Storm Clouds

By Simon Jonah Thomas

Thaddeus Lewis, the senior pastor of Greater Missionary Baptist Church, finds himself at a crossroads. He grapples with the direction he must take. The Holy Spirit is speaking to him. Will he listen to the Spirit’s gentle urgings on his heart, or will he succumb to the pressures to be more carnal than spiritual?

The issues Pastor Lewis faces and the decisions he must make will affect his life and his ministry. It will change how he relates to his congregants, possibly cause a fissure in the church, and touch the core of his relationship with God. He stands to lose a lot. A couple of influential ministers, who have taught and mentored Pastor Lewis, are pushing him in one direction. Members of his congregation are meeting about the changes they sense in their pastor. A deacon is opposing him at every turn. And he and his wife are moving into a season of their lives where the threat of losing his church will cause great strain on them. A storm is brewing. Will Pastor Lewis and his wife come out of it unscathed?

Storm Clouds is the Christian fiction sequel to the novel I Wish I Had A Praying Church. This novelette is the continuation of what happens when the Holy Spirit challenges a pastor on whether his relationship with the Lord is genuine. It is a timely and relevant work. The story’s themes of church politics, peer pressure, intellectualism versus the Spirit, and the creeping of worldly values into the Church, are very real and palpable issues in many churches today. It is a call for Christian readers to honestly evaluate whether they are following someone who may not genuinely believe in the Christ of the Gospels, and they are led to examine what being a believer truly means.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dove Christian Publishers
• Release date: Jul 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9788835887287

Simon Jonah Thomas

Simon Jonah Thomas has been an ordained minister for nearly thirty years, and during that time has served as an associate minister, director of midweek prayer services, evangelist, pastor of childrens church, hospital chaplain, and is a Christian writer who has been published by Decision magazine as well as having written a series of Bible study lessons for Union Gospel Press. Additionally, he is the author of a book on prayer titled Higher than the Ceiling. The experiences of the past thirty years have given Simon a unique perspective on the values, faith, and concerns of individuals of various racial, social, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds and the fact that Christians must bear the responsibility for the rise of Eastern, cultic, and other religions within our society, because far too many of us talk the talk but fail to exemplify walking in faith. Currently residing in southwestern Ohio, Simon is committed to establishing a ministry that challenges individuals to surrender themselves to the Lord as stated in Romans 12:12 using John 9:4 as a guide..

Book preview

STORM

CLOUDS

Simon Jonah Thomas

Bladensburg, MD

Published by

Inscript Books

a division of Dove Christian Publishers

P.O. Box 611

Bladensburg, MD 20710-0611

www.dovechristianpublishers.com

Copyright © 2020 by Simon Jonah Thomas

Cover Design by Nadia Chatsworth

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without permission of the publisher, except for brief quotes for scholarly use, reviews or articles.

Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.

eBook Version

Published in the United States of America

This work is dedicated to those believers who neither misrepresent scripture nor hide behind situational ethics to justify support for any individual or cause. May the Lord continue to bless them as they remain humble before the cross of Jesus never thinking more highly of themselves than they ought.

CLOUDS

Preface

Several years ago, I set about to create a work that would challenge individuals to live out their faith according to the plans that the Lord has for them. The first in this series was, I Wish I Had a Praying Church. The main character represents, in some form, each of us who have made a profession of faith in Christ Jesus. A profession of faith is only the beginning, for every believer must subsequently enter upon a journey toward spiritual maturity—a journey that never ends in this life. The longer you live, the more there is to learn.

The saddest thing that can occur in a relationship with the Lord is to be in the church for years and be no more spiritually mature than you were on the day you accepted Christ as Lord and Savior.

While not every believer has the title of a preacher or an evangelist, I exhort you as the apostle Paul exhorted Timothy in II Timothy, Chapter 4: 1-5 (NIV):

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

1

After Service

Several hours had passed since the morning service, and Pastor Thaddeus Lewis still had not returned home. However, his home was abuzz with activity as a group of ladies, still glowing from what they had witnessed that morning, sat discussing the events of the day.

Sister Susan Lewis sat and listened as the ladies discussed possible changes that might be coming to Greater Missionary Baptist Church because of the stand their Pastor had taken that morning.

You realize, stated Sister Laverne Wayne, the wife of Reverend Azariah Wayne, that there is going to be trouble on the horizon, and it is going to come from some folk who you would think would be on the side of your husband. The powers that be will not want any change that might somehow lessen their power and influence.

She continued. "Look how upset they became when they found out we had formed our little group, when all we wanted to do and have been doing is to pray for the Lord to guide, direct, and humble Pastor Lewis so that he might become a powerful weapon of the Lord against modernism and worldly influence within the church. They even went so far as to tell us that we could not meet without their approval.

What they failed to understand is that you can’t tell folk when and how to pray. Since we have been meeting in each other’s homes, who did they think they were trying to boss around?

Sister Wayne was more formally educated than her husband. Sister Wayne and her husband were from different socioeconomic backgrounds but had in common that they and their families were longtime members of GMBC. She, her siblings, and her parents were college graduates. While not snobbish nor high minded, there was an air about them that suggested self-assurance and success. Neither they nor Sister Wayne held ministry leadership positions but nonetheless were influential members of GMBC.

None of Reverend Wayne’s family was a college graduate, but they were hard-working blue-collar individuals who preferred to be known by their commitment to Christ rather than aspiring to leadership positions. Being members of the Usher Board and Trustees as well as faithful attendance at Prayer