TopekaStew

Sunday at Southwest we talked about Paul's command to not quench the Spirit. How do we do that? What do I do to avoid pouring water on the flame of God's fire? Consider this quote by the 19th century missionary John Paton. Maybe playing it safe douses the fire. "During the crisis [an epidemic that killed thousands for which Paton and the other missionaries were blamed], I felt generally calm, and firm of soul, standing erect and with my whole weight on the promise, 'Lo! I am with you alway.' Precious promise! Without that abiding consciousness of the presence and power of my dear Lord and Savior, nothing else in all the world could have preserved me from losing my reason and perishing miserably. He became to me so real that it would not have startled me to behold Him, as Stephen did gazing down upon the scene. I felt His supporting power.... It is the sober truth, and it comes back to me sweetly after 20 years, that I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the fa...

"Beautiful!" When I'm at peace, when life is good, I look at my daughters and think, "Beautiful!" And I want to communicate that belief to them in such a way that strengthens them, empowers them. I want to give them a baseline of confidence in who they already are in God's eyes. Our memory verse this week is a great way to convey to them what true beauty is and where it comes from: "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." - Proverbs 31:30 Truly beautiful women, women who should be praised, are those who fear God. But what does that mean? People ask, "God is love, why should I fear Him if He is love?" It is difficult to comprehend. And Scripture even seems to contradict itself on this topic: "Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said...

This is the second in a series of posts on church leadership. On July 1st I preached a sermon from 1 Thess. 5:12-13 considering what it means for leaders to be "over you in the Lord." This topic is too broad to be surveyed in a single sermon, therefore I offer this series and pray that we will meditate on what God considers to be a healthy leadership in the local church. In my reading about healthy leadership in the church I came across a reference to the polity of the church as a mixture of three types of government: The local church is like a monarchy in that Christ is our king; it is like an aristocracy in that it is governed by a body of elders, an elite group of leaders; and it is like a democracy in that the congregation has authority and responsibility to decide matters of discipline and doctrine. Local church government is like a democracy in that it is the assembled church, not just the elders, who make the final decision in matters of discipline: "If your brot...

What has been your experience with those who have been "over you in the Lord"? Has it been a positve experience? Have they been like guides leading you in the mountains, taking you to majestic peaks where they've been before? Or have they been more like managers from the accounting department who can always be counted on to tell you what not to do? The reason I ask is Sunday's sermon was from 1 Thess. 5:12-13. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. Paul refers in this passage, I believe, to the team of elders who are charged by God to lead and teach the church. A team of elders--also called pastors or shepherds, also called overseers or bishops (see Titus 1:5-7 and 1 Peter 5:1-2 for examples of the linking of these titles under the banner of the same office)--is to labor among us, be over us, and lead us. At Sout...