I don't usually do posts simply requesting your comments, but I'm planning a post for next week (or the week after) and I could use your help. In the comments section, please answer this question. What is your definition of legalism?
Thanks for your input.
Note to all my non Southern Baptist readers: please don’t let all the big words in the first sentence keep you from reading further.
Three weeks ago I spent my days at an Intentionally Evangelistic Church Strategy seminar sponsored my local Baptist Association. In it, we focused on the need for our churches to be more intentionally evangelistic. In other words, we need to learn to make whatever we do as a church be focused on sharing the message of the gospel.
This seminar obviously got me thinking about my own witnessing habits and the effectiveness of my own ministry. I used to make this comment somewhat regularly:
“I always hear about all these churches that don’t baptize anybody and I can’t even imagine that. I’ve been in ministry since 1997, in nothing but small churches, and I’ve never gone a year without someone in my youth ministry being saved.”
It’s true. I have never gone a calendar year without anyone in my youth group getting saved.
So what brought about this post. No one in my youth group has come to Christ since July 2007. I have been blessed to lead two people through the sinner’s prayer in that same period, and I am thankful to God for that privilege. However, I consider it my main calling to work toward the spiritual growth of the students in my youth ministry. (There are some students who do not know Jesus there.) You can see why this is troubling for me.
I do share the gospel regularly, I do pray regularly for my students, and I understand that being faithful with the gospel is not equal to leading others to Christ. As they say we have to love fishing, not catching. I have this fear that students (not necessarily the ones in my ministry) do not think that being a believer matters, that, since it doesn’t affect the behavior of their [Christian?] friends, it’s not important to live differently from unbelievers. Therefore the message is compromised if not completely undercut. I do know this, the best thing that ever happened to me was asking Jesus to save me from my sins and be my Lord.
I’m not really sure why I wrote this post, maybe it should be a prayer request, maybe it is just me venting, or maybe it is time for some serious questioning the of way I do things. Sometimes I post things that I should probably keep to myself.
363 days ago I wrote my first ever "blog post" it was on MySpace and not really meant fully for public consumption. Now I have a real blog, several regular readers (literally tens of people every day) and the same motivation for posting. First I present to you that old post
Youth ministryI have been in youth ministry for almost 10 years now and there is no other job I could be happy doing.
Sometimes it is incredibly frustrating. Students won't listen or they don't seem to care what you are teaching, or they refuse to do something very simple like bring their Bibles to church with them.
But other times are truly rewarding. Today was one of those times. This was youth Sunday at our church and that means that our youth lead in every part of the service. They taught adult Sunday school classes, they filled the choir, they took up offering and prayed every public prayer. Also today we watched a video of Brandon's [who has moved to Texas] Baptism, and Derrick gave his testimony.
It was a wonderful experience and I am proud of all of them
Thank you to my youth group.
Yesterday was again youth Sunday but yesterday had a different feel than previous years. Our students taught all the adult SS classes, filled the choir and, led the music, etc. Normally our main speakers are the graduating seniors, but we had no graduating seniors, so I, as the youth minister, decided to be the main speaker. My message was very simple. I simply explained the gospel clearly and thoroughly. In the past, youth Sunday has always, been about the students. But as I shook hands with people as they were leaving I could not help but feel like it was different. I felt that I somehow took away from the emphasis on the youth. I am proud of them, they did an excellent job and deserve whatever credit they get.
Regarding my message, I have listened to it, and I am still convinced that I am not a preacher, nor am I likely to be one. It was my first time ever in the pulpit since I began in the ministry, and it was not terrible. I was clear, and people seemed interested. (Only like 4 people had their eyes closed.) Essentially I went slow and repeated myself often. I have way too many uhmms and okays, to be a good public speaker. I have included the message in this post if you want to listen to it, or you can download it here. It's long, so carve yourself out a good chunk of time.
[audio=http://lagrangeparkbc.org/audio/08.17.08.mp3]
I wrote this post a while back and am just now posting it. I have rewritten it, I welcome your suggestions, and your feedback on this one. Our country is in desperate need of a great awakening.
