“…If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”  (1 Corinthians 8)

Knowledge, according to this passage, does one (1) of two (2) things.  The first (1st) thing knowledge can do is, puff up a man.  The second (2nd) thing knowledge can do is tell a man, he knows nothing in relation to all that can be known.  I have come a cross many of the first (1st) but very few of the other. It is due to the grace of God, I am of the second (2nd). In this article (DV) we will diagnose the first (1st).

Most from the first (1st) come from the following:
*New convert.
*A person that has little education in other areas of academia.”
*A person who has not a diploma or degree and is shamd by that fact.
*A person who has found theology as an area of knowledge s/he excells in.
*A person who can “show-off”
*A person who has an tremendous mind but has had little opportunity for further formal education.

Those from the second (2nd) group
*Cares not for any of the above.
*This person is not interested in the praise of men.
*This person’s all consuming passion is to walk with God and not men.
*This person has learned that the more he learns and knows the less s/he knows and the more s/he desires to learn.
*This person wants to KNOW God more than know ABOUT God.
*This person hungers for the God OF the Word more than JUST the Word of God.

As said above we have come a cross many of the first (1st) group.  These are obnoxious, irritating, irritable, they glisten with dripping pride.  They are more interested in what they have to say than what anyone else has to say.  If they are asked a question, they are more interested in being heard and holding the room, instead of really answering the question and helping the questioner….the questioner is merely a means to demonstrate his or her brilliance.  This type likes big words and likes to keep up or surpass others. Others do not desire to spend much time with them, personally.  When persons do spend time with them, one can watch those person’s minds drift away.  This type has no shut off switch.

Some, at this point, are asking themselves or others, is he speaking about me?  if one is rather certain, they might be a bit embarrassed and they will keep quiet and stay low.

Reader, that is one of the things about being a minister or at least an effective one.  The effective minister cannot fear others or fear at all for that matter.  God told His prophets of old, “Fear not their faces.”  A man of God or at least the effective minister, must speak clearly and truthfully.  He must be willing to speak straight to the issue and straight to persons.  James said, the minister will offend in all points, but he must speak.  If the minister speaketh not….who will, Reader? The minister does not seek to be offensive.  The truth will do that.  He must merely speak that truth.

The one hearing the truth has two (2) choices of response.  The Proverbs says the wise man will accept it and grow from it. The fool will not accept it and he will grow hard and hateful against the truth speaker and the truth.  Reader, which are you? I have been the first (1st) many times…many, many times. I have not been the second (2nd) too many times and that is due to the Great Grace of God.

The Minister must have a close walk or intimate walk with His God. This walk is necessary because:
*The minister will lose many friends and make many enemies. The minister needs God to be His Friend.
*God is his Strength and Defender, his Soundness, his Anchor, his Rock, his Refuge, his High Tower, his All in All, his Everything…the Light of his life.  It is because of God, he need not fear anything or anyone.  There is strong confidence in the Fear of the LORD (Proverbs 14:26).  When one walks in the Fear of the LORD, he is not allowed to fear anyone or anything else…fear is forbidden.
*The minister walks with God because he loves God and is loved by God and there is no other love like it…none other.
*The minister walks with God because it is from God, he receives his directions, instructions, and messages for the people of God.  Fellow minister…If you are getting your messages from current events, newly released books, “52 Sermons for the Year,” Other preacher’s sermons (without giving them credit), if you are using old sermons of your own all the time, etc.  You are failing your people or more importantly, God. You are a Fraudulent Fellow Minister. Fellow minister…Are you feeding them with old putrid manna?  I knew a minister once (he’s changed now) that had the first (1st) six (6) months of his sermons prepared before ever having a church.  What’s worse? these were his grandfather’s sermons!!!  This can be likened to eating manna after it has been digested and exits the body. The same can be said of stolen sermons or even one’s own sermons, if one is to lazy or is out of sorts with God. Some preachers, if they lose their notes, they to are lost in the pulpit.

