Posted: 1/07/05

Texas Tidbits

DBU awards more than 400 degrees. Dallas Baptist University awarded degrees to 292 undergraduates and 115 graduate students at two winter commencement ceremonies in December. Mamo Ishida, DBU's coordinator of international student services, delivered the address for both commencement ceremonies. DBU also awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree to Marv Knox, editor of the Baptist Standard, and an honorary doctor of divinity degree to Charles Taylor, founding pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church of Dallas.

BGCT governance committee meets. The 21-member Baptist General Convention of Texas governance committee held its first meeting in mid-December to discuss issues that need to be addressed in developing new bylaws for the convention, said Chairman Wesley Shotwell, pastor of Ash Creek Baptist Church in Azle. Messengers to the 2004 BGCT annual meeting in San Antonio approved a sweeping revision of the convention's constitution. It must be approved on a second reading at the 2005 annual meeting Nov. 14-15 in Austin to take effect. New bylaws are being developed now so they will be ready for convention consideration if the new constitution is approved. The committee will hold its second meeting Jan. 13 and is seeking input from Texas Baptists. Concerns may be sent via e-mail to governance@bgct.org or by regular mail to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Attention: Governance Committee, 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246-1798. The committee will develop a proposal and allow members of the BGCT Executive Board to respond to it at their March 1 meeting. A final recommendation will be presented to the Executive Board May 24.

Posted: 1/07/05

TOGETHER:
Find something you can do, & do it

The whole world has been reeling under the shock of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. In Japanese, the word “tsunami” means “harbor wave.” If only it had been as harmless as that sounds. Waves lashed all the islands and coastlines of 12 countries of the northern Indian Ocean, and more than 150,000 people are believed dead.

Relief efforts are under way from around the globe. One of the first groups to arrive was the Hungarian Baptist response team. Missionaries began to contact mission boards, churches and friends seeking help. Texas Baptist Men was contacted by Baptist missionaries in Sri Lanka from Boerne, and TBM promised to come. Gifts to support TBM relief work are pouring in. Four water purification teams have gone to Sri Lanka and Thailand. Four feeding teams will join them in the next few days. This will be an ongoing need, and volunteers are standing by to relieve these teams in the weeks ahead.

Our institutions are responding. Baylor Health Care System has a relationship with a hospital in Sri Lanka and will send a doctor with Texas Baptist Men to assist in medical assessment. Baptist Child & Family Services has been asked by the Sri Lankan government to provide training and medical help for children in need and those orphaned by the disaster. Buckner Baptist Benevolences has made clothing and shoes available.

Your church can help by praying. Relief volunteers will live in difficult, dangerous surroundings. But most of all, pray for families who have lost loved ones, health of survivors and that out of this people will find reason to believe God loves them. Pray that as people work together to solve problems and lift one another, they may find a sense of God's grace causing people to care for one another in extraordinary ways. Pray that the good news of God's love in Christ Jesus can be seen, heard and felt in meaningful and saving ways.

Your church can help by giving. A special offering Sunday could provide an opportunity to give. One hundred percent of whatever comes through the BGCT will be used for disaster relief and will help the people of Southeast Asia recover from the tsunami. Your Cooperative Program and Mary Hill Davis offerings support the infrastructure of our disaster relief work so that special relief offerings can be focused entirely on direct aid and ministry.

Your church can help by encouraging and supporting volunteers. Contact TBM for information about training and priorities.

You can help by staying informed. Find updates on the BGCT website, www.bgct.org, and the Standard website, baptiststandard.com. There will be links to ways to help.

We live in such a beautiful world. No other planet yet discovered shines in space with the sapphire blues of the oceans and the emerald greens of the forests. Those who have circled the planet have called the earth “a beautiful gem.” But it is also dangerous and unpredictable. Jesus did not say God keeps sparrows from falling, but he did say he knows when they fall. Tragic things do happen, unexplainable to our spirits, but in the midst of every grievous moment, those who have eyes to see will see God at work in a redemptive way, and they will join him in that work of mercy and care.

Your inability to do all that is needed is no excuse to do nothing. Find something you can do, and do it. And while your heart goes out to the people on the other side of the world, don't neglect those who live nearby.

You, and they, are loved.

Posted: 1/07/05

Churchgoers eat more veggies

By Wangui Njuguna

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–An academic study shows that churchgoers eat more of the healthiest fruits and vegetables than those who don't attend services.

The study, released recently by St. Louis University School of Public Health researcher Deidre Griffith, found those who frequently attended church ate 26 percent more “powerhouse” fruits and vegetables than those who didn't frequently attend.

Griffith defines “powerhouse” vegetables and fruits as those that contain the most nutrients. They include dark, leafy greens, such as spinach, and bright orange carrots and cantaloupe.

Many of the 554 people interviewed for the study said they attended choir rehearsals and Bible study groups and workshops. Griffith said healthier food options often were present at these church events.