My church could use a good revival.
I need a revival.
Except for prayer I have no control over the first two, but I can do something about the third.
Every Christian has experienced a time of spiritual dryness. It happened to the prophets of the Old Testament, the great church fathers, 18th century giants of the faith and certainly it happens today. Sometimes it seems that God is hiding Himself, though I am certain that that is not the case.
I recently confessed to three of my friends that I have been in somewhat of a spiritual lowpoint lately. While I’m in the midst of this lowpoint, feeling distant from God, I am aware of my situation. I know that I am not where I should be, but it feels as if I’m powerless to fix it.
Here is the question of this post; why is revival sometimes so hard to come by? One thing I do know is that the major problem in a time of spiritual dryness is sin. I know without a doubt that anyone with unrepentant sin will not emerge from such a condition simply by accident. I also don’t believe that God will just yank us up out of the funk without clearing up the sin that we seem unwilling to let go of.
For me, the major symptom of being in this condition is a lack of regular quiet time. When in this condition my quiet times are either sporadic, or low-quality. They sometimes feel like drudgery. Under normal circumstances I enjoy reading my Bible and my time alone with God in prayer is the best time of the day.
This all leads to the next major question; if I realize that sin is what has me in this rut, why can I not simply cut out the sin? I want to stop, I realize that is my major problem. Why is it often difficult to just repent. That is, of course, the key to it all. I can take some comfort in Romans 7:14-25. And I can of course conclude as Paul did 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! God provided both forgiveness and way out.
I just read this post, and I wonder; does this surprise anyone? Here’s and obvious disclaimer – I am clearly in the 71%. Here’s the thing. We all choose the sins that we are going to be offended by. And for most of us, this poor body-stewardship is not one of them. I know that I regularly wake up in the morning and am determined to change my behavior so that I am healthier, but often by lunchtime I’ve forgotten that determination. Also I know that overweightness is a sin I find very easy to forgive in others.
However there are a host of sins that I judge much more harshly in myself and others. I am not saying that the other sins that we judge more harshly don’t deserve the treatment. I am, however, wondering how we decide where to draw that line. Why are we offended by cussing but not overeating? 
Over the years I have known Christians who were offended by women wearing pants, and Christians who are seemingly not bothered by anything. I really don’t have any suggestion for where the arbitrary “sin line” comes from. I would suggest that it comes from our church, but for the most part we chose churches that hold to our views rather than molding ourselves to the views of our church.
Here’s what I do know. God does not have an arbitrary line. He hates our sin – all of it – and He wants us to “be holy in all our conduct.”
Yesterday I saw this comic, and somebody forwarded me this story, and it got me to thinking about “climate change” I put climate change in quotes because it used to be called global warming, until the globe actually cooled last year. Now it’s always called “climate change.”
I realize that this post is about two months too late. I missed all the hype surrounding the SBC statement by Jonathan Merritt. And I missed the big “We get it” statement by the ERLC.
But here are my thoughts anyway...
I have no idea whether humans are causing global warming or not. I will admit that it seems like climate change is real. I found An Inconvenient Truth to be rather convincing, but I cannot deny the stats from earlier that the world cooled last year. So, to clear this up, it does seem like something is going on, but I am not sure it is caused by humans and our activity on this planet. Now that I have established such a thoroughly fence-sitting position let me bottom line it for you.
For Christians, it doesn’t matter whether or not humans are causing global warming. It seems to me that the real issue is stewardship of the planet. We only have one planet to live on, at least until we figure out some new technology to put us on Mars. But I must say that the middle panel of the comic is correct. Stewardship of creation is a secondary issue. Just so that I am clear, there is only one great commission. There is only one duty that rises above all others for Christians. We are to spread the gospel, and preach to all the lost. That, however, is not an excuse to destroy what we have.
There are major problems on both sides of this issue. The people who say that this God’s world and He will take care of it are being irresponsible and simply unbiblical. God gave Adam the job of ruling over creation right in the beginning And the simple fact is that he expects the same of us. We are to take care of the world.
