A Christian and his Personal Walk

When a person joins the armed forces, they are immediately taught how to walk worthy of their new vocation. Everything they do, every place they go, whether they are aware of it or not, whether they like it or not, they represent the Armed Forces.

When a ambassador accepts a post, he is going there to represent his country. He is trained, scrutinized and commissioned to walk worthy of his calling. he is under orders of the chief administrator to act on his behalf.

If this Christian is a Pastor, he is called and appointed to represent Jesus Christ to that congregation and community. His life and walk should be of the hightest order. It should in every way reflect the walk of Jesus. Not only is that the requirement for the Pastor, but it is the standard for all Christians.

John said, "He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:6, NKJV).

Paul said, "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentlemess, with longsuffering, bearing with on another in love, endeavering to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling" (Eph. 4:1 - 3).

The apostle Paul accepted the challenge to walk as Christ walked and so he was able say: "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Cor. 11.1).

What it takes to accept a call into the full-time ministry

It is a most serious matter to accept a call into the full-time, five-fold ministry. You are no longer your own to choose where you go or what you do. To choose your own way is to declare that you have not made a complete surrender. Your standard of conduct is in a manual called the Bible. Let us review a few of the requirements and standards of conduct:

1. Laying aside one's reputation

The first thing that Jesus did when He stepped out of equality with God, into the shoes of a man, was to make Himself of no reputation (Phil 2:7). Why is it that man, regardless of his social standing, will defend his reputation with all he possesses? He may be a convicted criminal, shut away as unfit to mingle with society, yet talk to him and you will discover he is prepared to defend his reputation. If nothing else, he will claim to be a proficient criminal.

Jesus, though being equal with God, emptied Himself of that equality and in becoming a Man, He did several things that would make living a God-like life possible as Man.

By surrendering His reptutaion He would never have to defend it or Himself through life. Have you ever considered how much of the Lord's time we spend defending our reputation?

2. Taking on Himself the form of a bond slave

That meant He would do what He was told to without expecting payment, appreciation, or recognition (Phil. 2:7).

3. Surrendering His will to the Father

He never did anything of His own accord (John 6:38). He consulted and did only the Father's will.

These are three very important keys to an acceptable Christian walk. One who does not surrender his reputation will constantly be irritated, frustrated, become retaliatory, defensive and at time offensive, if he is evil spoken of. Not to be evil spoken of, not to be maligned, castigated, persecuted and falsely accused is unrealistic. Jesus was so treated and we should expect to be. The servant is not above the Master. We are told to rejoice and be exceedingly glad that we are counted worthy to suffer such things (Acts 5:41).

Furthermore, to retaliate and to defend ourselves is evidence that we cannot trust the Lord to defend or rather to take care of our reputation. The simple matter is - are we willing to commit our reputation to Him and not try to protect, defend, or maintain it ourselves? Our responsibility is to so live that they cannot rightly accuse us. Beyond that we are in His hands.

Are we willing to be love-slaves to the Lord and His Church? We are not talking about rightful remuneration for our sevice. The ox that treads the corn should eat thereof. They that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. But excessive salary are hardly justifiable. Beyond finances there are other forms in which we are called to render service as love-slaves. Being a Pastor is not a punch-the-clock type of calling or job. Unfortunately, some of our more recent Bible colleges produce Pastors who don't even do that. They take their days for the children, days for the wife, holidays, days to be with guests, days for conventions, check in late and check out early, and don't even put in a 40-hour week.

A God-fearing and successful Pastor is on call 24 hours a day. He is in the office before the staff arrives. He is planning, counseling, studying and working all hours other know nothing about. He does not advertise his commitment. He expects no special mention or recognition for the same. He does not expect compliments and promotins. He is a love-slave and does it because he loves Christ and His Church.

The there points above will never become reality until one's will is presented as a living sacrifice unto God. Unless that Isaac is surrendered to tha Lord (Gal. 4), it will never be blessed and reproduced. It would be dangerous to bless and reproduce that which is not surrendered. An unsurrendered will and self will always want to do its own thing. As long as we do our own thing we will never really do His will. Too often our will clashes with His will. His will is for our "self" to be crucified, but our "self" resists crucifixion. He has, therefore, given us a free will so that we can voluntarily surrender it to Him. If we wll succeed in the above three surrenders, we will be ready to embark upon a walk that will be like unto His. That will involve:

A call to be obedient

Obedience springs forth from a surrendered will. Disobedience says, "I will not submit and obey, I will do my own thing." Neither God nor man can use a disobedient servant.

The successful Pastor has been careful to pull up every sibling plant of disobedience from the garden of his heart. If he finds his will resisting soulwinning effort, of personally physically getting involved by walking down the street and knocking at some doors, then he should overcome that resistance immediately. If he finds forgiveness difficult, or to love those who have persecuted him, or unjustly misrepresented him, he should attend to the matter immediately before it takes strong roots in his life.

When Abraham was under command to leave his country, friends and associates, he obeyed. He knew not where he was going. He had never seen the Promised Land. He faced opposition within and without, but none of those things deterred him from obeying and doing the will of God. When it seemed that even God was unreasonable in His commands, he still obeyed (Gen. 22:2, 3).