“Church can be a big part of your support system for changing your diet,” said Griffith.

Posted: 1/07/05

Reggie White, NFL star and minister, dies

By Erin Curry

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—Reggie White—whose life as a professional football legend and outspoken Christian witness earned him the nickname “minister of defense”—died the day after Christmas at age 43.

White was a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, was elected to the Pro Bowl a record 13 straight times, set a Super Bowl record with three sacks and retired in 2000 as the NFL's all-time leader in sacks.

"I've always believed since I was a kid that God was going to allow me to play of Jesus," White once said on "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "And, you know, that's the most exciting part about my life because God has done things in me to change my character to benefit the Kingdom."

White, who was a standout defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers for 15 total years, spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention 1999 annual meeting in Atlanta, urging messengers to unite for a common goal.

"Jesus prayed that we might be one in unity, as he and the Father are one," White said. "He also commanded us to love one another. One thing I see lacking in the church of Jesus Christ is that many of us don't love each other. We don't watch each other's back."

Paul Tagliabue, commissioner of the National Football League, called White a "gentle warrior" who will be remembered as one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history.

"Equally as impressive as his achievements on the field was the positive impact he made off the field and the way he served as a positive influence on so many young people," Tagliabue said.

White encountered much criticism following a 1998 speech to the Wisconsin Legislature in which he presented homosexual behavior as a moral choice and said it should not be equated with the civil rights movement.

Posted: 1/04/05

Scalia: Church-state separation
didn't protect Jews in Holocaust

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—The man who may be the next chief justice of the United States reportedly gave a speech in which he suggested church-state separation did nothing to prevent the Holocaust.

At a conference in November on religious freedom, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia offered a lengthy critique of the idea that the framers of the Constitution supported strict separation between church and state. According to accounts of the speech from the Associated Press and the Jerusalem Post, he then pointed to episodes of American history that he said proved the government has always supported religion.

"There is something wrong with the principle of neutrality (toward religion by government)," Scalia said, according to the Jerusalem newspaper. The kind of neutrality the framers intended, he continued, "is not neutrality between religiousness and non-religiousness; it is between denominations of religion."

Scalia contrasted that with the reticence of modern-day European leaders to discuss God or religion in public life. "You will not hear the word 'God' cross the lips of a French premier or an Italian head of state," Scalia said. "But that has never been the American way."

The AP story noted that, in response to an audience member's question about church-state separation, Scalia said the following: "Did it turn out that, by reason of the separation of church and state, the Jews were safer in Europe than they were in the United States of America? I don't think so."

The Jerusalem Post reported a slightly different version of Scalia's response: "Do you think it's going to make Jews safer? It didn't prove that way in Europe."

Scalia's comment attracted little attention until it was mentioned in a Dec. 2 column by liberal talk-show host Thomas Hartmann on the website CommonDreams.org.

"Scalia has an extraordinary way of not letting facts confound his arguments, but this time he's gone completely over the top by suggesting that a separation of church and state facilitated the Holocaust," Hartmann wrote.

Hartmann noted that, in actuality, church and state were closely wed in Nazi Germany, with German dictator Adolph Hitler going so far as to unite all German Protestant denominations into one government-controlled "Reich Church" and to appoint a "Reichsbishop," Lutheran pastor Ludwig Müller, to head the entity. Müller, like Hitler, committed suicide at the end of the war.

Scalia's comments were delivered at a conference commemorating the 350th anniversary of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, one of the nation's oldest synagogues.

The congregation's senior rabbi, Marc Angel, was present for the speech and said the AP reporter took the comment in question "completely out of context."

Angel said Scalia was discussing Europe's current situation—where "people have taken God out of government," rather than World War II-era Europe.

"In a secular society, such as Europe, are Jews really better off?" the rabbi asked. "I don't think he was talking about the Holocaust. He was talking about the current situation."

But Verena Dobnik, the AP reporter who wrote the story, stood by the quotation's accuracy and said she understood Scalia to be talking about Europe during World War II.

"I didn't make up the quote," she said, noting that she had been careful to audiotape Scalia's speech.

Scalia has made several headlines in the past year for run-ins with reporters covering his speeches. Prior to one incident, he did not allow journalists to record his public comments at all. He now reportedly permits audiotapes of his remarks for reporters' own use in writing their stories, but does not allow them to be distributed.

Angel said that, due to the controversy over the remarks, he has written Scalia requesting permission to release a tape the synagogue made of the speech.

Scalia generally is considered one of the Supreme Court's two most conservative members and a front-runner for the job of chief justice, which many court watchers believe is likely to become vacant soon. In his opinions, he has frequently sided with those who argue for more government support for religious institutions and allowances for government endorsement of religious messages.

Hartmann said such views, coupled with the judge's view of history, are dangerous.

