Posted: 5/10/06

Family Bible Series for May 21

No time like the present to begin serving

• Acts 16:11-15, 40; Philippians 1:3-11

By Greg Ammons

First Baptist Church, Garland

The lowest exposed point on the earth’s surface is the Dead Sea. This body of water is extremely salty and contains no fish or plant life. Why? The Dead Sea has no outlet. Water may pour into the sea, but nothing flows out of it.

It is easy for a life to become stagnant, much like the Dead Sea. God never designed our lives to have constant inflow but no outflow. As believers in Jesus, we are to serve him out of the overflow of the abundant life God gives to us.

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In this unit, we are looking at godly women of devotion. Lydia was a wonderful example of serving Christ with a willing heart. We all must seek to do our part in serving God as we follow her example.

Get started now (Acts 16:11-15)

Paul and his missionary team traveled to Philippi on their second missionary journey. On the Sabbath, the team preached the gospel beside a river so the women gathering to wash garments would hear their message (v. 13).

One of the women who listened and responded was Lydia, a seller of purple cloth. Scripture tells us that “the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message” (v. 14).

Following her baptism, Lydia began her service to Christ immediately. She invited the missionary team to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house” (v. 15). And Lydia persuaded them to do so. The best time to begin serving the Lord is immediately after your conversion.

D.L. Moody became a Christian through the witness of his Sunday school teacher at a Congregational church. At the time, Moody was working as a shoe salesman. Immediately after his conversion, he began to serve Christ. Moody once said many Christians wait to serve until they see some great and noble cause. The great evangelist encouraged all believers to “be willing to do little things while remembering that nothing is small in which God is the source.”

The best time to begin serving is now.

Partner with other believers (Acts 16:40; Philippians 1:3-8)

Acts 16:40 gives us wonderful insight into Lydia’s heart. After Paul and Silas were released from prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them (v. 40). Just a few short verses after her conversion, Lydia already had partnered with other Christians and opened her home so believers could meet.

Later, Paul commended Lydia and her fellow believers in Philippi when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians. Paul thanked the Philippians for their “partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (v. 5). He was confident God would continue this good work (v. 6). Paul further stated these Philippians were quick to share God’s grace with him, whether he was in chains or defending the gospel (v. 7). Lydia had formed a partnership with other believers in Philippi to share God’s work through Paul and his team.

Even a secular world realizes the value of partnerships. If you find the word “partnership” in a dictionary, the definition will include such terms as “joint ownership,” “participating in returns” and “sharing profits.”

God maximizes partnerships in the gospel. He brings tremendous blessings to his children when they cooperate together in his work. As we are involved in ministry together, we share the profit of participating in the greatest work in the world. If you have not done so, commit to partner with other believers and be involved in what God is doing locally as well as globally.

Do what really matters (Philippians 1:9-11)

Paul prayed a beautiful prayer for the Philippians in the first chapter of his letter to them. He prayed their love would abound in knowledge and insight (v. 9). He also prayed they would be able to discern what is best (v. 10). Paul desired the Philippians be involved in what really mattered for the kingdom of God.

Today, it is easy for Christians to become distracted in their service. The enemy will try to pull believers in various directions so our work will be minimized. Paul encouraged the Philippians to stay focused and discern what is best. He encouraged them to be involved in kingdom work that mattered.

Ask yourself today if you are involved in serving in areas that really matter in God’s kingdom. May God bless your best efforts as you commit to do so.

The world-renowned violinist Nicolo Paganini retired his famous violin. He donated the treasure to the city of Genoa, the home of his birth, as a keepsake. Paganini donated the instrument with the stipulation the violin never be played again. Of course, wood is preserved when it is used and handled. Since the violin was inactive, the beautiful wood shriveled over time. Activity kept the wood vital, but inactivity destroyed its beauty.

Commit to stay active in the work of God’s kingdom. Serve with a willing heart, and do your part in accomplishing God’s work on this earth.

Discussion questions

• Did you begin to serve God immediately after your conversion?

• In what ways do you work with others to accomplish more for Christ?

• What is keeping you from being active in God’s work?

Posted: 5/10/06

Explore the Bible Series for May 21

Prayer and fasting should be followed by action

• Isaiah 58:1-66:24; Micah 6:6-8

By James Adair

Baptist University of the Americas, San Antonio

Isaiah 58:1-14; Micah 6:6-8

It has become fashionable to proclaim churchwide times of fasting or to call solemn assemblies, in which people pray, confess their sins to one another and commit themselves to live changed lives through the power of God. Such events are laudable, as far as they go, but if they never move people from talk into concrete action, they may cause more harm than good to the participants, who are being fooled into thinking what they are doing is an end in itself.

The prophet faced similar issues in his day, and he minces no words in dealing with the situation. A true fast, he says, doesn’t entail bowing one’s head like a seed-laden bulrush. The fast God desires is this: “To loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke. … To share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house.”

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Micah 6:6-8 offers a similar evaluation of people’s duty toward their neighbors: “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?” (I prefer the translation “do justice” to “act justly,” because the verb is transitive; that is, our actions must have an object or goal—justice.)

Too often our idea of what is pleasing to God focuses exclusively on the development of our inner person. The prophet would argue, however, that the inner person cannot develop unless there is corresponding growth in serving others in God’s name.

Isaiah 61:1-11

Thirty years ago, Pope Paul VI issued an Apostolic Exhortation entitled Evangelii Nuntiandi, or On Evangelization in the Modern World. The church, he said, “has had the single aim of fulfilling her duty of being the messenger of the good news of Jesus Christ.”

