Missouri Baptist Convention

Under "what were they thinking?" The Missouri Baptist Convention decided on December 10th to no-longer fund church plants within their convention that also affiliate with the Acts 29 network because Acts 29 does not take an abstinence stand on the use of alcohol. Here is the story in Baptist Press and a story here and here from some blogging friends. Tom Ascol over at Founders Blog has a great interview with Kevin Larson whose church will be effected by this change. The sad part is that they are giving these church planters 20 days notice during the Christmas Season about this change. Heartless!!!

I have stated previously after the Greensboro Convention in 2006, when the resolution on alcohol was past that I voted against, that I don't drink. I have tried some different beverages in my past and never cared for the taste of any of them. I believe the bible is inerrant, and because of that belief I can unequivocally say that drinking alcohol is NOT a sin but being drunk with it is!

Let me say that my personal belief is that this has a little to do with alcohol and Acts 29 and a lot to do with who has the power in denominational life. It is happening more in more where a select group has to control everything down to the last detail until everyone in the room acts the same and believes the same. Do I think this is only the beginning in Baptist life? No, this is just one more stone in the wall that will separate many non-Christians from Christ.

I love what Kevin Larson said in one of his answers to Tom Ascol:

The other mainline denominations are becoming more and more gray. No disrespect is meant toward my elders; we are desperate to have mature Christians at Karis. But the grayer a congregation or denomination looks, the more bleak the future becomes. Well, those mainline denominations are graying due to liberalism. Young people want something true and something worth believing and dying for. But the SBC, I'm afraid, could gray and ultimately die because of legalism.

I pray that some people will come to their senses very soon and reclaim not only the authority of the Bible but also the sufficiency of it for life and practice as well.

I think this is a tattoo that I need to look into getting.

Wow!

I know I have not blogged in a while. Between have three at home, church, coaching soccer and many other little things that arise in life I have not really thought about it. Then today I was thinking about it and our worship leader at the church told me I needed to update my blog, so here it is.

Actually, what I was thinking about writing about is music. I am not a musician, though I do like to sing. I have been preaching a sermon series on the "Sermon on the Mount" and this week I finish the Beatitudes. The last one Jesus puts out there is that those who persecuted for being righteous are blessed and theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. So how does that relate to music?

Today, our worship leader, Angela, and I sit down to map put the service and we usually work on using songs that relate to the sermon being preached to reinforce the theme. Well, how many songs do you know of that talk about the joy of being persecuted? We do mostly traditional service out of the 1991 Baptist Hymnal and there is not a section in the subject index on persecution. I tried to rack my brain about contemporary worship songs that talk about being persecuted and came up with none.

Scripture is full of references to the idea of persecution and it is never a question of if we go through it but when we go through it.

Paul tells Timothy..."Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." (2 Timothy 3:12 NASB)

We are told in James 1:2-4 that if we want to be full and complete lacking nothing then we are to have joy when face trails. "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." (James 1:2-4 NASB)

Jesus tells us that we are to take courage when the world hates us because it hated him. "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master ' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But al these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me." (John 15:18-21 NASB)

So, if anyone is a songwriter I challenge you to stay faithful to God's word and write a song that speaks of persecution in a biblical light.

HOME!

It is official! WE ARE HOME!. We got back to Frostburg around 1:00 PM Tuesday. Hudson is sleeping well and doing all the other things that babies do. We are so thankful that God took care of him during this time. Now we need to recuperate before my mom heads back to Texas on Tuesday.

Good News

Hudson will probably be coming home tomorrow (Tuesday). He is doing really well and we are very thankful for all the prayers from all our friends. God has definitely blessed us and we are thankful to have been at such a good hospital as WVU. It almost enables me to be a Mountaineers fan (NOT). I will write if we get to go home tomorrow.

Hudson Samuel

The last 24+ hours have been crazy. Hudson on Thurs started running a fever which is very unusual with infants only three weeks old. Friday morning we took him to the Ped and they had him admitted to the hospital in Cumberland, MD where he was born about 15 miles from Frostburg. They ran cultures on blood and did a lumbar punch (spinal). The LP came back with bacteria and so he was transfered to West Virginia University Hospital in Morgantown last nit about 12 AM. As of right now 10:56 AM he is doing well. They do not think what he has is bacterial in nature (ie meningitis) but they do think it could be viral. They have him on antibiotics. Pray that it is viral and he will get out at the latest Monday. If it is bacterial it will be 7-14 days before he gets out because of antibiotics.

Michelle and I are tired and Riley and Carson are with my mom who was still in town. We are very thankful for that.

We appreciate any and all prayers from our friends.

These are two pictures from yestarday after the birth of our third child Hudson Samuel. He was born at 7:50 AM and weighed 8lbs 6.8oz and was 20 inches long. He is doing really well. Michelle is recovering from the c-section very well and should be out of the hospital on Thursday. We appreciate all the prayers.

Encourager Article

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' (Matthew 22:36-39 NASB)

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20 NASB)

I put these passages at the first of this article for a reason. We have lost focus! If I were to ask the question, “What does Welsh Memorial Baptist Church exist for?” I am sure I would get a variety of answers from different people. But, I want you to seriously ask yourself that question and think about your answer not from a personal stand-point but a biblical stand-point. What does the bible say about why we exist?

Personally, my answer would come from those two passages at the beginning of this article. I think it would look something like this on paper. “Welsh Memorial Baptist Church exist first, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor by tell them about the wonderful gift that God has given us in His son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, for our sins, and was raised on the third day so that we might have eternal life. We seek to baptize them by immersion and to build up all who come in the knowledge of God’s revealed word so that they can live the wonderful life that God has called them to live.”