"In some distant place, Adolf Hitler and Bishop Müller must be smiling at Scalia's encouragement of the growing conflation of church and state in America. It's exactly what they worked so hard to achieve, and what helped make their horrors possible."

Supreme Court spokesperson Kathy Arberg said Scalia had no comment on the controversy.

Posted: 1/04/05

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Jan. 9

Humility is the starting point for prayer

Luke 18:9-14, 18-23

By Pakon Chan

Chinese Baptist Church, Arlington

After Jesus had addressed the issue of the coming of the kingdom, he urged people to pray with a courageous heart. He used the parable of the widow and the judge to illustrate how to pray with faith to seek God's justice (18:1-8).

This widow probably was oppressed by someone and sought justice from a judge. Even though that judge was not a good judge and tried to ignore her case, he eventually granted her request and brought her justice. The teaching of this parable is not about the bad judge, but the courage and faith of the widow. Jesus was encouraging his people to pray with faith for God's deliverance from an unjust situation.

Jesus wants to find faith in his people (v. 8). What does this parable teach us about faith and prayer? First, we should keep on praying even though our prayer seems not to be immediately answered. God may delay answering our prayer for several reasons, but he wants us to have faith in him and continue praying.

Second, there is another reason we need to keep praying. If a corrupt judge will eventually answer a widow, God loves and cares about us so much he must answer our prayer. This is the faith we should have in God.

Third, we should have faith in God's nature and character. God must act according to his nature and character. God is just and will bring justice to his people.

Pray with a humble heart

After the parable of the judge and the widow, Jesus immediately spoke the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (vv. 9-14). He also changed the theme of a widow being oppressed by an unjust adversary to a tax collector who was oppressed by sin. It also is a parable Jesus used to teach about prayer.

One of the problems of the religious leaders of Jesus' day was their self-righteousness. The purpose of the law given by God is cultivating the love between God and his people and also the love among their neighbors (Mark 12:29-31). But to the religious leaders, the law became the means of boasting in their religious pride and self-righteousness.

Jesus used the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector to illustrate the contrast between a prideful religious leader who saw only his self-righteousness and the humble sinner who was begging forgiveness from God.

Pharisees were professional religious practitioners who knew every detail of religious laws and observances.

From the contents of the prayer of this Pharisee, he was praying about or to himself ( v. 11). Even though he started his prayer with thanking God, he was not really praying to God. He did not need God to listen to his prayer. Probably his prayer was aimed at boasting about his appearance of righteousness to show his superiority in morality and religion. He did not ask for forgiveness, for he needed no forgiveness from God. He was not condemned by his good deeds and religious piety but by his pride and self-righteous attitude.

In contrast, the tax collector stood a distance from that Pharisee and did not dare raise his face to heaven, for he realized how sinful he was (v. 13). “Beating on his breast” is a gesture of expressing the deepest regret and repentance. He did not have many things to pray for, and the only purpose for his prayer was to seek forgiveness from God. He wanted to be relieved from the oppression and bondage of sin and guilt.

After telling this parable, Jesus concluded it and said, “I tell you that this man (the tax collector), rather than the other (the Pharisee), went home justified before God” (v. 14). God wants to justify us and rebuild the relationship with us if we can humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness. God not only wants us to be good people, but he also wants to have a loving relationship with us and for us to have loving relationship with others.

The Pharisee might be very good at keeping all the religious and moral laws, but he did not love people. A self-righteous person loves to criticize others and look down upon those who may be less moral or religious. That is the reason the Pharisee stood apart by himself. Such a person will be very confident of his own righteousness and despise others (v. 9). Even though he keeps all the laws, he falls short of “the most important commandment” of love (Mark 12:29-31).

The pride of self-sufficiency

Besides self-righteousness, wealth is another thing that makes people proud. Material riches give people a sense of self-sufficiency that they need nobody nor God in their lives. Wealth can also make people feel superior and look down on the poor. Material possessions are the tangible security people can create for themselves. The sense of security, pride and selfishness will be mixed together in a wealthy person's heart.

It also is one of the biggest obstacles that hinders people from trusting God. It is very hard for a rich person to give up such a sense of self-suffiency and superiority. Therefore, when Jesus told the rich Jewish leader to give all he had to the poor, he was sad. He was an achiever who had worked very hard to accumulate religious merits and wealth, and now he wanted to gain the privilege to enter into God's kingdom. Once he got the entrance permit, then he would be perfectly secured. He then would gain all things. But Jesus told him that if he wanted to enter into God's kingdom, he needed to give up all he had and to trust and follow God (v. 22).

Strengthen others in love

From this lesson, we have learned to pray persistently, humbly and with faith. Our prayer life will not draw us near God unless we humble ourselves and trust in him. We praise God if he strengthens us in keeping his commandments, so that we can love him and people more. If we are strengthened by the Spirit and strong in faith, then we should strengthen others who are weak in faith (Jude 1:20-23). We should not have pride, even if we can do good.

