Posted: 9/06/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for September 16

Facing the fiery furnace

• Daniel 3:1-2,4-6,8,12-14,16-18,24-26a,28

By Steve Dominy

First Baptist Church, Gatesville

This story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is one of the best known in all the Bible. Any time you have a song written to tell your story, you can pretty well guarantee the story is well known. There is good reason this story is so popular; it is a great story! It has everything a good story needs; a good plot, intrigue, conflict and a miraculous rescue—what more could you need?

There are three primary themes in this story. The first theme deals with idolatry. Nebuchadnezzar built a statue of gold, 90 feet high and nine feet wide and commanded everyone to fall down and worship before the statue or be thrown into a blazing furnace.

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It was easy for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to recognize the threat here. They are being told to demote their God by not worshipping him alone. They are told to worship the statue of a god they know does not exist and recognize this nonexistent god as an equal to the living God of Israel.

For the people of Babylon, worshipping this idol would not have been a problem; they recognized many gods and would not have had a problem adding one more god to their repertoire. But for people who have been raised on the Shema, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), bowing before a supposed god would have been the height of treason.

It is easy for us to recognize this as idolatry, it doesn’t get much more blatant than this story. Our temptation towards idolatry is much more subtle than the story of the fiery furnace and is much more dangerous. None of us will be threatened with death if we do not bow before an idol, but we will be tempted to put our trust in something other than the crucified and risen Christ.

Some of the things that can vie for our loyalty and love are the things God has given us. One of the most obvious is family. You probably have heard it said in a wedding ceremony, “Even before the foundation of the church, God formed the family,” and it is an accurate statement. Family can become an idol when we separate it from subjection to the lordship of Christ. It happens when we compartmentalize our lives so that God takes care of our “spiritual” life, but we believe we can handle our marriage and children. Family then becomes more important than God, and we miss the blessing God has for our family by not committing our family to him.

The same is true of the church. When the church becomes more important than what God does in and through the church we have made it an idol and have taken its leadership out of God’s hands. When we are more proud of the programs, buildings, budgets and attendance than we are of God’s presence in our midst, then the church has taken the place of the God who has made us a part of it and become an idol.

The second important theme is courage. While it would have been easy for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to recognize the threat of idolatry, it would have been another thing altogether to refuse to fall down before it in the face of the threat of death.

The manner in which they exhibited their courage is a great model for us to follow. Nebuchadnezzar had no idea anyone was refusing to obey his command until some of his astrologers told him. There was no false bravado; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego simply lived their lives as they always had—worshipping the one true God and not an idol. They did not go to the town square or stand on the feet of the idol and proclaim its falsehood. They did not threaten the Babylonians with the consequences of their worship of a false god; they lived their lives as they always had.

Even before Nebuchadnezzar, their courage is displayed in a dignified manner. They did not threaten the king, they simply stated that their faith was in God and not in the king or any of the idols he had made. They did not challenge Nebuchadnezzar to a contest to see whose God was greater. They simply stated that their God was able to rescue them, but even if God did not, they would not bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol. The three friends would live their lives in a manner that honored God. We will see the manner in which they displayed their courage was important to the final result.

The third theme is God’s faithfulness and redemption. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were convinced of God’s faithfulness regardless of the outcome. This theme has been revealed previously in the book of Daniel; God’s faithfulness is not contingent on the circumstances of life. This time God’s faithfulness is revealed in the friend’s redemption from the fiery furnace. The result is that Nebuchadnezzar again recognizes that, “no other god can save in this way.”

The manner in which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego displayed their courage and faithfulness is similar to the way Jesus displayed his faithfulness. Jesus did not call down fire from heaven on those who condemned him but humbled himself to the point of death on a cross.

Living a Christian life with courage and faithfulness does not mean we have to stand on the mountain to proclaim his greatness against all others. God chose the way of the cross to redeem the world, a way of shame and humiliation, not bravado and boisterousness. God calls his people to do the same, living a life totally dependent upon his grace and mercy, trusting in no other than him.

