The official recommendation coming from the task force assigned to study possibly changing the name of the denomination is to add a subtitle. Instead of Southern Baptist a church may call itself Great Commission Baptist, or keep both nomenclatures. Some people are deeply offended and object highly to simply changing the name of the denomination they know well, despite the SBC being somewhat of a global brand. This compromise is meant to satisfy everyone, if there can be such a thing. Continue reading →
Re-posted from March 17, 2009. The original title was Ash Wednesday, Lent, (and p.s. Mardi Gras) The only change is the date in line 2.
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday occurs 46 days before Easter, 40 days if you don’t count Sundays. This year it fell on February 22nd. This marks the beginning of Lent, a time of preparation for Holy Week. At an Ash Wednesday service, part of the ceremony is placing ashes on the forehead as an outward symbol that you will be observing Lent. During the 40 day period something is given up, anything typically important to the individual, and more time spent in prayer, worship and meditation. Lent is about preparing ourselves spiritually to observe Holy Week, the days between Palm Sunday and Easter.
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is one week before Easter, and celebrates Jesus’ triumphal entry. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to celebrate Passover. The crowd shouted “Hosanna”, and waved palm branches. Actual palm branches may be used in a Palm Sunday service, and those branches will be saved until next year, burned, and the ashes used during the Ash Wednesday service mentioned above. The same Jews shouting “Hosanna” at Jesus’ entry would be shouting “Crucify him” just a few days later.
There’s an old saying that goes “To have a friend, you have to be a friend.” The implication is that if you are friendly others will be friendly toward you. There is no guarantee that if you put yourself out there others will reciprocate. Even if you don’t have a friend, the Christ-like thing to do is be a friend anyway.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13, ESV) Jesus had 12 chosen apostles and a multitude of followers, but during his trial and crucifixion nearly every single one of them ran away. Jesus was a friend of sinners, healed legions of the sick and afflicted, feed thousands, but when the time came… he was left alone. His mother was there, and perhaps one disciple. Peter denied Jesus three times, and even invoked a curse on himself. After Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the rest had fled in fear.
Yet on the cross, Jesus extended mercy even toward the people that were nailing him to the tree. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” We are told to give without expecting repayment, to walk the extra mile (literally) and to turn the other cheek. Jesus’ final command was to love. We are to have the same mind is us that Christ had. Regardless of what anyone else does or doesn’t do…
One Million Moms (40,000 members strong) is putting pressure on JC Penny to drop Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson. They claim customers with “traditional values” will be turned away. DeGeneres responded by saying “Here are the values I stand for. I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.” Continue reading →
There’s a little icon on my desktop that represents a trash can. A real trash can would be showing its age by now, but my icon always looks exactly the same. It never gets filthy, never dents, never smells, and the lid always closes no matter how much “trash” is inside. The icon represents a trash can, but a real trash can isn’t pretty. So it is with the cross.
We wear crosses of gold and silver about the neck, carve them into our church pews, paint them in our artwork and place them above our church buildings. As an icon, the cross represents Christianity. But our images have no splinters, rusty nails, nor do they drip with the blood of the slain. The image of the cross is meant to remind us that the broken body of Christ was hung on the tree. Our communion wafers are perfect little squares, and the wine/juice tastes sweet, but the body of the Lord was broken and his blood poured out. Flesh was ripped away by the whip. Blood and sweat mingled and dripped to the ground. The air was ripe with the smell of blood and the stench of death. The cross was an instrument of torture and execution.
I’m not suggesting we do away with the symbols. It is our nature to forget, and we must be reminded of what God has done. Rainbows actually are beautiful, but they remind us of mercy in the face of judgment. Baptism represents death of the old man and rebirth of the new. Passover reminded the Jews of what God had done for them, just as communion does for us today. Our hope is in the resurrection, made possible by the crucifixion. We must remember what God has done. But remember as well… it wasn’t pretty.
I love Jesus. I am not ashamed of the Gospel. But I’m not guilted into copying & pasting nor reposting every lame statues update, jpeg image and gif file that tells me I have to. “If you love Jesus you will repost, if you love Satan you will keep scrolling.” Bull crap! Today it’s Facebook, but we went through the same thing for about a decade with e-mail. There is something that compels people to dream up new ways to get people to re-forward. It doesn’t have to be religious; Facebook is not donating 3 cents each time you retweet that sick image of the little girl with cancer (if that’s even what the picture is of).
