Posted: 11/24/03

Dec. 14

1 John 2:3-11, 18-27

Show what you know to pass test

By Gary Long

Silly how poems and phrases stick in your head, isn't it? From my childhood, I remember a two-liner my dad would say every time I made a rhyme: “You're a poet and didn't know it. Or maybe you did and just didn't show it.”

That second line stuck with me–what do I know but just don't show in my life? What do I know about God but don't show in my life?

What are the indicators that show you know God? How does one verify the reality of the relationship between a human being and God? This is exactly where this lesson takes us. The organization of the text will offer some framework to answer the question of which indicators show we know God. There are three clear tests, first called the “tests of life” by Robert Law in 1909, that serve as the measuring stick as to how one may be assured that they know God.

The verses of this lesson can best be understood if we view them this way: 2:3-6, righteousness through obedience; 2:7-11, love for fellow Christians; and 2:18-27, right belief.

Test 1–Obey me

1 John 2:3 is the hinge pin of a doubly-pointed argument which follows in this passage. First, the word “knowing” signals a challenge to the Gnostics that would boast in their knowledge of things spiritual. Second, obedience to God's commands is promoted ahead of special forms of special enlightenment or mysticism. The writer is issuing a strong argument that a kinesthetic form of faith is an expression of intimacy with God. That is to say, we illustrate our faith by doing our faith.

It takes little effort mentally to connect ki

nesthetic and doing with the way in which many of us learn. Venture into any preschool or early elementary classroom and see how rapidly they learn when they are doing what they are being taught. Consider your own experiences with different kinds of computer software and how no matter how many times you read the instructions, you really only learn the software after you begin to work with it.

Bible teachers do well to remember that no matter what age their students, doing a Bible lesson with a class will foster more learning and in turn a deeper faith in the long run. As the old adage goes, faith is caught, not taught. Our families and friends see our faith through our acts of obedience to God, and we in turn are drawn closer to God in that obedience.

In Matthew 21:28-32, Jesus tells about two sons told by their father to go and work in the vineyard. One said he would not go and then later went and did the work. The other said he would go but never went to do the work. Jesus' listeners quickly and correctly chose the first one as the one who did his father's will. So it is in 1 John 2:4, for the one says “I know him” but does not do what the father commands.

Obedience is easier said than done. In my own life, obedience has seldom been a problem of knowledge but often a problem of the will. I often know cognitively what I should do in order to be obedient to God's direction for my life. However, I must confess I don't always have the desire or will to be obedient. Like Paul, “I desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out” (Romans 7:18).

Perhaps a solution to this struggle can be found in 1 John 2:6, pointing to the way in which Jesus walked as a worthy pattern for our own walk. We know from the gospels that Jesus struggled with his impending death on the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed God would let the cup of death pass over him, but even in that prayer was able to say, “Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:35-36). There was a surrender of Jesus' will to that of the Father that offers us a path today when obedience to God's command seems undesirable or undoable.

Test 2–Love for one another

This test of whether we know God is anchored in the authority and authenticity of the words and witness of Jesus. Repeatedly Jesus instructed his followers that the whole sum of the law could be boiled down to two: Love of God and love for neighbor.

The command to love was not a new one. It was as old as the Israelites could remember. Yet with Jesus came a new way of loving God and neighbor. Jesus fulfilled the law of love in a way no one had seen before, as evidenced in his ministry of hope and healing, and ultimately in his self-giving sacrificial death. But even greater, Jesus' life, death and resurrection equip his followers to embody that love through the ages to the very moment you read this ink on paper. You can love your neighbor more truly and deeply because of your faith as a Christian, and that by way of Jesus' irrepressible love for all humanity.

I believe our churches are to be the practice stages where we learn and rehearse our lines of love for neighbor. With Jesus' life as our script, we rehearse and rehearse, polishing and refining how to love one another. And if Shakespeare is correct that “all the world's a stage” then the theatre of our drama is a sold-out crowd hungry for the love we have to share and that Jesus wants to share through us.

Love for one another is a measure of the quality of fellowship in our churches, and we have some work to do here. Because we have missed the importance of love for one another as the way to strengthen the community of faith, we have a malnourished theology of fellowship that has diminished to the time for doughnuts between Bible study and worship.

The term “fellowship” has been misused often, usually with the report, “A good time was had by all.” Fellowship ought to be defined as the conscious efforts a church body makes to love one another as Christ has loved us all. This love is not a negotiable, but rather an imperative of the faith, and although we will never attain perfect fellowship, we are obligated to aim for it.

Test 3–Right belief

The real urgency and passion of the writer comes through in this passage. Strong language frames a plea for the children to realize the time, the “last hour,” and to beware of those who teach against the divinity of Jesus, the “antichrists.” Clearly the appearance of those who would oppose the church (the antichrist) and the exodus of some from the church indicated the “last hour” was near. Could John have seen this as a signal to an imminent return of Jesus? Or could this be a view that the last hours of history where a world had no chance of redemption before Christ was now coming to an end?

Ultimately, the choice in interpretation is for the reader, but either choice stresses an importance for right belief. In the church to which this letter is addressed, there had been serious questioning as to whether Jesus was the Messiah, the “anointed one.” 1 John makes clear that knowing God required belief that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.

Assurance of salvation, of knowing God, is perhaps one thing believers wish for and most seek to maintain. Christians want to “feel” saved. We have fear and anxiety that if we don't believe the right things or step into wrong doctrine, we might somehow lose touch with God and ultimately lose our salvation. This text offers a counter to that fear.

Although there are many areas within doctrine that are of debate, John's letter lays weight on one issue alone–the doctrine of Jesus Christ. When the church begins to question the identity of Jesus as Christ, as 1 John 2:22 asserts (“Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ”), serious trouble will follow. Believers may experience assurance of salvation and knowing God by maintaining right belief in Jesus as the Christ.

John further asserts that each of the followers has received an “anointing” that will enable discernment of truth from error. The Holy Spirit, whose advent was Jesus' resurrection, gives believers guidance to discern teachings, as well as power to live the life of obedience and love. It is tempting to pass over teaching about this “anointing” for fear of sounding quirky or too “Pentecostal,” but we must not shirk away from it because our Christian discipleship is linked intimately to the Holy Spirit. Christians must cultivate their discipleship through this sense of anointing by the Spirit, thus false teachings will be less threatening.

Questions for discussion

The author of 1 John delineates some clear black and white lines between “liars,” the ones “blinded to truth” and those that “live in darkness.” Is this absolute path of classifying people healthy for a church?