Discussion questions

• In what ways are Christians apt to make their church into an idol?

• Why do courage and humility seldom go together?

• Have you sometimes questioned God’s faithfulness in the midst of the storms of life?

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Posted: 9/06/07

Campus minister shared story of Jesus,
kept his own wartime story to himself

Retired Baptist Student Union Director Donnal Timmons described his experiences as a World War II prisoner of war in vivid detail to his family and a few close friends.

Sixty captive soldiers were crammed into a single boxcar after marching days without food. Using a Gideon Bible, Timmons shared the New Testament plan of salvation with another frightened GI. His attempt at personal evangelism was interrupted by bullets that pierced the railway car and splinters that flew everywhere when fighter planes strafed the train.

At a reunion in Irving, Donnal Timmons accepts a crystal 'praying hands' award from former students whose lives he touched during his service as a Baptist Student Union director.

Timmons’ select audience was mesmerized by his stories. But former college students who knew Timmons five decades earlier as their spiritual mentor were surprised to learn about his wartime trauma, which they learned about only in the last few years.

He served as Baptist Student Union director at the Texas College of Arts and Industries—now Texas A&M University-Kingsville—from 1949 to 1961.

When asked why he never shared his experiences as a POW with students during their college years, Timmons, now age 85, replied: “It wasn’t important anymore. What was happening in your lives was what mattered.”

Rather than focusing on stories about wartime exploits, Timmons never tired of telling students a different story—about what Jesus Christ had done in his life and what he could do for them.

“My parents were sharecroppers. They spent their last 50 cents to buy gas for the neighbor’s car so we could all attend a revival in Brownfield,” Timmons said.

“I don’t remember exactly what the minister said that night. I just accepted the Lord as my personal savior and made my decision public. Lying in the bed of the Model T Coupe on the bumpy road home, I wouldn’t say a word. It was too sacred. I felt a deep peace that has been with me all of my life.”

Timmons focused his ministry on mentoring before it was in vogue, former students noted.

Unknown to nearly all the students he mentored during his time as a BSU director, Timmons was a POW during World War II. He earned three battle stars, a combat infantry badge and a Purple Heart.

“One-on-one, he was a great listener. More often he asked questions and directed us to Scripture and prayer instead of answering,” said Janis Hudson of Keller. “He ministered. He helped lost souls find Christ. He taught Bible. He had a truly personal touch making everyone feel special. He delegated. It gave him time with his wife and four children. Students were empowered.”

Many students left the Kingsville campus to become pastors, missionaries, deacons, music directors, and Bible teachers, she noted.

Former students recalled Timmons’ wry sense of humor and how he used it to keep them accountable.

Phillip Hudson—now a deacon at First Baptist Church in Richardson—served as a BSU council member, song leader at vesper services and part-time janitor at the campus student ministry center.

When Hudson failed to adequately clean the facility on one occasion, he remembered the message Timmons left him on a chalkboard: “Phil, this room if philthy!” Hudson promptly cleaned the room.

At a recent event in Devine, at the home Bobby and Barbara Killough, many of Timmons’ former students gathered from across the United States to honor him.

“He never urged, ‘Follow me.’ He always taught, ‘Follow Christ,’” one former student said in a testimonial to Timmons’ lasting influence “Faith, commitment, sacrifice, and God’s peace have endured.”

—Based on reporting by Janis Hudson

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Posted: 9/06/07

James Kennedy, elder statesman
of Religious Right, dead at 76

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ABP)—Presbyterian minister James Kennedy died Sept. 5, little more than a week after he retired from the pulpit that helped him launch both evangelistic and political ministries.

Kennedy, who was 76, had served for nearly half a century as pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But he was also one of the pioneers of television ministry, a seminary founder and the head of an activist empire devoted to what he believed was the restoration of the United States as a “Christian nation.”