The question is how do we loose focus in a church? My personal answer is when we start looking internally at ourselves and not eternally and what God desires. William Temple was right when he said, “A church is the only organization that exists primarily for the benefit of non-members.”

We do what we do as a church for those outside the church and leaving the results up to God. It’s like what is said in any evangelism training I have ever gone through, you sow the seed and leave the results up to God. I believe if we held 100 events every year that presented people with the truth of who Jesus is and no one trusted him as savior or came to our church we have been faithful in what God has commanded us to do.

You look at the story of Israel in scripture and that was exactly their problem. They got so self focused and forgot about the promise that God had given them, they would turn to sin and ultimately ended up in exile.

Anytime our church reaches out to the community we must not be focused on how it benefits our church! We must ask ourselves, have we been faithful in what God has called us to do? If we can answer yes to that question, then we have done what we need to do whether we see any benefit from it!

Let us go out and fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission together and leave the results up to God!!!!!

Jacob Update

Jacob got home on Friday Auguat 20 and is doing really well. The miracle that happened is amazing to think about. He came through the surgery and originally the doctors were able to open up his pulmonary artery to 2mm, they were hoping for 4. A day later his lung collapsed and all blood flow was cut off. By the weekend the lung started to fill with air again and blood flow returned from other vessels. The pulmonary artery did not return to normal function. They are looking at going back in and hoping to open back up the artery in 2-3 months.

The doctors said it was a miracle that the lung came back. They were prepared to take the lung out. We know that miracle was the hand of God in His life.

Continue to pray for Jacob that God would help the Doctors know what to do and that his body would allow the pulmonary artery to work properly.

Prayer for Jacob

Today I am in Morgantown, West Virginia with a family from the church. Their son, Jacob, is four years old and is having his fourth open heart surgery. When he was born one of his arteries was not attached and his heart was not functioning correctly. He was rushed to the hospital here when he was baby and had his first surgery. Then six months later he had another surgery. Last year he had his third open heart surgery. Earlier this year the doctors realized his pulmonary artery to his left lung was blocked. In March he had a heart cath to see if they could unblock the artery and it failed.

Today he is having his fourth open heart surgery to see if they can repair the problem. Please pray for Jacob and his family BJ (Dad) Margie (Mom), Peyton (older sister), Gracie (Sister) and Mason (younger brother). The first four hours of the surgery is to get through all the scare tissue from the previous surgery.

Crazy Town Names

I was reading a friend's, Billy Victor, blog the other day and he had been through Toad Suck, Arkansas which I had been through before when I was in college. So it inspired me to remember some of the unusual city names that I have heard of in the five different states I have lived in my 36 year life. We will start with my home state of Texas and progress through the states in the order I have lived in them.

Frognot, Texas--this town, somewhat, in Collin County near my home town of McKinney. I have never been able to find the reason for the name, but I think it is one of the best. It now consists of one unoccupied building.

Earth, Texas--located in the panhandle near the New Mexico border. The name says it all.

West, Texas--Located between Hillsboro and Waco on I-35. It is 669.52 miles from El Paso and according to Mapquest it is 9 hrs 37 min drive time to El Paso.

Cut n Shoot, Texas--Located near Conroe, North of Houston. It was apparently named after a 1912 community confrontation that almost led to violence. According to the different versions of the story, the dispute was either over the design of a new steeple for the town's only church, must of been Baptist. The issue of who should be allowed to preach there, or conflicting land claims among church members. A small boy at the scene reportedly declared, "I'm going to cut around the corner and shoot through the bushes in a minute!" The boy's phrase apparently remained in residents' minds and was eventually adopted as the town's name.

Gun Barrel City, Texas--Located on Cedar Creek Reservoir between Ennis and Canton. Founded when Cedar Creek Reservoir was created. Named after Gun Barrel Lane. The city's motto is, "We Shoot Straight with You."

Uncertain, TX--Located on Caddo Lake, the only natural lake in Texas, near Karnack, yes I should do this one in honor of Johnny. It is northwest of Shreveport, LA. There is no reason found for the name of this little town of 150, but if you know the area you will understand.

Ding Dong, TX--Located 8 miles south of Killeen, which should be on the list but is not because of the way most people in Texas pronounce it...Kuleen. Funny thing about Ding Dong, is that it is found in Bell County. Bell County is name after Peter Hansborough Bell,the third governor of Texas. That has nothing to do with Ding Dong. It was named this after Zulis Bell and his nephew Bert Bell who owned a country store on the Lampasas River between Killeen hired C.C. Hoover to paint the sign for their new store. When Hoover went to get paint Stokes-Blair Hardware Company in Florence Fred Foster told him to be creative. "Why don't you do something original with this sign," he suggested to Hoover. "How about drawing two Bells with the name Zulis in one and Bert in the other. Then print 'Ding Dong' on the sign." The little community around the store took on the name of Ding Dong, and there you have it.

Notrees, TX--Located between Odessa and Kermit, no not named after the frog. Growing up going to West Texas, most of my family is from there, I understand why it is named what is named. It became a town after Shell Oil built a gas plant near there in the 40's. The first store built by Charlie Brown named the town Notrees since there were some many other towns that already existed with Brown, Brownfield and Brownwood to name a few.

For more funny Texas town names go to one of these two websites

Town Names

How Great is Texas

On to the second state of Arkansas. This state and post has inspired a future post about funny mascot names (let me just say, Wampuscats). I lived in this state for four years during college. What do you expect from a state that gives you Ouachita Baptist University (class of 93) on the Ouachita River. Oh, and Ouachita is not pronounced how it looks, it is pronounced Washitah. I digress, onto the cities.

Turkey Scratch, Arkansas--Located in Northeast Arkansas, southwest of Memphis. I could not find a story behind the name.

