September 2003 chaplain's corner

The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.

Chaplain's Corner - September, 2003

Rev. Rich Hines

Before I begin this month's message I want to say two things:

First, we apologize that we were not able to produce a Chaplain's Corner message in August, 2003. This was because work on our new FREE Cassette Children's Bible (3rd grade reading level) required all our available production time and personnel.

And secondly, again I want to say these messages are primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior, and are serving as correctional or rescue mission chaplains within the United States.

Recently, a Senior Prison Chaplain told me he was having a difficult time with his staff and volunteer chaplains in the area of their ministry focus. Keeping your focus in Christian ministry assumes a lot.

It assumes at least at one time you had a focus. A right focus - on Christ.

The chaplaincy you are appointed to must be seen as His ministry, not yours. Not the State's, the County's or even the church's, but the ministry of the Lord of the church and each individual true believer - Jesus Christ. He owns this thing we call ministry. It is to be a service done to Him and for Him, in His name, and under His directions. Therefore, the only valid focus in any Christian ministry is pleasing Jesus Christ. See 2 Cor. 5:9.

In most cases you all are on board with this. Practically and daily I know you want this to be so in your life and ministry. But, I also know from experience, in the day to day struggle and pressure of all that needs to be done, sometimes the Lord, and His way, and His truth get crowded out. When this happens, a chaplain-minister loses their focus.

I believe there are many contributing factors. Including myself in this assessment, I realize that ultimately they all have to do with us. Some just come from our yet unredeemed flesh with little or no outside influence at all. Others are a result of how we react to outside pressures, or our lack of understanding what God's will and way (ultimately determined by God's word) really is - in a given situation.

So I have some questions we all must answer, and then some Scriptures to consider.

1. FIRST

What is my view of Christ?

The answer to this question is at the heart of the difference between liberals and biblical conservatives! Prison and politics make correctional ministry an ideal spot for theologically liberal, social gospelers.

Is Jesus fully God? Is He my God? Is He in charge in my life.? Do I live to please Him? Ask yourself these questions.

Is He MY Lord and MY Savior? Did He save ME? Did He call or APPOINT ME to serve Him in the prison or rescue mission setting?

On these questions, consider 1 Tim. 2:5-7

"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed an apostle - I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying - a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth."

What I want you to notice in this testimony from the Apostle Paul is that he said "I was APPOINTED (by Christ) an APOSTLE." There are some interpretive dangers with this text (1 Timothy 2:7) that I want to warn against.

There were only thirteen Apostles of Jesus Christ. However there have been a lot of people since the original thirteen Apostles that have claimed to be Apostles. They are not Apostles. To be an Apostle of Jesus Christ you had to be a witness of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and be personally commissioned by Him (with special gifts) to give His new message. I want to go a little deeper. This word "apostle" literally means to be "one sent forth with a specific message." In one sense there are no more CAPITAL "A" Apostles, they were foundational (Ephesians 2:20), there were only thirteen of them in New Testament history. But in another, non-technical sense, every minister of the gospel is to be a lower case "a" apostle. Every preacher of the gospel is to be one sent forth with His gospel message by His Spirit. This has to do with what I referred to earlier as calling or being APPOINTED to a ministry.

There are a lot of people in every kind of Christian ministry including chaplaincy, that were never truly called or sent by Christ's Spirit to do THAT ministry, it's obvious.

I love the story of a little black southern church. You see, there was an itinerant preacher from the big city that traveled around speaking in different churches. In one particular church after he finished his message, the pastor of the local flock of believers said to him: "Was you SENT, or did you JUST COME?" It's a good question. Some people just go into ministry without ever being directed or sent by the Lord.

So, what is your view of Jesus Christ? Your Lord and your God? Your Savior from sin? The One that sent you to give out His gospel message? I hope your answers to all these questions are the right ones.

2. Then, we must ask ourselves -

Am I serving inmates or residents first, or Christ first?

Consider Galatians 1:10 (NASB) where Paul said:

"For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ."

Another good question then to ask yourself is: are you putting obedience to Christ above pleasing men? I hope that it is true, that Christ always comes first.

3. Thirdly,

Do I love the inmates? Do I really love them?

It has to be Christ's supernatural kind of love, not our human affections - for the inmates. His love for sinners as recorded in the gospels never slipped into a sort of "rooting for them" - where they were, morally.

This is illustrated by His interaction with the high and with the lowly. With the rich, young ruler and with the publican, tax gatherer, Levi (who became Matthew) He was the same. His love for these men at the opposite ends of society's rankings, confronted them with their sin. And you must do the same with the inmates and residents.

Mark 10:21 (the rich young ruler)

"Then Jesus, looking at him, LOVED HIM, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross and follow Me."

Jesus was, OUT OF LOVE confronting the rich man with his sin of materialism and self love.

Luke 5:27,28 (NASB) (Levi the tax collector, extortionist.)

"After that He went out and noticed Levi sitting at the tax booth, (the verb tense of "sitting" and it's implication means he was in the process of constantly receiving the overcharged taxes, or "there he was, ripping people off") and He said to him, "Follow (a command to continually follow) Me." And he (Levi) left everything behind, and got up and began to follow (continually follow) Him."

Out of His love, Christ found sinners where they were, confronted them with their sin and called them to repent of it and follow Him.

Proverbs 27:5,6 (This describes the best love - even the love of Christ towards a sinner)Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Christ is a "Friend of sinners," and in His love He wounds and confronts them, and calls them to repentance.