The other side describes it as a "planetary emergency," and says “[global warming] threatens the future of human civilization.” So Gore believes that the end of the world as we know it will be because of global warming if something is not done to stop it. The problem with that is the hyperbole of it all. I’ll state this plainly. The main problem with the world is sin. It will be the cause of the end of civilization. No debate about that one. We doomed the world a long time ago. And there is no saving it. The greatest crisis ever to face mankind has already been settled. This world will end.
Let me wrap this all up. We must take care of the earth, just as we take care of our homes, our bodies, and our money, but climate change is not the greatest problem the world ever has faced, sin is.
And just in case you were wondering, I could sign the creation care document in good conscience.
I left this comment in this blog earlier today. So I'll ask my readers to answer it.
Here’s a question no one has ever answered satisfactorily for me. -Why does a Christian want to drink a beer?- If you know it’s wrong to get drunk and you don’t need a little alcohol to stay dysentery free, then why?
I do not want a discussion about legalism and christian freedom in my comments. I simply want an answer to this question, "What advantage do you get from drinking?" Why do it?
I get the idea from all the people who argue that it's ok that the main reason that they want to drink socially is because they were taught that it is wrong. It is pure rebellion. In fact, the best reason I've ever gotten from anybody when I asked this question in person is that it is fun. Also I'm probably not going to buy the argument that it is delicious. Nobody lives the taste of beer the first time, and most of us are not in the habit of drinking stuff we think is nasty until it starts tasting good.
I am conceeding that the Bible doesn't say "thou shall not consume alcohol" and that it does say "be not drunk with wine." Let's not have a discussion of whether or not it is okay. I want to know; why drink at all? Especially since there's no clear line between sober and drunk.
I didn’t know how to wrap up my experience at the 2008 SBC, so I decided to just make a list of stuff I am thinking. This list will be complete thoughts, but not expounded upon unless you want to hear more.
Thoughts in no particular order
...WowI’m not that popular but I saw a bunch of people I know pretty well
Here's some other stuff not necessarily convention related but related to my trip.
So this was the first day of the actual convention. I got up and was gone from Lafayette by 7:30. A wreck on the interstate and pouring rain here in the Indiana rainforest, and I was in a seat on the convention floor by 9:00. I should describe the layout of the convention here in Indy. It is about 100 rows deep in 6 sections. There are huge projection screens in front of two sections. So it is ridiculously wide and not that deep. There are practically no good seats in the entire hall. But if you park yourself in front of one of the giant screens you have a very good view. The same exact view you would get if you watched it online.
Now...on to the business of the day. The vote for SBC president. You all read my previous posts and had the opportunity to lobby me. After praying, I voted for Frank Cox. We passed the ballots to the right. And there was no question when I passed the ones in my section that Johnny Hunt got the majority of the votes in my section. There were 6 candidates and I figured that there would be a runoff, but I guess I underestimated Johnny’s popularity, . Johnny got 52% of the vote. I admire Johnny and believe he will be a good president. In case anybody is counting I am 0-2 in voting for SBC president.
First VP is Bill Henard from Porter in Lexington KY. I did vote for him. Also I voted for 2nd VP, but I left before they announced the winner. (There will be a runoff between Mulkey and Newland.) I voted for Newland from the Indianapolis church that was sued by the NFL for hosting a Super Bowl party. But Mulkey had one of the greatest nomination speeches I’ve ever heard. It was great.
In other news, I attended the Annie Armstrong banquet because our church was top in giving and per capita giving in our association. It was a very good banquet and the missionary speaker did a wonderful job. But a fire alarm went off before the end, and I was very ready to leave the room. The alarm, strobe, and voice emanating from the speakers was incredibly annoying.
Tomorrow, there will likely be no report. Read Baptist Press.
In my previous post I asked people to lobby me for their candidate for SBC president. As I have thought about this I realize that many of my readers need a bit of a lesson in Southern Baptist polity.
I think the first thing to establish is that the president of the Southern Baptist Convention is largely a figurehead position. What I mean by that is that the SBC itself is not so much a denomination as a collection of independent churches. No president of the convention or Associational Director Of Missions has any actual power over any church. Our statement of faith the BFM 2000 is just that; a statement of faith. We join ourselves together because we hold common beliefs not because of any hierarchy. Our associational DOM has no authority over the 96 churches of the NSRBA. The convention president is the same. He has no real power.