What is the content of the message of the gospel, and how does the church go about proclaiming the gospel? In a partial answer to the first question, the pope identified two fundamental commands of the gospel: “Put on the new self” and “Be reconciled to God.”

He goes on to speak of the gospel as a transforming message, a powerful message, a divine message. It speaks of God’s reign, and its kernel is salvation, which the pope defines as “liberation from everything that oppresses man but which is above all liberation from sin and the Evil One.”

Evangelization is not simply preaching a message to which people may choose to assent. Rather, “evangelizing means bringing the good news into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new. … For the church, it is a question not only of preaching the gospel in ever wider geographical areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and as it were upsetting, through the power of the gospel, mankind’s criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life.”

The good news that the church proclaims, then, is something eminently relevant to all who hear it.

The prophet who spoke the words of Isaiah 61 lived among people who had returned to the land of their ancestors years before, full of hope and expectation. As the decades rolled by and the glorious kingdom they were expecting failed to materialize, many became jaded and discouraged.

The prophet offered a message from God designed to hit people where they were, at the deepest point of their need. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”

The good news the prophet had for the people was not about pie in the sky by and by. His message addressed the real needs of real people in the real world—the oppressed, the brokenhearted, captives, prisoners, those who mourn. Too often, the gospel that today’s church preaches is diluted, or even perverted, and has little to offer people in the here and now.

When the prophet speaks of God as saying, “For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing,” he is describing a God who is concerned intimately with the way people treat other people in this world. This God wants to see justice prevail and robbery and wrongdoing cease. A world of justice and peace, where everyone has access to food, shelter and health care, where people are free to speak and write and read and worship according to the dictates of their own consciences—that’s good news for everyone.

Isaiah 64:1-9

This past week a series of powerful thunderstorms, replete with 60-mile-per-hour winds, hail and several inches of rain, rolled through my neighborhood. Although I know the meteorological principles behind rain and lightning, I’m still a little awestruck by an impressive thunderstorm. I can’t help but think of the psalm that begins, “The heavens are telling the glory of God” and of Haydn’s song of the same title from The Creation. The ancients sometimes thought of storms as manifestations of God’s presence, or theophanies.

Perhaps the prophet had such a thunderstorm in mind when he implored God, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down … to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence.”

After the incredible turn of events that led to the overthrow of Babylon and the return of the Jewish exiles to their homeland, God seemed to disappear from sight. Yes, the temple had been rebuilt, but where was God’s promised deliverance? Above all, where was the messiah who would reign supreme and restore the glory of Israel?

The fact the prophet and the people continued to call on God shows they had not lost hope. They continued to have faith in the promises God gave to their ancestors in the past. Nevertheless, they longed for a fresh sign of God’s presence with them.

“Faith of our fathers” is no substitute for faith based on personal experience. Like the returned exiles living in the land of promise, whose promises were awaited rather than realized, we live in a time of anticipation. The end of the Cold War gave us great hope for peace, yet 15 years later, we still find ourselves embroiled in international conflicts, and peace seems as elusive as ever.

The Gross National Product of the world’s nations is mind-boggling, yet so is the poverty, disease and hunger that continues to afflict our world. When we see the desperate straits of many around our planet and even in our own hometowns, and we realize selfishness, nationalism, racism, sexism, greed and religious intolerance impede the efforts of people of goodwill to meet their needs, we too cry out in frustration to God, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!”

During the Easter season, we remember on one occasion, some 2,000 years ago, God did come down, to preach and teach and die and rise and change the world. Christianity has rarely, if ever, lived up to the vision of its Founder, but that shouldn’t stop us from striving for the goal. It would be nice if God would intervene in our world to set things right—to bring justice and peace and meet the most basic needs of all people. While we wait, though, we can imitate the model that Jesus set for us, beginning with the admonition to love our neighbors.

Discussion questions

• How can Christians put into practice the “true fast” that God describes in Isaiah 58? Are the fasts and solemn assemblies we sometimes practice a help or a hindrance to implementing a “true fast”?

• Is the gospel message we preach really good news for all those who hear it, or do some people find it doesn’t address the real issues in their lives? How can we make the gospel more relevant to people?

• Many Baptists, like other Protestants, are resistant to the idea that Catholics have anything to teach us about the Bible or theology, but what do you think about Pope Paul’s ideas concerning the gospel cited above? Does it surprise you to hear a Catholic leader speaking so earnestly about evangelism?

• How do you evaluate the statement, “‘Faith of our fathers’ is no substitute for faith that is based on personal experience”? How can we balance our traditional understanding of the way God works with our own experience of God?

Posted: 5/08/06

Ronnie Floyd to be nominated for SBC president

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (ABP)—Ronnie Floyd, pastor of the largest Southern Baptist church in Arkansas, will be nominated as president of the Southern Baptist Convention next month.

Georgia pastor Johnny Hunt, who until a week ago was the announced nominee favored by the SBC’s leaders, will instead nominate Floyd. Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga., announced his change of plans in a news release posted May 7 on the website of Floyd’s church, First Baptist of Springdale, Ark.

This is the second time Hunt has stepped aside for another candidate. In 2004, he was in line to be elected president before current president Bobby Welch’s nomination was announced. Hunt ultimately nominated Welch, who concludes his second term this year. Again this year, he will nominate the candidate who apparently will have the backing of the SBC’s leaders.