To what extent does personal moral failure refute our claim to be a follower of Christ? When does a church's moral failure to follow all of God's commands cause it to cease being a church?

What is the difference between the blind obedience to a religious organization or leader and the kind of obedience that 1 John demands of believers?

If “fellowship” is defined as “loving each other as Jesus loves us,” how would you rate your congregation's health in the area of fellowship?

Posted: 11/24/03

Dec. 21

1 John 2:28-3:10

God's children imitate Jesus

By Gary Long

In my home, the evening meal is as close to heaven as I can get this side of the grave. Several nights a week, our scattered family carves out time to come together and feast. We report on school, work and church. We laugh and joke. Sometimes we have good table manners, other times we have burping contests. (I know, I know, but a preacher has to cut loose somewhere.) We ask each other where we see God at work.

We also talk openly about hard topics. Nothing is out of bounds, no topic is “shushed,” because Traci and I want the family table to be a space where all are welcomed and all can become family, freely discussing the best and worst in life. My children are coming to know who they are as individuals and as a part of the Long family.

So it is in churches that eat together often. Kate Campbell sings about grieving Christians, “Funeral food, we sure eat good when somebody dies!” Tongue in cheek? Yes. True? Definitely. We have a strong theology of food in Baptist life, not just here in Texas, but all across the Bible Belt.

What is it about eating together that strengthens our body while nourishing our identity as the family of God? I think the power of the meal is not in the grub but in the intimacy of the eating act. Eating together is healing and restorative. There is something powerful about sitting down face to face and engaging in the most basic, primitive and essential act we humans do. We forge a tie and become closer at the table. As in our homes, we come to know who we are as children of God within the context of the family of God.

Claiming our spot at God's table–obedience

In this week's text, we find a great jumping off point for what it means to be the children of God. It certainly is more than eating at the table together. The defining characteristic of God's children is their love for one another, of finding our place at God's table, as well as making places at the table for others. More practically, though, this involves understanding our need for obedience to God.

What that obedience looks like is more difficult to grapple with, but 1 John 3 makes it plain that at least part of the battle is avoiding sin. Primarily, we see obedience to God can be achieved by imitating Jesus. One might argue so far as to say that the very reality of an individual's relationship to God is verified by the quality of our imitation of Jesus.

This passage makes unmistakably clear that Jesus came to eradicate (not merely combat) evil from the world. Twice the text succinctly asserts that Jesus' purpose in coming was to defeat sin powerfully and finally. First, in 3:5, “… he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” And later in 3:8, “… The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

Herein is no middle-ground solution, no compromise to the problem of humanity's complete depravity. The solution to the presence of evil in the world is Jesus utterly destroying evil. We interpret Jesus' work on the cross as well as his resurrection as doing just that–eradicating evil.

Although evil may still be present in the world, we Christians confess and profess by worship, work and witness that Jesus' kingdom shall be brought about ultimately and completely and that evil will finally have no reign in the world. It is when we obediently seek to imitate Jesus, conqueror of sin, that our lives become a part of the plan to eradicate sin and destroy the works of the devil also. Plainly, the children of God must do what is right according to God's commands.

Claiming our spot at God's table–heirs of hope

Jamie Lee Curtis wrote a children's book called “Tell Me About the Night I was Born.” In this story, an adopted child is told about how she came to be with her adoptive parents and the special place she holds in the family. I don't have any adopted children, but I do have three birth children. One night, I was reading this book to my middle child, and along the way I felt a strong need to clarify for him that I was his birth father.

Later introspection caused me to wonder why I had wanted him to know that. I think it was that I wanted him to know that he was “flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.” But I know that would be relatively unimportant to a 6 year old. But it was important to me for him to know he was of my “seed” and he would bear the genetic imprint of his father throughout his life, for better or for worse.

Isn't that rather like 1 John 3:9? Knowing that God's seed of righteousness is within makes all the difference. And in this case, having God's seed in our spiritual DNA is for better rather than for worse because the Holy Ghost encoding we receive is flawless and contains no hint of disease. If we were to obediently follow God's spirit in our lives at all times, we would truly be like Jesus. Of course, this is not possible. Sin still has sway.

We might do well to pair our proclivity for disobedience with the hope we have as through fully understanding what it means to be the children of God. The “hope” in 3:3 is a description of the Christian experience. Especially in this passage, the writer is making clear to us that the “hope” lies in knowing we are God's children. Being a child of God won't be “undone” or “reversed.” As surely as our parents could never deny our blood ties on the genetic level, God will not let us slip out of God's hand once we have been “born of him.”

Self-help righteousness

It is abundantly clear that anything good (“righteous” 2:29) that is in humanity is there because people follow in imitation of Jesus. “… Everyone who does right has been born of him.” In the phenomena of this “self-help” age, we are told through countless books on self-improvement that the secret to change lies within us. Although I concede they have done many good things for the Christian cause, Robert Schuller and Norman Vincent Peale have misled Christians to believe we have everything we need within us to be good people.

However, Christianity is based upon the very principle that we are totally sinful without any hope of fixing or repairing this breach ourselves. This is the meaning of “sin” in 3:4. The necessary conclusion is that we need the redemptive work of Jesus. The methods of self help or the “power of positive thinking” may make our lives better in some ways, but no amount of self help will enable us to overcome the fact that we sin. We are sinners, even the best of us.

“Christian Self-Help,” a shelf we see in some Christian book stores, seems oxymoronic when viewed this way, for no amount of “self help” can we apply to make things right between us and God. These books fail most often in that they treat sin as symptoms, much like the way a doctor can treat a cold. We manage the cough or the sniffles of the cold virus, but ultimately medicine cannot kill the common cold. In the same way, self-help methods that don't deal directly with the sin nature of humans will deal only with the symptoms–like your weight problem, troubled childhood or lagging self-esteem–but won't deal with the deep-down state of your being, chiefly a state of sin.

The good news is that we have hope. Our hope is that we shall one day be like Jesus, who, while fully human, was able to discern and accomplish God's will in total obedience. And that same Jesus was accepted by God and now stands as an advocate on our behalf, an advocate for all who would believe in Jesus. I can't wait for Jesus to show me my place at the great banquet table for all of God's children. Maybe you and I will be seated together for part of that meal.

Questions for discussion

As a class, discuss the difference between seeing sin as “acts of wrong” versus seeing sin as “a state of being.” How do you “manage” sin based on the different views?

