Posted: 12/05/03

Baptist Briefs

ABP names Norton. Associated Baptist Press has named Tim Norton of Atlanta director of development for the independent news service. Norton will provide leadership in developing new sources of annual revenue for ABP and will direct its fund-raising campaign. Norton, 41, comes to ABP from the Lord's Day Alliance of the U.S., where he serves as executive director. Norton also owns Crux Communication, a communications, marketing and development consulting firm based in Atlanta.

Southwestern names Gonzales, McQuitty. Rudy Gonzalez, former director of interfaith evangelism with the North American Mission Board, has been named vice president for student services at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. At the same time, longtime seminary staff member David McQuitty has been named associate vice president for student services. Gonzalez is a San Antonio native who holds advanced degrees from Southwestern and Baylor University. He first met President Paige Patterson while a student at Criswell College. McQuitty earned two master's degrees and later a doctor of philosophy degree from Southwestern. He most recently has been dean of students.

Maryland-Delaware opens BF&M parameters. Messengers to the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware's annual meeting approved an operating document affirming churches that adopt either the 1963 or 2000 versions of the Baptist Faith & Message "or other similar statement in accord with the beliefs expressed in those Southern Baptist documents." One messenger proposed an amendment to strike the words "or similar statement" from the document. The amendment was debated and defeated.

California reduces budget and SBC allocation. Messengers to the California Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting approved a reduced 2004 budget that reallocates 3 percent of receipts from Southern Baptist Convention ministries to state ministries. The 2004 budget of $10.66 million projects $1.99 million in gifts to the SBC. This year, the state convention sends 30 percent of undesignated gifts to the SBC. Next year, it will send 27 percent. The change was necessary, convention leaders said, to balance a budget deficit. However, the change drew extensive debate. Ultimately, messengers agreeed the first $220,000 received over the Cooperative Program goal will be sent directly to the SBC.

Dakotans go conventional. Dakota Baptists celebrated their 50th anniversary in Southern Baptist life by unanimously approving a move to state convention status and a name change from the Dakota Southern Baptist Fellowship to the Dakota Baptist Convention. Southern Baptist work in the Dakotas began 50 years ago with two churches in North Dakota, First Baptist in Dickinson and First Baptist in Williston. The convention's executive board also elected Jim Hamilton, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sellersburg, Ind., as their new executive director.

Oklahoma CBF hires Thomas. Veteran missionary Charles "T" Thomas was expected to be named coordinator of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma Dec. 6. Thomas, currently missions coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida, was to be recommended to the Oklahoma organization's coordinating council. Thomas would replace Rick McClatchy, who left to become coordinator for CBF Texas. In 1992, Thomas and his wife, Kathie, were among the first four global missionaries appointed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Previously they were missionaries assigned for the Southern Baptist Convention, serving first in France and later in Romania.

Habitat founder honored. Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, has been named 2003 Executive of the Year by the NonProfit Times. The semi-monthly publication acknowledged Fuller's entrepreneurial savvy, marketing abilities and innovation. Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliates in more than 3,000 communities in 92 nations have built and sold more than 150,000 homes to partner families with no-profit, zero-interest mortgages.

Retreat offered for married couples in ministry. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will sponsor its first retreat for married couples in ministry Feb. 2-3 in Atlanta. Conference leaders will be Bo and Gail Prosser, who have led marriage retreats for 20 years. The cost is $50 per couple. For more information, e-mail jandtvickery@aol.com.

Posted: 12/05/03

Posted: 12/05/03

Bell Baptists send kids shopping for clothing

By Miranda Bradley

Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services

ROUND ROCK–Jason's eyes were wide with anticipation as he sat on the edge of the sofa at Texas Baptist Children's Home in Round Rock, listening to instructions from his house mom. The entire cottage was going on a shopping spree, and he was to get $80 to spend on whatever clothes he wanted.

A resident of Texas Baptist Children's Home in Round Rock shows off one of his finds during a donor-sponsored shoppring spree this fall.

This was a special day made possible by special people.