The presidency has been the key to gaining and retaining control of the 16 million-member denomination and its agencies. The SBC’s fundamentalist leaders have controlled the position for almost three decades, usually running unopposed.

Unlike most previous years, however, the leadership’s candidate likely will face opposition from one or more other factions in the convention—most notably a loose-knit group of younger conservatives protesting what they call the leadership’s narrow and exclusivist track record. The election is set for the first day of the June 13-14 convention in Greensboro, N.C.

The dark horse in this year’s presidential election could be Wade Burleson, the International Mission Board trustee whose complaints about exclusionary IMB policies almost cost him his spot on the board.

Burleson participated in the meeting of younger conservatives May 2-3 that produced the “Memphis Declaration,” a statement of repentance for the triumphalism, arrogance and isolationism the signers said threatens the SBC’s integrity.

Complicating the picture this year, a blue-ribbon SBC panel is calling for the election of officers who come from churches that contribute at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts to the denomination’s central budget—a standard few recent presidents could meet.

First Baptist Church of Springdale reported $221,000 in gifts to the SBC’s Cooperative Program budget in 2005, representing 1.85 percent of undesignated receipts of $11,952,137. However, the church reported a total of $489,862 given for all Southern Baptist causes, which would include special missions offerings, and more than $2.6 million given to all world evangelism and mission causes.

Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., where Burleson is pastor, gave $105,000 to the Cooperative Program in 2005, representing 14 percent of undesignated receipts of $750,000.

Another faction making waves this year is the SBC’s Calvinists. Increasingly organized and vocal, they will likely have a candidate to support, at least for first vice president. Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., is expected to be nominated for SBC office, most likely first vice president. Dever was traveling out of the country and could not be reached for comment. Capitol Hill Baptist Church would not release giving records.

The vice presidential offices—more honorary than powerful—usually attract little attention before the June convention. This year, however, two confirmed nominees have surfaced for second vice president.

Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., will be nominated by Bill Dodson, a pastor in Kentucky. Drake is a regular fixture at Southern Baptist conventions, leading the charge in the SBC’s boycott of Disney and frequently making resolutions on a number of topics.

J. D. Greear, pastor of the Summit Church in Durham, N.C., also will be nominated for second vice president, said Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., who is expected to nominate him.

Greear was touted as representative of the “young leaders in the SBC,” but Drake participated in the recent meeting in Memphis organized by younger pastors.

Neither church meets the proposed standard for Cooperative Program giving. Drake’s church reported $1,000 given through the Cooperative Program last year, just over 1 percent of the church’s reported receipts of $96,450. Greear’s church reports $16,500 in gifts through the Cooperative Program, slightly less than 1 percent of the church’s total undesignated receipts of $1.7 million.

The Southern Baptist Convention has been working to revive sluggish Cooperative Program giving, which funds the denomination’s mission boards and other agencies. A February report of the Ad Hoc Cooperative Program Committee calls for the election of future convention officers on both the state and national levels from churches that give at least 10 percent through the Cooperative Program.

Posted: 5/05/06

CYBER COLUMN:
Love’s what it’s all about,
after all … and before all

By Jeanie Miley

My friend was at the end of her rope. Life had closed in on her in such a way that she felt trapped, and the truth is that suddenly, some options that had been available to her were gone.

“There’s nothing out ahead to look forward to,” she told me, “and I don’t know that I can keep on doing this.”

Like so many people, my friend had been going along, doing her job, taking care of her responsibilities and meeting the needs of other people for a long time. She is what is often called “a good person,” and so it seems particularly unfair that the choices and behaviors of others should be the cause for her being backed into this particular corner.

Listening to her lament, I remembered times when each of my children had said, “It isn’t fair,” and I had had to tell them: “Nope. Life often is not fair.”

The rain falls on the just and the unjust, and it often seems to fall more on the just because the unjust have stolen the umbrellas!

It is when it seems that there are no answers and when life is the hardest that we who are part of the family of God most need to prop each other up on the leaning side. We don’t have to take on what is not ours, and we must not assume responsibility for what belongs to another adult. But life is sometimes so hard and tedious that we must help each other get through those things we cannot bear alone.

No one of us can do it for everyone. Everyone has limitations in strength and patience, time and money, but the tender truth is that the curing of people comes in the caring for each other. At this time in human history, human beings are in almost desperate need to know that someone cares and someone is going to be there for them, if only to let them vent when they think they will explode from the pressures of handling life in the hard lane.

My friend did not need entertainment. She had more than enough information and stimulation of every kind available around the clock. She had plenty to do, lots to see, and she could purchase anything you can imagine to purchase.

I could not give my friend The Answer for her problem, for I did not have it. God knows that if I knew what she could do, I would have told her.

I could not take her burden from her, nor could I tell her that everything was going to be OK, especially if she prayed hard enough.

What I had to offer was the same thing that I need and the same thing that I believe all of us need. What my friend needs now and what the world needs now really is love.

My friend needed love, expressed by someone listening to her and caring that she was hurting. She needed love that says, “I’m here for you, and I’ll be here for you tomorrow.” She needed someone to believe in her and someone to bring her dinner, and she needed someone to understand what it’s like to feel hopeless and powerless in the face of terrible suffering.

God uses us to help each other, and we simply must do that, lending our minds and hearts out to each other.

This time, it was my friend’s turn.

Next time, it may be mine.

Caring for each other has to be at the heart of what it means to be church, or what’s it all about?