In what ways are churches susceptible to corporate sin? How might churches avoid being lead astray theologically?

What guidelines does this text suggest for maintaining fellowship in a church?

What suggestions does this text give us for choosing and training leaders in our church?

If you understand our relationship to God as “adopted heirs of hope,” how might your study group share God's love with the lost? How might your church be transformed by fully recognizing their place as “adopted” children of God?

Posted: 11/24/03

Dec. 28

1 John 3.11-18; 23-24; 4.7-21

We love because first we were loved

By Gary Long

Our family, like others, has its own vocabulary and catch phrases. We have two that are exceptionally applicable to these Scriptures. Usually when one of us says “I love you” to another the response is “I love you more,” signaling the beginning of a word-joust that may last for an hour or more. For example, I've been known to walk out the door to come to the office and shout “I love you” to Traci, my wife.

She replies, “I love you more!” The game is on.

I go out to the truck, and on my drive to church call the house on my cell phone. Whether a real person or an answering machine picks up I shout, “I love you more!” and quickly hang up before anyone who answers can respond.

An hour or two later, I'm sitting at my desk, and the phone rings. “I love you more!” is on the other end. You get the picture. It's especially difficult when trying to observe bedtimes on school nights.

The second phrase is “Love ya, mean it!” Which, being translated means, “I love you more than words can express and the usual 'I love you' won't work right now.”

Yes, it is playful, but it is a real and present reminder that the love we have for one another is unlike any other love. It is binding. It is unconditional because we are family. Much of the world seems to understand and even experience this kind of love among families, whether extended or blended. Family ties forge a deeper bond of love than most other relationships in our lives.

However, the text for today calls us to reconsider the districting of our love to tightly zoned familial boundaries. It asserts with resolve and prophetic clarity that genuine Christian love–a command and not an option–is founded on God's love in giving his Son and is characterized by a willingness to give our lives and possessions for other people. This love should provide the overarching narrative for our lives, and this love compels us to the higher righteousness oft cited by Jesus as the way we ought to love our neighbor.

The framework of this week's lesson offers us three venues to consider ways in which the drama of love might be played out as we seek to intertwine the story of our lives with the meta narrative of God as love.

First, we need to look honestly at the ways in which violence is culturally accepted in America and how it runs counter to genuine Christian love (1 John 3:11-18). Second, we should consider that the sacrificial love of a Christian is not a one-time single occurrence, but might be better lived out of the long run in countless ways and times (vv. 23-24). Finally, we need to take a long, hard look at the practical way in which God's love is “down-to-earth love” in the form of Jesus of the manger and Jesus, the Lord of our hearts (4:7-21).

Accepting violence

The first hate crime in recorded history is that of one brother's murder of another. Clearly violent and sinful, Cain's evil murder of Abel ushered in an entirely new way to sin for humanity. The chilling fact is that the violence propagated at that moment in history has been emulated countless times and, tragically, countless more times in film, television and other media.

Cain's way is the way of the world, and I submit that Christians can hardly be distinguished from their non-Christian American counterparts. We gobble up violence like a 6 year old gobbles up Pixie Sticks on All Saints Day. We watch and glaze over, anesthetized to the images of death and gore that we sear onto our brains indelibly and irreversibly. It is no surprise that international perception is that we are a gun-toting, blood-thirsty society that tolerates all sort of violence in our media, but look down our noses incongruously at nudity in art and film in other societies such as Europe. It seems a tad inconsistent.

Remarkably inconsistent in the light of this text. Christians are implored to put down the violent ways of Cain and take up ways that are loving, ways that have no malice or hatred, the seedbed for violence to grow. Ironically, Christians are reminded that true love has been made real by a death. Yet this death is a life given up willingly by Jesus, not seized recklessly like Abel's. It is only in the pattern of giving up life, rather than stealing life, that wholeness is going to be found.

Further, the writer places the sin of ignoring a brother in need (3:17) in the same class and category as the kind of hatred that drove Cain to kill Abel. Is it possible then that apathy is on equal footing with rage and anger in the sin department? The text seems to suggest so.

Laying down our lives continually

1 John further expands the thought of love. The writer claims love is not simply an absence of apathy or anger, but that love has definitive characteristics. Jesus' edict to love one another is a command, a non-negotiable that makes the papal ex cathedra seem like a bulk e-mail you could choose to either delete or forward to your closest online friends. Jesus' edict to love one another, had it been an e-mail, would demand a response. The demand wouldn't be for a response to the e-mail, but a response to humanity in the form of active love. But more importantly, that edict is not a “one time” action or thought but an ongoing way of life.

It would seem from John's writings, as well as a comprehensive look at the teachings of Jesus that discuss laying down our lives for one another, love is not only a one-time act of heroism. We are not being compelled to some sort of sacrificial suicide in order to prove our love for God and neighbor. Rather, love in this light is an ongoing “little by little” process over time.

Family life is the clearest theatre for us to see this drama played out. This might be vividly portrayed if we, as adults, were to ask our parents about the millions of little ways they laid down their lives for our future when we were children.

Just how many soccer games and piano recitals do parents attend to show their love? All of them.

Just how many dishes will a homemaker do over a lifetime, not because he or she loves doing dishes (who does?) but because he or she loves someone? All of them.

How many times does one encourage a discouraged spouse? Every time.

How often are we to give in response to a need? Every time.

It is a complete and total sacrifice of an entire life, not all at once, but an entire lifetime nonetheless. The principal of laying down our lives applies to all our relationships, not just at home, but at work, church, school and most especially in the chance meeting of a stranger. This indeed is the kind of love that involves laying down one's life for another in the name of love. We lay down our lives in love not just once, but millions of times over a lifetime.

Down-to-earth love

All of this talk is meaningless, though, if we fail to recognize the author of this “life-giving” love. It is, of course, God. And the model for this gritty kind of love is God in the form of Jesus. God looked over the expanse of history and at just the perfect time entered into the plane of human existence in a “down-to-earth” kind of way.

In the humblest of forms, a baby, God came to dwell among the chosen Israel in a surprising way. And in a similarly surprising way, we now understand the scope of his ministry, his work on the cross and in the resurrection, and in so doing, we understand God's love in a very real way. When we come to this passage, the writer makes a sudden shift from discussing discernment (4:1-6) to a soaring exhortation on love. Unequalled in its eloquence and splendor, this passage subsumes even the famous “love chapter” of Paul (1 Corinthians 13) in giving us a doctrinally sound understanding of love as modeled by God.