What Jason, whose real name is not used for security, didn't know until just before leaving was the money, given to each child on campus for clothes shopping, was made possible by churches in Bell Baptist Association. Six individuals, 10 churches and two Sunday School classes contributed more than $6,000.

Churches within the association have been sponsoring an annual project for the children's home for the past six years. Centered around its annual meeting, the project is meant to inspire pastors and church members to “do something special,” according to Richard Mangum, director of missions.

In years past, the association has collected school supplies, jeans and even food for the ministry.

“We have always had a strong relationship and communication between the churches and the children's home,” he said. “And, many times, staff will bring children to churches in the area to participate in a special event. Our churches have definitely been thanked.”

Posted: 12/05/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
Nativity statuettes prompt questions of Christmas

By Dale Hanson Bourke

They are known collectively as The Nativity Scene, statuettes we take out this time of year and position around the baby Jesus figure to commemorate his birth.

But this year, as I opened the box and lifted each from its Styrofoam bed, I stopped to look at them individually,

wondering what came before and after. What made each of these men so wise? What moved a lowly shepherd to pursue such a lofty vision?

Dale Hanson Bourke

They are permanently bowed in reverence and awe, faithful to the call they each received to come to Bethlehem. But when they arrived, were they surprised or even disappointed?

Somehow these gathered strangers knew that God had asked them to witness a moment like no other. Yet they were fully human themselves. They traveled evasively to avoid a jealous king. They left family and vocations. They set off to pursue something they probably couldn't explain.

Did they hope their journey of faith would end in a massive display of glory? Did they expect they would witness something so significant their apparently foolish mission would be vindicated?

The Bible tells us they worshipped the baby. Somehow, they knew that even if he was crying or cooing or being very baby-like, this child was different. But how could they explain it?

According to the Scriptures, Jesus performed no miracles until he was an adult. The characters in the nativity scene, other than Mary and Joseph, probably never saw him turn water to wine or heal the sick. They had to take their experience for what it was. They had to be faithful even without proof.

And then they probably appeared foolish when they returned to their lives. “So what was that all about?” friends and family asked. How did they explain the incredible contradiction of seeing a baby in a manger and somehow knowing that his birth changed everything?

Did they keep it to themselves? Did they, years later, begin to doubt what they had really seen and felt?

Each year I set up this little tableau with the notion that I am spotlighting something holy and divine. But this year, as I look at the gathered porcelain figures, I am struck by the humanity of most of the statues.

I am reminded of times when I have felt God's presence or witnessed something that seemed utterly miraculous. I am struck by the fact that my glimpses of the holy are easily obscured by the mundane.

What if I had been called to witness this sacred event? Could I have suspended my human disbelief long enough to experience holiness? And then what? Would I have returned to family and friends filled with the news? Or would I have hesitated to talk about something so implausible?

Years later, would I have wondered if I had been too easily impressed, too caught up in the flurry of it all to use my analytical skills? Would I have wished for more proof, more explanation?

As the years passed and the baby became a seemingly ordinary child, would I have been disappointed? Would I have cried out to God when I saw suffering and asked him why he did not use his son to fix the world he had come to save?

I suspect I would have done all these things. I am a human being who occasionally glimpses the divine. In those holy moments, my reality is shaken, my identity re-defined. I return to my ordinary life, untethered for a time by all that once kept me grounded. And yet I eventually go back to the world I know, weighted down by reality.

The older I grow, the more I realize that a life of faith often looks like foolishness. It includes experiences that are not definable and choices that seem counter-intuitive. It means suspending disbelief and refusing to accept the mundane. It means bowing in awe and then, perhaps, having others wonder why you have lost your grip on reality.

But it also means having a tenacious hold on those moments even after they have become a distant memory. It means building tableaux of our own, commemorating those times when God became so real in our lives that nothing would ever be the same.

Dale Hanson Bourke is a consultant to non-profit organizations. Her column is distributed by Religion News Service, which she formerly served as editor

Posted: 12/05/03

Court hears arguments in religious funding case

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Supreme Court appeared closely divided during Dec. 2 oral arguments in a case that could have enormous ramifications for the future of government funding for religious institutions.