Jeanie Miley is an author and columnist and a retreat and workshop leader. She is married to Martus Miley, pastor of River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston, and they have three adult daughters. Got feedback? Write her at Writer2530@aol.com.

Posted: 5/04/06

Darfur peace talks faltering

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Peace talks aimed at ending what the United States government and international human-rights groups have labeled “genocide” in Darfur faltered May 2, just days after thousands of protesters rallied in Washington for beefed-up measures to help the people of the Sudanese region.

President Bush called Sudan’s leader April 1, and the State Department’s number-two official flew to Africa for on-site diplomacy the next day—all in an effort to end a logjam at talks between Sudanese officials and representatives of three Darfurian rebel groups.

Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick joined other international mediators at the African Union-brokered peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria. AU officials had extended the talks’ deadline, originally set for midnight April 30, after the rebel groups declined to approve an agreement to which Sudanese officials had consented.

Darfur, a large, arid province on the western side of the war-torn nation, has suffered for more than three years as the result of a civil war between the rebel groups—made up mostly of black African residents—and Sudanese Arab militias, known as janjaweed.

The janajaweed—who most international human-rights groups agree have been backed by the Arab-led Darfur government—have murdered large groups of black residents in the region, burned farms and villages, and committed other atrocities.

Human-rights agencies estimate that 100,000 to 300,000 black Darfurians have died, and at least a million more have been forced into exile. Many of those are subjected to inhumane conditions at refugee camps within Darfur itself or in neighboring Chad.

Both the black Darfurians and the Sudanese Arabs are overwhelmingly Muslim. The black rebel groups have complained that the Arab-led Islamist government in Khartoum ignores the needs of the region’s black residents.

African Union troops have been attempting, with little success, to act as peacekeepers in the region. Many Western organizations and government officials have called for the United Nations or NATO forces to augment the beleaguered African Union peacekeepers.

If the peace talks fail—the deadline was extended until midnight Abuja time on May 2, and may be extended once more—then Darfur almost certainly will be in for more misery, one African Union official said.

“Nobody will look good—the AU, the government or the (rebel) movements—but the real victims will be the people on the ground,” said Sam Ibok, head of the union’s mediation team, according to Reuters. “They will not be able to return to their homes to cultivate their lands. They will have to spend more time in camps. Security will deteriorate. Women will continue to be exposed to rape, and children will continue to suffer.”

The mediation deadline was highlighted by protests around the world April 30. In Washington, an estimated 10,000-15,000 protesters, representing widely divergent ideologies, gathered at a rally on the National Mall to urge Bush and other Western leaders to devote more muscle to ending the conflict.

“The world policy on Sudan is failing,” actor George Clooney, who recently returned from a visit to the refugee camps in the region, told the crowd. “If we turn our heads and look away and hope it will all go away, then they will—and an entire generation will disappear.”

Besides Clooney—known for his high-profile liberal activism—speakers at the rally included leaders as diverse as Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

The diverse coalition of groups backing more action on Darfur is one of the most politically and religiously diverse to arise since the protests against the racist apartheid policies of the South African government in the 1980s. The Washington rally was sponsored by a coalition of more than 160 organizations that included Muslim, evangelical Protestant, mainline Protestant, Jewish, Catholic and secular advocacy groups.

Posted: 5/04/06

Dobbses 'excited' to continue work in Guinea

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—Under a new agreement, officials at the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board have reinstated a missionary couple they threatened to fire for establishing a church in the West African nation of Guinea that did not meet the board’s 10-point criteria for being a Baptist church.

Wyman and Michelle Dobbs, who have worked for eight years among the Fulbe Fouta people in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation, have agreed to adhere more precisely to the IMB’s guidelines for cooperation with missionaries of other denominations, according to a news release from the IMB.

Word of the Dobbses pending dismissal, first reported in mid-April, stirred widespread opposition in Baptist circles, but the IMB story said the reinstatement occurred only after the couple agreed to work more diligently to abide by the guidelines.

Dobbs said in an interview that he and his wife were “very excited” IMB officials had allowed them—under the guideline policy—to work with non-SBC churches “in fulfilling the Great Commission.”

“We recognize many opinions and concerns are out there as to why this happened,” Dobbs said, adding that he didn’t have answers for those asking that question. “We’re just thankful the situation has been resolved.”

Dobbs also said the prayers and support expressed by church members, missionaries and friends encouraged his family as they worked within the bounds of IMB regulations to resolve the problem.

Those regulations spell out five levels of ministry cooperation between IMB missionaries and other Christian missionaries. Each level has parameters for cooperation that are increasingly strict, depending on what kind of work the collaboration will support. For instance, the highest level involves training of ministers and missionary deployment and requires a standard of “doctrinal purity.”

Forming new churches comes in at the next-to-highest level, and the guideline there requires the cooperating missionaries to agree to the doctrinal standards expressed in the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, the SBC’s confessional statement. IMB missionaries already must affirm agreement with the statement.

According to the IMB release, a document the Dobbses signed in 2003 when starting the church—called the “Tinka Agreement”—did not “adequately communicate” the parameters of partnership in church-planting to the other missionaries.

The Tinka Agreement included signatures from missionaries affiliated with the Assemblies of God, the Christian Reformed Church, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Youth With a Mission and the Swiss Evangelical Alliance Mission. IMB leaders apparently object to some doctrines espoused by the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

IMB regional leaders in West Africa said they could not determine the couples’ “commitment to the appropriate level of partnership and a clear commitment to planting indigenous Baptist churches.”

