Rightly Handling the Word of God

I am reading Don Carson's Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor. It is a book on Don's dad Tom Carson and his ministry. Last night as I was reading I was crushed by a couple journal entries that Tom made about a young pastor. To set the stage let me give a little background information. Tom was a pastor in French Canada and he was in charge of a bilingual congregation. Basically double the workload as he preached essentially to two separate congregations one of which was not his dominate language. At 52 after much prayer and seeking God's guidance he stepped away from his ministry and was situated in a different town working for the city and volunteering at another bilingual church. He essentially became the associate pastor. After the senior pastor resigned a younger pastor was brought in. This leads to the journal entries.

Tom repeatedly noticed that the young man wasn't handling the word of God accurately. He made mention of it in his journal and it was quite unsettling. Even though Tom was not a confrontational man, (according to the author/ son Don) Tom had a conversation with this young pastor about reevaluating whether he was called to the pastorate.

I read that and it hit me with a mega ton of force. How often have I mishandled the word of God? How many times have I missed the point of the text and led people astray? What a sobering thought. It is so easy to manipulate words to say what you want of them or to even try to be clever and draw some new insight out of the text. What a heavy responsibility pastors have. I pray for all the pastors that they would be struck with the awesomeness of handling God's words. We are messengers trying to deliver the Almighty's message with accuracy and clarity. Help us to study with diligence. To divide the word with trembling and trepidation. To kneel before you and sit in your counsel begging for Your words so we just get up and ramble. Then Lord by your grace and loving kindness let us stand before your people that you love and declare, "this is what the Lord says."