All eyes were on Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as attorneys squared off in Locke vs. Davey, a case that originated in Washington state. O'Connor–often a swing vote on difficult church-state issues–asked penetrating questions of attorneys for both sides during the hour-long session.

In the case, Washington resident Joshua Davey applied in 1999 for the Promise Scholarship Program, which provides state-funded tuition grants, or vouchers, to disadvantaged Washington students. The scholarships may be spent at any accredited Washington college, including religious ones.

Davey elected to spend his scholarship at Northwest College, a Seattle-area Bible college affiliated with the Assemblies of God. However, the state revoked the scholarship when Davey declared a double major that included pastoral ministries.

State officials cited a provision in Washington's constitution that prohibits the state from spending any money on religious instruction. Davey then sued the state with the help of the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal-advocacy group founded by Religious Right leader Pat Robertson.

Although Davey lost his first round in court, he won in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel of that court ruled 2-1 that the Washington constitutional provision, as well as a state statute applying it to the Promise program, violated Davey's First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke then appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last year, the high court declared constitutional an Ohio program that provided government scholarships that could be used in private schools, including religious ones. Justices decided that case, known as Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris, on a contentious 5-4 vote.

So the question before the justices in Locke vs. Davey was not whether providing government funding to religious schools via vouchers violates the First Amendment's ban on government support for religion, but whether the government, in some cases, must fund religious education.

O'Connor asked several questions of Washington Solicitor General Narda Pierce to determine if the program was legally similar to the one at question in the Ohio case. “Is it like a voucher program in that sense?” O'Connor inquired. “You give the money to the student and the student decides how to use it?”

Pierce repeatedly attempted to steer the argument back to the question of whether denying state funding for theology studies comprises a violation of First Amendment rights to religious freedom. “This case involves application of public funds,” she told the justices. “All the State of Washington has done here is to deny funding for theology studies.”

But Justice Antonin Scalia, a vocal opponent of strict church-state separation, said the question should be what he viewed as Washington's impermissible bias against theology students. “You are discriminating between religion and non-religion,” Scalia contended.

The four justices who tend to support stricter interpretations of church-state separation frequently came to Pierce's aid during the arguments. Summarizing a major part of the state's case, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “Not everything that the state could do under the establishment clause it must do under the free-exercise clause.”

A decision in Davey's favor could mean significant gains for the movement to provide government-funded vouchers to religious schools and to use pervasively religious charities to perform government-funded social services–two major domestic-policy goals of the Bush administration. In the arguments, United States Solicitor General Ted Olson sided with Davey on the administration's behalf.

“The Promise Scholarship program practices the plainest form of religious discrimination,” Olsen told the justices, saying the exclusion of theology studies alone from the scholarship program comprises an unconstitutional “religious test” for the receipt of public services.

Jay Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, argued Davey's case as a question of religious freedom. However, several justices seemed skeptical of that point, including John Paul Stevens who asked: “How is his freedom to practice religion impaired at all” simply because Davey was denied state subsidy for his theological studies?

Pierce argued Washington's constitutional amendment banning government funding of religious education has the effect of enhancing religious freedom rather than denying it, because it protects the rights of all Washingtonians to refrain from subsidizing religious teachings they may oppose.

“The state has a somewhat different, but concurring, scheme for religious freedom” than the First Amendment's provisions, Pierce said. “It's the same principle. It doesn't become discrimination against religion just because it extends beyond what the establishment clause requires.”

Posted: 12/05/03

DOWN HOME:
Humble pie with side of broccoli

A fun old song (I think I remember hearing the “world famous” Hardin-Simmons University Cowboy Band sing it at basketball games years ago) proudly proclaims, “O Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way.”

The Cowboy Band, a rowdy outfit that raised irony and sarcasm to a fine art, usually sang that song after an opponent made a bad play. Sort of like how they always warbled, “The old gray mare ain't what she used to be” after an opponent fouled out.

Unfortunately, I've never needed the Cowboy Band to prompt me down the path from pride to humility. The Lord has used petty little circumstances of life to do the trick.