After an April 29 appeal to Gordon Fort, the IMB vice president for overseas operations, the Dobbses told Fort they would agree to plant Baptist churches under the authority of IMB guidelines. However, the guidelines do allow “local churches overseas” to express Baptist beliefs and practices in “different ways according to the needs of their cultural settings.”

After Fort rescinded the move to terminate the Dobbses, Jason Helmbacher, their stateside pastor, said the couple looks forward to living without the drain of IMB scrutiny.

“Right now, they are just going to enjoy their furlough,” said Helmbacher, pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Sallisaw, Okla. “A huge weight has been lifted off their shoulders.”

The Dobbses will return to Guinea in early 2007.

Posted: 5/03/06

BaptistWay Bible Series for May 14

Can right motives lead to wrong actions?

• 2 Samuel 7:1-17

By Joseph Matos

Dallas Baptist University, Dallas

When we are blessed by others, it is natural to want to express gratitude in return (often in a tangible way). This is true in our response to God’s goodness as well. Much of our motivation for service stems from receiving his grace and mercy, his blessings. A question arises: Are there right and wrong ways to express our gratitude to God? Is there a proper time for such?

King David experienced overwhelming blessing from God and desired to do something for God in return. Though his heart was right, and the form his expression of gratitude took was not entirely wrong, David had much to learn about God’s character and his ultimate plan for David specifically and his people in general.

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Background

1 Samuel 16 through 2 Samuel 6 provides a lengthy narrative detailing David’s anointing by Samuel to his rise to sole authority over both Israel and Judah. David endured many obstacles along the way: the seeming unending pursuit of Saul on his life; the continued opposition from Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, who had set up a rival kingdom among the northern tribes; external threats from the Philistines; and, after an ill-fated attempt to return the ark of the covenant, David succeeded the second time.

It seems safe to say that David was at rest. During this time, David also managed to build a palace for himself, and a lavish one at that, of cedar (5:11 and 7:2).

David’s plan for God—A house

As the language of 2 Samuel 7:1 suggests, David enjoyed fulfillment of promises made in Deuteronomy 12:10. Both mention settlement in the land and rest from enemies. It seemed the only thing that remained was for the Lord to make a dwelling for his Name (Deuteronomy 12:11). Whether he was aware of this promise or not, David acknowledged all the Lord had done for him. Now he felt moved to do something for the Lord. His plan was to build a permanent home for the ark of God.

Nathan’s premature blessing

David expressed this desire to Nathan the prophet. Without hesitation, Nathan encouraged David to do whatever it was he desired to do. He even employed an expression which described the reasons for all of David’s previous successes—“the Lord is with you” (v. 3). But Nathan quickly came to learn something vital was missing from his blessing on David, something of great significance for any prophet who would speak on God’s behalf—the word of the Lord.

God’s plans for David—A house

That evening, “the word of the Lord” did come to Nathan (v. 4). When Nathan spoke with David again the next day, he had a different message. This message contained several elements.

First, Nathan was to pose two questions to David: “Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?” (v. 5). And, “did I ever ask previous leaders why they did not build a house of cedar?” (v. 7).

From the time the Israelites left Egypt to David’s time, the ark had a temporary dwelling. A permanent place was not God’s concern. But as we’ll see, a place for David and God’s people was.

Next, Nathan was to remind David of what God had done for him (vv. 8-9). He took David from the pasture to the throne and gave him success over his enemies. But the Lord was not finished with David yet.

The remainder of Nathan’s “revelation” (v. 17) was filled with promises the Lord would make to David and would impact his people, as well. It should be pointed out that the word “house” appears repeatedly in chapter 7. David had a house of cedar (vv. 1-2, NIV has “palace”). He wanted to build a “house” for the Lord. In fact, each use of the word up to this point refers to a structure. In the remainder of the chapter, “house” sometimes refers to a physical structure (the temple, v. 13), but often it refers to the lineage of David and God’s people.

Nathan was to relate to David that while God certainly planned for David’s son (Solomon) to build a house for God’s Name (vv. 12-13; Deuteronomy 12:11)—which affirmed David’s original desires—God had greater plans still for David’s “house.”

These promises included making David’s name among the greatest ever (v. 9), providing a place for God’s people to live in peace (v. 10-11) and rest from enemies (v. 11). In addition, God would be like a father to David’s son, punishing him when necessary, but never removing his love (like he did from Saul). In sum, God would establish David’s “house” (v. 11) forever (vv. 16).

As commanded, the next day Nathan reported these to David.

David’s response

Upon receiving the Lord’s words through Nathan, David “sat before the Lord” and prayed. His prayer expressed great humility before God, praise for God, and his desire that God follow through on his promise. In essence, David said: “Why me, Lord? Nevertheless, may it be.”

History reveals that self-inflicted trouble eventually came on God’s people (i.e., the exile). As a result, some may question whether God honored his promises and what form he intended these promises to take. As New Testament believers, we need only look to Christ (the Son of David) for assurance that God kept his promise.

Discussion questions

• How has God been faithful to keep his promises to David?

• Are Christians today beneficiaries or heirs to these promises?

• Can right motives lead to wrong actions?

• In what ways do our desires to honor God pale in comparison to the ways he blesses us?

Posted: 5/03/06

Family Bible Series for May 14

Hannah offers insight into difficult situations

• 1 Samuel 1:1-2, 6-7, 10-13, 15-18, 20, 27-28; 2:1-22

By Greg Ammons

First Baptist Church, Garland

As a pastor, I witness many families struggling with the same difficulties time and again. Often, these difficulties break our hearts. Scripture records the determined devotion of a godly woman named Hannah in response to a crisis she faced. From her example, we learn how to deal with such situations.