According to Coral Ridge Ministries, the umbrella group for his ministry efforts, his death resulted from complications following a heart attack he suffered late last year. He had stepped down from his day-to-day role as head of the church and ministry while undergoing rehabilitation, but worshipers at the church learned Aug. 26 that he would be unable to return to his duties.

Kennedy’s death comes just months after that of his better-known contemporary, Jerry Falwell, and at a time when some commentators have also pronounced the demise of the Religious Right movement they helped birth.

Nonetheless, his supporters praised Kennedy’s understated leadership in a movement where fierier orators often overshadowed the erudite and highly educated Presbyterian.

“He ‘walked the walk’ and ‘practiced what he preached,’” his daughter, Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy, said in a statement posted Sept. 5 on Coral Ridge Ministries’ website. “His work for Christ is lasting—it will go on and on and make a difference for eternity.”

Kennedy, who was born in Georgia but raised in Chicago, became a Christian in his early 20s. He entered Columbia Theological Seminary, now a Presbyterian Church USA school, and went to pastor Coral Ridge, then a tiny mission church, in 1959. The congregation later joined the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, formed mainly by Southerners who broke with the mainstream Presbyterian denomination over the ordination of women and other issues.

After training the church’s members in effective means of personal evangelism, the church began to grow explosively. His method, called “Evangelism Explosion,” became popular in the Southern Baptist Convention and across evangelicalism. By the 1970s, Kennedy had written several books and built a congregation thousands strong. He began television broadcasts of his sermons from Coral Ridge, which built a massive facility with a 30-story-tall steeple and one of the nation’s largest pipe organs.

Kennedy’s work soon moved from evangelizing individuals to evangelizing the culture for what he considered Christian values on policy issues. He served on the initial board of Falwell’s Moral Majority, which aimed to mobilize conservative evangelical voters who had previously shunned politics. He later founded the Center for Reclaiming America, which brought Christian activists to Fort Lauderdale for training on effective issue advocacy.

Kennedy advocated staunchly in opposition to abortion and in favor of government endorsements of Christianity. He was a strong supporter of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who lost his job after defying a court order to remove monument to the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the court’s building. In 2001, a crew from Coral Ridge filmed the clandestine installation of the two-ton granite monolith—inscribed with the Protestant King James translation of the biblical commandments—although Moore’s fellow justices were not even aware it was being placed in the building.

Coral Ridge Ministries later raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for Moore’s legal defense, but he lost all of his appeals and was removed from office in 2003. At the time, Kennedy characterized the judge as a legal martyr.

“Moore is being punished for upholding the rule of law, for following the will of the voters, for faithfully upholding his oath of office, and for refusing to bow to tyranny,” he said. “For too long, too many elected officials have bowed in submission to lawless federal court edicts that set aside life and liberty. They have stood by as, case by case, God and biblical morality have been removed from public life. At some point, the representatives of the people must defend the rule of law and oppose tyranny.”

His views on such issues made him a frequent adversary of those who support strong church-state separation, such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Barry Lynn, the group’s director, called Kennedy a “key architect” of the Religious Right who “played a huge role in building the religious conservative movement” even though Falwell and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson are better known.

“His many books were quite important, because they offered the theological underpinnings for the Religious Right’s political stances,” Lynn said in an e-mail interview.

“Rev. Kennedy often drew a good bit of fire from critics of the Religious Right, because they would accuse him of having theocratic ideas because he had a more sophisticated set of theories and ideas about why conservative Christians should be involved in politics,” said John Green, an expert on conservative evangelicals at Washington’s non-partisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

But Green said he didn’t think Kennedy was a true theocrat, even though he sometimes left himself open to the charge.

“I would say, though, that he often talked in the kinds of terms that led his critics to label him that way,” he said. Green also noted that Kennedy sometimes associated with true theocrats, such as Rousas Rushdoony of the Christian Reconstructionism movement. The movement advocates Christians taking “dominion” over government and seeks to reinstate Old Testament law, including capital punishment for crimes such as adultery and homosexuality.

