The only man called to pastor is the pastor God calls from eternity past; God knows who He will call before that one is conceived in the womb. The one in the office of pastor was never intended to be a high and lofty figure in the public arena. This one has a special purpose, but is special by God’s design, not the man, not the church.
God does not shape and mold a pastor’s life simply to make him a great and powerful orator. Now, let me qualify the words, ‘shape and mold’ in that previous statement. In the beginning, as God was forming man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; making man a living soul, He was caressingly shaping man’s intended life and molding his body to perfection; no flaws. Then man fell. Sin entered. Redemption comes. Man saved. Shaped and molded must become broken bread and poured out wine.
Becoming broken bread is a sense of re-molding into the person God can use for His glory and purposes within His church; the man called must willingly endure brokenness to usefulness.
One cannot be poured out wine without the hands of God lovingly and rightly crushing him with no resistance. God can never make us wine if we try to hold at bay the fingers, He uses to press us with.
What was it that Jesus said to Peter at the post-resurrection breakfast on the seashore? “Feed My sheep” (John 21:17).
But what would he feed them? Peter was then to become broken bread and poured out wine for others. This is the role of each God called pastor. The process of being made broken bread and poured out wine means that the pastor must be nourishment for other people’s souls until they learn to feed on God alone. “Poured out” . . . you leave nothing behind, keeping nothing back, you give your all for Jesus’ sake.
Through the submitted called, broken, and poured out pastor, the church is to mature as one body in Christ becoming an unbreakable family bond, koinonia, and not just with one another, but with God. In a real sense, the God-called Pastor leads the way toward being broken bread and poured out wine through humble example and discipling new believers through to maturity. The Apostle Paul encouraged the church to follow his example with these words: “You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)
God calls us to be broken bread and poured out wine. Bread must be broken to be eaten or shared, and grapes must be crushed, pressed, squeezed, and poured out to make wine to liven the soul and quell the appetite. Not easy. We cower from the refiner’s blaze that prepares us, but oh, what a sweet smell it sets free —the fragrance of Christ that we shoulder. And we shun the squeezing that Paul informs us in 2 Corinthians 4:6-12 causes the dying of our carnal clay vessels so that God’s life might pour out to others.
In Romans 12, Paul dares me to present my body as a living sacrifice. I want to be a reasonable sacrifice. To be changed by the renewing of my mind. It necessitates crushing, breaking, molding anew. Not my will but thine, O, LORD. Subduing, crushing. Forgiving the unforgivable. Loving the unlovable—by the grace and power of the One Who enables us to do the impossible, the Holy Spirit.
On your knees. Submission. The position of conversion. There He can change you. “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3).
You must first be broken that He would form you into something new.
“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17). How long will you remain in the belly of a fish before you surrender yourself as a vessel of honor useful to Him? Wisdom from above often ascends from sorrow inside.
Throughout God’s shaping of us, we habitually pray for our problems to be eliminated from us rather than embrace changing us. We think it is bringing us to devastation, or ruin, when in truth, it is making us into the very thing useful to God. Remember, God is more concerned with our character than He is with our comfort. Drop the misconception that God wants to make your life stress-free. He knows what He is doing. Let Him break you into bread. Let Him crush you into wine.
The LORD knows to reach broken lives, we must too be broken. “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite [crushed] spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
A faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted.
Are you willing to be broken bread and poured out wine for the benefit of God’s Kingdom?