MARV KNOX Editor

One of the earliest happened when I was a preacher boy in the Panhandle, on a hot summer night in an old country church.

During the song service, I'd noticed winged grasshoppers flitting around the lights. During my sermon, I noticed something brown crawling on my lapel. Not wanting to detract from my scintillating sermon, I casually reached up and plucked it off my jacket.

Instantly, I forgot my next point, as pain radiated out from my palm and up my arm. I realized my next point didn't matter that much, because everyone in the room knew exactly what I had done. Their thoughts focused more on the foolishness of a boy who picks up wasps than on the meaning of our Bible text.

Years later, I met the famous journalist Bill Moyers at the end of a banquet where he was the featured speaker. As we visited, I felt the sensation of a single broccoli fleurette floating across my front teeth. I couldn't remove it, no matter how I ran my tongue over my teeth. In that moment, I hoped Moyers forgot my name as soon as we parted.

Not long ago, I preached at our church, First Baptist in Lewisville. The sound technicians had me use a microphone that clipped over my ear and lay against my cheek. During the final announcements, I removed the mike. Then folks came up to shake my hand and offer encouragement. After about 15 or 20 people came by, a friend asked, “Have you started wearing your glasses on the outside of your ears?” There I'd been, talking to all those people while the left temple of a very light pair of eyeglasses stuck out on the side of my head.

Recently, after a lovely banquet in Dallas, another friend reached up and brushed my beard. He didn't say anything, but I don't think we'd just had a rare bonding moment. I think I'd been walking around with fuzz on my face, and not the kind I can shave.

The Book of James says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” While I'm not sure if this is what James had in mind, I'm glad the Lord loves me, no matter what kind of impression I make, and even with a wasp in my hand, broccoli on my teeth, glasses askew and fuzz on my face.

Posted: 12/05/03

Raising an Ebenezer Members of South Main Baptist Church in Houston recently marked the church's 100th anniversary by erecting an Ebenezer in the sanctuary. A procession of members representing all ages, races and languages of the congregation walked forward with stones they collected to build the kind of historical marker mentioned in the Old Testament. Pastor Steve Wells receives stones from Charlotte and Kurt Kaiser (left) and Art and Sue Hensley (below, left). Hensley is 102 years old. (David Nance Photos)

Posted: 12/05/03

EDITORIAL:
'Biblical worldview' should prompt Christ-like actions

If you think America is flying straight to hell in a satellite dish, George Barna may have just helped you tune in to the reason why.

A new poll by his Barna Research Group reports only 4 percent of U.S. adults base their decisions upon a “biblical worldview.”

“The primary reason that people do not act like Jesus is because they do not think like Jesus,” Barna explains. “Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content, … most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to challenges and opportunities of life.”

A biblical worldview, at the very least, ought to lead a Christian to care about what caused Jesus concern.

Barna's organization defines a biblical worldview as belief in absolute moral truth as presented by the Bible, as well as affirmation of six religious views: “Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and he still rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a responsibility to share faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in all its teachings.”

As you might expect, worldview impacts moral behavior, the survey shows. Compared to the rest of the population, Americans who share what Barna calls a biblical worldview are much less likely to condone cohabitation, drunkenness, gay sex, profanity and adultery. They also are far less likely to condone pornography, believe abortion is acceptable or advocate gambling.

Barna's study provides a helpful portrait of American morality. It documents the connection between theological beliefs and selected moral behaviors. It provides empirical evidence for what many people intuitively know: The moral erosion we have seen in society can be attributed, at least in part, to the paltry percentage of Americans who affirm divine absolutes.

However, the discussion started by the Barna survey should lead us to three gaps in its methodology. They are interrelated but crucial:

First, this definition of biblical worldview is rational rather than relational, and it can lead to a stifling legalism. The criteria are theologically broad and can be affirmed mentally. But they are practically narrow and do not necessarily lead to biblically based decision-making in all phases of life.

