The Communion of Saints

 

“Christ is risen!”

“He is risen indeed!”

Social media has its downsides, and they are many, but it also has some pretty cool upsides.  One of my favorite things about social media happened yesterday, as Christians all over my newsfeeds shared the traditional Easter greeting with each other. One would post, “He is risen!” Then many would respond, “He is risen indeed!”  All day, all over social media this was repeating, and it is glorious. That declaration expresses our shared hope, joining myriad Christian brothers and sisters together in precious communion and shared faith that has continued and been passed down across the centuries, it joins us with the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before and will join us with the generations of believers to come.   This is our hope.  Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

One of my very favorite things about Easter is joining with my fellow believers, my church family, my brothers and sisters in the faith, as we sing with joy about the foundation of our faith and rejoice in the Resurrection, which, honestly is what EVERY Sunday is celebrating, but in a very focused way on Easter Sunday. Yesterday was no exception.  Singing songs that affirm our faith, praying in expectant hope and faith, listening and responding to the Word faithfully preached, Sundays are vitally necessary refreshment, and yesterday is still singing in my heart.

But I do have one, very gentle thought I can’t help pondering today. I was raised in a Southern Baptist Church, so I’m no stranger to it. We have not been members of an SBC church in a long time, though, having joined other solid, Bible churches the past many years, and, truth be told, I didn’t really ever expect to be a member of an SBC church again. Lesson learned, never say never, and we found the right church for us here where we live now is a precious Baptist church and we love our family here, and are grateful to be members of this little church, thankful for the rich community and faithful teaching and weekly refreshment we find here. However, yesterday something happened that sort of reminded me how weird we Baptists are.  The worship leader welcomed the congregation yesterday morning by declaring, “He is risen!” To which I and a few others I’m guessing, though I didn’t hear them, said, “He is risen indeed!” Mostly what I heard was a bunch of jumbled, “Amens,” and, “Yes,” and even a “Hallelujah,” or two, all of which are definitely appropriate responses and heartfelt emotions, but a part of me found it jarring that the congregation didn’t seem to know the traditional response, the response that millions of Christians were responding all over the world yesterday. I love my Baptist people. We love Jesus, truly, deeply, we love His word and teach it well. But having been a part of different biblical Christian traditions recently, I can’t help but feel like we are poorer and we miss something by being so fiercely autonomous that many of us are basically ignorant of ancient traditions and we seem to have an almost allergic disdain for knowing anything about the rich beauty of the creeds, which were a product of, sometimes quite literally, the blood, sweat, and tears of earlier generations of believers to carefully set out and guard the right understanding of the biblical doctrines of the faith.

Part of the wonder of Christianity is that we are the Body of Christ. When we read that wonderful passage in Hebrews about the great cloud of witnesses who surround us, it’s a reminder that we are joined with the great invisible church, the saints who have loved Christ through the ages, those who have gone before us and passed the faith down to us and from whom we can learn so much, those faith filled brothers and sisters around the world today, and those who will follow behind us in future generations until Jesus returns, the saints from all ages with whom we will join around the throne with our gaze fixed on Christ, our voices joining with the multitudes from every language, tribe, and tongue in singing, “Worthy is the Lamb!” for eternity. We really need to be careful not to be so autonomous in our church vision that we forget that the Body of Christ is bigger than just our local church, we are part of something awesome that spans the ages and the nations. Christ is building His Church, and we get to be part of it, our little local congregation is a part of the multitude of living stones that Jesus is raising up, and we do well to remember and appreciate all who have gone before us, to appreciate the rich heritage we have in the faith, open up our eyes and learn from those who have gone before us, appreciate what they have contributed to the rich heritage of faith,  and turn our eyes to our Savior in wonder, love, and praise.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded, by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,  the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:1-2

Where Assurance Rests

I ran across this post today, and I think it’s very good. It’s a review of a book that is very popular among evangelicals, at least, judging by its ubiquitous presence in various manifestations throughout the Lifeway catalogue that regularly shows up in my mailbox(book, study Bible?????, and children’s version, to name a few) and by how many people mention it and quote from it often on Facebook. I found this review of the book very good, and I recommend it if you’re one of those people who has friends raving about the book Jesus Calling. I have not read it, and do not intend to.

However, what I want to discuss here isn’t the book Michael Horton is reviewing but the fact that several of the concerns he raises meshed exactly with something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently, and that is that the concerns he raises aren’t exclusive to that particular book, but with MUCH of the teaching, writing, preaching, talking, singing and culture of the evangelical movement. In fact, the reason that book with those particular concerns is SO popular is a symptom of something disturbing, and that is that we in the evangelical movement for a large part are not teaching the gospel well and exclusively. I think we are losing, or in many cases have already lost our way. We say in our doctrinal statements and mission statements and the like that we believe the gospel, but what practically comes out in our teaching is that we don’t really trust it. Not really, because we end up teaching a kind of ‘trust Jesus and try harder’ sort of thing that ends up being works moralism not grace, though I don’t think we intend it. I’ll see if I can explain what I mean.

First, I highlight some excellent, excellent points from Michael Horton’s blog post that I referenced and linked to above: 

"Yet I kept asking, “What purposes”? “Who is Jesus and why should I fix my eyes on him?” In short, the gospel is taken for granted. When exhortations to trust are separated from a clear proclamation of who Christ is, what he has done, and why he is therefore trustworthy, trust simply becomes a work—something that I need to gin up within myself." 

And this: 

"Compared with the Psalms, for example, Jesus Calling is remarkably shallow. I do not say that with a snarky tone, but with all seriousness. The Psalms first place before us the mighty acts of God and then call us to respond in confession, trust, and thankfulness. But in Jesus Calling I’m repeatedly exhorted to look to Christ, rest in Christ, trust in Christ, to be thankful and long for a deeper sense of his presence, with little that might provoke any of this. Which means that I’m directed not actually to Christ but to my own inner struggle to be more trustful, restful, and thankful."

I think this is a problem with MUCH of the teaching and books and preaching and ‘Bible studies’ and thinking in evangelicalism today. We focus too much on OUR purpose and finding 'something more' and finding the BIG thing we're supposedly to be about and what WE are FEELING and struggling with internally and focus MUCH too little on Jesus: who He is, what He has done in saving us, and how to rest our hope in HIM and in HIS finished work on our behalf, and instead of always spinning and spinning searching for 'something more' we would do much better to seek to know His revealed word, study and meditate upon and learn and pray for wisdom to understand and obey what He teaches us as we spend time in the Bible that He has given us and listen to preaching that faithfully teaches the BIBLE - and to do that we need to hear the scripture taught and explained, not ideas or the latest church growth strategy or pep talk, but the WORD. THAT is how we know Him. 