Thirteen times in this passage alone, we find the occurrence of “love” either as a noun or verb. The message is clear. The text dances nimbly in reminding us, yet again, that God is love and God is continually expressing that love. Awe at the nature of this love is the best human response! Not once does this passage tell us that God's love comes through following the rules of Christianity. Not once does the passage speak of God doling out love in response to our obedience or our goodness. Clearly, God is a god of love, and we are the objects and recipients of that love.

What's more, we can reason through the statement “we love because he first loved us” (4:19) and conclude that without the loving existence of God, there would not even be a human capacity for understanding love, much less actually “doing” love. In a round-about way, this text points to the reality of God in the evidence of our own human experience of love.

Questions for discussion

In what ways have you seen that God's love is real? What experiences of giving or receiving love could you tell about that point to the reality of God's love?

Read the account of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:8-16. Do you find a measure of God's love for Cain in God's punishment? If you said yes, describe that love in single words. Now consider this: In what ways could those same words apply to God's love for you?

What view should Christians have regarding violence in movies, television, etc? What do you think drives our curiosity in violence or bloodshed? How might Christians discern what to “do” with such violence?

Think of people who have “laid down their life” for you along your life's path. Pause to give thanks to God. Then consider how you might do the same for others who need you. How might you become aware of people who need your love?

Marvel at the mystery of the cradle containing God and consider how God's “down-to-earth love” might be a model for you. How might you practice “incarnational” ministry to others by becoming God's “hands and feet”?

Posted: 11/24/03

Bus crash claims another life

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

ELDORADO–The Louisiana bus crash that killed five members of First Baptist Church in Eldorado and three of their friends last month has claimed another life.

Billy Frank Blaylock, 78, died Nov. 17 at a San Angelo hospital from injuries sustained when the church-owned bus ran into a parked tractor-trailer rig near Tallulah, La., Oct. 13.

After the wreck, Blaylock spent about two weeks in a Jackson, Miss., hospital before being flown to San Angelo's Shannon Medical Center.

His wife, Mabel Blaylock, also was injured in the bus wreck, sustaining numerous broken bones and a punctured lung. After an extended stay at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, she remains hospitalized at the Schleicher County Medical Center in Eldorado.

Blaylock was a World War II veteran who lost a leg in the battle of Iwo Jima. He was a retired rancher, saddle-maker and mail carrier, a deacon at First Baptist Church of Eldorado and a Boy Scout leader.

“More people considered Billy Frank Blaylock their hero than any other person I've ever met,” said Andy Anderson, pastor of First Baptist Church.

During Blaylock's 33 years as a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service, he kept a Bible on the front seat and memorized a verse of Scripture every day, Anderson noted.

“He could recite huge sections of the Bible from memory,” the pastor said. “One time in a Sunday School class discussion, the teacher asked the class how they would define wisdom. And one of the men said, 'Billy Frank Blaylock.'”

Other members of First Baptist Church killed in the Louisiana bus wreck were Kennith and Betty Richardson, both 81; Delia Piña, 72, and Domingo Piña, 65; and Mary Ruth Robinson, 63. Three others lost their lives: Jean Demere, 74, and Jimmy Teel, 68, of Water Valley and Laverne Shannon, 76, of San Angelo.

Ken Thomas, 66, treasurer and past chairman of deacons at First Baptist Church in Eldorado, was driving the bus at the time of the wreck. He received a misdemeanor citation for careless operation.

No criminal charges have been filed. The trucking company that owned the 18-wheeler involved in the wreck has initiated a civil lawsuit.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration assessed a $2,200 fine against First Baptist Church of Eldorado for failure to comply with some of that agency's regulations. The agency regulates vehicles carrying more than 15 passengers across state lines.

Posted: 11/24/03

BWA calls for reconciliation prayer

WASHINGTON–After 30 years of sometimes-violent conflict, Baptists in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh have taken steps toward reconciliation, according to Denton Lotz, executive director of the Baptist World Alliance.

Lotz called on Baptists around the world to pray for leaders of the Samavesam Telegu of Telegu Baptist Churches: “We call upon Baptists worldwide to pray without ceasing for unity and reconciliation among the Samavesam of Telegu Baptists so that the millions who do not know Christ will hear the good news of salvation.”

The root of the conflict is over property, Lotz explained. American Baptist International Ministries made what he called a “very generous property gift” to the Telegu Baptist churches.

Subsequently, three factions emerged, each with a general secretary and president, each claiming to represent the true Samavesam Telegu of Telegu Baptist Churches.

“The conflict has been so intense that one of the presidents was murdered,” Lotz said.

The conflict has been so intense that one of the Baptist convention presidents was murdered

The Baptist group has a baptized membership of 500,000 with a worshipping community of more than 1 million. “There are significant mega-churches with a membership of more than 15,000,” he said. “Hundreds of the village churches are progressing but need new leadership. The conflict has caused the seminary and other educational facilities, as well as hospitals, to fall into neglect and misuse.”

In this context, the BWA sponsored a reconciliation gathering at the Asian Baptist Federation meeting in Manila, Philippines, in 2001. This was followed by another reconciliation meeting in Nellore, India, in 2002.

A retired Methodist bishop was accepted as the facilitator, and an interim reconciliation committee was established. However, there was little movement in this past year, Lotz said. “Deadlines were missed, agreements violated, meetings without quorums held. It seemed that there was no progress or hope.

“In desperation, I proposed that if reconciliation did not come I would recommend either probation or expulsion of the Samavesam Telegu of Telegu Baptist Churches from the BWA,” he added. In a last-ditch effort to avert expulsion, another fact-finding and reconciliation meeting was held Nov. 9-10 in Chennai, Madras.

“On Sunday evening, Nov. 9, we held a plenary session of the many people who had come to Chennai with the desire for peace and reconciliation,” Lotz reported. “These were pastors and interested laity. Since they were not members of the reconciliation committee, they could not participate in the deliberations. But their deep concern for unity and reconciliation made it very necessary for us to have an open session for all to express their hopes for the future.

“It was an amazing experience in Baptist democracy. One after another, pastors and laity expressed the desire for peace and unity. There had been enough fighting. Pastors were concerned about the future of the Church. They were concerned about evangelism and witness to Christ. They told stories of the great growth of their churches and the need for a strong and supporting convention, devoid of fighting and concentrating on glorifying Christ.”

Lotz also pleaded with the Baptists to move toward reconciliation, he said.