For example, the leaders of Enron and WorldCom were visible evangelical Christians and active in their churches. Very likely, they could and would have affirmed all the theological tenets set forth as a biblical worldview by Barna. Yet their moral failure was monumental. Similar cases could be made for other conservative Christians whose theological beliefs correspond to these affirmations but whose actions created scandal.

Second, the list of moral failures focuses primarily on sins of the flesh–internal or personal behaviors–rather than a more comprehensive range of ethical issues. This is a rather common evangelical blind spot. For generations, Baptists and like-minded conservative Christians have been known for what they're against, and these sins revolve around individual moral shortcomings. Barna's list even includes two of the big three–drinkin', dancin' and gamblin'. And, of course, sex.

Baptists and Barna should be commended for demanding high standards of personal morality. However, obsession with sins of commission, particularly regarding sex, alcohol and gambling, causes people to miss sins of omission. We also sin when we fail to do what we should, and a too-narrow worldview will cause us to overlook those failures.

For example, Jesus preached much more about care for the poor and disenfranchised than he did about sex. Not that he would condone sexual failure, but Jesus emphasized the vital importance of justice, fairness and mercy. A biblical worldview, at the very least, ought to lead a Christian to care about what caused Jesus concern.

Third, Barna's emphasis fails to address what we might call applied Christianity or everyday ethics. Most Baptists aren't challenged so much by sexual deviance, drunkenness or debauchery as by the ordinary decisions of their lives. Sins of harsh speech in their homes, over-consumption induced by greed, gluttony in restaurants and vindictive responses to annoying neighbors and coworkers plague their lives more than illicit sex. They're more challenged by how to steward their resources and what to watch on TV than by drinking or betting.

Still, whether we agree on the range of his focus, Barna has provided a great service by documenting the marginalization of a biblical worldview, even within the church. So, what are we to do?

First, we need to receive more of God's word. American Christians enjoy the Psalms, some of the Gospels and selected passages from Paul. We also need to study and hear sermons from the prophets, whose hearts broke because the people acted as if they didn't need God; the Gospel of Luke, which emphasizes Jesus' concern for the poor and disadvantaged; and James, which tells us our faith is nothing if we don't use it in the world.

Second, we need to ask, “So what?” Every sermon and every Sunday School lesson ought to turn a biblical mirror toward our faces. They ought to prompt us to ask, “What does this passage of Scripture say about how I should live?” They must teach us to confront all the experiences of our lives with divine truth, so that we may live like Jesus lived. Otherwise, our blindness overwhelms our faith and negates our testimony that a Christian worldview matters at all.

–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted: 12/05/03

El Paso Baptists surpass goals for church starting

EL PASO–When Baptists in El Paso focus on starting churches, they can't get too much of a good thing.

El Paso Baptist Association recently surpassed two goals for launching and funding new churches.

“Life on the (Texas/Mexico) border means crossing bridges to participate in a constant and vibrant exchange of goods, services, ideas and lifestyles,” noted Josue Valerio, the association's director of missions.

“The Lord has placed El Paso Baptist Association in a strategic location to bridge the border for Christ through the ministries of our local churches. … Church planting has become a driving force and intentional strategy to reach people for Christ in the El Paso/Juarez region.”

However, if they're going to take advantage of their strategic location, El Paso Baptists need more churches to handle the ministry load, Valerio acknowledged.

“In a city with approximately one Baptist church per 10,000 documented residents and a few evangelical churches, we began to pray that God would give us one new church each month in 2003,” he said.

So far this year, the association has started 16 congregations, four better than the goal.

Valerio credits his predecessor, Lorenzo Peña, now associational missions coordinator for the Baptist General Convention of Texas; John Silva, a BGCT church multiplication consultant; and Jackie Miller, the association's church-planting coordinator, with emphasizing the importance of starting churches.

But he cites another source for the success. “We have seen a breakthrough of God's hand at work in our association through prayer, mobilization, training and the resourcing of church planters,” he said.

That's good news–one major goal accomplished. Unfortunately, it produced some not-so-good news. “We have exhausted our resources,” Valerio reported.