Smackover, Arkansas--Located in Southeast part of the state between Camden and El Dorado. The name Smackover is an anglicization of the French "Sumac Couvert." Which translates to "covered in sumac."

Toad Suck, Arkansas--Located northwest of Little Rock near Conway, the town Conway Twitty is named after, host a three day festival called "Toad Suck Days." Legend has it, that it was named for the local boatman and gamblers who sucked whiskey like a toad. Suck can also refer to a channel of water.

Possum Grape, Arkansas--Located between Newport and Searcy in the north central part of the state. I could not find a story behind the name.

Greasy Corner, Arkansas--Located southwest of Memphis. I could not find a story behind the name.

Piggott, Arkansas--Located north of Memphis near the Missouri/Arkansas line. It is the home of the Hemingway-Pfeiffer House. Pauline Pfeiffer was Earnest Hemingway's second wife and grew up in Piggott. The family converted the barn into a writing studio. The name was the last married name a sister of the founder.

After a return to Texas for Seminary I then moved to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Pagosa is the Ute Indian word for bubbling. Which makes sense, because Pagosa has many hot water springs.

No Name, Colorado--Located south of Glenwood Springs, which is on the way to Grand Junction from Denver. The town of Rifle is to the east of Glenwood Springs on I-70. No Name is named after No Name Creek and No Name Canyon which are near there.

Last Chance, Colorado--Located due west of Denver in the plains of Colorado. You guessed it, it gets its name because it was the last chance to get provisions in either direction.

Parachute, Colorado--Located on I-70 between Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction. The name comes from the appearance on a map of several streams converging on the town as do the shroud lines of a parachute combined with the arc of the ridge line above the streams which resembles the canopy of a parachute. The town was previously named Grand Valley.

Purgatory, Colorado--Located north of Durango on the way to Silverton. It is well known for its skiing. They have tried to change the name. In fact what was Purgatory Resort when I was a kid has changed its name to Durango Mountain Resort at Purgatory.

The fourth state I lived in was Pennsylvania. My wife and I lived there from 2000-2005. There are many town names that have sexual connotations in Pennsylvania and I will not deal with those.

Scalp Level, PA--Located near Johnstown, PA. Johnstown is home of the Johnstown Chiefs hockey team that the movie "Slap Shot" is based on. It is also where the film "All the Right Moves" with Tom Cruise. This is a term used by teens of the Johnstown Area for cruising on the strip on Friday and Saturday nights.

Gobbler's Knob, PA--Located near Punxsutawney, northeast of Pittsburgh. Gobbler's Knob is the home of Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog.

We moved to Maryland in 2005.

Frostburg, MD--Located in western Maryland east of Morgantown, WV. Frostburg is the city I live in and is named after its founder Mesach Frost. The crazy irony in the name is that it fits. In the winter it is cold and there is lots of snow.

Assawoman Bay, Maryland--Located between Ocean City and Delmavra. Could not find a story behind the name.

Accident, Maryland--Located in Western Maryland in Garret County near Deep Creek Lake. This little town is speed trap. The town's founder, George Deakins, had been given 600 acres of land by King George II of England. The two surveyors he hired to pick out the best plot of land used the same tree as a starting point, and selected the same plot of land, hence the name Accident.

Crapo, Maryland--Located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay across the bay from Solomon's Island a great little place to hang out. Could not find info on the story behind the name.

Cockeysville, Maryland--Located north of Baltimore. Cockeysville was named after the Cockey family which helped establish the town.

That is the end. There are so many other towns that I could have come up with along the way, but those are just a few.

Needed Updates

Obviously from dates on my blog I have not had much time to post. I have made a resolution to try to post at least once a week from now on to keep things going. I already have an idea of a post on funny city names. I have lived in five different states in my 36 years and I have visited over half the states in the US. There are some funny names out there, so I will highlight some of those names from the states that I have lived. This post is inspired from a friend and fellow former seminarian Billy Victor and his blog at Bill V's Quick Hits. He made a comment about going through "Toad Suck Park" recently on his way through Arkansas. Well, actually Toad Suck is a town in Arkansas, but in my opinion not the funniest one. You will have to read my post later this week.

Today is the last day of July and I cannot do a post without telling my two kids that God has blessed my wife and I with so far. Happy Birthday to both Riley (6 on the 16th) and Carson (2 on the 22nd). We are breaking one pattern for our kids birthday's this September. Hudson will be born on September 10th as of right now. Kind of glad we don't have all three in one month.

Riley has grown so much and is such a beautiful girl. Her smile can light up a room so easily. Trust me I am trying to do everything I can do to turn her into a daddy's girl. She makes our lives very interesting. She is such a compassionate person. Anytime she sees someone hurting she tries to help. She loves to swim, play and she is my little daredevil. She will be entering the 1st grade this year and our prayers for her will ever increase. She also is the only girl on my side of the family. My brother has three boys and our next one is a boy.

Carson is my giggle box. I think I can make him laugh at any point and time. He was standing in his crib tonight crying but every time I walked by the door and made a face who would start giggling. Then he would start crying again when he could not see me anymore. He loves playing and is all boy. His smile just makes me laugh because I know he is up to something. He loves his big sister and looks for her all the time. He is sympathetic to all. When Riley gets hurt and falls down and cries, Carson comes over and falls down next to her and cries. He is definitely into the fun two's.

God has richly blessed Michelle and I with two wonderful kids. As a dad I could not be more proud. Michelle is such a wonderful mother to our kids and I am glad to share this journey that God has given us with her.

Sanitized Christianity?

