My Daily Pause

Christ Taking Leave of the Apostles – ~1310 – Duccio (1260–1318)

Power and position.

People have a natural disposition toward being the one in charge.

The apostles were no different. While they still had a misunderstanding of what Christ’s kingdom was going to look like, they were jockeying for high office within it. (Luke 22:24-30)

Christ doesn’t want leaders like that.

Leaders serve.

Leaders put themselves last.

Leaders suffer difficulty.

Leaders in the church have plenty of opportunity to fail. They are usually challenged every time they make a decision. Every decision makes someone angry.

It is no wonder that Paul said they deserve a double portion of honor! (1 Timothy 5:17)

Leadership done right in the Lord’s church is not about the position. It is about the souls they preside over. The Bible compares them to the shepherd protecting his flock.

When we seek to be Christian leaders, let’s be those that seek to wield the power as servants. Leaders that influence others toward salvation…

… Leaders that put the Lord and others first.

It doesn’t feel like we are all teaching our children to be the best they can be in God’s kingdom anymore. We need more people that can proclaim the word of God and we need more examples of how great life as a Christian can be.

In 1 Timothy 3, the qualifications of elders are deacons are laid out and are pretty straight forward. We appoint men that have attained these qualities, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t all supposed to be trying to attain them! These aren’t a list of qualities directed only at local church leadership – these are qualities of Christians in good standing.

These qualities will give us:

• Patient and loving fathers
• Strong families based on God’s pattern
• Well-grounded teachers
• Respect from the communities we serve

I wish we were all teaching our children to desire to become elders in the Lord’s church. I hope we can begin to teach them all to preach a gospel sermon. We can begin by making them all young Timothys by taking an interest in teaching the young ones in Bible class and being sure to always honor the leaders, preacher and other hard working men in the church.

Daily Bible reading for May 27

Psalm 146
Numbers 32
Joel 1
1 Timothy 3

Isn’t it hard to believe that the Pharaoh’s heart was so hard that he could say no to Moses after so many plagues? If you remember from Exodus 4:21, God told Moses that he would harden Pharaoh’s heart. It worked so well that the Pharaoh allowed the plague of frogs to stay an extra night when he could have ended it immediately. (Exodus 8:9-10)

God delivered “Shock and Awe” to the world with power and control like none alive at the time had ever seen. This is a good place to start when trying to figure out how to apply it, but it goes so much deeper. I hope you noticed it:

God can do his work through evil men just as easily as he can work through his followers!

Romans 13:1-7 authorizes governments without defining what model they use – It could be a democracy or a dictatorship. It also reminds us that that power is God-given. Sooo … What does that mean for us?

We don’t have to despair when we are governed by sinners. Keep God in view and focus on doing his will and he will deal with the rest.

Bonus: David addresses a similar theme in Psalm 64

In 2 Chronicles 10 (and 1 Kings 12), Solomon’s son Rehoboam has assumed the throne and almost immediately the kingdom divides. Obviously he was not vetted as a leader, but put in charge only because he was “next”. God’s Kingdom (the church) has suffered the same fate – From the single united group that assembled that day in Acts 2 we now have hundreds of denominations that split away. Poorly selected church leaders have innovated new ways to worship and have tried to blaze paths to salvation other than the one given in Acts 2:38.

Be careful not to allow your faith to be spoon fed to you. Do your diligence and select where you worship and study with based on what you read in the Bible.

Daily Bible Reading for Feb 6

Jacob and Esau are reunited. Rehoboam decides to be a tougher ruler than Solomon. The Holy Spirit comes upon the Apostles.

Psalm 36
Genesis 33
2 Chronicles 10
Acts 2