We say Jesus is beautiful and we say that we want to know Him more and that we want to be Christ followers and we sing songs that endlessly repeat how we love Him and He loves us, but they are shallow, emotion ginner-uppers that don’t really talk much about WHY we love Him and WHAT He has done to show His love to us and WHO He is that makes Him so worthy of our love and worship and following, and it leaves us trying so hard to gin up that emotion for Him with nothing solid to point us there.

Here’s something I’ve come to realize over the past few months or so, and that is that we too often take passages that are all about grace and preach law from them instead. I have spent my life listening to pep rally sermons that focus on favorite Bible verses taken out of context to spur us on to really, really, really live for Jesus, especially during my stint as a teenager growing up in youth ministry, exhorting me to not waste my life, dream BIG dreams for God, find my PURPOSE for being ON THIS PLANET, finding the way to CHANGE THE WORLD, find the BIG thing I’m to do for God, live better, do better, serve Him harder, seek Him more deeply, seek for more-more-more of Him, love Him better, get it from my head to my heart. But we weren't really told how to do that, exactly. We weren't explicitly taught to hear Him in His word alone. I spent a large part of my older teen years and young adult years as went to Bible studies and retreats and conferences that fed the discontent BEGGING God to show me the BIG thing I was supposed to be doing that surely I was missing it! PLEASE, God, I don’t want to waste my life, PLEASE don’t let me miss the big, kingdom thing I’m supposed to be doing, and PLEASE, why do I feel this way? What am I missing? How many times have I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart, so worried that maybe I didn’t REALLY mean it the last time but I SO want to MEAN it this time. I went to concerts and got all pumped and I went to retreats and camps and revival meetings and nailed papers with my sins to a cross or sent those sin-filled papers through a shredder and promised that THIS time I’d really be on fire, THIS time I really was surrendering all, surely THIS time I REALLY meant it, crying real, genuine, heartfelt tears every time! And when Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.....came and I went back to the boring ol’ humdrum of life and, well, the passion of the mountain top fizzled to the daily drag of everyday life and I once again began wondering, did I REALLY mean it? Was I REALLY saved? I remember sitting in a women’s retreat Bible study meeting BEGGING God to show me what I was missing. I was a young wife and mom, but surely that’s not all I was supposed to be doing, was it? Was I impacting anyone for the kingdom just being a wife and mom, was I missing the BIG thing, maybe I’d already missed it, maybe it was too late? I went to so many church leaders over the years and begged them to help me know why I was feeling this way, why I felt so defeated all the time, and I don’t think I ever got the clear, explicit gospel answer I desperately needed.

Friends, that is EXHAUSTING. And it is NOT the gospel. Finding your purpose for BEING ON THIS PLANET (can you tell I’m getting weary of hearing that phrase?), begging and pleading with God to show me the BIG thing I’m supposed to do with my life, trust Jesus, yes, but also try harder, do better.....is NOT the gospel. 

The good news of the gospel is that I am a wretch. I CAN’T do it. That is the point. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to His cross I cling. Jesus paid it ALL. ALL to Him I owe. These are NOT just words to songs (and more’s the pity we don’t sing such gospel rich songs as often anymore. Ahem.) My life is hid in Christ. Because He fulfilled the law and suffered the wrath I deserve for my sin on the cross and rose again, I am free from the curse of the law. As His forgiven, blood-bought child, He very well may place a burden to do some ‘big’ thing on my heart, He may call me to go somewhere far from home and share the gospel there.....or He may call me to be a wife and mom here, faithfully serving Him day in and day out, being a faithful church member, community member, sharing the faith, teaching children’s Sunday school, teaching my children day in and day out as we arise, as we sit and as we walk along the way. And that is NOT a small thing.  Somewhere along the way we have lost the idea of vocation - that everything we do is to be done as unto the Lord. It’s not that some things are BIG things but others are boring and not what we should aspire to. 

For every person in the history of Christianity whose name we have heard, there are thousands more who we have never heard of, but who were faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our passion ought to be to serve our Savior whole-heartedly and with abandon, not to be spinning and spinning and begging and pleading for our BIG thing. Our purpose is to know God, to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. Spend time in His word, pray, learn to obey Him in the small, everyday things, and when and if He leads you to so-called bigger things, obey Him there, too, but don't discount the joy and importance of living for Him and serving Him in the 'mundane' things and don't miss out on the everyday graces and progress in the faith He is working in you because you're so concerned you're missing the big thing. Learn to find your satisfaction not in how passionate you ‘feel’ about Him, but in HIM. 

My assurance does not rest in how sincere I think I was or wasn’t at each of those pep rally type events. My assurance does not rest in how sincere I think I was when I prayed ‘the prayer’ for the umpteenth time, or whether I prayed it just right. My assurance rests in what Jesus did on the cross. I cannot stress how important it has been for me to finally get to this understanding in the midst of the do more, do more, try harder, try harder, dream bigger, love more preaching I have heard my whole life. 

I spent the first 4 months of 2011 memorizing the book of Philippians. And I have spent February of this year reviewing it, meaning, I have spent countless hours meditating on Philippians. I love chapter 3:7-12, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” Did you catch that the righteousness is not my own, but that which comes through faith in Christ, and that we do what we do, obey Him, seek Him, seek to live for Him because He has MADE US HIS OWN. The things that Paul lost and left behind and counted as rubbish, were the do more, try harder, be better of legalistic Phariseeism, as he spells it out in the beginning of chapter 3. We do not have to do, do, do, strive, strive, strive, for more, more, more to gain acceptance with God. If we are in Christ, we ARE accepted in the beloved. We ARE His. We ARE counted righteous in Christ. To finally understand the significance of this is to finally, finally, stop wondering if I really, really meant it or if I really, really repented or wondering if I’ll waste my life while I plead to find the BIG thing and to rest in the fact that Jesus did it ALL. I am accepted and beloved and positionally righteous in God’s sight because Jesus took the wrath I deserve on the cross. I am free from striving to nail it down AGAIN. And I am free to obey Him and serve Him with abandon from a heart overflowing with gratitude that is founded on WHO He is and WHAT He has done. Knowing who He is and what He has done, I WANT to live for Him. I don’t want to waste the life He has placed me in and I want to live faithfully day in and day out, and when I stumble and confess it, He is faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

And one more thing, I have learned in my years of walking with Jesus that change might happen all at once in a life, but more often, it is a gradual growing in grace as you submit yourself to God’s word. When you look back over the course of your life, you begin to realize that you are not the same person you were five years ago, ten years ago, and that the Holy Spirit has been shaping you to be more like Christ as your desires change to be more like His and as you learn to love His word more, love others more, and share your faith as an outpouring of a life devoted to Christ. 