So what does the president do and why even bother going to the convention at all? The president is moderator of the convention, he appoints the committee on committees, and he serves largely as a spokesman for all Southern Baptists to the media.
Let’s look at each of these duties and deal with them separately with the 6 candidates in mind.
First, the SBC president serves as moderator over the convention. This is a 2-day per year job. (In execution, though surely there is a lot of prep work that must be done.) Based on my knowledge of the candidates any of them would be fine in this position. There is a parliamentarian on hand to keep whoever it is straight on the details. It may well be that some of the candidates are a bit more in love with the sound of their own voice than others ;) but the sheer amount of business that must be carried out in two days makes it necessary that the president keep things moving. The position of moderator concludes with the convention sermon, they all have different skills in this regard, but hopefully any of them would be well-prepared and ready to bring God’s word to the convention.
Second, the SBC president nominates the committee on committees. Once upon a time, this was probably the most significant part of the job. Now that the convention as a whole is solidly conservative, and full of inerrentists, most likely all of the candidates would appoint all conservatives to this position. (An aside: I am thankful to God for those who figured out the significance of this and led to the conservative resurgence.)
Third, the convention president largely serves as spokesman and ambassador to the media for the entire denomination. It would be impossible to be a spokesman for the entire group of millions of Southern Baptists. As I stated earlier, we are a very independent group, and only joined because we choose to cooperate. This part of the job is significant because the media does not understand the nature of our convention. So we need an apt spokesperson. I have heard Frank Page say repeatedly that he was approached by all the major presidential candidates and asked for an endorsement. There are many other people who to some degree speak on behalf of Southern Baptists. That is essentially Richard Land’s job description, and to a large degree Al Mohler does the same thing. But there will never be a true replacement for the SBC president. This is the part of the job where the candidates truly begin to separate themselves. This is also one of the reasons that the megachurch pastors have a leg up on the field in most cases.
At this point, for me, the election is down to Frank Cox, Johnny Hunt, and Avery Willis, in no particular order. You basically have one more day to lobby me for your candidate, or disagree with my analysis in the comments. Feel free to do so.
Also as a bonus, here are links to the candidates interviews with Baptist Press
One of the major concerns we hear about in Southern Baptist life is the lack of “young leaders.”
You often read that people under age 40 feel somehow alienated by the processes of the SBC. I am under 35, and seminary educated, but I don’t feel either jaded or disenfranchised with the processes of the SBC.
I have no idea what all the commentators mean by “leader” but I’m pretty sure I don’t qualify on that front. I’m the youth minister at a small church, and I have no ambition to ever preach the convention sermon, but I do want to see the Southern Baptist Convention be the best it can be. I obviously am a blogger, (hopefully the stigma from that label is gone now) and I read a handful of SBC blogs. Some I agree with, some I don’t. I would very much like to one day earn my PhD and my readers already know I want to be a certified apologetics instructor. It would be great to have a bunch of readers on my blog, but this blog is too often about fishing to ever catch on in a big way. So, surely I am not a “leader.” All I want is to bring glory to God in whatever position He puts me. And if that means being a youth minister to 10 kids, then hopefully I can help them to grow closer to Christ and have an impact on their world.
Despite not being a “young leader” I believe I am the very person that many people are concerned about. As an under 35, seminary educated, Southern Baptist, I am interested in what happens, and deeply concerned with the baptism decline. I hope this doesn’t sound arrogant, really I just believe I fit the mold. I’m sure there are many like me.
I will be attending the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis, and I can honestly say that I do not know who I will be voting for for president. There are 6 candidates. (<update>I am only seriously considering 3 </update>of them.) I am genuinely undecided. This is your opportunity to lobby for my vote. Use the comments to convince me that your choice for SBC president is the one who will best lead the convention.
Here are some things you may want to know about me before you begin your defense. Some of this is a repeat.