We also should have a right attitude toward our material possessions. They are blessings from God to be used to bless others. Material wealth can never be our protection and security. Any self-righteousness and pride in our heart will destroy our relationships with God and people.

Discussion questions

Have you ever criticized people and thought that you were better than they were?

u What should you do if you think that you are stronger in faith?

Posted: 1/03/05

LifeWay Family Bible Series for Jan. 9

Purity is difficult, but it also is required

Romans 11:33-12:2, 1 Corinthians 6:9-20

By Leroy Fenton

Baptist Standard, Dallas

Would you like another word for “temptation”? Try “pleasure.”

Like so many other things in life, some pleasure is wonderful and too much is tragic. The heart of Scripture is to find that balance of enjoying your body but not abusing it with excesses that become impure and hostile to your good and to your community.

Sexual desires and pleasure are creations of God, while pornography, fornication and adultery are contradictory excesses. Marriage between a man and a woman is a creation of God, while homosexual practice is an unnatural negation. What God intended for good, nature maligns and individuals ruin. Humanity has sinned, missed the mark of God's calling to purity, righteousness and love. Purity is the godly management of desires and needs.

The basic approach to ethics today is one of self-centeredness–each individual setting his/her own standard of morality. Everything is OK if I say so, and no one can tell me what is right or wrong. This kind of individualistic philosophy binds us to continued fiasco, a more ungodly and chaotic world and undermines the meaning and function of democracy.

As in the days of the Apostle Paul, our secular world is dumping upon our society “sexual impurity … the degrading of their bodies with one another … abandoning natural relationships … every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity … envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice … gossip, slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful … senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless” and “invent(ed) ways of doing evil”(Romans 1:24-27, 29-30).

Children, young people and adults constantly are inundated with images that arouse sexual desires through television, the Internet, magazines and books. These erotic visuals are powerful temptations that destroy lives and families.

Keep in mind we all are sinners and Christians also are guilty of such attitudes and actions. Christians must not only deal with their own carnality but swim upstream against the roaring rapids of peer pressure and a predominant secular morality. Foolish people follow these desires into the pits of self-degradation and broken relationships. Paul appeals to a changed life and a Christlike attitude to make a difference in our immoral world.

Exhortation to purity, or holy living, made little sense to Paul without first developing an infrastructure of doctrinal wisdom, a theological foundation or a system of beliefs. The secular world often will persecute Christians and their ideologies and teachings because their minds cannot understand the mysteries of faith, and they are pulled into the darkness of sin by their own carnal appetites (Romans 1:18-32). People who belong to God are to understand the biblical norm as revealed in Scripture and live up to it. Doctrine always comes before duty, and belief always before behavior.

Pure standards (Romans 12:1-2)

Referring back to his doctrinal foundation with “Therefore,” (v. 1) and his praise of God, “from him and through him and to him are all things,” (11:33-36), Paul begins his practical instructions with, “I urge you brothers” or “I beg you, please” (v. 1). The basis for his urgent exhortation is “God's mercy,” meaning salvation by being born again to eternal life (salvation, sanctification, glorification). Obedience to God in our behavior is motivated by God's mercy toward us.

Paul directs us to the two major forces of moral purity–mind and body. Both body and mind are to be sexually pure. Transformation of the person obligates the body and mind to godly living enabled by the spiritual energy of the Holy Spirit. The Christian is to put mind and body at the disposal of the saving Christ.

The term “offer” or “present” (v. 1) is the same concept used of the Old Testament sacrificial animal. “Body” refers to the physical body, and it is to be a “living sacrifice” (v. 1). As a “living sacrifice,” the Christian is to give God his or her eyes, his or her feet, his or her hands, his or her speech, his or her ears, his or her energy, his or her heart, his or her attitudes, his or her thoughts, his or her desires, his or her urges and his or her possessions these talents provided.

Holy living comes from the inside out with the conversion of one's reason or “renewing of your mind” (v. 2). Your “spiritual act of worship” occurs when this takes place and is “holy” and “pleasing” to God (vv. 1-2). This standard of commitment defines the body of Christ and the quality of the believer's priesthood. Conforming to the moral “pattern of this world” (v. 2) through impure living is a contradiction to the meaning of the gospel in one's life and weakens the power of its witness.

Pure change (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

You mean I don't have to be what I am! Of course not. People can change from being “wicked” (unrighteous) if they choose through the “renewing of your mind” in Christ Jesus. Christ is the hope for man's carnal nature. The mind and will, guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit, can control the body regardless of nature or environment (v. 12).

Paul defines the change that comes from being “washed … sanctified … justified” (v. 11), in moral terms. “Wicked” (v. 9) is exemplified, probably from his observation in Corinth, as “sexual immorality … idolaters … adulterers … male prostitutes … homosexual offenders … thieves … greedy … drunkards … slanders … swindlers” (vv. 9-10).