Jesus IS beautiful and worthy of praise, and worthy of being served wholeheartedly and given our very best. Let’s do a better job of lifting HIM up and telling WHY we should love Him and worry less about OUR purpose and OUR dreams and visions and wants and desires and seek to see HIM glorified. 

Two books I highly recommend that have helped me to process through these things recently:

The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved by J. D. Greear

Status Report - November 2012

November has arrived, chilly and right on time. Does it seem like this year is flying by? I intended to write a status update post yesterday, but never got to it, so here it is today.

Sitting....in my kitchen. It’s a little chilly in here, so I’ve got my sweater on. It’s been chilly enough for our gas fireplace to kick on the past few mornings. I have a feeling it may be a cold winter this year. 

Sipping....homemade ‘pumpkin juice.’ We really liked the pumpkin juice we found at Universal Studios’ The Wizarding World of Harry Potter last year, and I’ve attempted to come up with something similar here. The last time I tried to discover a recipe, we didn’t like it very much, but that may be because we didn’t stumble across the secret that we did this time, which is that it is much better served cold than hot. After looking around on the internet for some ideas, the recipe I came up with this time is much more to the liking of my boys and myself. Even my daughter claims to like it, though she didn’t finish her small cup of it last night. Here’s how I made it if anyone wants to give it a try:

1 gallon apple cider

1 can pumpkin

1 large spoonful honey

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice (if it’s ‘allspice,’ why do you have to use other spices with it? Just something my inquiring mind wants to know)

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Add all together and simmer on the stove for a while. Cool and store in refrigerator. Best served cold. 

Funny (to me) story...The apple cider was not in the refrigerated section of the store when I bought it, so when I brought it home, I put it on the counter until I finally got around to trying the pumpkin juice experiment, which was two weeks later. I was wondering if maybe it should have been refrigerated after all because it seemed to have expanded the plastic jug it was in a little on the bottom and it was a little tangy and it frothed pretty quickly as I simmered it. I did a little wondering about how bad it might be if the teetotaling Southern Baptist deacon’s wife made her kids tipsy with fermented apple cider, but it turned out ok. :-) 

Waiting....for the sun to come up just a little bit more so I can go out and take a walk. Walking outside is a little depressing when it’s chilly AND dismal gray out, so I’m hoping for chilly and a little sunnier. I need some exercise, though. I haven’t done very well this week with exercising (meaning, I haven't exercised at all, urg) and need to get back to it. 

Glad....that the time change is this Sunday. It will be nice to have daylight in the morning when I walk kids to the bus again, at least for a little while. Don’t forget to change the batteries in your smoke detectors, too!!

Thinking...that this year is flying by. I think the busyness of band practices and football practices this fall contributed to how fast time seems to go by. Just last summer when we were thinking that the busiest time of the year would wind down in October once marching band season was over, that seemed such a long way away. And here we are, no more band practices for my oldest boy, and only one more week of football for my middle boy. Already. Band ended on a high note (smile!) as their band finished fourth in their class for the state. Just qualifying for state finals was so cool. And football is ending on a high note for our middle boy, too, as his team won their playoff game last week and is 'superbowl' bound this weekend. It's going to feel strange when all the whirlwind slows down after this week, but it's going to be nice to have a more relaxed family time in the evenings, too. Looking forward to getting back to reading together again. We still so enjoy reading books out loud together, and that's been on hold for MONTHS now. I'll be glad to get that back.

Puzzled...at how often people gripe about laundry on Facebook. Seriously, laundry isn’t exactly my favorite thing, either, but it has to be done. I, for one, am really glad to have a washing machine and dryer. After watching Revolution and wondering how they always seem to look so clean with no electricity for the past 15 years and always on the road looking for the kidnapped brother, and then thinking about what a chore laundry really would be without electricity, I've decided that, yeah, laundry can feel like a drudgery and a ‘vanity of vanity’ kind of chore since once you get it done there’s always more, but it has to be done, so might as well just do and stop griping about it. My two cents there. You could always be glad you don’t have the torture I do going through my head, singing, “Laundry, Laundry,” to the tune of “Monday, Monday” every time I go in there and start sorting the clothes. Or, then again, maybe now you will now that I’ve planted that little gem in your noggin. You are welcome.

Speaking...of Facebook, I’m thinking it may be time, once again, to take a bit of a hiatus. Facebook is good in a way, because I’ve reconnected with friends from times and places past who I had lost touch with or would have lost touch with, and I enjoy keeping up with them. However, for someone like me who is all too prone to hermit-like tendencies, it also has dangers in that it can lead to a false sense of connection, too. It’s really easy to get sucked into thinking that if you interact with blog and Facebook friends that you have ‘community’ and then ignore the real people right across the street. What I mean is, Facebook can feed hermit-like tendencies if I’m not careful. So, need to watch it and get out there and connect with my nearby neighbors more. Plus, when you’re tempted to check in too often, it eats away at things that are more important. For example, I meant to be getting serious about my writing this fall. I need to get past the ‘mean to’ and just DO IT. That may mean hiding my dumb ‘smart phone,’ which I think has actually made me dumber with the false urgency of having too much right there at my finger tips all demanding my dwindling attention span. I am convinced computers and smart phones are turning us into zombies.

Speaking....of zombies, what is the deal with all the death stuff on kids’ clothes? And all the talk about zombies everywhere, all the time, by almost everyone? My daughter has nightmares about zombies, thanks a lot everybody for talking about them all the time. Stop it already. Why is our culture increasingly obsessed with grossness and death?