Let the lobbying begin
Today’s topic is hypocrisy.
I’ll start by asking a question, what exactly is hypocrisy? Is it a difference between teaching and action? Or is it a difference between belief and action, or is it something else?
If I struggle with a particular sin, is it hypocritical to tell others it’s wrong?
Let’s use the example of the sin I cannot hide. All you need to do is look at the banner on this blog to see that I clearly am engaged in very poor stewardship of my body. My weight is a problem. I believe that it is a sin. In fact, I know it’s wrong to be obese. So the question I have is, do I become a hypocrite for saying so, when clearly it is a problem I struggle with? If this is hypocrisy, then what is my option? Do I have to pretend that it’s okay? Am I barred from ever speaking on the subject? What about related questions? Can I not tell my youth it's wrong to smoke because it destroys their bodies? Am I stuck in some sort of unending question mark loop?
To restate the question - can I acknowledge a sin and at the same time struggle with it?
I have often said that everyone is a hypocrite in some way. Usually there is something that we say we believe, but we live in a way inconsistent with that belief. For example, if I say that I love fishing but I haven’t fished in 2 years, (I’m definitely not talking about myself now) does that make me a hypocrite, a liar, or just somebody with a poor sense of what I like. (Just for the record, everybody finds time to do what they want to do.) Maybe that’s too trivial to be hypocrisy. Maybe I say I am committed to conservation and I do many good things for the planet, but I’m just not willing to take that extra step and switch to the cloth grocery bags, because they are expensive and stupid looking. I’m not quite sure that that is in fact hypocrisy.
Feel free to chime in on this one.
This topic is brought on because I am reading unChristian
Yesterday was primary day in North Carolina. As an R I really had no choice in the vote for president, but I did have the chance to vote in elections for Governor, US Senator, judges, and a local sales tax increase. I believe that it is my Christian duty to vote, even though I hold no hope in the political process to ultimately improve the world or the country. That can only be done by the power of the gospel changing lives. I do, however, believe that the political process can do further damage or accelerate the problems that are already evident. (BTW - I almost wrote a post today about Christians being beholden to one party or confusing republican with Christian. If you are interested in that topic today read Ed Stetzer.)
After voting yesterday I met with three friends. I will not name them here but they know who they are ;-) Only one of them voted. And I am not sure why. In each case they are Christians who would say they are concerned with politics. And they would certainly say that it matters who is elected. But they didn’t vote.
It is my firm belief that God has granted mankind with the power of actual moral choice. Therefore, we have the ability to make real decisions that have real effect on the world around us. (Just ask Adam.) The reason that Baptists are historically the strongest supporters of religious freedom is that we hold this belief that God has granted us the freedom to make our own choices. In fancy theological terms, we call this soul competency. That freedom includes the ability to make wrong choices. I think that every human assumes that other humans often make wrong choices. Sometimes those wrong decisions have an effect on us.
To bring this back to the subject at hand, here is an opportunity to minimize the effect of the wrong decisions on us. How? By voting. Even though I voted for almost all losers yesterday, at least my vote was counted. More than I can say for some of my Christian friends.
I am but a lowly part-time youth minister, and I make very little money. But I have a dream. I want to become a NAMB Certified Apologetics Instructor.
To do so, I have to complete three requirements.
I need some financial help to complete item #2. The next time the course is offered is in October and it is rather expensive. The course itself is $800 plus $500 in lodging, and I have to get myself to Colorado Springs. (Today that looks like a $275 ticket.) As you can see, this is quite expensive. I have already asked, I am not allowed to begin the practicum before I complete the workshop. I tried though. I could be getting in some lectures now, but they won’t let me.
Let's be honest. I have a pretty small readership, but I would like to make a buck or two from this blog so that I can live the dream and become a certified apologetics instructor. (This is a wordpress.com blog so I can't put up a store or use google adsense) Here’s where you come in. I’m not asking for donations - though I wouldn’t turn them away - really what I want is when you buy stuff from Amazon.com, anything at all, you can go through this site. Or you can just attach the following piece of text to the end of any product address if you re going to buy something.
