MINISTERIAL MISFITS
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Lord told His disciples, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves” and Paul warned the elders of Ephesus that grievous wolves would enter in, not sparing the flock. Christians are as sheep among wolves but it is a grievous situation indeed when the situation is reversed, when the wolves are among the sheep and all the more dangerous when they wear sheepskins. False teachers who profess one thing while in wardly they are something else are in mind here. I shall not forget the shock I experienced long ago in my ministry when a prominent preacher said to me, speaking of liberal and modernistic doctrine, “Many of us believe that way but we have to wait until we are in a position to come out publicly and say so.” The idea that any man must wait until his salary is sufficient and his standing assured before he can come out in his true colors, was repugnant to me then and still is to this day. Any man who will make his living off Bible-believing people, be hind the pulpit of a Gospel church, when he doesn’t believe what they believe is worse than a wolf. Per haps there are other animals to whom he could more fitly be likened! Some years ago the fundamentalist-modernist controversy was in full swing. Mistakes were made on both sides, of course. Today a greater mistake is being made—the tendency in conservative circles to tolerate all the wolves for fear there may be one sheep among them. If there is one sheep, it would
W E LIVE IN A GENERATION OF MISFITS. We hear much of “displaced persons” coming over from other shores but here at home we have the problem of misplaced persons. An amazing percentage of the human race manages to wind up as square pegs in round holes, living in the wrong groove, trying to become what they never were meant to be. It is rarely that one finds somebody who has found his place and is happy in it. This state of affairs prevails in the ministry. An amazing number of preachers are trying to “re locate.” Pastors want to be evangelists and evan gelists want to be Bible teachers. The settled preachers want to travel and the traveling preach ers want to settle. The grass looks greener in the next pasture and some other bishopric looks better than one’s own. There are other ways in which these ministerial anomalies and abnormalities appear. All sorts of curiosities show up in pulpits. The Scriptures sug gest several sorts of “misplaced parsons.” Our Lord said: “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves” (Matt. 7:15). WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING! The Bible frequently compares us to animals and some of the comparisons are not very complimentary! The Psalmist writes, “Be not as the mule” which could mean, “Don’t be backward about going forward!” Jesus called Herod a fox and Peter likened backsliders to dogs and hogs. Our
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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