That evening, representatives of the three factions met on their own and ironed out a proposal for reconciliation.

“We were shocked and yet extremely pleased at this amazing step forward toward reconciliation,” Lotz said. “We met separately with each of the three factions and reviewed the document and memo of agreement, each group assuring us they accepted the document. It was an amazing sign of God's grace.”

The parties agreed to withdraw from court cases, establish a property review committee and call for elections and final reconciliation meetings.

Elections in all the field associations will be held by Dec. 15. On Jan. 10, the new General Council will be formed and an assembly called to ratify the decisions.

“We have insisted that reconciliation is a process,” Lotz said. “It is not something that happens suddenly but it is a road we must follow with Christ leading us on to make sacrifices for the good of the whole. Now the difficult part begins.”

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Posted: 11/24/03

Pastor's wife featured in Standard
recovering at home after surgery

By George Henson

Staff Writer

CORSICANA–A Texas pastor and his wife are grateful to Texas Baptists who helped them see God's hand at work.

Mark and Becky Chadwick were in a different frame of mind not too long ago because she needed a surgery the family couldn't afford. Chadwick is a full-time pastor of a church that cannot afford the expense of health insurance, and the family of four could not afford to purchase insurance on their own.

A story in the Oct. 20 edition of the Baptist Standard told how Mrs. Chadwick faced the prospect of blood transfusions to counteract the anemia she was experiencing because of gynecological illness. The problem could be solved with a hysterectomy, but the pastor's family could not afford the $20,000 cost of the surgery.

Becky and Mark Chadwick have been amazed and humbled by the outpouring of support for her medical problems.

With help from Texas Baptists, Mrs. Chadwick had the hysterectomy, preventing the need for blood transfusions and alleviating the threat to her life.

In response to the Baptist Standard story, the Chadwicks received unsolicited help from a number of sources, including the hospital where the surgery was performed.

Chadwick said he is amazed at how God worked so quickly to solve a problem that once seemed insurmountable. His wife's health and his peace of mind, he said, are the result of so many people coming to the family's rescue–including people they knew and people they still haven't met.

Response from Baptist Standard readers helped Becky Chadwick have the surgery she needed.

Central Texas Baptist Area created a fund for the Chadwicks that had received $5,276 as of Nov. 20. Additional donations will go to pay back medical expenses associated with the surgery.

One donor showed up on the Chadwicks' doorstep within two days of the Standard's publication. Mrs. Chadwick answered the door to find a woman who wanted to speak with the pastor but did not want to give her name.

“She said: 'I don't want to tell you who I am. My husband doesn't even know I'm here, but here's my mad money,'” the pastor explained. “She left an envelope with $200 in it. I still don't know who she is. I've never seen her before, but she had somehow seen the story in the Baptist Standard and wanted to help.”

Last week, as the first of the hospital bills started arriving, the first two envelopes the Chadwicks opened were bills totaling $345. The third envelope contained a gift of $350.

Highland Baptist Church in Dallas, where Mrs. Chadwick works as a secretary, was just one of the many churches that sent gifts small and large to help with the costs of the surgery. The church sent money collected in its “blessing bucket.”

One donation came from a church in the West Texas community of Cross Plains.

“There's a man there I have not met, but I've talked on the telephone with him a couple of times,” the pastor said. “The last time, he told me he had nine people come to church that Sunday, and they collected $250. He can't know how much of a difference he's made.”

The blessing that almost floored Chadwick, however, was a call from the hospital. Chadwick had borrowed money to make a down payment so the hospital would schedule the surgery. He had agreed to pay the balance over time at a high interest rate.

However, when he began to take in donations to pay on the bill at the hospital, the account representative was so moved by all the people working to help the Chadwicks that she took it upon herself to call the hospital's chief financial officer.

She asked if the rest of the bill could be forgiven. The hospital executive agreed.

“If I hadn't been sitting down, I would have fallen down in a faint,” Chadwick said.

Mrs. Chadwick agreed: “I thought someone close to him must have died. He just kept getting paler and paler, and his eyes were bugging out of his head.”

The family also has received many cards and letters from well-wishers, some from out-of-state. “All the way around, the Lord has just been blessing us tremendously,” Chadwick said.

While better days are ahead, Mrs. Chadwick has not fully recovered from the surgery. The women in her church tell her she's already looking better, she reported. Many of those same women have prepared meals to keep the family well-fed until she's back on her feet.

Living through such a situation has produced “a mixture of humility and excitement,” Chadwick said, noting he never imagined that “so many people who didn't know us from Adam cared.”

“On the six o'clock and 10 o'clock news, about all you hear is the bad news. But there are a lot of very good people in the world,” he said. “People have just blessed us more than they will ever realize.”

“A pastor's wife is a gift to a pastor, and I can't do what I need to do without her. Every one of those people who gave, gave her back to me,” he said with a tear in his eye.

He wants to emphasize, however, that their situation is not unique: “Other pastors are out there going through the same thing of not having insurance. I'd be willing right now to give the first $100 to start a fund to help pastors like us who find themselves in the same kind of situations.”

Posted: 11/24/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
African-American lessons can instruct emerging Latinos

By Samuel Atchison

In his book, “The Other Face of America,” Jorge Ramos notes Hispanics comprise the largest minority in the country and are transforming the nation, both economically and culturally.

Yet, he argues, Latinos still face enormous barriers that range from xenophobia to racism. "The real challenge for the Hispanic community, then, is to transform its astonishing growth in numbers, its importance to the economy and its cultural influence into political power.”

Thus, the situation in the Hispanic community parallels the black community a generation ago, and it signals permanent change in the nation's racial and political landscape.

African-Americans have served as the poster children for racial inequity in this country, the result of the dual legacies of chattel slavery and legal segregation.

Indeed, the black-white race dynamic has become so ingrained in our psyche that before Sept. 11, 2001, most Americans were only vaguely aware other racial and ethnic groups were emerging.

But they are emerging.

As late as 1998, the President's Initiative on Race estimated in 2050, the population in the United States will be about 53 percent white, 25 percent Hispanic, 14 percent black, 8 percent Asian/Pacific Islander and 1 percent American Indian.

In fact, however, the 2000 Census showed the population is shifting even faster. The Census Bureau found, due largely to immigration, more than 35 million Hispanics–12.5 percent of the overall population–live in this country. By contrast, African-Americans total 34.6 million, or 12.3 percent of the population.