The e-mail petitions used to kill me. Let’s say you get a petition in your inbox for a cause you really believe in. If you add your name and forward to 10 people, as soon as those people sign and forward you’ve just created 10 different permutations of the petition list. There is no way to consolidate that raw data back into one list. Even if the 1000th person forwards it to whomever, what they will end up receiving is hundreds, possibly thousands of different lists. Many of the names will be duplicates, especially of the early signatures, but each petition will be unique. If you sign and forward, a day or two later you will start getting the petition again, and no two will be alike even if your is signature is #25 on each one.
I am not ashamed Jesus, so not forwarding your email or reposting your status will not cause him to be ashamed of me before his father. You can read my Facebook profile or any one of 400 blog posts to know how I feel about Jesus. I teach Bible at a Christian school, and preach frequently in our chapel and at a small church nearby. I lead a youth group, play and sing praise & worship music, have driven a church van and some years ago played on a men’s church softball team. When I “keep scrolling” it’s not because I love Satan. Just for the record.
In the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus begins his public ministry and gets right to it, so to speak. By the end of Mark 1 Jesus has been baptized by John, tempted by Satan, called the first 4 apostles, cast out a demon and healed many people, including Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.
Jesus’ apostles know that he can heal the sick and cast out demons. They were given power and authority to do those same things. But at the end of Mark 4 they are filled when fear when Jesus calms a storm. “Who then is this, that event the wind and sea obey him?” They were surprised by Jesus, their own leader and teacher. They had been given power to heal the sick, but seeing Jesus command the raging storm to be peaceful was more than they expected. It appears they woke him up to help bail water. He criticized their lack of faith, and it appears that even they don’t get.
I set out to write a sermon titled “Don’t be surprised by Jesus.” He was, after all, the Son of God. After everything else they have already witnessed and been a part of, how could they still not understand? Along the way I realized that it is unreasonable to not be surprised by Jesus. He is surprising, his grace is amazing, and his love and mercy surpass our understanding. Throughout his ministry he is talking to women, eating with tax collectors, and touching lepers. As he is nailed to the cross to die, he prays for the people crucifying him. “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” If you’re not surprised yet, read further into the New Testament where we are commanding to think that way. (Try Philippians 2)
We must not become so comfortable that we are not surprised by Jesus. We can be lulled into such a sense of complacency that we miss the spiritual warfare going on around us. There’s a line in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe that says of Aslan “He’s not a tame lion.” Jesus is incarnate deity, maker of heaven and earth, who will one day judge the nations. It’s a shame that after a time we get used to it. Just don’t be surprised when you get surprised.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
(Jeremiah 1:5 ESV)
What about in the cases of rape or incest? What if the mother’s life is in danger? Does a woman not have the right to choose when it comes to her own body?
Abortion is used in this country as birth control. If allowing abortion for exceptional cases such as rape or incest would allow all other abortions to be made illegal in this country I would support it. The very vast majority of abortion procedures in this country are for birth control. Pregnancy is seen as a nasty side effect of a pleasure seeking lifestyle. A baby would “cramp our style” or “get in the way” so abortion is an easy answer for people that act like they don’t know where babies come from. For some women, who have had 10 or more abortions, that is their only form a birth control.
Of course a woman has the right to choose. How about choosing to honor God with your body? Men have always had it a little easier when it comes to “moving on” after a relationship, but each father will give an account of how many fatherless children he created or how many abortions took place to clean up his mess.
Each human being is created in the image of God.
God created life and it is precious to him.
Your life is a gift from God and someday each individual will give account with what they did with what was given. To whom much is given, much shall be required. The command in the Garden of Eden was to be fruitful and multiply. Our ability to procreate is God-given to fulfill his purposes, not simply to enjoy ourselves while we here.
God had a plan for your life before you were born. Before you were conceived he knew you; his plans are to prosper you, not to harm you. He gave his only son, and the Son gave his life, so you and I might live. And what some doctors would have you believe is tissue, nothing but a lump of cells much like a tumor? That is God’s gift also.