Have we created a Christianity that has become sanitized? Before I get into what I am thinking on that question let me give you a definition of the word sanitize. It means, “To make more acceptable by removing unpleasant or offensive features from”

God calls us as follower of Christ to be sanitized when it comes to sin in our life. We are to get rid of those things that entangle us and keep us from being what God wants us to be and from having the type of relationship with him that He desires.

But with original question I am not talking about sin, but what I am talking about is have we removed the unpleasantness and uncertainty that comes with following God. I was studying today for our Wednesday evening Bible Study about Isaac. He was the child God had given to Abraham that would continue the line of promise. When he reaches his mid twenties or early thirties, God tells Abraham to take Isaac to Moriah and sacrifice him there.

For some of us if God were to ask us to do something radical like that it would grate against everything that we believe about Christianity, because most followers of Christ have sanitized their life from unpleasantness even when it comes from God. To think about God calling us to do something that is as unpleasant as killing an only child does not line up with most people’s view of who God is in their life.

God has called us to a radical faith, a transformed faith. It is a faith that calls people to step out of a comfortable boat onto a raging sea and walk on water. For most people their faith in God is the absence of anything that would disturb their comfortableness.

What if we are missing God’s greatest blessing because we have developed a faith of conformity to “Christian norms” and not a faith of transformity? I know that is not a real word but I like it anyway.

Romans 12:1-2 calls us to a different kind of faith that radically changes the way we think, talk and live. Read what it says, “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

Eugene Peterson in The Message paraphrases those verses this way, “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

So, have you laid every aspect of your life out before God and said, “Here it is God do what you want, even if things don’t go the way that I want them to.” Or have you sanitized your Christian faith so that you have created a god in your own mind that is not really the God of scripture. A.W. Tozer said it best when he wrote, “If we create God in our image we create a God who can never surprise us, never astonish, never overwhelm us, never transcend us.”

If we have sanitized our Christian faith to get rid of unpleasantness then what a feeble and worthless God we have created for ourselves. I challenge you to allow God to be the God that empowers you to not conform but transform the world around you.

Been a While

Wow almost three months since my last post. What a shame. Well I will give you the article I wrote from our newsletter in a post.

Awe of Nehemiah

This Sunday I will conclude a series of sermons on the book of Nehemiah that I started back at the first of the year. It has been interrupted by other sermons here or there and one Sunday we didn't have church, but it has been a wonderful book to study.

Too many books on Nehemiah focus of the leadership aspects of the book. Nehemiah is a wonderful book about leadership, but that is not the only focus on the book. I think I could preach this book three or four times in the next few years and concentrate on several different aspects or themes.

The theme that I felt God leading me to weave through the study of this book was the idea of passion for God. When you read the book you see the lack of passion on the part of the people of Jerusalem and you see Nehemiah's passion to do something great for God by rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. You see Nehemiah lead the people of Jerusalem to rebuild the wall and return them to passion for the things of God and in chapter 13 you see them return to the things that kept them from having passion for God and Nehemiah having to step in again and make some changes to keep their passion going.

Passion for God is always in balance and their are things that can come in and steal that passion and there are many things that Christ followers need to do in order for their Passion for God to stay strong.

For me it has been a book of returning to my first love and encouraging the the people of God that He has entrusted me with to run back to their first love.

My favorite verse in Nehemiah comes in 13:25 which says, "And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take oath in the name of God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves."

You know that is what I want to do to some people when they are not following God the way they should.

For the most part Christ followers are complacent people who live in comfortable happiness with our lot in life. We don't take chances and we have allowed to many things to go unchecked in our own lives that that we need to either repent of or lay at the alter of God. It is time for our passion for God to be renewed and rekindled and take back the things of God and live for Him the way He desires us to live.

I invite you to live with the passion for the God who has sought you and brought you into relationship with Him. If you are not passionate for God, start seeking those things that you need to do in order to become the passionate Christ follower He desires you to be.

Real Reality

This is my new favorite show behind 24. Nothing will surpass that show! I think the reason I like it so much is that it is real reality. These guys don't do this to be on TV, they do it to make a living. They take great risks so that people can enjoy the taste of King Crab in their homes or favorite restaurant. They work hard, they take risks and I am sure the life is not the most fun thing that can be done.

It goes to show that with great risk comes great reward.

What story are you telling?

I love stories! I love to read good stories, hear good stories and watch good stories. I am drawn in by the personalities and figures that make up a story. What makes people tick? Why do they do what they do? I am drawn to good stories that capture my attention and draw me in for a long period of time.

It is interesting as we read, hear, or watch stories unfold they teach us lessons about life, faith, and God. We don't need to look at the story just for its aesthetic value but the spiritual value that every story has as well.

I think that is why I love the bible so much is because of the stories that we get from the people. The beautiful thing is that bible has a wonderful aesthetic beauty to it, but the spiritual beauty is so much more beautiful and wonderful.

It is not unfathomable that there have been so many biblical stories that have been turned into movies of the history of film. Some of those movies have been good representation of the biblical story and still others have been a complete and utter farce to the biblical story.

The boat that people miss with God is that we think that He has written all the stories and that is the end. The fact of the matter is that our lives are a story of God's work in our lives. All stories of redemption are good stories to be told. They can encourage, strengthen, bring joy, be thought provoking and guide people towards God.

The question comes, what story about God is your life telling to the world in which you live? How is the story of your life making a difference in people's life? God can use any aspect of the story of your life to point people to His Kingdom.

Let God write your story, don't try and write it for yourself, because only when He writes it does it become a masterpiece!

What can we learn from tragedy?

My heart goes out to all those who experienced tragedy this last week. Most of the world knows about the shooting at Virginia Tech and the tragedy that occurred there, some of you may have heard about the two miners killed in Barton, which is 10 miles or so from Frostburg. On Monday of last week we also had a three year-old little girl killed when a boulder the size of two softballs crashed through the windshield of her father's truck and struck her while she sat in her car seat.