This suggests that while population growth among African-Americans is more or less keeping pace with the overall growth of the nation, Latinos are experiencing a population surge well ahead of the national curve.

Consider as well, Ramos writes, that the Hispanic community is becoming increasingly mobile, with remarkable growth in states like North Carolina, Iowa and Arkansas; Spanish-language media–newspapers, radio and television–are emerging as a major power in a number of American cities; and according to estimates, the purchasing power of Hispanics will reach $1 trillion by 2010.

The net effect is that even as Latinos wrestle with the myriad problems facing their community–treatment of undocumented workers, racism, poverty in the lower classes, unfavorable American policies toward Latin America–they are poised to address these issues in ways designed to get results.

They possess the cultural, economic and technological means necessary to obtain the political power needed to affect change.

By contrast, the African-American community is in danger of having the world pass it by. Thirty years after the civil rights and black power movements, many blacks still are chanting the same mantra of reparations and set-asides of a generation ago.

Moreover, as Khallid al-Mansour notes in his book, “Betrayal by Any Other Name,” some black leaders played a deceptive shell game by enriching themselves and their cronies in the name of the poor. In so doing, they compromised their moral authority, offending those they purported to represent.

Today, as Hispanic leaders give voice to the hopes of a diverse and needy people, they would do well to learn from the failures of some of their black counterparts: Never forget where you came from, and don't forget where you're going.

Samuel Atchison is a fellow of the George H. Gallup International Institute in Princeton, N.J. His column is distributed by Religion News Service

Posted: 11/24/03

DOWN HOME:
Cranberry sauce or spicy salsa?

Here's a Thanksgiving quiz for you:

Question #1: Who celebrated the first Thanksgiving in North America?

Question #2: Where did they celebrate?

Question #3: In what year did this celebration occur?

If you answered (1) the Pilgrims, (2) Plymouth and (3) 1621, do not pass “Go,” do not help yourself to another piece of pecan pie. Sit down and write a letter to your first-grade teacher, thanking her for misinforming you about this singular event in American history.

The first Thanksgiving celebration had a distinctively Tex-Mex (really Mex-Tex) flavor.

In 1598, Don Juan de Onate, scion of a respected Spanish family, led a band of 500 colonists from Santa Barbara, Mexico, through the desert toward New Mexico, where they hoped to mine gold and get rich.

Well, the desert must've been rougher than they expected. Shortly after they journeyed through El Paso Del Rio Del Norte (“The Pass Across the River of the North”), they stopped to rest. And to claim the land for the king of Spain, who thought Europe was too small.

Onate stood in Texas–near present-day Socorro–and he was so happy to be here, he declared a Feast of Thanksgiving. While his servants cooked, he painted a sign on the back of his wagon that said, “I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could” and another that read, “Spanish scion by birth; Texan by the grace of God.” (OK, that part's not true.)

And so, the Spanish Catholics beat the English Pilgrims to Thanksgiving by 23 years and half a continent.

Experts say “the victors” write the history. For the last 400 years of American history, the Anglos have been “the victors.” (That's about to change, but that's another story.) And that's why we've always talked about Miles Standish instead of Don Juan de Onate this time of year.

But let's be honest: Don't you wish somebody besides the English Pilgrims had obtained the copyright, trademark, brand or at least cookbook for Thanksgiving?

If we followed history more closely, we'd spend Thanksgiving afternoon watching soccer instead of football. But what a small price to pay.

Instead of gnawing on turkey, we'd feast on enchiladas, chile rellenos, tamales and fajitas. Who'd miss that sweet potato dish with the little marshmallows on top when you could have guacamole, salsa and chips? And forget pumpkin pie; we'd polish off our meal with sopapillas and flan.

Whatever you place on your table this Thanksgiving, may you circle it with love. May the laughter of family and friends provide the soundtrack for your holiday. And no matter what else has happened this year, may you recall 10 things for which you look to heaven and thank the God of all good gifts. Even turkey.

Posted: 11/24/03

EDITORIAL:
Priesthood of the believer defines Baptists' differences

If you could study Baptists' DNA under a theological microscope, the defining chromosome–the strand that gives shape to all others–would be labeled “priesthood of the believer.”

Of course, numerous Baptist characteristics have received more attention, especially in recent decades. During the 1980s, at the height of the Southern Baptist Convention controversy, disagreement over Baptists' understanding of the nature of Scripture grabbed countless headlines. In the '90s, after one group gained control of the convention, Baptists focused on relationships, particularly between the fundamentalist-run SBC and the emerging moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. In the last few years, Baptists have debated how to conduct foreign and domestic missions. Baptists also have argued long and hard about structure, particularly the links–financial and relational–between churches and conventions, as well as between state and national conventions. If you've paid close attention, you probably could suggest a dozen other defining characteristics.

But Baptists' perspectives on the priesthood of the believer–the doctrine they have contributed to the larger church–pervade all these issues. In general, an interpretation of the priesthood of the believer determines how a person or group understands humanity's place in the world. And that determination divides Baptists.

We are not Lone Ranger Christians, riding off alone with God. We're responsible to God, but we're accountable to each other.

Before we go on, some background: The theological foundation for the priesthood of the believer is a doctrine called soul competency. It suggests each person is born with a soul, the core of one's spiritual being, that makes the person competent to relate directly to a loving and righteous God. The creation accounts of Genesis, cycle of rebellion-reconciliation-rebellion of the Old Testament and grace-filled glory of the New Testament all affirm people were made for a loving relationship with God. They were provided with competence, or free will, to accept or reject God's love. Otherwise, their love for God would be coerced and therefore bogus.

Consequently, we say that all people are entitled to be “priests” before God. No one needs a human intermediary–another priest–to facilitate a personal relationship with God. Each person is capable of giving and receiving God's love, seeking God's counsel, approaching God with needs and repenting directly to God.

This is a great privilege. Unfortunately, many Baptists–from the right as well as the left–understand the priesthood of the believer this far. That causes them to grasp only half the doctrine, which leads to misunderstanding and division.

The easy, enticing half of the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer is privilege. Who wouldn't feel proud, honored and grateful to relate directly to the King of the universe? The other half of the doctrine, however, is responsibility. Each person is responsible–to God and to others–for how this mighty privilege is used.

This concept is easier to understand when you think about the role of a priest within a congregation. He obviously enjoys privileges, such as presiding in worship and receiving recognition for his position. But he also bears enormous responsibility–both to God and to the people–for his stewardship of privilege and service to others.