But even without church-starting funds, El Paso Baptists think their region needs more churches, he said. “We believe the Lord will continue his work in planting new churches in 2004.”

So, short on cash, El Paso Association leaders set out to raise more money. They organized the association's first church planting banquet and set out to raise $25,000 to start churches in 2004.

Instead, they raised $40,224.80 at the banquet. The Texas Baptist Missions Foundation agreed to provide another $25,000 in matching funds. Caprock Baptist Association, which covers a rural swath of the South Plains, raised an additional $25,000. Other donors contributed property valued at more than $25,000.

That represents a 2004 church-starting campaign account of slightly more than $115,000.

“We are so grateful to God for the people and organizations that have joined us in our church-planting efforts,” Valerio said. “God has blessed us above and beyond anything we could have imagined.”

He asked other Texas Baptists to help too: “Please join us in praying for our city as we seek to start new churches to bridge our border for Christ.”

Posted: 12/05/03

ETBU students fall for intercultural ministry during break

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

HOUSTON–While their classmates were busy catching up on sleep, a group of East Texas Baptist University students served seven distinct cultures during their fall break.

Nine young adults from the ETBU Baptist Student Ministry led Sunday School classes, worship services and Bible studies during their mission trip to Houston Oct. 26-28. They also helped clean several churches.

The weekend effort included visits to six ethnic churches that served Nigerians, Filipinos, Laotians, Cambodians, Chinese and Indians. The trip, arranged through the Baptist General Convention of Texas intercultural initiatives office, helped the group get a taste of international missions without leaving the state, said ETBU junior Mike Vela.

“We didn't want to go in and help them, go in and change them, but we wanted to serve God,” he said.

Although the majority of the students' work was in ethnic churches, their help building a stage at Woodhaven Deaf Church touched Pastor Arthur Craig's heart. The stage will support the church's annual Christmas drama, which draws about 1,200 people from the surrounding communities. The play, penned by Craig, depicts the life of Jesus from a different perspective each year.

“Deaf people love drama because it is so visible,” Craig said. “The hearing people mostly have a connection to the deaf community, but some do not. They just come because it is so unique.”

Cooperation between ETBU students and volunteers from the church helped students understand the deaf culture, Craig reported. The two groups used a combination of sign language, gestures and spoken words to get to know each other during the project.

The students' visit continues to encourage Woodhaven Deaf Church, Craig added, explaining that the volunteers' energy and willingness to help has urged the deaf congregation to be more outreach-minded.

“It's a blessing to our people,” he said. “They are seeing people who want to do something. They're like missionaries or examples of Christian servants. It inspires them to want to go out.”

ETBU students also were blessed, Vela responded. The congregations were grateful for the effort and cared for the volunteers throughout their trip, providing ethnic meals.

“People can be so sacrificial and excited for other people,” Vela said. “It is so humbling. People want to give what they have or sometimes don't have.”

The trip helped the students realize they can reach many cultures by living like they are on mission every day, Vela added. By following what they felt was God's will, the students furthered the work of the Houston churches.

“These guys wanted to give up their fall break–well, not give up, but wanted to share,” Vela concluded. “If we would have gone home, we would have missed so much.”

Posted: 12/05/03

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Dec. 14

When God speaks, it would be wise to listen

Jonah 2:10-3:10

By John Duncan

Lakeside Baptist Church, Granbury

“Mine, O thou Lord of life, send my roots rain,” the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins once penned. Grace is the refreshment of God on our lives like a gentle rain falling on a summer day. Grace nurtures spiritual roots for growth and service. Grace inspires confidence to confess, to repent, and to follow God in ways not before chosen.

Grace inspires a second chance. God's mercy spit Jonah on the shore and opened his ears to God's voice again (Jonah 2:10-3:2). Jonah now hears God fully, accepts God's call and walks to Nineveh. The journey to Nineveh took three days (Jonah 3:3). Jonah's call involved preaching God's message (literally, “preach the preaching,” Jonah 3:2).