I was reading over an old sermon that I preached about seven years ago on the book of James and came across this list of eight reasons scripture gives us as to why Christians go through trials

1. To test the strength of our faith—trials can show a Christian strengths or weaknesses in their faith that they need to work on. If someone goes through a trial and does not come out strong, but comes away bitter, resentful, and with self-pity, we can see that their faith in Christ is not strong to begin with. Throughout scripture we can see the testing of faith that strengthened people like Job, Habakkuk and even Moses.
2. To humble us—to remind us not to allow our strength in the Lord turn into presumption and self-satisfaction. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:7 that, “because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!”
3. To wean us from dependence on worldly things—the more we accumulate things, knowledge, education or prestige, the more we are apt at allowing those things to become our strength, instead of our strength coming from God alone. At the feeding of the 5000 Jesus turned to Philip and asked, “where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?’ This He was saying to test him; for He Himself knew what He was intending to do” (John 6:5–6). Philip with his reply failed the test, “Two hundred denari worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little” (v. 7). Philip looked at the material worldly side of the situation instead of looking to Christ to provide for the need. We often do that and need to take our focus off what we have to get through a situation and look to what Christ has to help us get through a situation.
4. To call us to eternal and heavenly hope—Paul tells the church at Rome, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). Trials come so that we don’t look at earthly things, but look to our heavenly future.
5. To reveal what we really love—We see this in Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son on the altar. It proved his true love for God.
6. To teach us the value of God’s blessings—Our intellectual reason tells us to value the things of this world, and our senses tell us to value pleasure and ease. But through trials, faith tells us to value the spiritual things of God with which He has blessed us abundantly—including His Word, His care, His provision, His strength, and, of course, His salvation. David exulted: “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches, for You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.” (Psalm 63:3–7)
7. To develop His saints for greater usefulness—You have to look no farther than Peter to see this quality. Peter went through trial after trial and failed time and again. But all those trials prepared Peter for greater usefulness. We see Peter at Pentecost preaching and 3000 were saved.
8. To enable us to help others in their trials—We can come back to Peter again. He was not only tried for great usefulness, but also to help others as well. Paul put it this way to the church at Corinth: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.” (2 Corinthians. 1:3–6).

Great Post

One of my favorite blogs is by Mark Batterson, Pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC. He has written a great book called "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day." If you have not read it, I strongly encourage you to read it. If you can't buy it go to his Chase The Lion website and you can download the first chapter and listen to the Podcast of all the sermons that make up the book.

I digress! On Mark's blog this week he wrote a great article about decoding the culture and has some wonderful insights. This one quote struck a cord with me,

Too many pastors are getting As in Biblical exegesis and Ds in cultural exegesis. We know Scripture, but we're out of touch with the times. The end result is a gap between theology and reality called irrelevance. We're out of touch with the very people we're trying to reach the unchurched and dechurched. We've got to exegete our culture so we can close the gap. That's what incarnation is all about.

The post-Christian church needs a revelation: irrelevance is irreverence!

Then he gives four options for the church to engage culture. 1) ignore it, 2) imitate it, 3) condemn it, or 4) create it. And each option leads in polar opposite directions.

I would have to agree with Mark on his assessment of what the church needs to do to become more effective in reaching the unchurched and dechurched. Churches need to do a better job of creating a culture that impacts the people outside the body of Christ.

One last quote, "At the end of the day, the culture will treat the church the way the church treats the culture. And we're not called to condemn. We're called to redeem."

WOW!!! Thanks Mark for your insight!

This is ridiculous

Supposedly spring came about a month ago, but as you can tell from the picture I took with my cell today, spring has not sprung. It is blowing snow with wind gust up to 50 MPH. Yes, that is my Char-Broil grill laying on its side. You might ask why I have not picked it up? Well, because it fell on its front during the night and I picked it up and now it is lying on its back. I believe I will leave it until the wind dies down in the next day or so. The good news is, by the weekend it should look a lot more like spring.

It was fun Saturday morning coaching soccer when it was 36 degrees outside. The good thing with that is there was no wind. I will blog more about soccer a little later.

Here is hoping it is warmer where you are!!!!!

A Dallas Icon is Dead

Many will never recognize the name Wilford Jones, but you would recognize the outfit and the name if you ever watched the Dallas Cowboys for any length of time. Wilford Jones is also known in Dallas as "Crazy Ray." He was the unofficial mascot of the Cowboys for 44 years. He was never paid by the Cowboys though he was provided a parking space and pretty much all access to the stadium.

Today he died of congestive heart failure after battling diabetes, strokes and many other problems for the past several years. Here is the Dallas Morning News article about Crazy Ray's death. Here is the Dallas Cowboys.com article about Ray. Here is a site dedicated to helping Crazy Ray and his wife through financial difficulties from his life and illness. The site was created by Crazy Ray's neighbor Wayne Walker who is the director of video production at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Crazy Ray will be missed for his antics, passion and love of the Dallas Cowboys over the years. If you ever attended a Dallas game you will never forget Crazy Ray's famous whistle and sparring with the Washington Redskins mascot in Dallas and Washington.

I still remember my first game when I was 8 or 9 years old against the St. Louis Cardinals and Ray down on the field doing his thing.

Remember the Alamo!

That's right men and women, boys and girls, today is the day to "Remember the Alamo." On this date back in 1836 at San Antonio de Béxar General Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón or Santa Anna and his 5000 soldier Mexican Army overthrew the 187 men of Texas that had been held up in the old Spanish Mission after a 13 day siege. The final battle on March 6th lasted less than an hour. There were 15 women and children spared and two slaves. One slave named Sam who was owned by Jim Bowie and another slave, Joe, who was owned by William Barrett Travis.