&tag=jersweb-20
If you use this, I’ll get a few cents, and I promise to use it all to complete my part of the CAI program.
Any questions?
Here’s an example
An item at amazon
http://www.amazon.com/a lot of gibberish and numbers and stuff
an item with this code
http://www.amazon.com/a lot of gibberish and numbers and stuff&tag=jersweb-20
See, you just stick it on the end.
Newsletters went out yesterday, which means that they arrived today in most cases. I would guess that many of you just found out that your youth minster writes a blog and are probably here to see what it is all about. So this post is a primer on my weblog. Some of my posts:
Require a lot of thought and organization like: A Time For War part 1 & part 2
Are hopefully an encouragement to the church like: News That Bothers Me or Saying Yes to Jesus
Are meant to provoke a response like: Silent?
Are about fishing or basketball
Are pure silliness like: this one or this one
My most commented ever is just me asking for help
Anyway, thanks for visiting. And if you got here because of the church newsletter, leave a comment and say hello. And feel free to come back or add me to your RSS reader.
Also, visit this post and vote in the comments
P.S. We mail out about 285 newsletters, anyone want to guess how many extra hits that translates into. I'd set the over/under at 20 with 5 comments.
Last week I saw this story on the interweb.
'Basic Instinct' Director Paul Verhoeven: Jesus Was Son of Mary and Roman Rapist
And of course it gets headlines. To save you from reading it, here it is in a nutshell. Paul Verhoeven has spent 20 years researching a book, Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait, so that he can gin up some interest and hopefully make a movie about Jesus.
Since he’s a director and has a couple of hit movies under his belt, people care what he has to say. But here’s the deal. In his 20 years of study he has learned nothing. But he cannot accept the idea of a miracle so he makes something up. In this case, he says Jesus may have been the result of a rape. Also apparently Judas didn’t betray Jesus.
Every so often I like to write posts like this, and they all have the same theme. You may remember a few weeks ago a story about Moses. Some scholar cannot buy into the idea of miracles so he makes something up. This is the same thing. Verhoeven apparently has no real reason to believe this except that he doesn’t want to. If you go back to the Jesus Seminar where he gets his ideas you will find that their view of Jesus excludes all miracles and deny all quotes where He talks about himself or eternity. Per wikipedia:
The seminar's reconstruction of Jesus portrays him as an itinerant Hellenistic Jewish sage who did not die as a substitute for sinners nor rise from the dead, but preached a "social gospel" in startling parables and aphorisms…
Why do people who insist on denying every major Christian doctrine also insist on calling themselves Christian? I think it is dishonest. They deny literally the very core of Christianity, the atonement. Why not just come up with a new title and be honest about who they are. I believe it is because Christ is so appealing that even those who don't follow Him, or in this case don't believe in Him, or believe in a false version of Him, still want to be associated.
I can't blame them for that. I came to belief in Christ around 25 years ago, and it is the best thing that ever happened to me.
I saw this news story today:
NASHVILLE, Tenn., 4/23/08 -- The number of people baptized in Southern Baptist churches fell for the third straight year in 2007 to the denomination’s lowest level since 1987. Although the SBC added 473 new churches and gave more than $1.3 billion to support mission activities around the world, there’s no escaping the disappointing fact that Southern Baptists are not reaching as many people for Christ as they once did, according to Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, which gathered the information on the denomination’s behalf…Read the rest of this press release here.
I don’t know if I have anything interesting to say on this subject and I’m sure I have nothing new to say. But I do want to get some thoughts out there. And thank you for reading.
I love the Southern Baptist Convention. I love my church. And when I see news like this I want to cry.
I know that the SBC is not equal to the church. And I know that Jesus didn't say, "Upon this rock I will build my denomination." I also know that there are many good churches of other stripes, but this feels like a kick in the teeth. I’ll restate it. The churches of the SBC baptized fewer people for the third straight year.
Without getting into why I am a Southern Baptist or analyzing lots of potential problems (others will do a great job of that), here is what I see. The tragedy is that we are officially now losing the war for souls. More church members are reaching less people. Which means, simply put, more people will die and spend forever in hell.