Preaching meant heralding the news of God, suggesting that Jonah entered the city center and wandered through the city thundering God's judgment. The message of judgment was twofold: warning and announcing words loudly so contact with God can be initiated. Specifically, Jonah proclaimed the city would be destroyed in 40 days (Jonah 3:4).

Nineveh

Nineveh was one of the largest cities of its day. Although the problems and sin of Nineveh were different than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, the city seemed destined for the fire of God's judgment. The poet Langston Hughes described Nineveh's challenge if following God became their choice, “Descent is quick, To rise again is slow.” Nineveh had descended into wickedness (Jonah 1:2). Their wickedness involved acts of evil that broke their hearts and crushed their moral strength. Sin destroys heart and soul. To rise again toward God would require a long journey mandating a change of heart, habit and lifestyle.

Jonah preached a message spoken with passion and the expectation of God's penetrating power. Old Testament scholars Keil and Delitzsch said, “The respite granted is fixed at 40 days, according to the number which, even as early as the flood, was taken as the measure for determining the delaying of the visitations of God.”

Forty days gave the people of Nineveh time to repent. Forty days in the Bible is a reference to God's special work or activity during and at the end of such days. Eugene Peterson said Jonah called into question the Ninevites' future and that “'40' is a stock biblical word that has hope at its core.” The Bible clearly places “40” as a word that, in its duration, supplies opportunity for God's restoring and refreshing work. God longed for Nineveh to be transformed and turned back from their wicked ways. Jonah preached a repentance leading to obedience to God.

Feast of faith and a fast of repentance

God's word went forth in the preaching. God's message jolted hearts and souls. The people believed and placed faith in God (Jonah 3:5). Belief inspires confidence to follow God and his ways by faith. Faith indicates a powerful dynamic. It also means the dynamic work of God brought forth a swift change in one moment, or “to be fixed in one spot.” Salvation by faith has definite spiritual character and a fixed time of spiritual change. God graced the people of Nineveh, and a feast of faith enjoyed promise in their hearts.

The feast of faith in the heart produced a genuine spirit of repentance (v. 5). The people of Nineveh fasted. As a part of the fast, each person, whether king or servant, rich or poor, good or bad, great or small, took off their outer garments, put on sackcloth and rubbed ashes on their foreheads. Sackcloth was used for mourning, begging during famine or poverty, repentant acts and for grief in the shadows of sorrow. Even the king took off his royal robe, clothed himself with sackcloth and sat woefully in ashes (v. 6).

The king then decreed for the people to refrain from eating food and drinking water (v. 7). The king enforced a law for the people to put on sackcloth and cry out to God (v. 8). The intensity of the act of turning to God vibrates in this passage. Not only were the people to cry to God, but also to turn from evil and violence (v. 8). The grace of God's second chance in the words “evil” and “violence” indicate that God takes the broken and restores them while simultaneously taking the disorder of wrong by replacing it with the order of God's righteousness and peace (v. 8).

Turning away from evil and violence provides grace for God to deliver the comfort of forgiveness, to hold back his fury and burning anger, and to replace perishing with the protection of his saving grace (v. 9). The question in verse 9 hints at the hope of transformation among the people of Nineveh and the essential quality of grace which leads to a change of direction and conduct.

Grace of a gentle rain

God's eyes, hands and heart grace the people. His eyes see their repentance. His hands withdraw from judgment. His heart unites with their hearts to bring mercy. Mercy renews their lives like a gentle rain. The grace of obedience to God blossoms in Nineveh like a beautiful flower.

Question for discussion

What do you suppose life in Ninevah was like after this period of repentance?

Posted: 12/05/03

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Dec. 21

This is a time to rejoice at the Savior's birth

Matthew 1:1-2:10

By John Duncan

Lakeside Baptist Church, Granbury

Handel's “Messiah,” a musical oratorio, has come to be associated with the Christmas season. He set to music prophecies of Isaiah about a king who comes to bring peace, comfort and joy to a violent, troubled and disturbed world. Isaiah's words, “Comfort my people” (Isaiah 40:1), reverberate toward a crescendo as the music flows in an ebb and flow of soft to loud building toward a climax at the end. Matthew 1:1-25 reads like the ebb and flow of a musical score with Christ's birth of Immanuel serving as the climax. God's glory is revealed in Jesus.