A call to self-denial

What do we really mean by self-denial? Which self am I to deny? Are we talking about the "depraved self" that is in sin, or are we talking about the "born again" self? Are we talking about the son of the bond-woman or the son of promise (Gal. 4)? We must define this for I fear too many of us do not understand what is involved.

Jesus made "denial of self" a condition of discipleship. He said, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Mark 8:34).

To deny self is to renounce the right to do our own thing, or to go our own way even if it is not sinful. It is a refusal to be a bonslave. It need not be comitting sin.

Self-denial is giving your will over to the Lord to choose your way for you. It is not your right to choose. You have denied yourself that right. You have been bought with a price. If He would not have died for you and accepted you, you would die in hell. He, therfore, has full rights to you. But He does not want your service on legal rights. He wants it on the basis of love - so He has given you a will to choose out of love to surrender (deny) yourself to Him.

A call for steadfastness

A major characteristic of a successful Pastor is steadfastness. A man who is not steadfast, stable, unwavering, will not earn the support and respect of others. If he is blown around with every wind of doctrine, changing loyalties and vision, he will not only lose favor with men but he will be overlooked by God.

James said, "... let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" (James 1:6 - 8).

Lack of steadfastness is a big problem in the Christian ministry. It is not peculiar to Christianity, but it is to men of any unstable nature. What makes matters worse in the ministry is their attributing their lack of stability to the Lord. You can spot them readily. "The Lord spoke to me to come and be your Pastor." One year later - "The Lord has spoken to me to go elsewhere." It all probability the climate elsewhere is better and the wages more generous.

A call to be honest

Other than love, honesty is perhaps the greatest vitrue one can have. It is taken for granted that every Christian is honest. We are especially prone to believe that every Pastor is honest. By and large we believe that most are. In every profession there are those who deal with a slack hand, and unfortunately there are some in the ministry.

The problem of dishonesty exists as other problems do. The reason is in failing to make an unqualified surrender and maintaining a reverential fear of God. If a man has reverential fear to bring disrespect and disgrace to God and His cause, that man will keep his fidelity and will not be dishonest. Dishonesty will always surface, if not on this earth during one's lifetime, it will after death and certainly at the Day of Judgment.

A man may have faults that you can work on, and help him overcome, but if he is dishonest you are wasting your time with him. It is like a sculptor wasting his time on a rotten piece of wood. No amount of work is going to make a sound engraving of that wood. There must be that inward honesty that no matter how severely tested, regardless of how hard pressed he is, he will not yeild to that which is dishonest. That is a virtue that is indispensable in a Pastor. He must be honest with himself, his family, his people and above all, with God.

A call for humility

The apostle Paul, in addressing the Ephesian Elders, reminds them how he served them while in their midst.

"Serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you in public and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greek, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:19 - 21).

The apostle Peter writes on the subject saying: "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God rsists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:5, 6).

The opposite of humility is pride. Humility is something whereby we exercise our responsibility, and put on as a cloak. It is something we are to do. We are not told to ask the Lord to humble us but we are told to humble ourselves.

"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James 4:10).

A call to walk uprightly

The opposite of walking uprightly is to walk in wickedness.

"He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known" (Prov. 10:9, KJV).

It is living in uprightness and flourishing, or in wickedness and be overthrown (Prov. 14:11).

Better to be poor in uprightness than wicked in riches (Prov. 28:6).

A call to live above sin

This seems almost unnecessary to mention. Surely we need not stress the importance of living above sin. God's servants must live above sin!

Association with those who are living in sin will corrupt good morals. The spirit of the "loose living" will be absorbed by the godly.

God's people have to face up to their responsibility as to their support of ministries that are adulterous.

A call to face the wiles of the Devil

In your Christian walk you will face certain wiles or methods of the Devil to get you to quit, to be discouraged, to be down on yourself. There are more Pastors who get fed up, discouraged, disappointed and leave the ministry, than those who have to leave because of some gross sin.

They are the little foxes that spoil the vine, the little germs that are unseen by the naked eye, that eat away and eventually destroy the whole body. They must be attended to and overcome.

One of the things that may seem very simple is disappointment. Disappointment is the forerunner of discouragement. Every man who attemps great things for God and sees little progress can be overtaken by disappointment, yield to discouragement and become a quitter.

Someone said, "Blessed is the man who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed." Such a man is a disappointment already. He is a disappointment to God, his Maker, to his mother who bore him, and really to himself for not making some mark to society.

A person who had tried, but didn't make it should not succumb to disappointment. Work more diligently than he did before. Pray harder, plan more thoroughly, recruit help more vigorously, apply himself more enthusiastically, and he will reach his goal eventually.

Do not allow disappointments to mature into discouragement. Elijah was disappointed so God encouraged him. When he got discouraged, God rejected him and sent him on his way to anoint his successor. Disappointment is normal, but if you despair it is abnormal. On those who set goals, who try and fail get disappointed. It is those who despair, who stop trying and fail.

Conclusion

There are many other things that could be said about a Christian/Pastor and his personal walk. I believe it is time we should learn how to suffer in Christian ministries. It is my conviction the Church and its ministries are on the threshold of world-wide persecution and thus suffering. Suffering is a cup given to the Church as it was given to the Lord. It was a cup that could not be set aside.

Paul said to the Church at Colosse: "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the Church" (Col. 1:24)