The man that walks intimately with God will never, ever want for a Word from God for God’s people. I can say and this is not boasting, this is simple truth and all glory goes to God…We have never, except once, preached a message twice in over twenty (20) years. That message that was twice preached….the first (1st) time was blessed by God and brought hearers to tears.  I thought why not preach it a second (2nd) time, well get the same results, right?  WRONG!!!  The second (2nd) time I preached it, “i” preached it alone and God would not give me His power.  It was a dead…dead…dead sermon and sermon it was as it was no message from God.  The only message from God that night was the one (1) I received loud and clear.

Lets look at the second (2nd) type. This type realizes that there is so much more, so very, very, much more to learn by the more he learns. The Spirit has taught me much over my two (2) decades or more as His student.  Reader, this writer did not attend a Bible school or Christ-ian college and I thank and praise God for that. Occasionally those bastions of cookie cutting puts forth a sound and godly minister to be sure, but that is rare.  I have found that the men that come from those schools usually burn off most of what they learned and God starts them all over again. I’m not talking about one (1) school in particular or one (1) denomination in particular.

If you have read me often you may have read my thoughts on fundementalism and we know we have been rough.  Nothing has changed.  However, we are not talking about themin particular. I listen to John MacArthur on the radio and watch him on youtube. He has a college.  You might think, Reader, I would be in favour of this school.  Spurgeon had a school and no doubt, I would be in favour of that, too.  Sproul, an excellent teacher also has a school or had…he has gone above.  However, you might be surprised to learn you are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Just as Hyles-Anderson college put out little Jacks, little John MacArthurs come from his school, little Spurgeons from his, and little Sprouls from His.  Reader, we are not predestined to become jacks, Johns, Spurgeons, or Sprouls.  Except for the first (1st) none of the teachers named wanted their students to be like them.

I am in favour of Christ-ian schools as far as Christ-ian youths being taught by Christ-ian teachers.  I am not in favour…and I know this will not go over big and will probably lose me some readers and friends, but here go……I am not in favour of Bible teaching or teaching to be a preacher.  Let the church do that.  Let God do that. let the Spirit do that.  Christ-ian schools could teach Christ-ian kids about architecture, accounting, engineering, nursing, hospitality, sales, pesticides, auto mechanics, psychology, biology, Oceanography, etc.

Let there be Christ-ian trade schools and teach Christ-ian youth about plumbing, electricity, heating and air conditioning, landscaping, tiling, carpentry, etc.

BUT leave the Bible teaching to God and His church.  This is how it tends to work today.  A man pastors a church, he teaches and ministers to God’s people.  There may be a few young men that see themselves a “pastor material.”  The Church’s pastor trains these young men. Then these young men leave the church, go to a college, and then go to the college’s church. Never to return.  The pastor back at the home church is called elsewhere and now the church has to find an outsider, so to speak, to be their new pastor.  Do you see the problem.  The church already had a few young men that could take the church when the pastor is called away.  Bottom line, Preacher schools steal from the church.

I have noticed that when a man is taught by the Holy Spirit, he is in union with other men taught by the Same Spirit.  How does that happen lest it truly is the Same Spirit?  Look at men like D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Arthur W. Pink, John Calvin, Martin Luther and others.  Lloyd Jones was not formally bible trained nor was Pink, yet they are in  agreement in almost all points.  In fact, Lloyd-Jones’ counsel to his flock?  “Read Pink.” Calvin and Luther had to unlearn all that they had learned from their Catholic upbringing. They both were trained as attorneys and had very little Biblical training other than that which they received from the Spirit, Himself in the study.

My point is simple…my arguement is simple…the man that is called by God to be His minister needs no other teacher than the Holy Spirit.  That’s all the Apostles had…are the Bible School EduMacated better?

Reader, God must always have the glory.  When a preacher is taught by men outside the church and inside a school or college, glory must be shared with those that taught.  When a man is taught by God Alone…God Alone is glorified, get it?

Reader, the more one learns…the more one learns that there is so much more to learn.  Are you even learning now? Are you learning from God or are you simply being told what to believe?  Do not be satisfied by being told what to believe.  The good pastor will teach you how to learn and how to think but never only what to think.

The independent thinker is trouble to those that will tell you what to think and how things just are. Reader, ask questions when something doesn’t seem proper or correct.  In my minds eye, I see a question mark, but this question mark does not have a period at it’s bottom, but an arrow down symbol and it’s bloody.  My questions tend to draw blood. So should yours.

Godspeed.