The death of Kennedy and Falwell mark a changing of the guard among politically-oriented evangelicals, Green said. A new generation of evangelical leaders have, while continuing to express opposition to abortion and homosexuality, also expressed a desire to broaden the movement’s agenda to encompass fighting global poverty and protecting the environment.

That doesn’t mark an ideological difference so much as a natural historical progression, he said, because of the fact that people like Kennedy got conservative evangelicals to engage in political activism. “There’s also a little bit of a different style—(Kennedy and Falwell) were hard-edged, they were confrontational in their politics. They didn’t compromise,” Green said.

“Part of that is, I think, the difference in time,” he continued. “When the Rev. Kennedy came into politics, there weren’t very many people to compromise with, because conservative Christians weren’t involved in politics.”

Besides his daughter, Kennedy is survived by his wife, Anne, of 51 years.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 9/05/07

Missionaries from Texas
ride out Hurricane Felix

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua— Southern Baptist missionaries Jim and Viola Palmer of Athens and a team of volunteers from a Florida church rode out the brunt of Hurricane Felix Tuesday morning in Puerto Cabezas, a port city of about 25,000 in Nicaragua.

“We got smacked pretty hard,” said Jim Palmer. But most of their house and the Baptist churches in Puerto Cabezas survived the storm.

Felix marks the third hurricane the Palmers have lived through in their eight years as Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionaries in Nicaragua.

A 13-person mission team from Salem Baptist Church in Perry, Fla., stayed with the Palmers through onslaught by Hurricane Felix.

The three Baptist churches in Puerto Cabezas survived the storm, Palmer said via telephone Tuesday evening.

“Our churches were packed (with people) through the night” Monday, and every church withstood the storm,” he said. “These were churches built by Southern Baptist volunteers, and a lot of times the churches we build are the strongest buildings in the town.”

A five-acre experimental farm is part of the mission, and Felix “knocked down pretty much every tree” on the farm, Palmer said.

The mission house where the Palmers live lost its roof and a “good portion” of the second floor, but the walls and ceiling of the bottom floor are built with reinforced concrete in order to survive such storms, Palmer said. “We never contemplate leaving.”

The front edge of the storm hit Puerto Cabezas at about 5 a.m. Tuesday, he said. The back edge came through at about 9 a.m. and “really walloped the town.” By about 11 a.m., Palmer and others were able to emerge from hiding and evaluate the damage.

The Florida team was in Puerto Cabezas to do repair work on the local mission center and to use some heavy equipment owned by the mission to improve local roads. After the storm, those services were especially needed.

Using chainsaws and tractors, a portion of the team started clearing the main roads in the city, while the rest of the team began to work at the mission.

Puerto Cabezas was without electricity Tuesday evening, but the mission has its own generator to provide electricity, which also keeps the water flowing.

The IMB approved $5,000 in immediate disaster relief, and the Palmers already were using that to provide food for people Tuesday.

“We're grateful we were safe,” Palmer said, but he is concerned for the Meskito people with whom he and his wife work. “They live from day to day,” and that means no food in a disaster situation.

“Pray that this will be an opportunity to minister to people in their physical needs and to provide for their spiritual comfort,” he said. “Right now the most important thing is to find ways to minister to people.”

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Posted: 8/31/07

Bivocational church leader
Ray plans to retire this fall

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Baptist General Convention of Texas bivocational/small church affinity group director Bob Ray will retire this fall.

Ray, who helped start the Bivocational/Smaller Membership Ministers and Spouses Association in 1993, will retire some time this fall and move to Fairy, where he has served Fairy Baptist Church more than 40 years as pastor. He will be the first congregation’s first pastor to live in Fairy in the church’s 125-year history.

“The Lord has laid on Rosalind's heart and mine that now is the time to retire as director of the office of the bivocational/smaller church ministries and focus on our church family at Fairy,” he said. 

“Our plans are to continue to be supportive of the ministries of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and will continue to take an active part in the Texas Baptist Bivocational and Smaller Membership Ministers and Spouses Association.”