Great men of American and Texas history fought in this battle, men like William Barrett Travis, Juan Seguin, Dave Crockett, and Jim Bowie, allowing the Texian Army under the leadership of Sam Houston gain strength at San Jacinto and eventually defeat Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836 in less than twenty minutes.

There are many myths and mysteries surrounding the Battle of the Alamo, such as the infamous line in the sand that was supposedly drawn by Travis and anyone who wanted to stay had to cross the line.

So, today go rent "The Alamo" with John Wayne, yes I own it, and watch the Bracketville School Bus go across one battle scene in the background behind the Mexican Army

Announcement

Well, I can finally announce it on my blog. Michelle is pregnant and due in September. Some people have known for a while, but we were waiting to tell Riley. While we were at my parents for C3 we told her. She is very excited to be a big sister again. She also is excited because she thinks she gets to show Carson what it means to be a big brother.

Please keep us in your prayers, that God would grant Michelle good health and strengthen for the next 7 months, that God would helps us prepare our kids for a new sibling, and that God would help us keep our sanity.

With that I will leave you with a picture of the newest Walls. The picture is only at 12 weeks. We will have another ultra sound in a few weeks and hopefully find out the sex of the baby.

C3 and more

I know I said I would publish on Monday my reaction to C3 (Creative Church Conference) well we ran into some delays. Saturday morning we loaded up the fam and my dad took us to DFW airport to catch our 12:50 PM flight to BWI. It was windy. We get on the plane and the plane is rocking back and forth at the gate from the wind. We taxi out to the runway and the wind is horrible. I have seen wind storms in the 28 years that I lived in the DFW metroplex but this was fierce. I looked out the plane window to the west and all I saw was orange. This is a picture of what it looked like. You get the idea from this picture.
The pilot gets on the pa and says that the wind is over the limits of takeoff. I look at Michelle and say we are not taking off. Well, we sit for about 2 hrs on the runway and the pilot finally says we are headed back, the airport has been shut down. On the news that night an official at DFW said it was the worst day at the airport since 911. There is a long story that follows about tickets and luggage, but needless to say we spent three more days with my parents than we had intended.

We got back to wintry Frostburg late Tuesday evening. The funny thing is that Welsh canceled services on Sunday because of a snow storm that blew threw. So, I was not going to preach anyway. We got to go to church with my parents on Sunday and relax a little while longer. I realized today that between snow days and being away from this conference my daughter has missed more days of school in February than she has attended. Glad it is just kindergarten.

C3 was well worth it. I was challenged greatly by each of the speakers and more by some than others. I even enjoyed TD Jakes, who I was looking forward to less than the others. He did a fantastic job on the shepherd leading.

I probably enjoyed Craig Groeschel the most, followed by a close second of Mark Driscoll. Craig made us all realize we were idiots. Taking from Acts 4.13. The word "ordinary" can be translated idiots, though the NT meaning and the America meaning are two different meanings. But still, it can apply.

Mark Driscoll, did a great job of talking about two dangers to the gospel, idolatry and religion. Both create a functional savior to save us from our hell, but neither is the Gospel.

Ed Young Sr. challenged all of us to do more to minister towards kids and Ed Jr. challenged us on the theme of the conference, "Turning What if into what is." Basically he talked about the history of Fellowship and how they have not allowed themselves to feel like they have arrived and finished ministry. Ed Jr. also talked about the things he learned from his father.

Will I go again? Probably in a few years. Was it worth it? Definitely!!!!! I was renewed, challenged and paranoid at the same time.

C3

Well, today was the first day of the C3 conference. Only a few brief observations. I will write in more detail probably on Monday after I recover from the trip back.

First, is the big difference between Fellowship and Mars Hill Grand Rapids. I have been to Fellowship several times and knew what to expect. But after sitting through worship it was really apparent that Fellowship is a lot of show. The lights, decorations, band, props, and music is more Broadway. I enjoyed it and know that in the context of the Dallas area, since I am from here, that what Fellowship style works to reach people. Mars Hill Grand Rapids is minimalist in their approach. Very few lights, simple stage, and simple presentation.

They both work very well to reach people.

As I said I will post more thoughts on the conference on Monday. I am tired and I have to get my daughter to bed and watch the Mavs Heat game tonight. Plus, I have an anniversary date with my wife tomorrow. We have been married 7 years and I love her more than the day we met. She is the light of my life!!!!!! And I get to go out with her tomorrow.

Gleaning from Mark

So, I need to set this up. Every semester I get asked to speak for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship on campus at Frostburg State. I enjoy it in many ways because several of the students that attend come to our church and it gives the pleasure of speaking to about 30-50 college students. One of the things that has bothered me about it is that every semester they usually have a topic or passage they want you to speak on, though most semesters they have a few dates that are open to what ever God leads you to do. Well, when I was called by Mike, who is scheduling speakers and attends our church, he gives me a list of about four topics, all dealing with the book of Mark, to choose from. So, I pick "Jesus' Relationship with the Father in the Book of Mark."

Now, let me say, I have always had a hard time speaking on things that I am forced to speak on that I have not yet already prepared for or worked through. I really was not looking forward to it. Well, God started blowing my doors off.

I read through portions of Mark, read some introductions to Mark, and looked up the word Father in Mark, then started commentary and word study work. Here is what God spoke to me about.

First, the word Father is used 16 times in the NIV, but of those times 3 times it is used to refer to God. So, I am thinking that this is going to be boring. Of those three times Mark 11:25 says, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." That doesn't give much insight into this idea that I am to be exploring. Another passage is Mark 13:32, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Both of these are awesome passages but they do not shine to much more light on the subject with which I am tasked with. The final passage that I look at relates well and that is 14:36, which I will unpack a little later.