Do you have a desperate situation? (1 Samuel 1:1-2; 6-7)

Hannah was from the hill country of Ephraim and had no children (v. 1). Her husband, Elkanah, had another wife named Peninnah, who provoked and ridiculed Hannah because she was childless (v. 6). In her desperate situation, Hannah wept and would not eat (v. 7). Bearing children in this culture was thought to be an outward sign that God found favor with you.

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Many childless couples in our society experience the same feelings of frustration and desperation. One-third of all homes in America are childless. Some are childless by choice, but many desire a child and are unable to have one.

My wife and I were childless the first 18 years of our marriage. We desired a child but could not have one. We faced a similar frustration, as well. We knew how Hannah felt. Miraculously, in 2003, my wife became pregnant, and God gave us a son. Yet we will never forget the frustration and pain of the barren years.

Do you turn to the Lord? (1 Samuel 1:10-13; 15-16)

While in the temple, Hannah poured out her soul to the Lord. She wept and prayed to God (v. 10). Hannah vowed to the Lord that if he would bless her and grant her a child, then she would devote this son to God’s service for the remainder of his days (v. 11).

Both Elkanah and the priest Eli thought Hannah was emotional because she had been drinking too much. She replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled” (v. 15). Hannah told both of them she was not a wicked woman but was praying out of her great anguish and grief (v. 16). Hannah turned to the Lord in her desperate situation.

Where do you turn when situations in your life become unbearable? Many people turn to painkillers, alcohol, shopping sprees or eating binges. They seek to mask their pain through superficial means. These never work and frequently make the problems worse. Still other people turn to books, psychologists or friends for help. Although these sources possibly could be helpful, the greatest source of help and comfort in desperate times comes from God.

Do you trust in the Lord? (1 Samuel 1:17-18; 20)

The priest, Eli, responded to Hannah, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him” (v. 17). Hannah replied, “May your servant find favor in your eyes” (v. 18). Then, this godly woman went her way, ate some food and was no longer downcast (v. 19). Eventually, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel because she asked the Lord for him (v. 20). Hannah is a wonderful example of simply trusting God once you have turned the situation over to him.

Charles Wesley was a wonderful man of God. He wrote more than 1,000 hymns of the faith as he traveled with his brother, John, spreading the gospel. Charles and his wife, Sarah, experienced one hardship after another in their family. They bore eight children, but only three of them lived past childhood.

Yet, this couple was known for a strong faith in God. On one occasion, Wesley said, “If God bids me fly, I will trust him for the wings.” You can place complete trust in God, no matter your circumstance.

Do you honor the Lord? (1 Samuel 1:27-2:2)

True to her word, Hannah took Samuel to the house of God for him to serve. When she took Samuel to the priest, she stated: “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now, I give him to the Lord For his whole life, he will be given over to the Lord” (vv. 27-28).

Hannah worshipped God there and prayed out of a thankful heart: “There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God” (2:2).

When many Christians make promises to God in prayer, they fail to follow through. God often will grant a request, yet we fail to fulfill our promise. Hannah was not like one of these. She honored the Lord by keeping her promise to him.

Calvin Coolidge served as the 29th president of our nation. He was a quiet man but greatly respected when he spoke. On one occasion, Coolidge said, “Honor is the reward for what you give, not receive.” Hannah honored her Lord, not because she was given Samuel, but because she gave him back to God as she promised.

Discussion questions

• To whom or what do you turn when faced with difficulties?

• In what ways do you demonstrate your trust in God?

• Are you faithful to keep promises you make to God?

Posted: 5/03/06

Explore the Bible Series for May 14

Everyone needs hope, encouragement

• Isaiah 54:1-57:21

By James Adair

Baptist University of the Americas, San Antonio

The chapters in Isaiah under consideration this week are set in the late exilic and early postexilic period, during the last half of the sixth century B.C. It was a time of great excitement and great disappointment, a period of high hopes and harsh realities. The Jews in exile heard a message of deliverance, but the situation in the land of their ancestors was not quite what they had expected.

How can we as believers reconcile the great confidence we have in God with the mundane or even discouraging aspects of life in the real world? How can we explain why our daily experiences don’t live up to our high expectations? These are some of the questions the oracles from these chapters of Isaiah attempt to address.

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Isaiah 54:1-17

After Hurricane Katrina drove the population of New Orleans from their homes last summer, politicians and community leaders, began making plans for cleanup and return. “It will take hard work,” they told displaced New Orleanians, “but we will rebuild the city.” However, despite these optimistic predictions, only about half the people have returned. The city that was loved by its inhabitants is no more, and many have abandoned the idea of moving back. For others, though, hope remains, and a rebuilt, re-imagined city is something to strive for.

Isaiah 54 paints an idealized picture of Jerusalem, one whose population growth would require the city to be enlarged. The disaster that had overtaken it at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar was past, and a great future lay ahead. Jerusalem would be so wealthy its foundations, towers and gates would be made of precious stones. The reality at the time, of course, was Jerusalem was a ruin, without protecting walls or settled inhabitants. Would the people return from exile and see the current reality, or would they see the potential the prophet described?

Isaiah 55:1-5

Several times a day, if I have my e-mail filters turned off, I get messages from people I don’t know offering to let me in on a secret means of making fabulous amounts of money. If I will just transfer some money from my bank account, or contact an exiled African leader, or invest in the latest scheme, I can get rich in no time. Get rich quick schemes are nothing new, but they continue to attract people who long to live a life of ease, where all their needs are met.