Working....on memorizing several passages of scripture again, and I’ve come up with a way to be more disciplined about working on it throughout the day. Aside from the limited time block I’m planning to allow myself on the computer, whenever I’m tempted to hit the Facebook app on my phone, I’m going to reach for the memory work instead. This morning I began reviewing Philippians to refresh it once again. It’s amazing that after all those months I spent memorizing it and how well I once knew it, how rusty I’ve become since I haven’t reviewed it in a while. I don’t want to lose it completely, so I’m actively reviewing it. I’m also going back to work on something else I started but never finished a few years ago. When I was an Awana helper at our church in South Carolina, we were challenged as leaders to memorize several passages, and I have always intended to complete that challenge, for my own benefit even though we are no longer there in SC. Today I was reviewing Psalm 23, and I just love, love, love that Psalm. I think when a passage is familiar, sometimes we neglect to take time to really think about what it’s saying, and this morning was sweet indeed as I thought about how the God who is so awesome, as I wrote about in the October 23 post, is so very tender and personal and loving to His children that He is our shepherd who cares for us and leads us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. 

Reading....well, just finished reading, The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler. I highly recommend this book. And I’m also reading a fiction book I got at the library the other day, State of Fear by Michael Crichton. Due to my aforementioned smart phone induced ADD, I’ve had a little trouble sitting still long enough to really read, but I think that will be improving now as I put the safeguards in place to really limit those tendencies to be online all the time. Hoping to spend some time writing, too. Like I’ve said countless times before, I need to hurry up and keep writing the pirate story while my middle son who requested it is still a kid and can enjoy it.......

Looking....out the window, I see the sun is finally up, so I think I’ll go ahead and end this and post it and get moving today. 

Happy Friday, all.

More Church Signs of the Times

I’m probably going to be accused of not having a sense of humor. Just warning you up front before I write this post. I do have a sense of humor. I laugh a lot, in fact. But I’ve been doing some thinking and there is a time and a place in which it’s good and proper and right to be funny, and other times....not so much.

I wrote a post recently about appalling church sign finds and the little game we play in our family to spot and collect them. Here are a couple more we’ve seen since that post, and then I have something to say.

“Are you at the center of God’s worship?”

I think this is the worst one I’ve seen yet....ever. I don’t even know what they are trying to say here. Face value it is blasphemous and appalling. I can’t even think of a way to take this that is good. I better not be at the center of any worship. I better be worshiping God first, foremost and only. Are they trying to say that worshiping God should be the center of my life? If so, they mangled it. Somehow, though, in our self-actualization and contemplative naval-gazing, self-absorbed, demand and expect and think you deserve your best life now culture, I suspect it’s as bad as it looks face value. Truly terrible.

“Be friends with Jesus. Use Faith-Book, the Bible.”

As we were driving along a highway we drive quite often close to home, I happened to see the other side of the ‘cold butter’ sign I drive by and mentioned in the first church sign post. This is what was on the back. Sad to say, in comparison, the cold butter sign is better. Wowza. Thinking about this one since I saw it yesterday is what got me pondering what I want to say in the rest of this post and for which some people will probably think I have no sense of humor. So be it.

We live in a culture that increasingly shakes its collective fist in the face of God. In a time when the church desperately needs to be a prophetic voice in the midst of a Romans 1 culture of spiritual blindness, we laugh ourselves into irrelevance. The seeker-driven, best life now, felt-needs focus of the church is a foolish mess. If it makes me a complete idiot to say I believe that, then so be it. We wonder why our churches are so filled with false converts that studies show large percentages of our youth are leaving the faith, yet we scream foul and pitch fits when our culture rails and gnashes their teeth and threatens to boycott when the Bible-influenced Christian beliefs of a Chick-fil-A president are gently stated in answer to a question. Why should our culture take us seriously when we don’t even seem to take the faith seriously? “Be friends with Jesus. Use Faith-Book.” Really??? 

I grew up in a solid, Bible-believing church. It was one of the better ones in the SBC, by all accounts. And yet, as I was listening to Todd Friel the other day on a ‘Witness Wednesday’ episode where he shared some encounters he had talking with random college students as he visited their campus and compassionately struck up conversations with them, I put my head on my kitchen counter and wept. In that episode, he ran across a couple of Christian kids who, though sincere, couldn’t articulate the gospel when he said, “Say I’m not a Christian. Why should I be a Christian?” The best one kid had to offer was along the lines of, well, Jesus has made my life so much better; I see what it’s done for me to be a Christian. When Todd came back and said that his life is fulfilled and he’s happy already, why would he need Jesus, the kid didn’t have a good answer. Todd gently then suggested that what the kid had forgotten to mention was that he’s a sinner and needs a Savior. Repentance is what was missing. And the reason I wept at my kitchen counter while listening is because I realized that had Todd run across me as a college kid, I would have answered exactly the same way that kid had, and I would have been just as confused about how to properly explain the gospel. And it’s really so simple once we get over our self-esteem and self-centeredness and realize that the gospel message is not that we can have our best life now. The gospel message is that we are wretched sinners who have broken God’s law and cannot earn His forgiveness no matter what we do. But God, who is rich in mercy, demonstrated His love to us while we were yet sinners and Jesus died for us, took the wrath which we deserve as He died on that cross. And now God commands that we repent and put our trust in the One He sent, namely Jesus Christ the Lord. 

I loved Jesus, wanted to follow Him and put my trust in Him, live for Him, as a college student. But I don’t think the gospel message was spelled out for me in such a consistent way as I hear Todd Friel teach it on the Wretched Radio podcasts I listen to now. I am so thankful to my loving Savior for pointing me over the years as I’ve grown in the direction of good preachers who consistently preach the gospel soundly, biblically, rightly, and that by hearing it preached well I have come to understand and repent and fully trust in Christ alone, and that the faith God graciously allowed me to express as a child has been realized through the sound preaching of His word. I am saved by His grace alone. 

Repentance is what is missing from so much of our ‘gospel’ proclamation in so much of our evangelical preaching today. We teach a message of having our felt-needs met, having better lives, fixing our self-esteem (loving ourselves better), and though repentance is mentioned, it isn’t often enough and strongly enough stressed and fully explained why we need to repent and from what. Had someone asked me back then if I was a good person, I would have proudly said, “Yes.” I didn’t fully comprehend until much later how wretched I really am. The righteouness in which I am growing is due to the work of the Holy Spirit in me through Jesus Christ my Lord, not because I’m good enough in myself to get there on my own.

I’ve been listening to Alistair Begg preaching through the book of Amos recently. He said this in the podcast I was listening to yesterday, and it struck me in light of my thinking about these things, “Religion without repentance leaves men and women in a perilous place. It affirms them in their rebellion, and it is a very large part of much of the proclamation in our western world today.” And later in the same message he said this, “Repentant-less religion eats out the soul of our society.”