The next thing I look at is the first interaction of Jesus with God in Mark 1:11 at the baptism of Jesus. This passages gives a lot of information about their relationship. Jesus' baptism is not a baptism of repentance as everyone else who was baptized by John. On the other hand it is a sign of obedience and openness to God's plan for His life, which gives a whole new light to believers baptism. The baptism also launches Jesus into the servant role of obedience that will eventually lead to His death. This shows that divine authority is linked to humble subjectivity. From the beginning of Jesus' ministry he is shown as the submissive Messiah. This idea of of the submissive Messiah, which was a foreign concept to the Jews of the day (an understanding the of the Jewish idea of the Messiah in NT times is needed), is pushed forward throughout the book of Mark. One of my all time favorite passages of scripture, Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" speaks of Jesus' submissiveness. More to come on Mark 10 as it relates to Jesus' relationship to the Father.

Now back to Mark 14:36. The context of which is Jesus in the Garden before his death. Jesus goes to the Garden and asks them to sit and prayer. Then he takes his inner circle, Peter, James and John on further and tells them of his distress, asks them to pray and then goes further and prays. Verse 36 shows his prayer, "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Jesus lying on his face which is different from normal prayers that were done standing up with arms out stretched. Lying face down is a sign of distress. Many know that the word "Abba" is an Aramaic word that could be translated in to English as "Daddy." Jesus recognizes the power and authority of God and then makes his request to God, "Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." In the Garden there is no retreating from the obedience that Jesus displayed at His baptism. Jesus though is met with silence, no angels, and no doves at his request for deliverance from what He is about to go through. Ultimately, like all of us, Jesus is delivered through His death. As I read over it again I came to the question of, what does Jesus mean by "this cup? " I know the simple Sunday School explanation, I had formed that in my head many moons ago, that Jesus is asking God to remove what he was about to go through. But why use the term "this cup?"

As I dug deeper and deeper into this idea God started showing it clearer and clearer. First, I went back to Mark 10 and the verses preceding verse 45 I has sited earlier. This is the story of James and John asking if they could sit at the right hand of Jesus and says to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared." There is that word again, "cup." Well, you study the word in the Greek and you get, "to drink," or "a drinking vessel, a cup." The word is used metaphorically to describe someones lot in life or their portion that God presents to them to be drunk. It is also used in reference to God in His wrath that He causes the nations to drink.

Then I was led to Psalm 75:8, "In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs." Things go interesting when I looked up the word cup in this passage in the Hebrew. Astounded to find the word cup is the word kos which is feminine noun meaning a small drinking cup or goblet. It used to describe the judgment of God on the wicked in scriptures like Habakkuk 2:16, "You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory" or a cup of deliverance and salvation seen in Psalm 116:13, "I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD."

The word kos has another meaning in the Hebrew, it means a pelican or little owl. We see it in Leviticus 11:17, Deuteronomy 14:16 and Psalm 102:6. The first two refer to the owl being unclean in Jewish law to eat. The Psalm passage says, "I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins." The owl symbolized a forsaken place in the Bible. We see the imagery used to describe the judgment of Edom in Isaiah 34:11, "The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation."

All this just brought new light to what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. He was willing to become the forsaken one, so that we would not have to. He was willing to take the cup of judgment so we would not have to. He was willing to obey and do what is best for us, even though we don't always obey and do what is best for us.

Which brings me to an interesting progression I see in Mark

Mark 1:9-11 (Baptism)--shows the willingness of Jesus to do His Father's will
Mark 10:35-45 (James and John)--shows an understanding of the significance of doing His Father's will
Mark 14:35-36 (The Garden)--shows the acceptance of His Father's will
Mark 14:42 (Leaving the Garden)--shows the doing of His Father's will

The model that Jesus portrays and the model that I have always understood him to portray is an implicit trust of His Father and the will His Father had for His life. We find it hard to trust people and that makes it difficult to trust God as well, but to become more like Christ, we must be willing to lay our plans at God's feet, not aside, and ask how God desires to use us for His Kingdom work. We must trust as Christ trusted.

The Boys

Well, today I have to admit my confusion as to why the Dallas Cowboys decided to hire Wade Phillips. I have no problem with the son of Bum. He is an incredible defensive minded coach. I guess it came down to in Jerry Jones' mind, "How can I best help Jason Garrett?" I really think Jerry sees him as the next head coach of the Cowboys, but at this point and time he is too green to take the reigns of the team as the head coach. Let Garrett take a few years to develop as a coach and then move him into the head position.

Personally I think it is risky. What if Garrett is not the phenom that many in coaching think he is? What if he is snatched up by another team before Jerry is ready to crown him as the king?

There were probably safer picks, Norv Turner or Ron Rivera, but Phillips has a better record as a head coach and Rivera runs the 4-3 defense. The Cowboys are currently more geared to the 3-4 defense.

I will take a wait and see attitude on this. I am still a loyal Cowboys fan, though not a Jerry Jones or TO fan.

Things are Better than they seem

As you look at this picture you think, man that dude had a rough day. Crashed his pick-up through the guard rail, jumped the culvert and landed in a ditch.

Sometimes life is like this picture. You are having the worst day of your life and nothing seems to be going right. You try and try to do things you are suppose to and then you end up making a mistake or something happens that throws you totally off track and you wonder why?

Life is full of curve balls. You don't know what direction they are going to come and they come at you from various angles and places. The point and time you think you have it all figured out here comes one from an unexpected place.