The same goes for Baptists who believe in and practice the priesthood of the believer. We are privileged to go before God, to relate to God. We ask and receive God's guidance as we interpret Scripture, determine divine will for our lives and seek forgiveness of our sins. But we also exist in a community of believers, and we're responsible to serve them and are accountable to them. That's why Baptist historian Bill Leonard has suggested we re-name this doctrine “priesthood of all believers.” We are not Lone Ranger Christians, riding off alone with God. We're responsible to God, but we're accountable to each other.

Earlier, I mentioned Baptists' perspectives on the priesthood of the believer provide the defining chromosome in our DNA. That's because we see human tendency–and thus individual inclination to come down on the privilege or responsibility side of the doctrinal equation–differently.

This in large measure has to do with how much we emphasize another doctrine, total depravity. Articulated by Reformer John Calvin, the doctrine of total depravity insists that, since Adam and Eve, all people are sinners. Everyone yields to the urge to place self above God. “There is no one righteous, no, not one,” the Apostle Paul wrote.

Baptists believe this. We'd be hard pressed to name a Baptist who does not believe in total depravity, in humanity's sinful nature. However, the emphasis that different kinds of Baptists place on this determines how they come down on the priesthood of the believer and how they behave toward others.

Fundamentalists are more inclined to emphasize just how comprehensive and awful total depravity really is. Therefore, they naturally assume people will take advantage of the priesthood of the believer–abuse the generosity of privilege and ignore the accountability of responsibility. That's why they tend to go ballistic when others claim Jesus is all they need to guide them to do right; they're pretty sure a sinful person will take advantage of Jesus' goodwill. So, they insist on making people sign creeds and affirm new statements of belief. They're trying to build a theological wall to protect sinful souls from the evils of a wicked world.

Non-fundamentalists see it differently. While they recognize total depravity, they also stress that people are created in God's image. They're more inclined to believe people will do right and will land on the responsibility side of the priesthood of the believer. They emphasize that “me and Jesus” are sufficient to make all decisions, but they reason that a loving relationship with Jesus will compel a Christian to seek goodness and responsibility, not license and theological hedonism. For their part, they tend to be a little naive about human nature and sometimes even too quick to discount the value of Christian community.

Both extremes miss the nuance–and the beauty–of the priesthood of all believers. Some of us need to remember the church is a community of faith. We're accountable to each other, and all believers should be exhorted toward responsibility as well as privilege. Fundamentalists need to recognize Christians reflect Christ's image and are motivated by freedom to love (which was why we were created in the first place). Confessions of faith may be theologically accurate and precisely articulate the beliefs of Baptists. But if they are coerced, they become creeds that imprison souls and deny spiritual freedom.

–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted: 11/24/03

Scarborough Hall begins
new chapter at ETBU

MARSHALL–An old building has a new look and a new name at East Texas Baptist University.

Scarborough Memorial Chapel opened in 1948 as both a chapel and home to the music department. It was named by its benefactor, Evelyn Scarborough Linebery, as a memorial to her parents, W.F. and Kara Scarborough, and her uncle and aunt, L.R. and Neppie Scarborough. L.R. Scarborough was president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Over the past two years, the structure has been gutted and refitted as an academic center at a cost of $2 million. The exterior remains essentially the same in appearance.

The Nov. 14 rededication service was held on the front lawn of Marshall Hall, facing the neo-gothic landmark building. The ceremony kicked off homecoming activities.

Scarborough Hall has four floors of academic space. The first floor will house the Advising and Career Development Center and the communications department. The School of Religious Studies will occupy the second floor. The history/political science department will occupy the third floor, and the fourth floor will be home to the English department.

The English writing lab features a large picture window overlooking the campus. Each floor has office space and classrooms.

Rita Storie Turner, a 1948 graduate of East Texas Baptist College, was present at the original dedication service. She gave the keynote address at the rededication.

“My stay on the hill was one of the happiest times of my life,” she said. “I came at the age of 16. The names have changed–College of Marshall, East Texas Baptist College, East Texas Baptist University–but the vision remains the same, the continuity of Christian education.”

Posted: 11/24/03

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Nov. 30

Christians are heaven's ambassadors on earth

Colossians 3:18-4:18

By John Duncan

Lakeside Baptist Church, Granbury

What does a Christian look like in the 21st century? Paul's word to the Colossians paints a picture of a Christian–a person of prayer; witness; wisdom in daily life; and graceful speech that remembers God's servants are salt and light to the world. John Calvin describes it, “For the church is like a city of which all believers are the mutual inhabitants, joined with each other by a mutual kinship; but unbelievers are foreigners.” As a citizen of a city, the Christian is one fulfilling obligations of honor and duty to please the leaders of the city, according to Calvin. In the case of the Christian, he or she desires to serve Christ as a heavenly citizen while on earth.

Prayer

Paul encourages the church to “keep close company with prayer” (4:2). Described another way, Paul asks the church to “busily engage in prayer” with watchfulness. Paul's hint here is that the Christian life possesses danger. Prayer combats that danger. Prayer awakens the spiritual life so that grace touches the soul and gratitude flows from the lips. Speech and words are important to Paul. Therefore, he simply says what Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). What is in the heart comes out, either good or bad. The Christian prays God's grace, and gratitude results.

Paul longs for the Christian to have speech always seasoned with grace, like salt flavoring meat (Colossians 4:6). Prayer prepares the heart for what may need to come out later in conversation with another person. Prayers of grace sprinkle gratitude and also give the Christian an answer for speaking to others when necessary (v. 6). Christian speech honors Christ, flavors the world with the spice of God's grace and delivers words of purity for individual edification.

Testimony

Paul knows the importance of words carefully chosen to give witness to the cross (v. 3). Paul desired prayer for an open door (v. 3). The prayer was for the removal of hindrances to preaching (in Paul's case, he was in prison) and a prayer of opportunity for the good news of the gospel to go forth. Paul anxiously longed for the testimony of the cross, grace and God's peace to be told. He wished for the mystery of Christ to touch hearts and change lives (v. 3). Paul felt a moral obligation to announce the gospel (v. 4). The necessity was to make clear what Christ came to do–save, provide eternal life, love and grace the soul unto salvation.

Paul names fellow servants for Christ who also give witness to the gospel–Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Marcus, Barnabas, Justus, Epaphras, Luke, Demas, Nymphas and Archippus. For the testimony of God's grace to be delivered, there must be zeal or enthusiasm, comfort, encouragement, a public reading of the Scriptures and faithfulness in service to Christ. Each person Paul names possesses these kinds of qualities and fruitfulness for witness that comes through Christ.