“Kingdom of God” (v. 9) is the future blessedness of heaven. Paul is not debating, “Can an immoral person be a believer?” or “Can a believer commit an immoral act?” but rather describing the rebellious “wicked” in contrast and opposition to the “washed … and justified” Christian.

A Christian is expected to live a consistently higher moral life because of his faith in and worship of God, who is holy and moral. Faith must not be divorced from ethics or religion from reality. Individuals are deceived when they assume God does not take his moral demands seriously (v. 9). None of these sins are unforgivable, and all people are in some way sinful.

God's grace is a powerful force that moves people from condemnation to salvation. Leave the eternal judgment up to the Father and be careful of your earthly judgment lest you be judged by that same standard (Matthew 7:1-2, John 8:7). Paul is uncompromising in his condemnation of immorality but loves the sinner with grace, yearning for salvation. God cannot allow sin into heaven. Forgiveness, through faith in Christ, removes guilt, establishes a Godlike lifestyle and gains heaven's portals. Some of the Corinthians had been delivered from bondage to their sinful, wicked spirit and lifestyle.

Pure ownership (1 Corinthians 6:13-20)

Paul provides astounding theological reasons for his nobler concept of sexuality: (1) “your bodies are members of Christ himself” (v. 15); (2) “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God” (v. 19) and (3) “you are not your own; you were bought at a price” (vv. 19-20).

No sexual sin can be justified because of the union of the believer with Christ. Christians cannot participate in sexual license without directly defiling and profaning the relationship with the Holy Spirit of God and perverting his own humanity (v. 18). Every behavior of the believer is subject to this spiritual bonding.

The body, neutral in essence, takes on a divine, dominant spiritual dimension. The “one flesh” concept of husband and wife in marriage (Genesis 2:24) is similar or the same as the believer who is “one” with Christ “in spirit” (v. 17). The believer and God permanently are united in this life and in the life to come. The reference to the resurrection can mean both: God, the “Lord of the body” (v. 13), who raised Christ from the dead, can raise up individuals from a lower immoral lifestyle (v. 14) and/or the body, saved for resurrection, should not engage in immoral sexual passion.

The body, the “temple of God,” is not for our use but for the Lord's because of the ransom price paid on Calvary's cross (v. 20). The Christian is to “flee from sexual immorality” (v. 18) which profanes God, disgraces the Body of Christ, wrecks the community, devalues the meaning of love and destroys human dignity. “Therefore, honor God with your body” (v. 20).

Discussion question

What can you do to safeguard against pleasure becoming a vice in your life?

Posted: 1/03/05

BaptistWay Bible Series for Jan. 9

Jesus chooses his disciples

Matthew 9:35-10:15

By Todd Still

Truett Seminary, Waco

Throughout the bulk of his Gospel, Matthew alternates between narration about Jesus (chapters 3-4, 8-9, 11-12, 14-17, 19-22) and instruction from Jesus (chapters 5-7, 10, 13, 18, 23-25). In this series of lessons, we are focusing upon the latter. Having devoted five sessions to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), we will now spend two weeks studying Jesus' “Missionary Discourse” as recorded in chapter 10 of the first Gospel. This particular lesson covers 9:35-10:15.

Before examining Jesus' instruction to his 12 disciples whom he is sending out on mission (10:5-42), we need to consider the two sections immediately preceding–9:35-38 and 10:1-4. Verses 35-38 offer a summary of Jesus' ministry activity and serve as a suitable transition to his teaching that follows in chapter 10.

In verse 35, Matthew informs that Jesus circulated throughout Galilean towns and villages teaching, preaching and healing. This verse, along with the strikingly similar 4:23, frames chapters 5-9. Thereafter, in verse 36, Matthew reports that Jesus felt compassion for the crowds with whom he came into contact. This is a common reaction of Jesus throughout the Gospel (14:14; 15:32; 20:34).

To explain why Jesus responded to the crowds with compassion, Matthew employs a biblical figure of speech–sheep without a shepherd (Numbers 27:16-17; 1 Kings 22:17; Ezekiel 34:1-10; Zechariah 11:15). That there would be shepherd-less sheep among the people of Israel signals a failure on the part of the nation's spiritual leaders. It was into this perceived void of spiritual leadership that Jesus was stepping. Unlike so many of his religious contemporaries, Jesus would be a good and skillful shepherd. Indeed, he would even surrender his very life for his sheep (John 10:11).

Jesus was not desirous, however, of leading and laboring among the sheep alone. Recognizing the spiritual landscape was ripe unto harvest (a scriptural metaphor for both judgment and reward) and acknowledging the magnitude of the task was greater than the present workforce, Jesus urges his disciples to implore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest (v. 38). Jesus' summoning of the 12 disciples for service provides at least a partial answer to such prayer (10:1).

