what would you do with a pastor who says he is too busy with ministry to converse with his wife every day? Hopefully, you would confront him!<\/p>\n<p>Just as husbands are commanded to love their wives, every person is commanded to love God. The pastor must demonstrate what this looks like to his people with daily Bible reading. There is obviously much more to demonstrate, but without this discipline, we are communicating that God\u2019s Word is merely optional.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor, if you\u2019re not reading your Bible every day, repent and ask our gracious God to realign your priorities. The sheep must be fed by a well-fed pastor!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What can someone aspiring to missions be doing now to best prepare for cross-cultural kingdom work someday? This article will be a follow-up to the previous article on &#8220;What is a Missionary?&#8221; It has three application points for young people to consider before heading to the field. These are directed primarily at young people, but are also for pastors who have aspiring missionaries in their churches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[122,123],"class_list":["post-3586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-commentary","tag-biblical","tag-legacy-biblical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandtruthpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}