2007 Archives
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At 40 years, no break for Texas Baptist Men
Posted: 3/30/07
At 40 years, no break
for Texas Baptist MenBy Barbara Bedrick
Texas Baptist Communications
DALLAS—Forty years of labor ought to entitle a worker to a break. In the Old Testament, even Noah got one. But don’t tell that to Texas Baptist Men volunteers. They are nailing a church back together again in Sabine Pass.
Texas Baptist Men, a missions organization affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, takes no spring break. Instead, its volunteers work to help people who lost their church building to Hurricane Rita.
03/30/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Tidbits
Posted: 3/30/07
Texas Tidbits
Scholarship fund benefits HPU student workers. The Landon Carter and Edna Fay Johnson Work Scholarship Fund has been established at Howard Payne University to pay students for their on-campus work. The fund honors the memories of the Johnsons, members of First Baptist Church in Ponca City, Okla. Mrs. Johnson graduated from Howard Payne and taught math at the school nine years.
The Ancient Trasures of the Holy Land exhibit features an ossuary (casket) that many archaeologists think contained the bones of Simon of Cyrenia. Holy Land relics come to Texas. An exhibit of Holy Land relics—believed to be the largest ever to tour the United States—is on display at Dallas Fair Park through July 28. The 27,000-square-foot exhibits includes more than 350 relics and rare sacred texts, including many never before seen outside of Jerusalem.The display include portions of the Leviticus and Deuteronomy Dead Sea Scrolls; the ossuary (bone box) archeologists believe held the remains of Simon the Cyrene, who carried the cross for Jesus; a 2,000-year-old sandal found at Masada; Egyptian artifacts, some over 5,000 years old; ancient weapons, including bronze spear heads, battle axes and a sword dating as early as 2200 B.C.
Maston lectures slated at Logsdon. Allen Verhey of Duke University is the featured speaker for the T.B. Maston Christian ethics lectures April 2 and 3 at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Topics include “Reading Scripture and Caring at the End of Life” and “Praying and Caring at the End of Life.” The lectures are free and open to the public.
03/30/2007 - By John Rutledge
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TOGETHER: Jesus is the way, the truth & the life
Posted: 3/30/07
TOGETHER:
Jesus is the way, the truth & the lifeA speech by Charles Kimball at this year’s Christian Life Conference has generated a lot of discussion. Kimball, a professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, said Christians and Muslims “are talking about the same God.”
“There is really not much ambiguity about this. Allah is simply the Arabic word for God,” Kimball said. “The name for God in Islam, in Arabic, is Allah. This is not another god. This is the same God that Jews and Christians are talking about.”
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
This language is a bit jarring. It’s not how we Baptists normally talk. Kimball was referring to the fact Christians and Muslims, as well as Jews, trace their theological heritage to the God of Abraham. He also was stating the linguistic fact that Middle Eastern Christians who speak Arabic use the word “Allah” (God) in prayers, Scripture reading and worship.
To say that the God of Christians, Jews and Muslims is the same God is a literary and historical understanding of the common origins we have in the story of Abraham. But the reality of Jesus Christ as God incarnate means that any view of God that does not look through the eyes of Jesus is going to be flawed and inadequate to provide salvation.
03/30/2007 - By John Rutledge
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WMU adopts $5.2 million Texas missions giving goal
Posted: 3/30/07
WMU adopts $5.2 million
Texas missions giving goalBy John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
DALLAS—The Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas board of directors adopted a $5.2 million goal for this year’s Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.
Texas WMU promotes the offering—most commonly emphasized in the fall but collected throughout the year—and distributes the funds for specific projects proposed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Texas Baptist Men, Texas WMU and Texas Baptist institutions.
03/30/2007 - By John Rutledge
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CYBERCOLUMN by John Duncan: Where would we be without Easter?
Posted: 3/30/07
CYBER COLUMN:
Where would we be without Easter?By John Duncan
I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, watching the clouds pour the rain on mother earth. Drip, drip, drip. The poet Percy Shelley wrote about them in his poem, The Cloud: “I bring fresh showers for thirsting flowers, From the seas and the streams… .” Today as I think of dreary clouds, I think of the sun behind the clouds. Forecasters say the sun will shine tomorrow.
John Duncan I dedicate this column to pastors awaiting the sunlight of Easter in the clouds of ministry.
03/30/2007 - By John Rutledge
