Ken Blue Ministries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 By Ken Blue

These are a few of the members who have been at Open Door for twenty years or more. Without a doubt, there are ten times that many who have moved on, and are serving in other churches, and ministries.

It is results like this that makes the ministry gratifying and rewarding. Sadly, too many pastors change churches about every five years, and never grow their church. It takes years to build a growing, solid, and Bible believing church. Someone has correctly said, “It takes a few weeks to grow an onion, and several years to grow an oak.” Which business are you in?

I am not the Holy Spirit, but I do not believe God is leading pastors to change pastorates ever three to five years. No doubt there is a more personal problem that should be resolved. My advice is for a pastor to stay put, if at all possible, and grow old with your members. Let God’s Spirit continue to work through you.

As a pastor ages, he will need to add younger staff to help with the children and young families. The pastor should give consideration to resigning when he is no longer effective. Time and much prayer is needed for that important decision. Stay put, and reap the benefits of a long term ministry.

Pastor Jason Murphy now pastors Open Door

 

 

By Ken Blue

Job 1:1  ^“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”

“Give an account of roaming, the earth, to and fro,

And why are you watching righteous Job as you go?”

“I have seen thousands like him, secure in their place,

Take away Your bribes, and he’ll curse You to Your face.”

 

So the Lord took down the hedge, and Job was fair game.

Once he’d lost it all, would he live up to his name?

Satan took all his farms, his servants, and his herds,

Still, Job remained faithful, and he was not deterred.

 

“Let me get more personal,” was Satan’s request.

“Let me take away his health, and what he loves best.”

So Job lost his health and his children in that day.

Job replied, “The Lord gives, it’s His to take away.”

 

Job’s friends came to comfort him in his shocking plight.

They gazed on his misery, seven days and nights.

Jobs wife was filled with grief; she could no longer cry.

And in her anger said, “why not curse God and die?”

 

Job was greatly perplexed; he had done nothing wrong.

And now his health, and all else, was dead or gone.

Job didn’t know God’s purpose or the design on high,

Nor answers to millions, who ask the reason, “why?”

 

All his friends believed he was hiding sins within.

“Just fess up Job, and all will be restored again.”

But, Job remained steadfast; he had done nothing wrong.

This was his argument, and would be his theme song.

 

But God appeared to Job in a mighty whirlwind,

And took the argument from his three naive friends.

Job needed to see God, in His wisdom and power,

And realize there’s no escaping life’s testing hour.

 

Job was at wits end, but to answer God he must.

“I see, and abhor myself in ashes and dust.

You are all righteousness; I am completely vile.”  

Unknown to Job, this was God’s purpose all the while.

 

Therefore, Satan was wrong, and so were Job’s three friends.

And Job was the more righteous in the latter end.

God proved that men don’t serve for what is given them.

But, because He is LORD, they love and worship Him.

 

Job was patient, and he proved Satan is a liar.

God is a loving God, as we go through the fire.

And all that Job lost was restored a hundred fold.

And a truth was revealed as the mystery was told.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Ken Blue

 

Ro 8:3. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”

 This is one of the three laws found in these verses. The first law we dealt with was the “law of sin and death.” That law is a law of progression, and is the end result of sin. The law in this article is the Law of Moses, or the Ten Commandments.

 The above text says the Law was powerless to control the flesh because sin had control of it before the Law came. Romans 5:20 “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:”

Sin will not allow the flesh to obey the Law. Romans 7:7-22 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. ⁸ But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. ⁹ For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. ¹⁰ And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. ¹¹ For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. ¹² Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. ¹³ Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. ¹⁶ If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. ¹⁷ Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. ¹⁹ For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. ²⁰ Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ²¹ I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. ²² For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:”

The above lengthy passage and others show the weakness of the Law. Galatians 3:24-25 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Since Jesus has come, no one is under the Law of Moses. It could not make us righteous, and we could never obey it because of indwelling sin. Abraham was justified by faith four hundred years before Law was given.

The Law could not make us better because of our sin. However, Jesus delivered us from every demand, and the condemnation of the Law. Since we died in Christ, the Law has no more power over any believer. Praise the Lord!

 

 

 

 

                       

By Ken Blue

 Matthew 11:13 “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”

 At this point in John’s ministry he finds himself in Jail, and is beginning to question his mission, and if Jesus was the Christ. This in no way diminishes the character or ministry of John. Like all great men, John was operating in the limited light he had. The rejection and death of Christ was not part of that light.

Jesus sends his disciples with a message of reassurance, and then turns to the crowd exonerating John, and explaining his ministry. In the context of the light John had, and the nature of his ministry, he was greater than all men were. However, as great as John was, the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, when it is established, will be greater. That means that John was not in the Kingdom, and that it was not his to offer.

John’s ministry was a pre-kingdom ministry. His task was to get Israel to repent, and to prepare the way for the King. Israel would show their repentance as illustrated in his baptism. However, their sins were never taken away at baptism. That will happen when Christ returns to Israel to establish His Kingdom with them. “Acts 3:19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;”

 John was not the last of the prophets, nor did the Law end with his ministry. Even a casual reading of the four gospels shows that the Law of Moses was still in practice, and that prophets were present. Prophecy ended with the book of Revelation, and the Law of Moses ended when it was nailed to the cross in Christ. Colossians 2:14 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”

The idea here is that the Old Testament prophets merely foretold Christ’s coming. John’s ministry was greater than that of all the prophets. He was privileged to have the ministry of baptizing converts in preparation of their King. His ministry was also to introduced Him to Israel.  John 3:29 “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.”

John is never called “a Baptist,” He was “the Baptist,” because his ministry was one of baptizing “unto repentance.” He was never a member of the Kingdom of Heaven, nor the body of Christ. He was martyred before the church, which was a mystery started, or the Kingdom offer was withdrawn from Israel. Every Baptist knows that there is no such thing as the Baptist Church.

Finally, John’s ministry is unique in that his was a transition ministry. The former prophets foretold of Christ’s coming; whereas, John proclaims that He was there, and he was preparing the way for Him. The failure to rightly divide the Word of God, even concerning Johns ministry, has led to all kinds of divisions, bitterness, and false teachings. The statement that John was the greatest man born of women was not all inclusive without exception. (Matt. 11:11). The emphasis should be on the word “prophets,” not on, “…until John.”