Ray said “serving and helping bivocational and smaller membership churches through the BGCT has enabled us to fulfill a dream.” 

“Smaller membership churches are a real passion of mine and will continue to be,” he said. ”This office gave me the opportunity to develop training events and opportunities to affirm and encourage the leaders of our smaller membership churches.  I was able to raise the level of awareness of the needs of our bivocational/smaller membership churches throughout the convention.”

Randy Rather, president of the bivocational/smaller church ministers’ association and pastor of Tidwell Baptist Church near Greenville, praised Ray’s commitment to small-church ministry.

“There is no one I have ever met who has been a greater advocate and has a bigger heart for small church and bivocational work,” he said.

“His passion for small church has shown in the years of support, service and ministry that he and Rosalind have brought to the Bivocational/Smaller Membership Ministers and Spouses Association. He’s brought a level of expertise and drawn out from those around him excellent ministry and a passion for that kind of work. He’s helped us lay the groundwork for the continued development and future of the association. Without his leadership, the association would not be what it is today.”

David Keith, former president of the association and pastor of Carlton Baptist Church in Carlton, thanked Ray for his service and his expertise.

“He’s forgotten more about bivocational work than most of us will ever learn,” Keith said. “Even before he was on staff, he and Rosalind were dedicated to bivocational work and spent thousands upon thousands of hours on it.”

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade remembers meeting Bob Ray when Wade served as BGCT president. He was struck by Ray’s leadership ability and heart for small church ministry.

“When the opportunity came to expand our ministry to bivocational ministers, I was glad we could call Bob Ray, a life-long bivocational minister to lead that effort,” Wade said. “He and his wife Rosalind have been remarkable leaders and the work has grown. Bob has laid a foundation that demands that we find the very best person possible to take the baton and lead our bivocational ministry to the future. Bob’s greatest strengths as I have observed are his steady and unwavering commitment to serve everyone. No one and no ministry is unimportant to Bob Ray.”

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Posted: 9/04/07

TBM volunteers respond to Minnesota floods

WINONA, Minn.—Texas Baptist Men volunteers are in Minnesota helping with clean-out efforts following severe flooding—and more are on the way, according to Ernie Rice of First Baptist Church in Stockdale.

Eight Texans were on the ground in Winona Sept. 4 by early afternoon, and six more were scheduled to arrive later in the day, said Rice, the coordinator for the TBM disaster relief effort. Thirty-five Texans were expected by the end of the week.

The Texans and volunteers from 10 other state Baptist convention were called out by the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board Sept. 1. The Texans were led by Gambrell Association, and Second Baptist Church of LaGrange cleanout units responded.

Southeastern Minnesota was flooded Aug. 18-19, with 15 inches of rain following in four hours in Winona, Rice said. The area has been declared a federal disaster area.

About 1,500 homes in Winona were affected, and 240 have requested help with the cleanup, he said. As of Tuesday afternoon, about half of the homes had been cleaned.

“These homes have full basements,” Rice said. The volunteers have to remove the wet stuff, then pressure wash and sanitize the house before homeowners can let the house dry and begin repairs.

“This is my favorite ministry because you have such close relationship” with the victims, Rice said. “You have time to minister and to give the hope of God to them.”

Winona “doesn’t have much Baptist work going on in it,” he noted.

The Texas volunteers expect to be in Minnesota 10 days, plus two days of travel at the beginning and end.

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Posted: 8/31/07

Combined youth choirs
‘converge’ on San Marcos

By George Henson

Staff Writer

SAN MARCOS—Youth choirs from six churches around Texas met in San Marcos to sound a note for unity.

Converge ’07 involved more than 150 teenagers from Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena, First Baptist Church in Abilene, Central Baptist Church in Marshall, First Baptist Church in Valley Mills and the host church, First Baptist Church in San Marcos.

“We see about 20 to 25 students in my choir, and my hope was to see them in a larger choir where they could learn more difficult and complicated music, exposing them to music we could never pull off with the limited number of voices on our own,” said Tim Lyles, minister of music and administration at the San Marcos church.

