2006 Archives
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TOGETHER: Work together to share God’s grace
Posted: 11/10/06
TOGETHER:
Work together to share God’s grace“Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”
Those are the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 6:2. He reveals the truth that God has smiled on the world, that there is a new hope come to humanity.
When Jesus was baptized, “heaven was opened” (Matthew 3:16). I heard Denton Lotz, leader of the Baptist World Alliance, say it was common before Jesus for people to believe that the heavens were closed except for a few. But God, in Christ, throws open the heavens. Now, all of us—Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female—are candidates for God’s grace.
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
Or as Dallas Willard puts it in The Divine Conspiracy, “The really good news for humanity is that Jesus is now taking students in the master class of life.” Jesus invites us to enroll in this class and to learn from him. It is a class where we learn to become like our teacher. And there is no sign in the registration line that says, “Class closed.” There is a seat for everyone who wishes to enter.
11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Degree of Difference Day draws Wayland workers
Posted: 11/10/06
Jeremiah Saiz, assistant coach for the Wayland Pioneer baseball team, rakes the playground gravel level at Wee Care Child Care Center, while Celeste Louder (left) of Hereford and Callie Wheeler of Whitewright pull weeds from the playground. Degree of Difference Day draws Wayland workers
By Teresa Young
Wayland Baptist University
PLAINVIEW—About 300 Wayland Baptist University students, faculty and staff donated a recent Saturday to community projects throughout the Plainview area as part of the school’s Degree of Difference Day.
Each volunteer worked at least five hours. Teams worked in construction on a Habitat for Humanity house; painted and made minor repairs for the College Hill Day Care Center, Wee Care Child Center, Whiteaker Youth Center, Plainview Christian Academy and Compassionate Care Preg-nancy Center; and did office work and organizational projects at the Hale County Crisis Center and Vista Care Hospice.
11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Singles seek soul mates on the Web
Posted: 11/10/06
Singles seek soul mates on the Web
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)—For spiritual singles seeking a soul mate in cyberspace, one pool of potential matches is about to get a lot bigger.
Beliefnet, whose spirituality website—Beliefnet.com—attracts 3.1 million users per month, announced it will connect its dating service users with those of Yahoo Personals, an online dating service based in Sunnyvale, Calif.
11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Youth ministers urged to understand middle-school culture
Posted: 11/10/06
Youth ministry specialist Chap Clark visits with youth ministers from Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma at Youth Ministry Conclave 2006 to help meet their needs as they work to reach teenagers for Christ. Youth ministers urged to
understand middle-school cultureBy Barbara Bedrick
Texas Baptist Communications
ARLINGTON—Chaos, confusion and abandonment characterize youth culture today, a national youth ministry expert asserted. But he challenged Baptist youth ministers to help teens turn the chaos into the comfort Christ brings.
Christian author and youth ministry specialist Chap Clark, associate professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, urges youth ministers to spend time in the real world.
11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Cybercolumn By John Duncan: Thanksgiving list
Posted: 11/10/06
CYBER COLUMN:
Thanksgiving listBy John Duncan
I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering life as I know it on this rainy day. Another Sunday has folded its page on the calendar, and Thanksgiving soon arrives. I love the Lord, Sundays, the church and have so much for which to give thanks.
Actually, I was thinking about that first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has its roots in the harvest home celebrations that took place in England before the Pilgrims ever arrived on the sand and shores of America. Thirty-eight English settlers docked the shores of the James River at the Berkley plantation in what is today known as Charles City, Va. The settlers declared, a “Day of thanksgiving to God” after their torturous ride across the Atlantic. Later, another group of Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock on Dec. 11, 1620, and then further south at Cape Cod, Mass. I can only imagine that first, harsh winter in New England. The snow, the questions, the death as they lost about half their settlers, the grief, the misery, the agony, the anger, the longing for home, the joy, and even the adventure of the new land.
John Duncan 11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 11/10/06
Texas Baptist Forum
Not all brothers
Why do people assume Christians, Jews and Muslims are all heirs of Abraham?
Abraham was not Noah; certainly not Adam or God. He wasn’t in a vacuum, and humanity didn’t begin with him. There were plenty of people alive already when God told him (Genesis 12:1) to get away from them, including his kinfolks. And what about those living in the land God sent him to, not to mention enemies along the way? Who are their descendants today?
Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum. 
“Dear friends, until Moses comes down with two stone tablets from Brokeback Mountain saying we’ve changed the rules, let’s keep it like it is.”
Mike Huckabee
Arkansas governor and former Baptist pastor, speaking about same-sex marriage (RNS)“Those of us on the right have been losing ground since the 1970s and ’80s. Can we ultimately win? I think you would need a reconversion of the country to a traditionalist, Christian point of view—and I don’t see that coming.”
Pat Buchanan
Conservative author of the new book State of Emergency, discussing his belief that conservatives will lose the culture wars (Time magazine/RNS)“Abu Ghraib: I believe that really hurt us. It hurt us internationally. It kind of eased us off the moral high ground; we weren’t a country that was capable of, on the one hand, promoting democracy and then treating people decently.”
President Bush
Responding to a reporter’s question at a White House news conference about torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (RNS)I have to believe those who truly claim Abraham as their ancestral or spiritual patriarch cannot be enemies among themselves, and those of murderous intent surely descended from the “mixed multitudes” that were a threat then, as now. The fact is, none of us knows who we truly are genetically, only who we choose to be and how we choose to behave.
11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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2nd Opinion: Who will seek Middle East peace?
Posted: 11/10/06
2nd Opinion:
Who will seek Middle East peace?By Denton Lotz
Every day, the church is confronted with great ethical issues involving war and peace, corruption and justice, issues of both personal and social consequences. The waiting world, in the form of the secular media, wants answers from Christians: “Whose side are you on? Where do you stand?” Unfortunately, the church and world are so polarized that often we do not speak with one voice. This has always been the case with humanity, from Cain and Abel disagreeing until today.
During the days of the Vietnam War, there were great ethical controversies confronting the church. Paul Ramsey, professor of ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, wrote a book titled Who Speaks for the Church? He questioned whether the liberal voice was truly speaking for the church.
Today, there are those who ask whether the conservative voice is really speaking for the church. The war between Israel and Hezbollah has again forced Christians to give an answer. And many different answers have been given.
11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
