Update on Dad #2

Many thanks again to those who have prayed for or asked about my dad.  I just found out they are on their way home from the hospital.  There is no clear diagnosis for why this has happened twice.  So far, his heart checks out okay, and there is no evidence of any type of stroke, but it is certain that he is having ongoing circulatory issues.  They may be making some changes with blood pressure medications and using some surgical stockings to keep adequate pressure in his legs, and he is still on track for an arterial stent placement in a few weeks.

I appreciate you and will keep you posted.

Update on My Dad

For those of you who had seen the Twitter or Facebook status regarding my dad, I wanted to give a further update.  Thanks so much for your prayers.

As I mentioned in that update, my dad was taken via ambulance to the hospital today (in Tennessee).  He had passed out, and after he woke up, his blood pressure was checked and was extremely low.  This was the second time in three weeks, so they again went to the hospital.

The ER doctors wanted him to stay overnight (again) for observation and further testing.  For now he is stable and has been moved into a regular room.

My mom and brother are very tired as well from the long day in the ER with him, so prayer for everyone would be much appreciated.  I will give further updates when I can.

Again, thank you.

Schedule for the Presidential Debates

Although news sites and political blogs are frequently mentioning the upcoming presidential and vice presidential debates, the schedule for them, for whatever reason, has not been prominent.  So as a public service to you, my fellow Americans, here are the details you need to know.

First presidential debate
Friday, September 26, 9pm EDT
The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi
Jim Lehrer
Executive Editor and Anchor, The NewsHour, PBS

Vice presidential debate
Thursday, October 2, 9pm EDT
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri
Gwen Ifill
Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour, and Moderator and Managing Editor, Washington Week, PBS

Second presidential debate (town meeting)
Tuesday, October 7, 9pm EDT
Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee
Tom Brokaw
Special Correspondent, NBC News

Third presidential debate
Wednesday, October 15, 9pm EDT
Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
Bob Schieffer
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent, and Host, Face the Nation

Watch and vote.

The Gospel

How can we know God? By trusting in Him through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Do you believe the gospel of Jesus? What is the core of the Good News? Although the effects of the gospel are profound, the basic message is simple.

Ruler
God, the holy, loving, joyful Creator, is the sovereign One over all people and things, and He deserves the worship, reverence and obedience of His creation.

Our Lord and God, You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because You have created all things, and because of Your will they exist and were created. (Revelation 4.11)

For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. (Romans 1.20)

Rebels
We, the creation, have chosen our own path in life, and walked away from our holy Creator. As a result we deserve our due penalty—death and separation from the loving and joyful God.

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. (Romans 1.18-19)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6.23)

Redemption
Jesus the Christ (the Messiah), who is fully God, took on a human body, lived a perfect life, died in our place (thus taking our death penalty), and rose from the dead. As a result, the ability to know our Creator and live in His joy was restored and made available in Christ.

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, after being put to death in the fleshly realm but made alive in the spiritual realm. (1 Peter 3.18)

He [God the Father] made the One who did not know sin [God the Son—Jesus] to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5.21)

Renewal
The available redemption cannot be earned, but must be applied to us individually as the Holy Spirit pulls us, and we respond to His grace in repentance and faith—accepting the gracious gift of life in Christ, and growing in Christlike character. This involves immediate soul renewal, and later at the return of Christ, it will involve the physical renewal of our bodies and all of creation.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8.11)

But based on His promise, we wait for the new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell. (2 Peter 3.13)

My sincere prayer is that you would be able to experience God’s joy and delight in Him through the gospel of Jesus Christ. He offers Himself to you. Will you trust in Him, and accept His gracious gift?

If you are just beginning your life with God in Christ, I encourage you to connect with a local church community of Christ followers.  In the meantime, for more information, click here.

*All Scripture references are from the HCSB.

[This post was updated September 20, 2011.]

The Implications of the Gospel

Apparently there are quite a few folks, even in the evangelical world, who cannot agree on a basic understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So let's take a look at the debate concerning the gospel.

In January of this year, an article by Tim Keel, pastor of Jacob's Well in Kansas City, Missouri, was published in Leadership Journal (a publication of Christianity Today) that was titled, "An Efficient Gospel?".  He argues that modernism has "reduced" the gospel into a set of propositions, and that our understanding of the gospel is too small.  Keel believes that many evangelicals see Jesus only as Redeemer and tend to downplay or "miss" that He is Creator as well.  He contends for a more Kingdom-minded approach to the gospel.  Although apparently well-intentioned, it seems that Keel is misguided in trying to expand the meaning of the gospel.

The Spring 2008 issue of Leadership Journal brought an article by Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York City, titled "The Gospel in All Its Forms."  Keller argues that there is only one gospel, but that it can be communicated in various forms.  While I generally agree with Keller's premise and conclusions (and completely agree that there is only one gospel), I would have encouraged a different word than "forms."  To me, as if my opinion meant anything, those are not different forms of the gospel he refers to in the article.  This may be a mere semantic difference, but to me it is an important one.  To say there are different forms of the gospel in Scripture could sound confusing to a nonbeliever (and perhaps to some believers).  The idea of four primary gospel components, such as God-sin-Christ-response, or God-man-Christ-faith, or creation-fall-redemption-restoration, comprise the same form of the gospel.  They are simply different angles from which to view the one form of the one gospel message.  That said, I commend his article.

