Proper Placement

James McDonald shared an honest statement in a recent broadcast... one I thought incredibly appropriate for #deaconThursday. In essence, he made the point that it's problematic when we place a higher value on people and their wisdom than we do the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the power of Christ.

Seems elementary, doesn't it?

And yet it happens often... as in daily.
Those in the pews esteem their pastors insight, charisma and perspective more than going directly to God.
Just as easily, so can pastors rely more on the counsel of their deacon board more than God's Word.

It's dangerous ground, for sure. Consider a time in your life, when you did the same? I don't suggest that as a reminder of the pain that memory recreates, but as a frame of reference that once again, pastors and church leadership are just as human and flawed as the rest of us. Sometimes more so, for out of a great mess comes a great message. And some of my favorite pastors have come from incredible backgrounds that have produced amazing testimonies.

Even that statement alone, if allowed, could be a launch point for temptation even in my own life, to give them greater importance and influence than the very work and word of God. It is with great care and intention that we must guard who we give preferred seating in our hearts and minds, and that ultimately, only the Divine resides on the throne

Pray, this #deaconThursday, that pastors and church leadership alike, would indeed, take great care in keeping God first, especially in the direction and decisions of their ministries and churches, as well as their own lives. Pray for revelation and warning for those who have perhaps gotten the seating arrangement in their lives out of order. May God reestablish His rightful place. Pray the power of the Holy Spirit would neither be lost, nor hindered, nor the eyes of the leadership blindsided or skewed. May their be a clarity of the spiritual vision in this fallen, physical world.

Give us eyes that see,
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
But powers and principalities of this dark age.
For the cause of Jesus Christ.

- PNC