Genealogy

Matthew announces the gospel as a gospel of Jesus the King to the Jews. Matthew emphasizes the fulfillment of Old Testament revelation. The genealogy is a study of the life of Jesus in heritage with Joseph's lineage (Matthew 1:1-17). Clearly the genealogy is a list of the names of people God used to accomplish his will and fulfill his plan.

In the genealogy, three things stand out: God's plan in the realm of faith (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob); God's grace at work in that plan (David, Bathsheba, Ruth, Rahab and Hezekiah); and God's plan and grace combining to use the unlikely and unknown Joseph.

God uses those who avail themselves to his plan and grace. On a more general note, you could conclude from the genealogy that God's work in a family spans generations in spite of family problems and that God's grace is the common factor in holding families together by faith.

Joseph and Mary

Joseph was betrothed to Mary (v. 18). The closest explanation for our understanding is a kind of engagement. Betrothal was a time of waiting before marriage that included Jewish feasts, seclusion and a binding legal arrangement taken seriously in Jewish culture. It was a legal arrangement not to be violated.

An apparent violation of that arrangement is mentioned in Matthew 1:18, when it speaks of Mary having a child in her womb. However, there was no broken betrothal because the child was “of the Holy Spirit.” The original language clearly indicates the source of Mary's child and Jesus's birth was not man, but God. Theologians call this indispensable act of God the virgin birth. It is also a basic belief of the first century church as well as of evangelical Christians today.

Matthew describes Joseph's character and faith in two ways– just (“righteous,” a quality of God who does right, honors right and defends justice); and a person of grace (v. 19). Joseph did not wish to disgrace, publicly expose or embarrass Mary, so he quietly planned to protect her by putting her away.

Joseph could have pursued two courses of legal action–repudiated Mary publicly under Jewish law (which might lead to stoning) or even private repudiation through divorce. One might see in Joseph two qualities of God–righteousness and grace, or, put another way, a balance of truth and mercy.

Heroes of the faith always possess these spiritual qualities. Thomas Long says Joseph “seeks to discern the will of God in each new moment and to be obedient to that.” Matthew forever leads the reader to see the coming king and his kingdom as one full of truth and mercy.

Angel

An angel appears to Joseph in a dream to reveal God's plan and grace. The angel reveals God's plan: Do not begin to fear, take Mary to your side as your wife and recognize this is God's plan because the child is “of the Holy Spirit” (v. 20). The angelic appearance and message were startling, surprising and alerted Joseph that both he and Mary were in God's plan and that Mary is without terrible sin in carrying the child. God's grace is revealed in the message of Jesus' birth as a son who shall be called Jesus, or “Helper and Salvation.” Joseph as a Jew might well have thought of Joshua leading the people of Israel across the Jordan River and into the promised land.

Jesus would be a new kind of king, leading people to the promised land of heaven by saving people from their sins (v. 21). The king saves people who “miss the mark” in sin. Prophets long declared this king would come, and now he is coming. Next, Matthew shares the prophet's verse and name. Long ago, Isaiah (7:14) announced a virgin-born son whose name would be called “Immanuel.” The name indicates the role or ministry of the king to and in his people, that is, God will be with them (literally, “God with us”). God's kingly truth and mercy will fill the souls of the citizens and servants of his kingdom.

Joseph's service to God

Joseph awakened from his sleep, obeyed God's message through his angelic messenger, and took Mary to his side to be his wife (v. 24). Joseph possesses two more qualities of service to God–obedience by God's grace to his plan; a faith to follow God even in the unknown and unseen. Faith surrounds Joseph with a godly, angelic message, and faith moves Joseph to action to serve God by grace.

Climax

The Scripture passage climaxes in a crescendo of praise and hope, truth and mercy: Jesus was born. The coming king had come to establish his rule of truth and grace in the hearts of his people.

Question for discussion

What would be the title of your song celebrating Christ's birth?