The Pastor's Perspective

  Have you ever worked tirelessly behind the scenes to build something up, only to watch someone else step into the spotlight and receive all the credit and applause ?      When our efforts are overshadowed, our natural human instinct is to feel a sting of envy, resentment, or quiet frustration . Thoughts of sabotage may pop up in our mind or we just may just want to give up doing what we are doing altogether. We instinctively want to guard our platform, protect our reputation, and hold tightly to our influence . Lets face it it hurts when we put in all the work only to see someone else take all the credit.      In our spiritual lives, this subtle obsession with personal recognition is the single greatest obstacle to building God's Kingdom . We live in a culture obsessed with self-promotion, personal branding, and accumulating "followers." As a pastor I see it every day as I look at certain churches, at some celebrity preachers ministries and if I am b...

    I believe we all have something that we are proud of.  It might be some accomplishment or some reward we received at one time in our life.   It might be a talent or a skill that we have. It might be the accomplishments of our children, or grandchildren.       No matter what it might be we all have something that we are proud of.  One of the ways you can tell what someone is proud of is by seeing what they love to talk about. People often love to share the things they are most proud of with others. Parents who are beaming with pride with the accomplishments of their children share posts on Facebook. Individuals who are proud of their scholastic accomplishments post the pictures of there degrees and awards. When we have a great recipe for some great dessert we have found we share it with others. We share what we are proud of, and what we are proud of is what we like to share.   Capt. Edward John Smith     The bible ...