I see this picture and think man that dude must have been mad about what happened to his truck. You know he might have had a very important appointment or any of a number of things that this wreck could have messed up.

The problem with our limited perspective on life is that we don't see the whole picture. We are limited in our human understanding to what is really going on around us. What we might think really sucks actually turns out to be a blessing. I mean consider this guy, when you finally see the bigger picture you realize how fortunate this guy was for just crashing through the guard rail, jumping the culvert, and landing in a ditch.

So, the next time you think that what has just happened to you is the end of the world or things couldn't get worse. Think about what God might really be saving you from. Look at the things going on in your life from God's perspective, though you will not fully see that perspective.

Don't narrow your focus so much that you don't see the big picture of what is really going on around you and how God is molding you for His will.

It's Cold

Wow, you want cold I will give you cold. Todays high 16 tomorrows high 8. The wind chill factor of about -12. My daughter has a two hour delay already for school in the morning. They should just cancel because by 10 AM it is suppose to be a high of 2 with a wind chill of -19. Personally I don't think there is much difference between 16 and 8, that's just plain cold. Either way it just bites right through you. I wish my trip to Texas was this week.

Personally I believe in a literal hell where there will be fire, but if it was me it would be cold. Lord, could my next pastorate be in Hawaii please?

Just to give an update this balmy Monday morning. The temp is -2 but it feels like -24 and Riley doesn't have school.

Excellent Posts

I was reading Marty Duren's blog the other day and found a link to the Founder's blog. I think Marty and Tom bring up a great question. Have we lost the gospel. Has our focus as believers (my own SBC) become about so many other things other than the Gospel? It is time that we get back to the heart of what it means to be Christ Followers.

God's Humor

So, I write about Renee Alston's book "Stumbling Toward Faith" this morning and mention that I never read it. Well, God must want me to read it because this afternoon I bought it. Why do I say God wants me to read it? Well, the store I found it in is a hit and miss thing.

If you are ever in the Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania region of the country you need to check out Ollies Bargain Outlet. This store gets seconds, discontinued and overstock stuff. Their motto is, "Good Stuff Cheap." Well, over the years I have stocked my library full of really good books from this place, usually 50 to 75% off retail. The thing is you never know what they are going to find and sometimes you go in and it is the same stuff week to week. Just to give you and idea of the savings I have found, I bought a copy of "The Message" for $14.99 that retails for $39.99. I purchased a "Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance" there for $12.99 that retails for $39.99. I have bought "Blue Like Jazz" and "Searching for God Knows What" there and many other books. I have a small book budget and this store makes it go farther.

But I digress! I walk in this afternoon and sitting at the front of a row of books (usually a row of books contains 10 different books so you have to look through the whole row to see what is in there) is Renee Alston's book for $3.99. It is the only copy I saw in the whole store. So, I will begin to read it soon. Just skimming the book it looks really good.

A Challenge to me

I have recently been challenged in something that I felt was settled in my mind. First, by Rob Bell at the "Isn't She Beautiful?" conference at Mars Hill and then by Scot McKnight in his post Letters to Emerging Christians. What I heard and read I thought was a challenge to my beliefs, but I was wrong they were more of a confirmation of a belief that I already held, but just had not fully grasped.

One of my favorite passages of scripture is John 10:10, "A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest." What challenged me the most is that in most gospel presentations the Good News is presented as a ticket to heaven. I am not denying that when someone becomes a follower of Christ that they get into heaven, but the question comes is that all there is? What about my hell here on earth? Is the driving goal for us as Christ followers to just get people out of here. If heaven is the driving force of the Gospel then why doesn't God just translate us to heaven the moment we pray the prayer, confess with our mouth, make it public? I know that question brings a whole bunch of answers about the mission of Christians to share and the Great Commission, then why do we present the gospel so much as a ticket on the train to heaven?

Don't get me wrong I am looking forward to heaven. I preached a series on it last fall. I personally think the problem with many Christ followers is they are too enamored with the things of this world and not enamored enough with the things of heaven and that causes their focus to be more on the problems of the hear and now and not what is to come.

I am challenged by what Paul tells the Philippians in 1:6, "God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won't stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns." Another one that I think makes it more clear is 2:12-13, "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

One of the questions that Rob Bell brought out is which Jesus are we following? The Jesus of 1-800-BIG-HAIR on Christian television or the Jesus of someone who claims to be but doesn't act like it. Bell referred to a book, "Stumbling Toward Faith" by Renee Alston. The disclaimer here is I have not read the book. I intend to read it in the near future because it seems incredible to me. In the book Alston tells of her life of abuse at the hands of a father who while abusing her would recite the Lord's Prayer. Those are just a few examples of the Jesus that people need to reject in their life.

What conclusion have I come too? Well, that is not completely settled. At this point for me what has happened is that Salvation is seen as more to do with someone's journey with Christ than it has to do with someone's point of decision for Christ. There are many people that have made a point of decision, prayed a prayer, walked an aisle, but the fruit of their life has no more to do with Christ than an atheist. Points of decisions are not wrong, they are markers along the journey, but there is more to the journey than the decision.

I like what Scot McKnight writes at the end of his article, "A Christian is someone whose identity is being transformed because of relationship with Jesus. I think Jesus, Paul, John, are all saying this very thing: the one who is a Christian is the one whose very being and identity are shaped by Jesus."

I simply have to concur!

Could be worse

Winter has officially hit the northeast . The high today in Frostburg , Maryland is suppose to be 21 . Welcome back to all the Frostburg State University students who started classes today. We have snow on the ground with the expectation of some more in the next few days.

But things could be worse. I received these pictures in an email this morning. They are from the town of Versoix near Geneva City, Switzerland. The water in the background is Leman Lake. They are quit incredible if I do say so myself.