So, back to the church sign nonsense. I know that a cutesy phrase on a church sign probably isn’t the whole of the message that church teaches. But I think that we better be much more careful of the message we are sending to those who drive by and see it. That church sign is a public face of our church. If we’re so casual and silly about our Savior on the sign, are we really going to be sober-minded about Him in our preaching and teaching and what we’re passing on to our children? Sure, I can laugh about funny things, but I don’t think the Church’s face to the world is a funny thing. Our culture is more and more antagonistic to the truth claims of Christianity. We need to be about the business of teaching the gospel well - especially within the church to our children so that we and they can be salt and light by knowing and understanding and sharing the faith outside the church.  Instead of trying so hard to be ‘cool’ and trying so hard to get them to ‘like us’ because we aren’t really all that different, let’s focus on knowing and teaching the gospel well. That’s what our fist-shaking culture needs from us. Not another ‘Reclaim America’ type of rally (I have a whole other post brewing on that subject, just so you know), but a church that is in awe of our Holy God and who would fear to trivialize Jesus, who should be most precious to us indeed. Have we read Revelation?? The vision John saw of the risen Lord Jesus Christ would never have allowed him to say such trivial things about Jesus as we cutely put on our church signs. Jesus is the Friend of Sinners, but He isn’t our buddy and boyfriend. He is the Friend who is closer than a brother, but we must never forget that He is the Lamb who was slain and to whom all the Redeemed will forever sing Worthy is the Lamb for all all eternity.

Could we please rethink the cutesy, silly, irreverant and sometimes outright blasphemous church signs (not to mention the posters/t-shirts/cups/junk we see in Christian stores and on Facebook and e-mail chains that are usually followed by ‘like and post if you love Jesus’)? For the love of a world that is dying and going to hell, can we not be more serious about what we present to the world? For the love of the Savior who died to redeem sinners and make us free from sin, could we please be more careful with how we represent Him before the mockers? Is that really a laughing matter?

Maybe I Shouldn't Blog Every Big Thought I Struggle Over

You know, even though I struggled over the last post for several days, and I thought it was okay to publish, I'm wondering if maybe it's one that I should have kept to myself. I've been thinking that the curriculum, though not perfect at all, gives me a lot to work with and I'll continue to pray for wisdom to teach it well. And now that I'm calmer and have taken the time to study the lesson on Adam and Eve more thoroughly, it actually does a better job in the adult prep part than I realized at first glance. Yes, I wish they'd done better, but it's not as bad as I first thought. I can't worry about what everyone else does with it, but I can be faithful to teach what God has graciously taught me through His word and allows me to learn from others who faithfully teach His word. I am responsible for the class I have to teach here and the children I have to raise in my home, and I need to be faithful here. As for all the rest, I'm praying.....but I need to be venting and complaining here in this blog space much less. Sorry, y'all.  I'll get this blogging thing figured out one of these days.

And, if anyone is interested, Sunday school was good today. I enjoy these kids, am so glad for the opportunity to teach them, love it when they seem to engage with the lesson, and I really hope some seeds are being planted that God, in His mercy, might allow to take root. May He use my imperfect offering for His glory. That really is my desire, and, flawed as that last post is, that desire is what motivates my passionate reaction to what I wish was better.

And I really love my local church and it was a great morning of worshiping our God together today.

Status Report - September 2011

Following... the lead of my friend, Lisa, and writing a Status Report on this first day of September, and wondering why the word "September" doesn't look right today. Does that ever happen to you? You know, where you spell a word correctly, the way you've always spelled it, but it looks wrong? I'm having that kind of September day.

Sitting....at the computer desk in the kitchen, watching the clock until I have to get the pasta going for dinner.

Thinking...that two posts in one day is quite the unusual occurrence around here these days.

Enjoying....the nice weather....wait, that was earlier this week. It’s hot again and looks like it may continue so into the weekend. But it was nice enough to make me long for fall.

Anticipating...the nice fall weather so much I made pumpkin pie the other day. It just had to be done. Pumpkin pie is good no matter what time of year the calendar says it is. I think Fall is my favorite season. 

Hoping...allergy season this fall isn’t too troublesome. I quit taking the allergy medicine I was taking because I suspect certain side effects I was experiencing will go away if I quit taking it. So far, day three sans allergy medicine....my rings fit again, I haven’t yelled at anyone today and don’t feel nearly as cranky as I have for the past...months..., I’ve written two blog posts because I finally don’t feel like I’m in foggy-thinking-land and I’ve been sleeping better. I think a stuffy nose is the lesser of all those evils.

Working...on a blog post that I’m really struggling with how to write. In fact, I’ve been pondering whether I’m done with the blogging part of my life altogether.That may have been the allergy medicine induced funk talking, time will tell. Anyway, one of my biggest struggles with blogging is being concise. That and the suspicion that it won’t matter if my posts are long or short, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I’m hoping to write soon about my soapbox issue: how the curriculum I’m using for children’s Sunday school misses the point too often, and I’ll attempt to do it without naming any names.  That’s not controversial at all or anything. 

Reading....Tuck, the third and final book of the King Raven trilogy by Stephen Lawhead. I’m really enjoying this series. Also reading A Praying Life: Connecting With God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller. Also waiting on a book my kids and I ordered from Amazon, plus some books we ordered from their book orders. The boys are finally old enough to be wanting books I want to read, too. And I ordered To Kill a Mockingbird for my oldest boy when it appeared in his book order, because it’s just about my favorite book and he needs to read it.

Hearing...the water beginning to boil, which means it’s about time to wrap this up and go fix dinner. Hungry family to feed.

Happy September! 

Hear My Prayer, O LORD

“Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;

listen to my plea for grace.” Psalm 86:6

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

I’ve been encouraging my Sunday School kids to memorize the Bible verse that the curriculum highlights as a memory verse each week. I’d really like them to learn the actual verse, not just the paraphrased version that the curriculum gives them, so I print out the verse for them on a card and send it home to add to the ring I gave them for that purpose. I am working to memorize the verses, too, because I don’t want to just encourage them by telling them only, but by doing it alongside them by example.

Psalm 86:6 was the verse a few weeks ago, and I’ve been pondering on it, especially in light of how poverty-stricken I feel in regards to my ability to teach my little class. I thought I’d share some of my pondering.