I also know that the problem cannot be fixed on a national level or with better leaders. Nobody could do a better job calling for revival in evangelism than Frank Page or Bobby Welch. It must be fixed by individual Christians. Take this test.
If you answered yes to these questions, you are officially part of the reason for this news story. I have been deeply convicted lately that I don’t witness enough. And I wanted to share.
BTW: If you are reading this and don’t know Jesus please read here or here
Feel free to comment.
My favorite podcast is Buzz Out Loud, and one of the recurring themes on BOL is regarding the information age and what we know. They talk about how, because of the information age, we don’t have to remember anything anymore. In this context it pays to know how to look stuff up rather than actually remember stuff.
I can seriously see this in my own life. For example, I personally know only a few phone numbers. And in almost every case they are numbers that I have known since childhood. I know the first number I ever learned, (our house number when I was in kindergarten, 669-1827 about 25 houses ago) my dad, Grammaw & Paw, Pops & Granny, my best friend from high school, my uncle [only because it is one digit different from the previous one], and my current phone number. Numbers I call regularly, like my brother, my mom, or my pastor I have no clue about. Also, thanks to DVR technology, I don’t know when TV shows I like come on. I don’t know so many things that would have been necessary knowledge a generation ago. I do have a handful of passwords memorized, which wouldn’t have mattered a generation ago, but 6 passwords probably encompasses all of the websites I login to [log into, or log in to] regularly.
And I am not the only one experiencing this phenomenon. The other day, John McLamb blogged about computer / internet dependence and Bible Study.
“So what’s the big deal?” you say. “You have the technology, embrace it.” Obviously I have embraced it, but I’m afraid it will lead to a certain mental laziness. Specifically I am afraid that I will become lazy with the Scriptures.
Here’s my plan. I intend to begin a regular schedule of memorizing scripture. I will not just learn scattershot verses from all over the Bible, but I will learn passages. In the past I have learned passages. (mostly because seminary professors required me to.) This is an incredibly rewarding exercise. First you learn the very words of God, secondly they become a part of you as you learn them thoroughly, and third, you are just so proud of yourself when you can quote a large passage of scripture. My plan is to learn them well enough to know the entire passage versified. I’m not what sure what pace I will work at, probably one verse per week. But I will begin with Titus 3:5-8.
All of my readers are encouraged to join me. But you don’t have to. I just wanted to make my plan public so I would feel like a jerk for not following through.
This week, in our association we are holding an On Mission Celebration. What this means is that each participating church hears from 5 missionaries during a 4 day period. In our case we get two IMB missionaries, two NAMB missionaries, and one BSCNC missionary. Our church is four services in, and I am hearing some common themes from each of the missionaries. More than anything else, the theme we hear from all of the missionaries is, “God called and I had to obey.” In most cases that meant not knowing exactly what God had in store for them. They could only say yes and then wait until they got clear direction. In every case that meant having their families on board. It is one thing to say that God has called me to do this or that, but another to say that I will uproot my wife and children from where we are and go, whether it is to Pittsburgh or to Lucknow India.
I admire all these people for their efforts. I admire especially those who go to foreign lands and do these things. They have been honest with us and told us stories about how they have opportunities that people in their countries don’t have, and they have to be careful who they trust, or that they really don’t have much guidance once they get on the field.
What this post is really about is saying yes to Jesus. My pastor uses this phrase all the time to refer to salvation, but I mean beyond salvation. We need to say yes to whatever God may call us to do. Most of us in our American churches have never had to suffer for Christ. At least not more than in a slight way when we are ridiculed for or belief or painted as morons for believing in Christ. Because we have never had to suffer, we limit the ways we are willing to be used by God.
We say, "I’ll help in VBS, but only in the kitchen."
We say, "I’ll give to help send the youth to camp, but no way I’ll be a chaperone."
We say, "I'm not going to the nursing home, old people smell funny."
We say, "I’ll go to church on Sunday morning and even Wednesday, but how dare anyone expect me to go on visitation."
We say, "I’ll go to church regularly, but I’m not going to consider sitting anywhere other than my seat."