When we ask God to send people to take the gospel to the harassed and helpless, we should be willing all the while to say to the Lord with Isaiah of old, “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).

Before Jesus sends out the 12 on mission, he equips them spiritually by giving to them his authority to cast out demons and to heal diseases (v. 1). Matthew concludes his Gospel with Jesus' authoritative commission to the 11 (the 12 minus Judas) to make disciples of all nations by going, baptizing and teaching (28:18-20). Those who would minister in Jesus' name should seek divine empowerment to help people come to wholeness in Christ. Although created in the image of God, we are broken people who need to be reconciled to and renewed by God.

Regarding the listing of the 12 disciples found in verses 2-4, at least two points merit mention here. First, the number of disciples mirrors the number of Israelite tribes. By intentionally choosing 12 to minister with him and in his name, Jesus seems to be suggesting that in and through his person and mission, there will be both a restoration and reconfiguration of Israel.

Second, it is interesting to note in the stylized naming of the 12 in verses 2-4 that Peter, the group's leader, is mentioned first (16:16-20) and is immediately followed by Andrew, James and John (4:18-22), whereas Judas, the one who would betray Jesus (17:22; 26:14-16, 47-56), is not inappropriately placed last.

Jesus commences his instructions to the 12 by directing them to expend their missional efforts entirely upon “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v. 6). Given that the vast majority of contemporary Christians are “Gentiles” and “Samaritans,” Jesus' marching orders to his disciples now seem out of step. But this was not always the case.

As a Jewish Messiah seeking to bring Israelite people back to God so they might be sent out on God's behalf, it seems both a necessary and prudent strategy that he and his disciples place their initial focus upon the people of Israel. Although Jesus grants his fellow Jews priority in his ministry, he does not categorically prohibit interaction with or inclusion of non-Jews in God's kingdom or in his mission (1:3, 5, 6; 2:1; 3:9; 8:5-13; 15:21-28; 28:19).

Jesus not only tells the 12 where to go (to fellow Israelites), he also tells them what to say. They are to herald the coming kingdom of heaven being wrought, no doubt, by the advent of Jesus, son of David and son of God (v. 7). Moreover, they are to conduct their miracle-laden ministry for free. They did not pay anything for the procurement of such wonder-working powers, nor are they to charge anything for their exercise of such powers (v. 8).

What is more, as the 12 embark on their journey, they are not to carry money or any other items typically deemed necessary for travel (vv. 9-10). Rather, the disciples are to depend upon the hospitality and generosity of those to whom they preach (v. 11). While they should not anticipate that all will respond positively to their message (vv. 12-15), they can entrust themselves to a heavenly Father (6:25-34) who will provide for them both in the here and in the hereafter. An awareness of God's ongoing care was to sustain the disciples in the midst of their mission.

A tenacious trust in God's everlasting goodness also can buoy us to live and to love in these days.

Discussion question

What do you think Jesus was looking for as he chose his disciples?

Posted: 12/29/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
Leave the lights on

By Brett Younger

Every once in a great while, I see a jogger and react in a way that is incomprehensible to thinking people: I say to myself, “I should start jogging.”

(I recognize that many intelligent people feel the more understandable response to runners is to turn the steering wheel ever so slightly so that they run back up on the curb where they belong.)

My unexplainable longing to jog usually doesn’t last long enough for me to put on my tennis shoes, but on rare occasions, I forget how much I hate jogging and run (throughout this column, I will be using the verb “run” in the broad, general sense) for a few days. The key to my success as a runner (I am using the noun “runner” in the same general sense) is that I don’t run very far (I am not embarrassed by embarrassingly short distances) or very fast (it can take several minutes for me to pass a parked car). The only part of jogging at which I excel is “jogger’s face.” While runners claim that they enjoy running, the look on most jogger’s faces is complete anguish. Even though I don’t jog far enough or fast enough to qualify for any genuine anguish, whenever a car or another jogger passes I huff and puff and contort my face as if my heart, lungs and every muscle in my body are about to explode. When they are out of sight, I sit on the curb and rest.

For a couple of weeks, I ran around a couple of blocks near our house. The whole trip was less than a mile. (I say this only to prove that I was telling the truth when I said that I am not embarrassed by embarrassingly short distances.) The highlight of my jaunt was an out-of-the-ordinary yard about 4/10 of a mile from our house. At night, when the lights are on, you can spot it from about 3/10 of a mile away. The most striking feature is the Christmas lights. The lights, which are in a Mulberry tree, are a startling variety of colors. There’s also a red birdhouse with a black roof and an invitation to “See Rock City.” A big red bow adorns a holly wreath. Orange, purple, pink, red and white gladiolas and lilies cover every spare inch. I hope I never have to use my jogger’s face near this spot, because it’s hard not to smile at this yard.

