Coffee With Pat
Written By: Pat Aman
copyright 2006
All rights reserved

"When you stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, will you be able to say, "Yes, I did Go Ye?" At the judgment seat there will not be another chance to win a lost soul from the pits of hell." Pastor Pat Aman I have been studying the book "Words To Winners Of Souls,Written By: Horatius Bonar is a wonderful book. Bonar is straight forward down to earth. No if, ands, or buts. He shows us there is not excuses in not doing the work of Jesus Christ. It should be a requirement for anyone who wants to be a Pastor, or is a Pastor to read. Roger Greenway in the Forward of the book tells the story of a Missionary from overseas was visiting at a huge church, when the Missionary saw a great work to be done. As the Pastor and the Missionary drives from the airport , they saw news house lined for miles.The Missionary said, "I wonder how many unsaved people live in those houses. I sure would like to get in there and find out." The Pastor answered, "that's where we differ, If someone told me that there were Christians in those houses that needed Pastoral help, I would get in there, but the thought of going in there to reach unhurt people leaves me cold." (Matthew 28:18-20) And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth. GO YE, therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all thins that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of age. Amen" Bonar says in the book that, "There are to many Pastors are just content and satisfied with preaching sermons and not caring for the lost souls." "Pat Opinion" In today’s society we have seen a decline in Godly values. We see, not only defeated non-Christians, but also defeated Christians. There is a higher percentage of murders, rapes, suicides, drug use and unemployment, before in history. In our churches we have spent too much time establishing programs, playing sports, and building buildings, and just being busy, being busy. Now don’t misunderstand me on this point, there is not a problem doing these things, but when they get in the way of doing God’s Great Commission, which was “Go Ye”, then there is a problem. Satan does not keep us from going to church. He knows that he cannot even keep us from reading the Bible. But he does try to keep us from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ. He does this by keeping us busy in the non-essential things of life. He beckons us to fill our life with what we think is good, that we do not seek power from Christ. Then we start to doing things in our own strength, sacrificing our church, health, family unity, When this happens, guess what? We fail. Then Satan has victory over our life. Jesus told his disciples to “GO YE”. These two little words are a commandment, an order, a not if you want too. There are billions of lost, hurting and wounded souls out beyond the church doors. And believe it or not, there are hundreds more inside the church doors. But because our Pastors, and church members are to busy being busy, , we have lost the ability to hear that small still voice saying “GO YE” Jesus also told his disciples to TEACH. Our churches have gotten away from teaching God’s word. We are telling our members, what to do, how to talk, act and live, but not where the source comes from in doing these things. There are to many business meetings going on, and not a lot of witnessing going on. Ministers are taking care of themselves; making sure tithes are being paid, but not tending the flock. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that a minister is worth his or her weight in gold and deserves to be compensated for their work, just as any other person doing a job. But when we have people leaving the church, wandering around like sheep without a Sheppard something is not right in the pulpit and the pew. The sad thing about this, is when they leave, no one is calling on them to find out where they are. Yes, the member may be at fault about a problem, but when the Sheppard does not seek those persons out to find out why, then the fault lays on the Sheppard’s shoulders. Ezekiel 34: 2-11 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. " 'Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD : As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD : This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. " 'For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. I have found out that one of the main reason in a flock shattering is they are not being taught once they have accepted Jesus as their Savior and walked the aisle, prayed the sinners pray of repentance, been baptized and then left on the pew to fight for themselves. Remember the scripture also said to “teach” this is also a commandment, an order, a not if you want too situation. For some odd reason we think that a newborn Christian is going to learn everything by themselves. If this is so, why did He say go “Teach”? When someone excepts Christ as his personal Savior, I can tell you by experience that Satan is going to try to chew him up and spit him out if that person has not learn spiritual warfare. The first three days after a person is saved, is when the church should really be in contact with the new convert. There are so many lost souls bound for hell and somewhere along the line, we have forgotten to tell them that Jesus paid the price, the ultimate sacrifice on Calvary for them to have total victory over Satan. Why? The church is to busy doing others things. I also believe that some Pastor's, board and church members depend on word of mouth to bring people in to the church. That does not always work. Just think, those business meetings that go on for hours and hours, is lost time that could have been spent knocking on doors telling others about Jesus Christ. As you can see I do not have one once of respect for people who call themselves Christians and do not do the work of Go Ye! I think of Jonah, he was more content with his own life and care, than the people of Nineveh. He could not believe that he was having to go through, but he did not care that the people were going through. How many of us are so complacent with ourselves that we do not go out of the way to help other? In other words, we want God to share all the blessings of Heaven with us, but we do not even take the time to share the greatest blessing with a lost soul. That is the love, grace and salvation of Jesus Christ. You know? The GO YE part. (HUM...............) (Jonah 4" 5-11) Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die." But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

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