The prophet offers the people something for nothing, but in this case it is not material gain but perpetual security. He lets the people in on a secret: God has not forgotten the covenant with David, and God has not abandoned Judah. Temporal wealth comes and goes, but God’s covenant faithfulness lasts forever.

Isaiah 55:6-9

From time to time, I find myself wishing I were in charge of the world. I would right all wrongs, alleviate poverty, clean up the environment and make sure every child had an equal opportunity to succeed in life. Of course, I would also take care of myself, and my family and friends.

Fortunately for all concerned, including myself, I am not God. I am not remotely qualified for even a portion of the job, not just because I don’t have the power, but because I don’t have the wisdom. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. It is not just that God is smarter than we are, God’s understanding of the universe is qualitatively different from our own. There are many things in the world that humans can and should change, but in the end we must remember the saying, “Man proposes, but God disposes.”

Isaiah 56:1-8

A popular political comedy show ends every episode with a segment called “New Rules,” and that is exactly what these verses from Isaiah 56 propose. Some people in the postexilic community believed the Jewish people could survive only by adopting restrictive membership policies, requiring citizens to trace their ancestry back to one of the Israelite tribes. Others believed in more of a big tent policy.

This passage clearly puts the prophet in the big tent camp. Whereas some people interpreted the restrictions in Deuteronomy 23:1-8 as permanently excluding eunuchs or Ammonites, for example, from the community, the prophet says God welcomes all who are willing to adopt the community’s standards and worship the Lord. God’s kingdom is inclusive, not exclusive, and God may be found by all who seek him, regardless of their background.

Discussion questions

• How do we personally reconcile our high hopes with the harsh realities of life that we face? Do we see our difficulties as God’s punishment or simply as challenges to be overcome through faith?

• How can we overcome the persistent drive of our Western society toward the accumulation of wealth? What values do we possess as Christians that would lead us to have different goals from many of those around us?

• How do we strike a balance between wanting to change the world on the one hand, and being complacent in the face of evil and problems on the other hand? What are the respective roles that God and humans play?

• Are there certain groups of people who should be permanently excluded from the church on the basis of either background, belief system or lifestyle? How do we minister to people in need when we disapprove of some aspect of their life?

Posted: 4/28/06

Homegrown churches make
gospel readily accessible

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO—Steeple-crested church buildings dot San Antonio’s west side, but Pastor Manuel Rodriguez isn’t concerned about them. He’s focused on structures that aren’t adorned with crosses.

Working closely with San Antonio Baptist Association staff, Rodriguez spreads the gospel by starting churches in homes throughout the city’s west side. He began with a church in his living room. When that space was full, he started another service in his den. Eventually, he and his wife had filled their home.

So, several members of the church started churches in their homes. Every six months, Rodriguez encourages those churches to start another church in another home. Now 15 churches meet in various locations throughout the community, serving about 300 people. Home churches reach a variety of ethnicities, including Puerto Ricans, African-Americans and Mexicans. They are serving English and Spanish speakers.

• Watch a video clip here.

Families gather for Bible study and worship outside the mobile home park where they live.

Most of these people never would come to traditional churches services, Rodriguez contends, but they will come to a gathering at a friend’s home. They are willing to pray and study the Bible with people they know.

“People in these days, they don’t go to buildings or traditional churches for different problems,” he said. “Right now, when you start a home church, you don’t invite people to a church, you invite them into a home. It works much better.”

Home churches have the additional advantage of not having to pay for facilities or staff members’ salaries. Each one has a leader, not a pastor, Rodriguez noted.

Laypeople are trained to start and lead home churches.

These congregations may not be traditional, but they meet needs. Jose Acosta, who leads a group of about 30 people who meet beneath a tree in a mobile home park, was one of the first people to comfort a mother when her 18-year-old son was gunned down.

Acosta’s church gathers around a table each week to pray and sing praises to God. Acosta preaches the gospel. People in attendance give an offering and testify to how God is working in their lives. Bread and vegetables are given to those who need it.

Individuals are committing their lives to Christ, and God is transforming lives, said Acosta, a Baptist University of the Americas student.

“The community is changing,” he said. “Children are coming. Adults are coming. They are coming to know Christ.”

Acosta is pleased to have an opportunity to minister, saying he simply is doing what Christ asked of him. “It is the mandate of Christ to go to take the church to the people.”

This concept is central to home churches, Rodriguez said. Members focus on sharing the Christian message with their non-Christian friends and relatives.

“This is a missionary church,” Rodriguez said. “That’s why we have so many churches.”

Posted: 4/28/06

CHURCH WITHOUT WALLS:
Authentic worship outside

By George Henson

Staff Writer

AMARILLO—Sometimes church-starting dreams bog down in the details of where the church can meet and how to pay for that space.

Avoid those issues by starting a church outdoors, advised Lindsay Cofield, creative church consultant with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Not having to fund the construction or rental of a building can be positive in several ways, Cofield told participants in a multihousing church start seminar in Amarillo.

“When you take money out of the equation, more churches can do it, and when you take the money out, that gets rid of the fussing about how the money’s spent,” he said.

Another positive aspect of not having a building is that often people will feel more comfortable about approaching the service. If there is no door, they more readily sidle up to listen. Also without walls to hem them in, some may find it easier to make an approach when an exit can be made just as easily, Cofield said.