Far too often I find that I do not step out in faith to serve because I fear that I will not serve well, that I have nothing to offer, that I’m not ready, not equipped, you can probably name all the excuses that paralyze me often. My perfectionistic bent leads to sin when I fail to serve at all as I wait for the time when I feel that, in my own ability, I can do a job perfectly, and when I, in my own comfort, sit and wait for just the right opportunity to feel just right, because that time never comes, and I find that I’m still sitting in that warm pew when I want so much to be living as though I am an attached and usable and teachable part of the Body of Christ, serving Him and serving His Body through my local church. That time never comes because I am waiting on a feeling and trusting my own ability rather than recognizing my abject poverty of spirit, and surrendering my need to know enough, be enough, and start resting in the grace of my Savior and understanding that it is in His strength, and His alone, that I can obey and serve.

I confess to you that I get overwhelmed each week when I look at the curriculum lesson for that Sunday and try to get my brain wrapped around it. So many little things to remember and do. And every week I am assaulted by the thought, "Who am I to think I should stand up and teach these kids? Surely someone else could do such a better job at it." But as the anxiety wells up, I have learned to pray, and pray fervently for grace, mercy and wisdom and for a clear mind as I prepare. And I have learned to pray, and pray fervently for Him to develop in my heart such a love for Him and a passion to obey out of heartfelt gratitude for who He is and what He has done in me that it will be evident to the kids that Jesus is the only One worthy of praise. And I have learned to pray, and pray fervently that I would rightly teach the Word and not get so hung up in the fluffy details, recognizing that this is the main thing: to teach them rightly about God and His word, not so much whether I remember or do every little activity exactly as the teacher book says. And I have learned to pray, and pray fervently, that He will grow in me a love for the kids I teach so that I move beyond checking the boxes and going through the motions the lesson plan has for me, but that I be communicating with these kids wonderful truths about the God who created them and sent His Son to die and rise again to set them free from the bondage of sin.

And because of who Jesus is, for His sake, God has clothed me in His righteousness. It is for Jesus’ sake that God hears my prayer and listens to my plea for grace and that I can boldly approach His very throne of grace. Finally, finally I am learning what a depth of need I have for grace every single moment of every single day in every single step of obedience I seek to walk. And friends, He supplies my every need, abundantly and more. He quiets the anxious thoughts that spiral and allows me to think clearly. He allows me to see that it is not my perfect presentation that will turn the hearts of these children to Him. I have absolutely no power to convince them of their need of a Savior. He, and He alone, can open their eyes and ears and hearts to the gospel. It is all grace.

So, yes, I want to be a willing servant. And yes, I recognize that I am not able on my own. But He is. He is. He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us, even as He commanded us to teach the gospel. And I know that He will work through me and grant me the ability to serve Him and teach those He has granted me the privilege to teach.

And I know that this poverty of spirit is exactly where I need to be. The minute I start thinking I’ve got this, I can do this without those desperate prayers for grace, that is the minute I’ve forgotten just who I am and just Who He is. I don’t want to do this with my perfectionistic imperfection alone. I don’t want merely a nice presentation with no power. I want it to be all His. I’d rather be a little less ‘perfect’ but very, very real and very, very dependent on His grace and mercy, and I want the kids to hear what a great God and Savior He truly is.

**As I was thinking on this subject and working out this post, I listened to Alistair Begg's radio message today. It was extremely apropos. I'm thankful he shared that today. Truth for Life is the organization, and I highly recommend the messages.

Exactly!

This at Pyromaniacs today is SO well- said. This is eerily similar to the situation we found in SC and why we joined an independent Bible Church eventually there. I am thankful we found the church in St. Louis that we did and that we have found the church we did here in our new town that is NOT like the churches Mr. Turk describes in his article, and which I pray will remain NOT like the picture he paints. It is growing harder to find solid churches in the SBC in many areas due to exactly the things he discusses in this article. Well said, Frank.

Wings and Letting Go

Took my oldest boy to the church this morning and saw him off to his first spend-the-night camp. He’s going to have a great time. I’m praying he makes great memories and even more that he’s encouraged in his walk with and love for Jesus. He was so nervous, but I know it will be a good week for him. We both were a little teary as that van pulled away – he to go on to camp, me to go back home. But I know he’ll be so busy this week he won’t have time for homesickness. And that’s how it should be.

Every time he stretches his wings a little I have such a bittersweet pang in my heart. I want him to go to camp and have all those great experiences, just like the ones that helped shape me as a kid. But part of me sees the little boy in the big kid he’s becoming. And that part of me feels bittersweet. Time just keeps marching on. He’s growing and experiencing life and more and more what he’s experiencing will be on his own. Less and less am I going to be as active a part in everything he does. And that’s as it should be. But he takes a part of my heart and some of my fears with him with each step toward maturity all the same.

I really pray that I’ll parent in such a way that he’ll still want to share his life with me and his dad once he’s grown. Are we doing all we can to foster that kind of closeness? More importantly, are we doing all we can to help him to see Jesus? Are we living in such a way that Jesus is exalted in our home? My heart's desire is to see my children's faith move beyond just what mom and dad believe to being their own. For this I pray most.

Just a few thoughts as my oldest boy goes off to Centri-Kid today. I’m sure more will follow.

What's On My Nightstand - April

The last time I participated in this carnival was in January, and I said then that I wanted to do it again, but in the midst of my on-going blog slump, I just haven’t done it. Then I saw that Leslie has a post up today, and I thought, “Hey, maybe this will help me get out of the never-ending blog slump!” Click on the picture for the original carnival post at 5 Minutes for Books. So, here’s my list for April, though it's so short this month, I apologize in advance to anyone who may have clicked over here to see it:

Just finished:

Saved Without a Doubt by John MacArthur. You know, for all the people who go around saying that John MacArthur is cold on mercy and grace and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…..read this book. His pastor’s heart and concern for believers to have a deep and abiding peace and assurance is so evident. The biblical teaching in this book has really helped me with a struggle I had been having. A big reason for my times when I struggle with assurance has to do with not knowing the actual date of my salvation. I was saved as a young child and I can point to several specific times when I committed myself to Jesus and when I experienced conviction over sin, but I struggled for a while as an adult with when was I actually saved. I have finally come to realize that the specific date is not as important as knowing that I am trusting in Christ alone, His finished work on the cross and His resurrection. The direction of my life must be toward His holiness and my desire is to be what He would have me be and to be obedient to His calling. So, I’m thankful to have read this book.