In April, Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, delivered a message at the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, Kentucky, titled, "Improving the Gospel."  Dever, in part, responds to Keel, and is correct in confronting those who want to expand on what they consider a "reduction" of the gospel.  While few conservative evangelicals will disagree with the tenets of his message, many would probably find it difficult to take things as far as Dever does (like, for example, his illustration of his own unwillingness to offer advice on how a biblical worldview could inform a governmental official's question, based on the belief that it's not his job as a preacher of the gospel).  Mark is a friend (okay maybe only on Facebook, but I have spent a little time with him), and I think I know his heart.  But let's just say that Mark likes to stir the pot every now and then—and he would agree (he says of this conference message that he was "deliberately provocative and deliberately slightly overstated").  Maybe we need some issue-raising pot stirring every now and then.

Here you can see Ed Stetzer interviewing Mark Dever, and at one point they specifically discuss Dever's message referenced above.  Part 1 is certainly interesting, but Part 2 which is embedded here speaks to the discussion at hand, from about 3 minutes, 40 seconds through about 8:20.

Others have stepped into the fray as well, and it is a worthy discussion.  The truth of the gospel is at stake and it is worth fighting for.  But it begins with a question that Tim Keel said a camp director asked years ago: "If someone were to ask you what the gospel is, what would you say?"

In answering that question, many today are including the implications of the gospel—like caring for the poor and hungry—in their answer.  While it is absolutely true that we should right the wrongs in society and think more Kingdom minded, we must remember that personal accountability before God for one's sins ultimately comes down to that person's repentance and faith in response to Christ's death and resurrection.  Caring about societal problems is vastly important, but that care should flow from a person's (and collectively the community of faith's) response to the gospel.  It is the result of living in the gospel, having believed it.

So brothers and sisters, go live the gospel!

Caring About Those Who Care About the Environment

Even if Al Gore is wrong, do we who are followers of Christ really want to be seen as antagonistic and anti-environment?

That type of question is one that has been consistently passing through my mind recently.  I know of many Christians who are actively fighting or mocking any "green" movement, and my question is: Why?  Usually the answer will be political or economic.  I propose that the question we should ask ourselves is: How has indifference, or even antagonism, toward environmental issues furthered the cause of Christ?

Put it another way.  Suppose for a moment that all the scientific reports and theories about global warming and eventual catastrophic calamities are incorrect.  As far as how we have conducted ourselves in the debate, how well have we as the God-fearing community in our culture represented the God we believe is the Creator of the environment?  Let me push it one step further.  Even if it is eventually definitively determined that there has been no human-induced large-scale detriment to the environment, what good is it if Christians are viewed to have won the battle concerning the environment, yet lost any positive influence on the larger culture in the process?

As usual, we are known more for what we are against than what we are for.

Let me be clear: We are for the glory of God in Christ, and as a result, the sharing of the gospel of Jesus is our privilege and task—it is our mission.  I am not suggesting we stop or pause our mission to take up another banner, nor even to add green issues to our mission.  I am also not suggesting we expand our definition of the gospel to include societal issues.  What I am suggesting is that we take an honest look at whether many Christians' indifference or antagonism toward green issues (and toward those who are proponents of green issues) is helping or hurting our own mission.  Is it possible that we have actually damaged the reputation of the Creator by claiming to speak for Him on these issues?

Although we should care for this planet because it is God's creation, we should care all the more about those who may not know the Creator.

My own denomination has been slow to clarify this.  So far the convention has produced two specific resolutions at consecutive annual meetings that were vague at best, and at their worst have served to reinforce others' negative perceptions of us.  However, recently I came across a document that I find encouraging.  An independent coalition among the convention has agreed on a declaration as part of the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative.  Many leaders whom I respect have signed the declaration.  The document says that "our current denominational engagement with these issues has often been too timid, failing to produce a unified moral voice."  In addition, the authors of the declaration state essentially what I am asserting here.  They say that the way in which we have responded to these issues (and I would add, responded to the proponents of these issues) "may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed.  We can do better."

I have no idea what the future holds for this initiative, nor for the specifics they have purposely yet to produce, but I am thankful and hopeful because some of my own have recognized that merely arguing or retreating on these issues is not helpful to the cause of Christ.  Props to Jonathan Merritt for doing something.  (Note the media coverage in Time Magazine and on ABC World News.)

So where does that leave us?  What I am asking for is that we Christians become engaged in the process in a positive, God-honoring way.  Again, we should care about the creation since we boast in the Creator, and we should care about those who care about the environment.  Consider this a plea for balance.  Clearly there are extreme elements of the environmental movement(s) with which we cannot align ourselves.  (One example would be those who advocate population controls in the form of abortion and euthanasia.)  But we also don't have to blindly fall to the opposite end of the spectrum by ignoring potential problems and vilifying advocates of green issues.

I am sure there will be much more to say about this topic in the coming months and years.  This post is by no means thorough.  But it was time for me to begin rethinking what it means to be a Christ follower who cares about God's creation, and more than that, cares about those who care about the environment.

The Precious Practice of Baptism

Since yesterday evening I've been pondering anew the precious practice of baptism.  I had the privilege and joy of sharing in the baptism of several folks at Falls Lake.  Along with three other pastors, we baptized 31 fellow believers.  Among those whom I was personally able to baptize were four young ladies from my LIFE class community.  As I watched them and our church family there in support of them, I couldn't help but think about how precious is this picture of redemption.

Without going into a full-length discussion of baptism, it suffices to say that as Baptists we immerse professing believers, who are old enough to place their trust in Christ, as an outward demonstration of an inward change.  This ordinance pictures the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, with whom we identify through faith.

I wanted to share with you the precious joy in our community of faith as several Christ followers gathered to be baptized in His name.  It was such a sweet day.  Just take a look.  Amy took some great pics for us from the shoreline.

 

 

Rachel, Rachel, me, Jaye, Laura