Not long after I started jogging, I had a conversation with some people who lived in the area. I asked: “What’s the story with your neighbor’s Christmas lights? That’s an interesting yard.” They quickly made it clear that the yard is not as amusing to them as it is to me: “Those stupid Christmas lights have been up for years. … It makes me furious when I think about what that yard does to my property values. … I am sorely tempted to buy a BB gun just to shoot those lights. … &%$*!”

I started to rethink my feelings. Perhaps the yard wasn’t as wonderful as I originally thought. Maybe I would feel differently if I lived nearby. Perhaps 4/10 of a mile into my run, I was experiencing the “jogger’s euphoria” about which veteran joggers talk.

One Sunday evening, I was gradually, leisurely making my way around the neighborhood when I saw a woman working in “the yard” just up ahead. I sped up so that 10 minutes later, when I was in need of a break anyway, I was able to stop and say: “Your yard is really interesting. Is there a story behind the Christmas lights?”

She smiled and said, “Yes, there is.” She pointed to the house across the street and identified a particular window. “The elderly woman who lives there came to stay with her children seven years ago. She’s in her nineties now and seldom leaves her room. After her first Christmas here, she went on and on about how much she enjoyed looking at the lights and bright colors in our yard. We’re the only view she has. When Christmas was over, we didn’t have the heart to take the lights down. We decided that as long as she’s around, we’ll leave the lights on.”

How many times are our aggravations someone else’s Christmas lights?

Leave the lights on.

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of “Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life,” available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016.

Posted: 12/31/04

SBC withdrawal from BWA top news story of 2004

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP)—The Southern Baptist Convention's withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance was the top Baptist news story of 2004, according to a survey of journalists.

The murder of four SBC missionaries in Iraq was the second most significant story, followed closely by President Bush's re-election with support from so-called "values voters."

The annual survey of Baptist state newspaper editors was conducted by Associated Baptist Press, an independent news organization based in Jacksonville, Fla.

The Baptist World Alliance, an international umbrella organization representing 211 Baptist bodies, lost its largest member and funder in June. The SBC's conservative leaders said BWA harbors theological liberalism, a charge denied by the Virginia-based alliance and many of its member groups worldwide. The action became official in October, costing BWA $300,000 a year.

In the deadliest tragedy in 157 years of Southern Baptist missions history, four International Mission Board missionaries were killed in their car March 15 in Mosul, Iraq, by unidentified assailants wielding automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

The relief workers were researching the need for a water purification site. Killed were Larry T. Elliott, 60, and Jean Dover Elliott, 58, of Cary, N.C.; Karen Denise Watson, 38, of Bakersfield, Calif.; and David McDonnall, 29, of Fort Worth, Texas. McDonnall's wife, Carrie Taylor McDonnall, 26, was severely wounded but survived.

Conservative Southern Baptists, who strongly supported George W. Bush's re-election Nov. 2, have since celebrated the growing influence of moral issues in American politics and called for Bush and the Congress to push ahead with reforms to outlaw gay marriage and abortion, appoint conservative judges and expand federal funding for faith-based charities.

The other top stories of 2004 were:

4. Gay marriage—particularly its approval by the Massachusetts Supreme Court and gay marriages held in San Francisco and a couple of other municipalities—prompted a nationwide outcry from conservatives and legislative attempts to prohibit it.

5. Four deadly hurricanes smashed into Florida, other Southern states and the Caribbean in late summer, killing more than 100 people, damaging dozens of churches and triggering Baptist disaster-relief work.

6. Mel Gibson's blockbuster movie "The Passion of the Christ" debuted in February amid charges of anti-Semitism, but pre-Easter audiences responded favorably, producing record ticket and DVD sales. While the movie made Jesus' death a topic of water-cooler conversation, evangelical Christians turned the box-office phenomenon into an outreach tool.

7. Constitutional amendments banning gay marriage were passed in 11 states Nov. 2 in reaction to legalization in some jurisdictions. Two other states approved bans earlier.

8. The SBC International Mission Board adopted guidelines in July requiring volunteer mission workers to endorse the more conservative 2000 version of the "Baptist Faith and Message" statement. The endorsement is already required of IMB missionaries.

9. Congress defeated the Federal Marriage Amendment on a procedural vote July 14. The defeat of the constitutional ban was hailed as a victory by gay-rights activists, but the vote triggered a cascade of state gay-marriage bans and energized a conservative electorate.

10. The SBC North American Mission Board voted Feb. 4 not to endorse female chaplains in cases "where the role and function of the chaplain would be seen the same as that of a pastor." The move brought an end to the SBC's endorsement of female chaplains for the military, but may not prevent women from serving as hospital chaplains.

Other stories ranking high in the minds of Baptist editors were a study showing the number of "declining" Southern Baptist churches on the rise, the worldwide reaction to the election of a gay Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's fight against making the SBC the "sole member" of its corporation, ensuring trustees could not break away from the SBC.