If you can stand a minor rabbit trail here before I go on with my list, I have been itching to say on this blog that I get so tired of hearing people knock Dr. MacArthur because he preaches the Word and doesn’t back down from the hard truth. I have been immensely blessed by his ministry, and I, for one, am glad God called him to pastor and has gifted him to do it so well, and I’m thankful for the way Grace to You makes so much available to those of us who are hungry for good teaching but do not live in Los Angeles.

Drew and I were having a discussion with a pastor friend once about the seeker-type approach to ministry and meeting people’s felt needs. Right there we were noticing a difference in how we thought and he thought. Anyway, in the course of that conversation, somehow we got to talking about John MacArthur, and he said something about how, sure MacArthur is a solid Bible teacher, but you just feel so beat up when you listen to him or read his books. Drew and I kind of looked at each other like, huh? Because we have been extremely edified by John MacArthur’s preaching and teaching, and that kind of took us off guard from this particular person who Drew has known for a very long time and would not have expected him to think that way.

Anyway, in the course of blogging, I’ve heard similar comments about Pastor MacArthur and about Dr. Albert Mohler and other men who are very serious about God’s word. I’ve seen some very derogatory comments about both those men at several blogs where the writers and commenters seem to pride themselves on their tolerance, kindness and niceness and spend lots of pixels taking other bloggers to task about their ‘tone’ and perceived lack of love and mercy and grace. What they said about these serious-minded men was childish and unkind, unloving and harsh. I guess tolerance and kindness and careful ‘tone’ are only to be applied to those who are squishy in their theology and who shy away from hard truths. If we don’t like what someone has to say or disagree with their certainty in biblical truths, then we can be ugly and harsh and derogatory, eh?

I happened across one of those ‘tolerance’ blogs, one which considers itself an anti-watchblog kind of site, and there I saw a comment, written in an offhand kind of way about Dr. Mohler. They said something about, “like anyone outside the SBC even cares what he says anyway.” How is that charitable? I’m really glad people like Mohler and MacArthur have enough gravitas to steer clear of the name-calling and stupidity that makes up much of “Christian” blogging today.

So, a few weeks ago, Drew and I spent most of the drive to Georgia for our vacation listening to some episodes of Grace to You on my iPod. Dr. MacArthur was preaching about the doctrine of the Perseverance of the saints. After one very encouraging session, Drew looked over at me and said, “You feel beat up yet?” And I just started laughing. “Not hardly.” As we discussed that, I told Drew that the only time I feel bad when listening to his preaching is when there is some sin in my life that I need to confess and repent and his opening of God’s word and explaining it helps me to recognize it. That is not Pastor John ‘beating me up’, though. That, my friends, is the gracious conviction of the Holy Spirit as He uses His word to pierce my heart, and I am grateful for it.

Anyway, leaving the rabbit trail and moving on back to the post. You didn’t come over here for that, I’m sure. But that is a good book, and I recommend it highly.

Currently reading:

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. This is another of my oldest son’s books that I decided I wanted to read. You may remember me blogging about reading his Shadow Children books. Well, we took the boys to see the movie Inkheart, not realizing that it was a book first. After seeing the movie, which we loved, we all wanted to read the book. My mom and dad gave J this book for Christmas, and I’m just now getting around to reading it. I like it. It’s even better than the movie. As it would be. You know me, usually I want to read the book before seeing the movie. Anyway, so far, I’m liking it. And, for once, I only have one book going, if you don't count Loving God With All Your Mind by Elizabeth George, which we will be finishing next week in our women's group at church, and which I've mentioned on here several times.

Soon to be reading:

I don’t have anything yet. I need to go to the library once I finish Inkheart. I’m thinking I want to read the other two books in the Inkheart trilogy and then I want to read Stephen Lawhead’s King Raven trilogy. I read Hood a while back and want to read the rest. It’s been so long, I’ll probably have to read Hood again first and then the others. Those are what will probably be next, but we’ll see!

Counting Some Recent Blessings: Church

Our pastor preached a really good sermon about the sovereignty of God last Sunday. Can I just tell you how blessed we have been in finding this church? And I’m so excited we can officially call it our church now. We joined on Sunday, and I’m hoping to actually start singing in the choir now that I’ve gone to a few practices, too. We really love this church and are so looking forward to plugging in and finding our place to serve.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six

And After Winter Comes the Spring

Blogging has been a needed outlet for me in many ways. During the years we’ve lived here, it has been an especially lonely and dry time for me, and blogging has been such a blessing in that I have connected with many other women around the blogosphere who also like to write about the Lord and His grace and mercy. It has also helped me to think through more carefully and biblically what I believe and why because I sense a responsibility to be true to the Word when I write things out here, and for this I am grateful. It is often useful to me to chronicle this stage of my life, but I am finding that there are times when I may have something happening in my life that is fairly consuming emotionally, mentally, and/or physically and if I decide not to blog about it, it seems like it is hard to blog about anything else, either. But there are times when it is probably best to keep details about certain situations to myself, and that’s where I struggle. I tend to want to tell everything I am thinking about those big things, and that is not always the best for the blog, even if they are over all good things.

That is how this post started out. I have tried several drafts and every time I say more than I probably should. In fact, this final version is probably still suffering from some of the same.

Back last February, I bared my heart a little about how much I have struggled with not liking living where I live. Now, a year later, I am writing a post to share a little about how refreshing it is to finally feel that I am entering an oasis in this wilderness we have called home for a little over four years now. I shared a few weeks ago how we were struggling with the decision to go to a new church. Well, we did join that church on December 16, and I told my husband a few weeks ago that I feel as if we have come in from the desert and found the oasis we had needed. It is as if we are drinking from a deep well that has been here all along if only we had known where to find it.

Finally I am beginning to feel like this wilderness doesn’t have to be so dry. It is so nice to be in a place each week where the Bible is opened and taught well from the pulpit and in the adult and children’s Sunday school classes and to finally be making connections and friendships with people who also have the hunger and desire to be in the Word, and we are, all of us, drinking it in like thirsty wanderers who have panted for such richness.

