When Sheep Beat Up The Shepherd

(This is a follow up to the post: “When Shepherds Beat Up The Sheep” -> click here.)

They are in the line of fire. They are on Normandy Beach pinned down. The heavy guns are trained on them. They won’t come out alive. They are not meant to. (A professor in college told us: “Don’t go in the ministry unless you’re ready to die.”)

And the very ones who are meant to be fighting alongside the Pastor (shepherd) have turned against him. (Huh?)

Here’s how it happens. The devil says, “He’s preaching too long.” And the sheep start thinking and saying it. The devil says, “He’s spending your tithe on luxury.” And the sheep start thinking and saying it. The devil says, “You were in this church before him. What does he know?” And the sheep start thinking and saying it. On and on it goes. Minds muddied, hearts turned against the Pastor (shepherd).

And so what if he preaches too long (just to speak to the first issue)? You fool. (Yeah, I said it. In Christian love, of course.) You fool. (There. I said it again. It’s kind of like a slap to wake someone out of a stupor.) So what? You’ve fallen for the devil’s lie. Can you not see far enough beyond yourself to the person who’s in church for the first time, he is sitting in the far back row and God planned that overtime in the sermon (that you have a problem with because it’s making you late for lunch) to be the very five minutes of preaching that’s going to save him from hell and give him hope when he was about to end it all.

Whose side are you on anyway?