A separate survey of religion writers at the country's daily newspapers produced a tie for the No. 1 news story of the year. At the top of the poll by Religion News Service were "The Passion of the Christ" and the role of faith in Bush's re-election.

The rest of the top 10, according to the religion reporters, were: 3. gay marriage, 4. the denial of communion to pro-abortion politicians by some Catholic bishops, 5. the international Anglican report on New Hampshire's gay bishop, 6. the Supreme Court's approval on technical grounds of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, 7. the U.S. role in Iraq, 8. the trial of two lesbian ministers by the United Methodist Church, 9. the controversy over homosexuality in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and 10. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Posted: 12/30/04

CYBERCOLUMN: Cold and safe

By Berry D. Simpson

One recent Saturday morning, I ran in the cold rain, and it was wonderful.

It wasn't all that cold, actually, in terms of general North American winter weather—maybe in the low 40s. And it wasn't raining all that hard—simply a steady but gentle rain and certainly no downpour.

The biggest problem about running in the rain in Midland is not the water falling from the sky but the water flowing down the streets. The city uses the major streets as drainage channels. We have little else to choose from in this flat land, and sometimes the stream of water running down the middle of the street is wider than I can jump with my untrained legs. I end up splashing one foot in the water and soaking my trailing foot that usually passes directly into the airborne splash.

So, the coldest parts of my body that morning were my wet feet, but even they were comfortable, since running generates heat in my feet. I was warm enough.

One of the reasons I like to run in the rain, especially cold rain like this, is because I have a great waterproof rain jacket especially designed for running that my wife, Cyndi, bought a few years ago. I wanted one for a long time, but I couldn't justify the expense in my own mind, knowing I'd use it only occasionally. But Cyndi solved my dilemma by giving the jacket to me for Christmas. I don't get to wear it often enough, if you ask me.

When I'm bundled up with my hood pulled over my head, I am isolated from the world; I am insulated from the prying eyes of all the nosy automobile drivers and pesky onlookers who have nothing better to do than watch me as I run by and try to decide if I am someone they know. I wear my outfit like a cocoon.

I ran again in the cold rain the following Monday evening. It was 42 degrees and raining. As it turned out, running in the rain was actually the warmest part of my day. I was cold everywhere I went Monday—in my office, when I was studying, at my noon meeting downtown, while I was working, and even as I drove around town. It was one of those days when I started out with a chill, and I never caught up. But running outside, wearing my stuff, well, I was protected from the elements, and I was generating heat, and I was comfy.

I'll admit I wear more clothes when running than I used to, either because I'm becoming more cold-natured as I get older, or because I learned that no one was impressed when I suffered through a cold run wearing only a T-shirt and shorts. If I overdress, I know I'll be miserable during the second half of the run, but if I underdress, I'll be miserable the entire time.

I realize for all my love of running in the cold, 40 degrees isn't so bad. The rest of the country would love to have 40s in winter. In Wisconsin, they probably lay out for a tan in the 40s, so happy to be that warm. Even so, most of my Midland friends thought it was too bad for running on either Saturday or Monday. Except, that is, my backpacking friend Blake, who says, "There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear."

Running in the summertime heat is all about exposure and openness and minimal apparel. I have no protection from the outside world because I am wearing as little clothing as possible. It is just me alone, open to the world. But on that Saturday morning run, with my hood pulled up and my earphones playing “Morning Edition” and my sleeves pulled down past my gloved fingers and the bill of my hat hiding my eyes, well, I was anonymous. I was safe. I was hidden and protected. It was great.

The thing is, I wouldn't want to live my whole life like that. I may feel safe when hidden from view, but safety isn't all there is to living. The joy in my life comes from teaching and writing and communicating and, well, exposing myself, so to speak.

I want to share what God has done in my life so other people can join me on the journey and allow him to do the same for them. I can't do any of that living in a cocoon.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.

Posted: 12/24/04

Samford honors Wanda Lee, WMU executive director

Wanda Lee, executive director of the Southern Baptist Woman's Missionary Union, has been named an alumnus of the year by Samford University.

A 1969 Samford nursing graduate, Lee served as president of WMU from 1996 to 2000 when she was named to her current post. She is the first woman in WMU history to hold both positions.

Lee has been active at all levels of WMU—church, association, state and national. Early in her career, she worked as a registered nurse in hospitals in Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama and the Windward Islands, where she and her husband, Larry, were missionaries from 1979-81. WMU, an auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, employs about 115 staff members at its Birmingham headquarters and has more than a million members of all ages in Baptist churches worldwide.

"As CEO of the premier woman's missionary support organization in America, Wanda

Lee applies all the sensitivity and care she learned as a nurse and nurse administrator to the promotion of missions," Samford President Thomas E. Corts said. "In our diverse world, hers is an extremely important task and she fulfills it with a warm, genuine Christian spirit."

Samford University is affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention.