11/27/21 THEY KEEP WATCH OVER YOUR SOUL

11/27/21 THEY KEEP WATCH OVER YOUR SOUL 

I have thought about the difficulties and heartaches that go with working in a children's hospital or the constant sorrow of working in hospice. I realize there is a need and there is also an opportunity to help other people. Still, the burden would be so heavy.

Pastors celebrate the victories, joys, Divine interventions that their people experience. But we also bear the burdens and suffer the sorrows of our people, even when they are oblivious to their own tragic circumstances. The Bible calls this pastoral care, "keeping watch for their souls." It is sometimes a "death watch," as the parishioner is being led to slaughter and will not heed the cry to, "Look and live."

God appoints shepherds to watch over the souls and lives of others. We see the inevitable train wreck for the individuals and families who reject, ignore, resist the Divine guidance, which God provides for them through His shepherds. While parishioners are blind to their own condition and destiny, pastors preach, teach, counsel, pray for, plead for and fight for folks who are drifting, wandering, rebelling.

This is why God instructs Christians,
Hebrews 13:17
"17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."

A Biblical pastor does not simply give good advice, personal opinion but he speaks words of knowledge and words of wisdom because he is speaking the word of God and he is delivering words of Divine wisdom.

Hebrews 13:7
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Colossians 1:9-11
9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

Colossians 1:28-29
28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Remember, God is concerned with the DETAILS of your life, not simply the generalities. If you don't have a pastor that you trust with the details, you either need to re-evaluate your understanding of your pastor or you need a new pastor.