Posted on 06/26/2012 3:56:45 AM PDT by Cronos
Just last month, Ezekiel Stoddard, 11, of Temple Hills, Md., was ordained as a minister in his family's independent Pentecostal church, where his parents are also pastors.
Stoddard said he was motivated to become a minister after God spoke to him in a dream and told him to read Psalm 23.
"God gave me that particular scripture because a lot of people, they try to draw you away from the lord, trying to get you on the wrong path," he said.
"People come to you, they ask you questions about why you should act like a child and not a minister," the young minister said. "I do things like a child, but still I am a minister. I am an evangelical."
Stoddard was ordained in a congregation-wide ceremony on May 6, with his parents leading the service.
His mother, Pastor Adrienne Smith, says her son preaches the 11 a.m. service with the other preachers at the Fullness of Time Church, a small but growing congregation in Capitol Heights, Md.
..."A lot of people think of me being a kid, that my parents are forcing me to minister the gospel," he said. "But the first time I did a sermon, I was 7 or 8."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Its great that this child has accepted God and is apparently so hungry for the Word.
A pastor is a leader and I don’t think an 11 yr old can be a leader of a congregation.
Well, Jeusus amazed the scholars in the Temple at 12.
Jeusus = Jesus. It’s early here.
Jeusus = Jesus. It’s early here.
And this kid beat that record by 1 year...
Yes, Jesus did amaze the scholars, but He also waited until adulthood to do His ministry. Even the Son of God had to wait until the fullness of time.
I am glad this child feels called — and he very well may be — but there is a reason that the New Testament refers to the leaders of churches as “elders.”
Of course, we don’t know how they counted ages in the year 0. They could have used the Asian system where a child is counted as 1 at birth (counting time spent in the womb). ;^)
Of course, I agree. I was just ribbing folks a little.
I was listening to an interview with author, Mary Higgens Clark, on Catholic radio the other day. She has written a new novel where the premise is that a letter was written by Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea and that this letter (parchment) survived the ages. Of course, Jesus could read and write because he was an accomplished Jewish scholar, as evidenced by the way he amazed the elders in the Temple at age 12. This is a work of fiction, but it is an intriguing idea, nonetheless. She further spins her tale that Joseph was one of the elders who heard Jesus at age 12 and formed a close friendship with Christ. That is why the Lord left this farewell letter for the owner of the Tomb.
I know this sounds silly, but it captures the imagination about what occurred during those lost years between Christ’s nativity, escape to Egypt, and the beginning of his public ministry. And you can be sure that Mary Higgens Clark, good Catholic that she is, will not blaspheme. I think I want to read her book.
:)
The next Al Sharpton?
“Stoddard said he was motivated to become a minister after God spoke to him in a dream and told him to read Psalm 23.”
Hebrews 1:1&2
“ God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; “
Jude:3
“
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
1Tim. 2:4-6
“4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,”
Is this child just a Marjoe with darker pegment? Marjoe Gortner played himself in a movie exposing how he was used.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHv7cnSSmaU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMDyC0w4MRY&feature=related
Those who worship their own, Most High and Holy Self by accepting the heresy of "Scripture Alone", follow Eve rather than Christ by reinterpreting His Word to suit themselves.
Yeah we know those catholics have a sinless record with their priests don’t we.
How about those nuns who spoke out against Gods law for years and years and were only recently chastised.
People are not perfect and ALL churches are made up of people. Some do their best to follow the Word and some write their own. Lumping all people into the later category isn’t biblical.
I always suspect the motives of humans who want to write novels that “fill in the lost years of Christ” when God appears to be silent on the issue. As for a letter “written by Christ”, novel or otherwise, it is dangerous to put words not uttered by God in Flesh into his mouth. Some folks can get so enraptured by the novelty of such a book that they may forget that it is only fiction after all and such works will not survive eternity!
Lesbians in Nunneries... A Catholic priest who sees himself in league with Reverent Wright’s church...plenty of homosexual priests, liberation Marxist priests in South America, Vatican bank scandals with documented ties to Italian Mafia and recent tragedies involving murdered girls....If some Protestant churches are Circus acts..what of the Roman Catholic Church which presumes to be the Circus Ring Master of all Christendom?
As long as he isn’t the next Jim Jones everything is good.
This is more like a family business than a church.
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