Measured Responses

# 81 Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 1Ti 3:2 A bishop (pastor) then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, (1 Ti 3:2) Next on the list of qualifications for those who would serve in the office of pastor is he must be sober-minded. When we think of the word sober today, we think in terms of someone who is free from alcohol. Often a recovering alcoholic may say something like “I've been sober for 5,10, 15 or more years!” May I just say congratulations to those recovering alcoholics who have achieved any level of sobriety! And I encourage you to keep at it! As I went through my own struggles with alcohol abuse many years ago, one of the things they taught me in my court ordered alcohol assessment class was that after just two beers, the alcohol affects that part of the brain that gives you the ability to say no. This realization was a huge breakthrough for me, because now I understood why I couldn't just stop at two. If someone would say, “have another, my “no” switch was turned off and so I would! And then I'd have another and another...well, you get the idea. You see, sobriety in any shape and form is all about self-control, and that is one of the qualities that needs to be evident in the pastoral candidate. The pastor must have sound cognitive faculties. He must have controlled thinking that allows him to act with checks and balances. He is able at all times to run circumstances past that part of the brain that gives him the ability to say no. His passions and desires are under control and he is able to give a measured response in all situations. Let me give you a quick example from the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. Many people assume when He cleansed the temple the day after Palm Sunday that He just went off against these rip-off artists, but the fact is He was perfectly sober-minded about it. We read in Mr 11:11 “And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.” It was the next day that he took His measured response and cleaned out the temple. This then is the quality to be sought in the pastoral candidate. He must be one who is under control. Lord, help us to be sober-minded today. Help us to measure our responses to life's circumstances today.