Domestic Violence

# 85 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, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, Next on the list of qualifications for those who would serve in the office of pastor is he must not be “violent.” The King James says “no striker.” The Greek word comes from a root that means to “flatten out” or “pound.” The picture I get is of my mother preparing swiss steak for our family meal. She would take the edge of a saucer and pound that meat and flatten it out in order to tenderize it. The meat was pounded into submission. So the pastoral candidate is not one who is apt to try and win an argument or silence others by pounding them into submission with his fists. Of course as with these other qualifications, this is true for all followers of Christ. Violence is never a proper response for a Christian. Why is this important for a pastor? Because this kind of violent behavior is unacceptable among the sheep and if the shepherd thinks it's acceptable how can he seek to stop it among his individual sheep? Let's say a member of a congregation was arrested and charged with physically beating another person. Should the church look the other way or take this man to task, following the rules of church discipline as laid out in Mt 18? Of course you should confront him with this sin of harming a neighbor. But what if this man, who professes to be a Christian, is striking his wife and/or children in a violent manner? Should not he be confronted as well? This issue of domestic violence is not restricted to the world. It is in the church with estimates of 1 in 4 homes affected by it. This is a lump in the carpet that needs to be addressed. It starts with the leaders of the congregation they are not to be violent men, and as leaders, they ought to have policies in place to deal with the matter. May I close today by encouraging congregations to take the time to prayerfully discuss the matter and come up with a biblical plan to handle domestic violence when it occurs in families in the church! Victims AND perpetrators need help! See that they get it!

Learning To Deal With Anger

622 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 1Ti 3:3 not given to wine, not violent, Next on the list of pastoral qualifications is the pastor must not be a violent person. The King James says, “must not be a striker.” A striker is someone who flies off the handle easily, and has a chip on his shoulder, and is quick to use his fists in expressing his anger. Again, this qualifications speaks mounds about the cultures in which these early churches were planted. A shepherd would need to stand head and shoulders above the flock in the area of anger management. Church discipline is never to be carried out with your fist. I struggled with anger for years and to this day with the help of the Holy Spirit, remain on guard against it. I never struck people, but I have hit a few inanimate objects in my time, (ouch that was so dumb!) but even expressing that kind of rage can be a very frightening experience for those who witness it, and a spiritual leader should never lead from the base of fear, always from the base of love. I have come to realize that my struggle with anger and rage always erupted when some sort of inadequacy surfaced in my life. The outburst always served a useful purpose for me, it drew attention away from my inadequacies and caused people to rather focus on my rage. The truth is all of us struggle with very real inadequacies. And we all need to learn what to do with them. Paul struggled with an infirmity, and the Greek word comes from a root that means impotent, which is another way of saying inadequate. Here's what he had to say about dealing with it: 2Co 12:9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, (inadequacies) that the power of Christ may rest upon me. What a blessing to have a pastor who understands this truth and is able to lead by example, helping those in the flock to be released from one of the major causes of anger.