We say, "I can't be in choir, they expect me to be at practice regularly"
We say, "Witness to my neighbor? Isn’t that my pastor’s job?"
We say, "I’ll do construction work on a mission trip but I’m not going to do surveys."
We say, "I’ll bring my Bible to church and read it daily, but I’m not memorizing scripture; that takes work."
All these are ways that I have seen people limit God. Not that God is actually limited in any way but they don’t allow Him to be used in their lives in these ways.
The thing that separates missionaries from other Christians is not some super-spirituality or extra dose of faith. (Only a little is enough to move mountains.) What they have is the “Yes.” We sing Yes, Lord, Yes but we don’t mean it. I have sung Where He Leads Me I Will Follow hundreds of times, but I don’t remember the “I won’t follow to the Nursery” verse.
In case I have not been clear to this point I'll say it this way. We are on shaky ground when we limit what we will allow God to do through or with us. As I pray for revival for our church and our nation I realize that this is where revival breaks down. When Christians love God right up to the point that service is not comfortable, I am afraid God will bless us only to that point.
Please make this your prayer today...God I will go anywhere,* Africa to Alaska, and do anything, as long as I know it is your will.
*This includes the nursery and the nursing home
There is a sentiment that I often hear in Christian circles. It basically goes like this; We have all these problems because Christians have been silent for too long. I have never heard it questioned, but today I want to question your thinking about that statement slightly.
I will begin by saying that the “problems” that people are ranting about when these statements are made, are real and true problems. Allowing marriage to be anything other than between one man and one woman is wrong, abortion is wrong, the movement to push the Christian church out of every area of the public sphere is wrong. (E.g. kicking the Gideons out of public school or not allowing Churches to have booths at the Dogwood Festival. Fayetteville NC I’m talking to you.) Those things are wrong! I will unashamedly say so. (And there may be a future blog post about the death of the word wrong)
Secondly, there are some political things that American Christians are silent about. For example, we are often silent about genocide, I suppose because it happens far away. We are silent about the abuse and martyrdom of Christians in most of the world. We are mostly silent about the evil of divorce. (I should say evangelicals are silent about. Liberal Christians believe fixing this stuff is equal to salvation) However, we simply are not silent about the things I hear people complain about all the time. Most non-believers know Christians for their political activity more than anything else
You will not meet a non-Christian in America that doesn’t know the Christian position on marriage or abortion. In fact, research tells us that non-believers believe that what it means to be a Christian is to be judgmental and to hate homosexuals. <aside>This may be their view, but it is simply not true. The best thing that ever happened to me, ever, is asking Jesus to be my lord. I know that lost people are in fact lost and will act that way. It is to be expected.</aside> But we have lost our message somewhere. We can blame the news media, or the people who make entertainment, but if they were Christians they would know better.
The problem [if there is one] with all our political activism is that it is an attempt to fix consequences without taking care of the problems. Dr. Reid always says, "Jesus did not die to make bad people good; he died to make dead people live." The deplorable behavior of our nation will not be fixed by all the political rallies, petitions, or letters (and I write letters to my politicians regularly) that we can produce. They will only be fixed with a great awakening style revival in our nation.
So back to the original statement, we have all these problems because Christians have been silent for too long. I agree with this statement…but not the way most who say it mean it. We have all these problems because Christians have been silent with the gospel message for too long. I am convinced that unless my city councilman actually knows Jesus, there is no reason to expect him to vote like someone who does. (He does claim to be a Christian.) The same goes for my mayor, my Governor, and my president. You get the idea. Also, I know that hope for our world is not found in politics.
This is not a pessimistic post just to complain, I offer solutions. So, what can you, my reader, do to fix all the problems of society? For starters, I would say consider every single person you know at least casually. If you know that any of them do not know Jesus, and you have not witnessed to them, witness to them. That sounds convoluted, so I’ll say it a different way. Tell everyone you know that Jesus loves them and that He died for their sins. If you are reading this and realize that you don't know Jesus go here and watch the movie. Secondly, live differently from the world. Live with joy and your acquaintances will want what you have.