Many chaplains in jails and prisons I have known have gotten off course in their "love" for inmates. They have become the inmates "buddy" rather than their pastor and evangelist. They end up taking up the inmates self-centered causes and even in some cases break facility rules in order to help inmates feel better about their incarceration. That is not Christ's true confrontational, yet comforting love. The kind of love that redirects the motives of the heart of sinners towards righteousness is Jesus' kind of love.

You will know that you are on track and focused properly in ministry when you have dealt with all of the questions and answered them from your heart with the proper biblical response. That Jesus is the eternal God and your own personal Lord and Savior and Sender into your present ministry. That, He is the One to whom all your service is rendered - in the sense that you do what you do with the biblical Jesus Christ in view. And that your love for inmates or residents is consistent with Christ's kind of love for sinners.

THEN, HOW DO YOU KEEP THAT FOCUS?

My suggestion begins as always, with concentrating on Scripture. Understanding what God says and surrendering to the Holy Spirit's power and leading in applying it in this important area of focus on Christ. To begin, here are four great New Testament Scripture passages to consider:

FIRST, look at 2 Tim. 4:6-8 (from Paul, at the end of his life and ministry for Christ)

"For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I HAVE FINISHED THE RACE, I have kept the faith. (THAT'S FOCUS) Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will give me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing."

Paul said: "I have finished the race." He was talking about his life of ministry. Someone said it well: "It's not how well you start the race, but how well you finish, that counts." Paul finished well. Will you? Will I?

When the ministry you perform, is over, where will you be? Will you finish well?

A number of years ago, some sportswriters got together to discuss the greatest single day's athletic performance in their careers that spanned some thirty years. When all the discussion and balloting was over, the unanimous decision was the performance of a non-human athlete, a horse named Secretariat.

In his last and final performance, his last race - the third race of what's called the Triple Crown, this horse kept on breaking all the records in sequence! You see the race that was approximately 1 and 1/4 miles long was divided into four quarters of the distance.

Out of the starting gate, Secretariat ran the fastest recorded time for that length of the race. Then, after he past the marker signaling the start of the second quarter, he again broke the record he just set, and ran this quarter even faster. When he past the halfway mark, he again accelerated and set yet a faster record than on the two previous quarters. The last and final quarter again was faster still than each of the previous three quarter's time! That's amazing.

After the race the jockey said "At the end, I had to pull him up (slow him down). He ran his heart out and I believe this horse would have continued accelerating until he dropped dead." Hearing the roar of the crowd, and exercising his God given natural ability, this horse wanted to keep on doing better, going faster and faster. This was a horse - without the Holy Spirit that human believers in Christ possess within themselves.

Secretariat had focus and he finished well. If that horse could finish so well without the special power of God that we believers in Christ have, shouldn't we finish with our best effort also? Better than the roar of thousands in the stands rooting for us, is the fact that the Lord will one day say to his own that finish well "Well done good and faithful servant." (Matt. 25:23). This should drive us to keep our focus on what all important - pleasing Christ.

The SECOND passage that helps ministers with their focus is Hebrews 12: 1,2 - Here the writer says:

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, (all the heroes of the faith that have gone before us) let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, LOOKING UNTO JESUS (FOCUS) the Author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Here the point is just like a runner must keep their eyes on their goal, the finish line in a footrace, the believer must keep their FOCUS on JESUS CHRIST. The Old Testament saints looked forward to the fulfillment of God's promises by faith, and we New Testament believers must do the same.

The "cloud of witnesses" from Hebrews 11 had an enduring faith in what God would accomplish in the future that kept them on course in their present day to day trials. Christian life and ministry is not a sprint but rather a marathon. It's easy during the agony of the long marathon run to lose one's focus. The finish line is so far off. But Christ's reward at the finish line is better than any earthly prize. During your race today, keep your focus on Christ!

Keep up with daily reading of Scripture and devotional time with the Lord.

A THIRD great New Testament passage on focus in ministry is 1 Tim. 4:10 -

"For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, (NKJV) (the earlier manuscripts reflected in the NIV and NASB translations read "labor and strive" which literally means "to agonize"), BECAUSE we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe."

Here the point is those in ministry for Christ do what they do, laboring to the point of exhaustion, being ridiculed and suffering so much, because God, using the testimony of their life, will reach those who will believe. We are to do ministry and endure all its hardships BECAUSE we have faith in a living God who will save those that will believe. That's a proper FOCUS!

And LASTLY, a great passage on keeping your focus in ministry, 2 Tim. 2:8-10, where Paul said to his young apprentice:

"REMEMBER Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble (literally, to suffer evil and or hardship) even to the point of chains (which means imprisonment); but the word of God is not chained. Therefore (because of the power of the word) I ENDURE (I remain under the weight of any pressure as long as I have to - until reinforcements arrive) all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

It's not a human enterprise we're involved with in gospel chaplaincy - but rather it's an eternal, God thing. It results in eternal glory to God. What a FOCUS to have. Remember Jesus and endure!

In summary, jail, prison and rescue chaplaincy as a Bible believing Christian must be: for the glory of God, for the word of God, for the gospel of Christ, to please Christ and NOT SOLELY FOR THE INMATES OR RESIDENTS. It is unto the Lord, not unto men, that you must serve.

The Lord will help His faithful servants to suffer and endure hardships in ministry, even under agonizing situations, with a God given and God sustained faith that continues and ever grows until He takes them to Himself or comes and catches them up to meet Him in the clouds. Are you ministering with that view in focus? I pray that it is so and that you will one day hear from Him, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Dear chaplains, be blessed in Him today and always.

Rev. Rich Hines

Minister To Chaplains - Aurora Ministries