“It also gave them the opportunity to meet some other youth from like-minded churches around the state and really served as a good back-to-school event for churches involved.”

The gathering also provided First Baptist Church in San Marcos with a major event in its new worship facility. The church had met at San Marcos Baptist Academy the past two years until the church moved its present facility July 8.

“We just thought it would be a marvelous way to baptize the building,” said Bobby Miller, minister of music at South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena. “This will certainly be the largest group of voices in choir loft that building has seen.”

The choirs met and worked on five anthems for the Sunday morning service. Miller said the number of voices would expand all the individual choirs’ capabilities.

“All of these anthems are probably accessible to the individual choirs, but there is a confidence in numbers that should make it really great,” he said.

The germ of the idea for the gathering began to take shape in January when Lyles and Miller were together at an educational meeting.

The event that resulted from that conversation was received so well, plans already are forming to do it again next year.

Other churches that would like to join the experience can contact Lyles at tlyles@sanmarcosfbc.org.

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Posted: 8/31/07

EDITORIAL:
We can bridge the chasm of race

Every parent eventually encounters moments that send a clear signal: Your children are growing up in a world far removed from the little sphere of your childhood.

One of those transcendental times occurred when Lindsay and Molly, our daughters, were young—kindergarten- or early elementary-school age. Joanna and I sat in the school cafetorium as the principal read off the names of students who earned special recognition. I tried not to doze so I wouldn’t miss my own daughter’s name as she droned through the list of typical names of kids their age: Caitlin, Katy, Sara, Courtney, Dustin, Justin, Michael, Mohammad.

Mohammad? Now, there’s a name never mentioned when roll was called in the schoolrooms of my youth. Sure enough, a beautiful child with jet-black hair, olive skin and deep-brown eyes walked up to receive his certificate. He bore the look, and his parents spoke the soft accent, of a place far, far away.

That was the first of our family’s innumerable experiences with our public school systems’ amazing multi-culturalism. Through the years, our girls made friends with children whose families originated on six continents. They were called by a symphony of names, most of which I no longer can spell, that always sounded exotic and melodic, especially when pronounced by their parents.

One of our family’s great blessings was the good fortune to buy a home in the zone for our district’s most multi-racial, multi-ethnic public high school. Lindsay and Molly learned—through experience and the role models of great teachers and administrators—about the dignity and worth of all people, no matter their skin color or preferred language. They learned how to cooperate with people whose culture and expectations are very different from their own. They learned how to see the world through others’ eyes.

How I wish our churches would do as well as our schools when we approach racial and ethnic barriers.

More than 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke words that still ring true and sadly echo in our hearts: “I am … appalled that 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in Christian America.”

This paper includes a package of articles we’ve been calling “Race: The Final Frontier.” We’re taking a long, hard look at why race is such a difficult chasm for Christians to bridge. Don’t just read these articles; pray them. In the coming decades, how Christians handle race relations will either validate or negate our claims regarding the gospel. We can’t afford to get this wrong.

Christians of goodwill from many races openly and honestly discuss and disagree about whether truly multi-racial congregations are viable and/or preferable. And multitudes of Christians who have tried to create multi-cultural congregations—people whose hearts beat for unity—testify that it is extraordinarily difficult, for myriad reasons. Perhaps in time, our congregations will look more like heaven, not to mention our own state.

In the meantime, let us take steps to bridge the chasm between our churches of different races and ethnicities. Many congregations participate in joint worship services, which are good but which are easy and, frankly, not very demanding. Let’s try some other approaches. Here are some starters:

• Multi-racial fellowships or socials. Instead of pulling entire congregations together, arrange informal social times in which Sunday school classes of about the same age range meet to get to know each other and enjoy one another’s company.

• Joint ministries. Bring churches together to minister in their community. Nothing like shared sweat and accomplishment to produce shared vision.

• Dinner conversations. Bring groups of no more than six or eight people together for an evening of good food and heart-to-heart discussion of faith, life and race.

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