It was not without tears and struggle that we made this move and it was not without heartache that we could no longer continue where we had been for four years, but we came to believe that it is what our family needed, and each week we are there this is confirmed in our hearts. Even though we keep hearing that people are saying we “should have stayed and made it happen” when our in-laws explain to people who ask that the main reason we left was because our children were not getting the kind of teaching and peer support we knew they needed – many times they would be the only ones in their classes, and my oldest son had no kids his age on a regular basis most of the time we were there. Such comments are made by people who don’t seem to understand that we tried very hard to do just that for four years, and the reasons we finally decided we could no longer do so are some of the things I think I probably will not blog about. We so much wanted what they, and we, were hearing and doing at church to support better what we are trying to do and teach at home rather than much of their class time being little more than babysitting. We believe that now they are getting the kind of encouragement that will help them grow in the Lord every time we meet at church – it is never treated as babysitting, but precious opportunities to teach them. You know, they are even excited about sitting through the hour long sermon and taking notes! That is incredible to me. First of all, they are listening closely enough to ask questions, and I have yet to find the need to undo something they come home telling me was said by a teacher, and they are excited to take notes – granted, the note taking thing is because they get a reward on Wednesday if they bring their completed sermon note sheet to children’s choir, but, it works!

And, though we are still concerned about the SBC and the direction it is going, and we still are paying attention and will pray, it has not bothered me nearly as much as I thought it might that we are no longer in a SBC church. I am very saddened that we could not continue to serve in a SBC church in this area, but this is where we have found ourselves.

OH, and here’s something exciting, too. We have a Community Bible Study right here in our town!! If only I had realized exactly what it was that was meeting over there all these years! I have needed something like that for four years and because of my hermit-like tendencies which make it so easy to just turtle into my home and so difficult to step out of my comfort zone and actively seek out these opportunities in the community, I missed that it was there all the time, right under my nose. I had heard about a study that met at a certain church downtown, but for some reason I had been given the impression that it was mostly for military wives and it was super huge (it really isn’t compared to some places we’ve lived) and there was usually a waiting list for moms with little children (this is actually true if you don't sign up early enough due to space constraints) and some other wrong information, so I never got up the energy to find out what it really was. Even though they are in the middle of the study of Matthew, and even though the childcare is usually too full to allow newcomers in the middle, when I contacted the coordinator she told me they did have a slot for Boo and that I would be able to start right away if I didn’t want to wait until September when the next class will start. I started Thursday and am so excited about it.

After four years, I finally have begun to feel that this is home. Or as my husband just said, after four years of winter, spring has finally come.

A Morning at Walmart(s)

We were planning to go to Walmarts (when in the south, talk like you’re southern) yesterday afternoon, but when the time came, Drew and I decided we just didn’t feel like dealing with Walmarts that afternoon. He decided he’d rather mow the yard in the 150+ degree weather and I decided I didn’t really want to cart Boo around our favorite (cough, cough) store by myself, so we decided to go out to breakfast today and run over to Walmarts right after breakfast when it would still be less crowded than it would have been yesterday afternoon. (Now that I live in this southern drawl state, I seem to be excelling in run-on sentences, as well. My high school writing teacher would be appalled.)

So, anyway, it turns out that it is providentially a good thing that we made that decision, for in the mail yesterday afternoon were the letters we have been anxiously awaiting from the boys’ teachers for next year with the list of school supplies. Sweet! Only one trip needed to Walmarts rather than two back to back! And, we are extremely pleased that M was placed with the teacher we requested and J is with the teacher he had last year who is looping up to third grade with her class, and who we absolutely love. So, back-to-school supply shopping is completed (too bad it is the weekend after tax free weekend, but we just won’t go there today), and I think I’m feeling less angst about back to school now that it is. There is something soothing about seeing packages of brand new pencils, new and better backpacks, new lunch boxes and notebook paper, crayons and markers. Ahhh. I think we’re ready, now.

And on that note, I’ll wish everyone a good weekend. Spend the Lord’s day with His people, worshipping His great Name together!

Oh, by the way, that reminds me. My husband is the Sunday School director at our church, and we are revamping our whole curriculum, from babies through adults. He has been having many meetings with the pastor as we wade into new territory and break away from strictly Lifeway stuff. We just ordered the Desiring God for children for preschool and elementary ages and are looking for what to do for the youth. Drew found this online. Has anyone used it? Do you know anything about it? Do you like it? Is it handled biblically accurately? We like the premise of a 6 year plan to teach youth the Bible more comprehensively than just as isolated stories and how our faith informs our life and actions. Please leave me a comment if you know anything about this curriculum. We are in the process of researching and would like some input. Thank you!

Okay, now enjoy the weekend!

Two Interesting Links

Having grown up in a Southern Baptist church and come to saving faith in Jesus Christ while growing up in that church, and being a current member of a SBC church, I have been watching with interest some of the discussions going on “in house” among fellow Baptists.

This open letter is a very interesting one, though rather long, and the pastor who wrote it does a nice job of confronting some of the misrepresentations that were made in a sermon the state convention mailed out to Florida Baptist pastors and which are often made about those of us who hold to a reformed or Calvinist view of doctrine by men who disagree with that view. Though I tend to stay out of the debates I find on this topic, I have been awfully frustrated when I’ve read many of those same misrepresentations on several blogs recently and heard them in other places, and I’ve often found myself thinking, “But that’s not really what we believe or say. Why do people insist on twisting what we really believe and presenting it as something else?” I am not intending to get into an argument in my comment section over this debate or rebuke anyone who disagrees with me or anything like that, so please don’t go there. I’m just pointing out an article that does a nice job of articulating a response to some of the misrepresentations that are commonly used by brothers in Christ who disagree with what they think their reformed brothers and sisters believe and who are not giving an accurate presentation of what the reformed pastors in the SBC are truly saying. This pastor does a nice job of taking these misrepresentations and articulating what we actually believe in a very coherent manner, and I appreciate his spelling it out so well.

(HT: my dad for mentioning this letter and telling me where to find it so I could read it.)

This is also interesting, and relates to the subject matter of the above link, in regards to the Florida Baptist Convention in my home state. I’ve been following some of this situation due to the fact that I lived in Florida most of my life, and my parents are still there, so I’m very interested to see how this develops.

I very much appreciate what Tom Ascol says in conclusion in his post:

“We have no interest in division or in being contentious. We do have an interest in truth. We believe what we believe because we think the Bible teaches it. We understand that not everyone shares our convictions. But we desire of ourselves and ask of others, not to misrepresent the views of their brothers and sisters with whom they disagree on these vitally important issues.

For the cause of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, please pray that His truth will prevail and that we will all be humbled before it.”

(HT: Reflections of the Times for this one, for I saw she had posted about it before I happened to see it on Tom Ascol’s blog myself.)