One of the most important aspects of starting a church of any kind is identifying where it will meet, he continued. Prayer offers the only effective means of making that determination, he stressed.

“Begin praying about what group God wants you to reach,” Cofield said. “Where do they live, play and hang out … apartments, mobile homes, RV park, public housing, halfway house? Ask God to guide you to them and believe that he will. Drive around, and pray and try to see through his eyes.”

If the identified location has a manager, start there, he said. Ask for permission to prayer walk the area, informing the manager of plans to start a church that meets in an apartment, at a picnic table or under a tree. Pledge to respect each resident’s privacy and not knock on doors unsolicited. Then, even more importantly, keep all commitments.

Prayer walk the area and meet people, he suggested. Look for the person of peace—someone who can open doors to relationships to others in the vicinity. Pray as you go with those who share needs.

After a core group of only a few people has been established, agree on a day and time to begin meeting. Cofield pointed out that it need not be Sunday morning. “Any time is OK if you make it God’s time in your midst.”

Then choose a location. “It might be around a truck, on a mobile home porch, in an apartment, at a park or playground area, or under a public pavilion,” he said.

Cofield leads a congregation that meets in a public park each week. A group of middle-aged motorcyclists meets under a carport for worship and Bible study.

While the setting is informal, it is important the congregation function as a church, he said.

“Encourage them to truly make it a little body of Christ that helps and touches people’s lives. Seek to be a fully functioning church,” Cofield instructed.

That can be done if the people who attend experience:

• Supportive friendships. That comes through sharing with one another, he said. They should take turns sharing what “the world has dumped on them” during the week, and also what God has been doing in their lives. Help lead them to be there for one another.

• Authentic worship. Focus on God’s greatness through the use of any combination of music, art, silence, nature or Scripture. “Help them tap into God’s greatness,” he said.

• Obedience-based discipleship. Apply a Bible verse to life, Cofield said. Dialogue about what each verse says about God, self, others and life. “You lead, but let them talk too,” he counseled.

• Life-involvement evangelism. “Include not-yet Christians fully and naturally, and allow them to hear and see how Christ is working in the lives of those believers present,” he said. “Nurture everyone toward expressing their own journey with God as friendships deepen. Let people be drawn to God by all they experience in the gathering.”

• Servanthood caring. “Seek opportunities to help others like Christ would. Take an offering, and let the group decide on how to use it all in meeting someone’s need. Let them decide how to take an offering, and let them deliver it, if possible,” he said.

• Baptism. Baptize anyone who professes faith in Christ as Lord of their life, Cofield instructed. “Anyone OK’d by the church can baptize as part of gathered worship, and any place is OK.”

“Two key factors will make a huge impact—your passion and your dependability,” he pointed out. “There is no building or elected organization to give stability here.”

It is especially important to have church each week regardless of the weather. Don’t make worshippers try to figure out if you’re going to be there or not, he said.

“When you are faithful to be present, prayed-up and prepared for every weekly gathering, they won’t wonder if church is going to happen that day but will be drawn to its true friendships and God-sized mission,” he said.

On bad-weather days, the church is most likely to draw the notice of people in the area who are not yet a part of the congregation.

This past year, 207 churches of this type with BGCT ties were started across the state, he noted.

Posted: 5/02/06

Sam Currin indicted in tax fraud case

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP)—One of the men instrumental in the Southern Baptist Convention’s 1990 move to defund its historic public-affairs agency faces federal charges.

Sam Currin, who served as a member of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty’s board of directors for eight years in the 1980s and early ’90s, reportedly was indicted by a North Carolina federal grand jury April 18. The Raleigh lawyer has been charged with being part of a conspiracy to help clients avoid federal taxes by setting up trusts, bank accounts and credit cards in various foreign locales in the Caribbean Ocean.

Currin served on the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina’s board of directors prior to the indictment. State convention spokesman Norman Jameson said April 28 that Currin had resigned from that post. Convention records list him as being a member of Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh.

Currin also has served as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, a federal prosecutor, a judge and a staffer for retired Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.).

He played a lead role in one of the main skirmishes of the decade-long war between fundamentalists and moderates in the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980s. James Dunn, retired executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, Currin as one of several board members sent by SBC fundamentalists to try to move the public-affairs agency to the right.

Unable to win other members of the BJC’s board—made up of representatives from most of the nation’s Baptist denominations—to their cause, SBC conservatives eventually decided to yank the denomination’s funding for the agency. The convention began removing BJC funding from the SBC budget in 1990, cutting it out completely the next year.

“It is absolutely true and indisputable that they (Currin and others) were put on the Baptist Joint Committee to turn it from its historic position—or destroy it,” Dunn said.

Currin and other SBC conservatives complained that the agency, which historically had advocated for strict separation of church and state and religious freedom, leaned too far to the political left. They attempted to get the BJC to support causes popular among political conservatives.

“They were trying to get us to approve (government-sanctioned) school prayer—an amendment that would approve school prayer,” Dunn said.

Currin and his ideological allies tried to get the organization to endorse Robert Bork when President Ronald Reagan nominated him for a seat on the Supreme Court in 1987, Dunn added. The Senate defeated the nomination after opposition groups highlighted Bork’s controversial views on abortion rights, civil rights, church-state separation and other issues.

More recently, Currin played a role in supporting conservatives in another organization in which he is active—the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The Raleigh Independent reported Currin was appointed in 2004 as the Confederate group’s chief legal officer after a group opposed to modernizing the organization solidified their control over it.