Wisdom

The Christians were to walk in wisdom (v. 5). Paul probably has in mind the philosophers and sophists of the day who gave their philosophies on speakers' corners in major cities. They shared their philosophic words about life as peripatetic walkers, those who walk in circles. Paul's gospel was more than a philosophy spoken in public places; it was a word of salvation that transformed soul, heart, mind, duty, conduct and life itself. Paul wishes for the Christian to speak and to conduct himself or herself in wisdom face to face to those outside of the gospel.

Paul sees Christ's servants who give testimony as heavenly citizens who speak and live as kingdom citizens on the earth. The witness for Christ and the cross comes in the daily traffic pattern of normal life in the city. The witness invites foreigners (“outside the gospel”) to become citizens of Christ's kingdom through grace and salvation. The witness anticipates the heavenly city where Christ dwells and heaven as the eternal home of Christian citizens when they leave this earth.

Praying, giving testimony in words for Jesus and displays of wisdom to the world, requires “redeeming the time” (v. 5). The idea is to set free the use of time by freeing it from worldly waste. It also means to “buy back at the market place” and involves conserving time like you would money and placing supreme value on it. Furthermore, the word indicates using time wisely and for God's glory. This does not mean the neurotic obsession with time, but the valuable use of time for witness, rest and service to please an audience of One (Christ).

Grace-filled speech

Paul feels a spiritual obligation to speak the good news of Jesus (v. 4, “ought”). Paul never strays far from the cross, the resurrection of Christ and the ascension of Jesus. Christ ascends, and the Holy Spirit comes to fill believers with God's grace. Christ lives in the Christian's heart by grace and peace, mercy and truth, thus supplying graceful and peaceful speech. Grace overflows from the heart that Christ has graced.

Question for discussion

What should identify citizens of heaven living on earth?

Posted: 11/24/03

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Dec. 7

A fish tale: When the grace of God spat

Jonah 1:1-2:9

By John Duncan

Lakeside Baptist Church, Granbury

God's call to serve comes to every Christian. The book of Jonah relays the message of God's call, one man's journey through disobedience and obedience, and God's gracious hand at work on a wide sea of trouble.

God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach the gospel. Nineveh, in the common language of Eugene Peterson, was not a “tall-steeple church with a cheesecake congregation,” but it was a place where wickedness reigned and where God's grace longed to transform hearts. Jonah fled like a runaway to Tarshish “from the presence of the Lord” (1:3). Think of Nineveh as God's call, plan, service and will. Think of Tarshish as man or woman's quest to please the self and an odyssey of “storm trouble” (Peterson). Trouble comes when we flee from God.

Cry out in the deep and dark

Jonah prayed to God in his storm trouble (2:1). Jonah had run from God's presence, or literally, “from God's face.” Jonah flees on a ship to Tarshish, a storms erupts, Jonah is thrown overboard and fights for his survival on a deep and dark sea. The power of the storm is described as broken up (1:4), swelling (v. 11, “tempestuous”) and raging like a man in a flash of red-hot anger (v. 15).

The sailors ask Jonah for help. They ask him “Why?” They draw straws to see if Jonah is the reason for the tossing ship on the sea and then throw him into the crashing waves of water (vv. 4-15). The storm calms, the sailors on the ship find relief and turn to God with a sacrifice and vows (v. 16). In the process of God seeking to get Jonah's attention, he got the attention of the sailors.

A large fish, possibly a whale, swallows Jonah whole (2:1). Jonah finds himself sucking seaweed and surviving in the bone-lined fish's belly on a wide sea in a tight space where darkness reigns. All Jonah knows to do is pray (v. 2).

P.T. Forsyth once said, “Prayer, true prayer, does not allow us to deceive ourselves. It relaxes the tension of our self-inflation. It produces clearness of spiritual vision.” Jonah prayed by confessing his anguish, his darkness, his condition, and his need for God's light and rescue (vv. 2-4).

Saint John of the Cross, a 16th century poet and mystic, once described his own anguish as a “dark night of the soul … as an inner sense of exile.” Jonah was exiled in the darkness of a fish's belly for three days and nights. In darkness Jonah feels pressure (literally, “affliction”).

Is God listening?

Jonah knew his choices entangled and imprisoned his life in a web of seaweed (v. 5). He acknowledged what his eyes before had rejected–that he needed to look to God and his presence again (v. 4). Worship in the darkness gives pause to reflect on God's light. Jonah's worship led him to confess his own sin (v. 6). Jonah described his life on the run against God's call as a move from God's mountain (of grace) to a fall to a low place on earth (“baseness,” referred to as the base of a mountain, v. 6). Jonah professed his need for God, as one who could deliver (literally, “overpower”) his life from the pit of destruction, sin and death. Jonah knew his life was “cut off” from God.

Jonah again described his condition as faint or weary in the darkness (literally, “to swoon,” v. 7). He remembered God's call, plan and will for himself and Nineveh. God's will never moves in isolation. It always includes God's light, spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear and service to others in God's name. Jonah reveals his need for God's presence, described as his inner, holy presence filling the temple (v. 7). Jonah contrasts the filling of God with the emptiness of idols, a reference to things that are breathless or without life. True, abundant life is found in God's mercy. Jonah admits that the people who worship idols, those who run from God and those who flee God's call, forsake their own mercy (v. 8). It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed (Lamentations 3:22-23). God's mercy spits Jonah on the shore (Jonah 2:10). Darkness surrenders to the light. God hears Jonah's cry from the deep and dark.

A reversal

Jonah experiences a reversal of fortune by God's grace. Amid seaweed and vomit, sand and a shore, God renews Jonah in an act of worshipful sacrifice (v. 9). The great reversal in Jonah's life occurs in confession and repentance. Jonah sacrifices to God and thanks God. He renews his vow to follow God's call, plan and will. He aims to see God's vision for himself and for Nineveh. He longs to hear God's voice and respond as God's servant. He acknowledges that salvation, both for him in a raging, dark sea of trouble and for the wicked Ninevites, comes through God (v. 9).

The preacher and commentator Charles Spurgeon said, “Jonah learned this sentence of theology in a strange college.” Jonah attended the school of hard knocks, running feet, raging seas and a dark night of life and soul, but through it all God's mercy spit Jonah onto the shores of God's service.

Questions for discussion

Has running from God ever brought you to a dark, smelly place you didn't want to be?