Prayer is powerful. As we Sunday school teachers gathered to pray for our students, I felt a fire burn in my heart for the lesson I was to teach that day.

On our way up the mountain, during our prayer walkAs I walked into my class, my heart started racing when I saw three new faces in the room. We reviewed what we had covered last week and the memory verse. Then we began the day’s lesson with a prayer.

As we began the lesson, I felt the Holy Spirit come over me. I wanted to cry because I could feel the Holy Spirit speaking through me to my class. All the students were wide-eyed, looking at me and participating in the class discussion.

Our lesson focused on the kind of faith a real hero has. We went through all the examples given in Hebrews 11 and then thought of ways that we can apply faith to our lives. We ended the lesson with a prayer, asking God to guide our lives and to use us for his glory.

Before class dismissed, I asked the students if any of them were willing to prayer-walk the town with me after class. About five of them said “yes.” As soon as class was over, I was happy to see everyone was on board.

We divided into groups of four. The four men went up to the upper part of the town, and the five young women went to the lower part of the town. We met at the top of the hill, and prayed for the whole town. The students told me that it was the first time that they had done this and would like to do it again.

How beautiful it is when the people of God come together in prayer. How beautiful it is when we pray for one another and encourage each other in our walk with Christ. How wonderful an opportunity it is to serve the all-powerful God of the universe.

Janet Ruiz, a student at the University of Texas-Pan American, is serving with Go Now Missions in Peru.

Background checks: ‘A waste of time & money’

I see a lot of problems with background checks. “Judge not lest you be judged.” Once the background check comes back, who judges?

A long ago felony, but now repentant. “Unfit, kick him out!” Do we no longer forgive? I once drove intoxicated—a felony—but didn’t get caught. “Let him without sin cast the first stone.” Perhaps we should require a background check before baptism.

Background checks opens up a whole new can of worms.

I submit to an annual background check to work with youth. It’s a waste of time and money to identify that highly publicized one in a million pedophile. The rule is carved in stone—I am never alone with any youth. Better than a background check.

Fred Rosenbaum

Gainesville

As a 2006 graduate of the University of Oklahoma, I was fortunate enough to see Adrian Peterson burst onto the scene. I remember standing—because you don’t sit in the student section—with a friend watching this specimen of athleticism during his first collegiate game against the mighty Bowling Green State University Falcons.

Phillip LarsenAdrian Peterson was a great Sooner. His freshman year, he finished second in the Heisman balloting behind Matt Leinart. Adrian Peterson is a phenomenal running back. Countless stories have been written about what he did last season, less than a year removed from major knee surgery. As an avid fantasy football player, I owe Peterson a huge thank-you for carrying so many of my teams to fantasy victory.

Like a lot of people I was saddened to hear about the death of Peterson’s 2-year-old son. As a father, that is the nightmare scenario. My stomach turns just thinking about what I would do and how I would react if I lost one of my girls. The outpouring of support for Peterson was well-documented throughout all the sports world. I mourn with Peterson and the mother of the child for their loss. I weep for the loss of a child.

A tragic, moral failure

However, Peterson is no hero. The story surrounding his son’s death proves this. As the emotional reaction began to subside and the truth about his behavior as a father began to surface, it became clear Peterson, although a superstar athlete, is no hero. The fact Peterson only met his 2-year-old son two months prior to his death reveals he does not deserve the status of hero we are so quick to bestow. Since this tragedy, further stories—that Peterson has had multiple kids with multiple women—have surfaced.

We have set ourselves up for failure. We have equated athletic ability with morality, and that is our mistake. Some expectations for our professional athletes are unrealistic. For example, we unfairly placed so much weight and expectation on Tim Tebow.

Re-evaluate our priorities

But this serves as an opportunity to re-evaluate our priorities. Our heroes are not NFL running backs or other professional athletes. Our heroes are fathers who take time to lead their households. Our heroes are parents who take time to talk frankly about God’s purpose for spiritual health, sex, work and many other pressing issues or our day. Our heroes are fathers and mothers. Our heroes are pastors and teachers. Our heroes are those who invest in one another and in all things point to Christ.

It is OK to watch Adrian Peterson. It is OK to keep Adrian Peterson on your fantasy team. Check that. It’s not OK to keep Adrian Peterson on your fantasy team. You should trade him to me. What is not OK is to make Adrian Peterson, or any other athlete, something he or she is not—a replacement for the true heroes in our lives.

Phillip Larsen is a follower of Christ and a member of West Metro Community Church in Yukon, Okla. He is the author of Suit Up and an accompanying four-week small-group study. Suit Up is available at www.suitupbook.com and on Amazon. He also blogs at larsenphillip.wordpress.com.

Don’t be creeped out, but Halloween is sneaking up on us.

It should be a hum-dinger this year, what with vampires, werewolves and zombies all the rage on TV and in movies.

Boo!

Editor Marv KnoxOf course, Halloween is the scariest holiday. Nobody knows that better than careful, cautious parents. Black magic, demons and ghouls present paradoxes for moms and dads who try to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord: How can they affirm spiritual values, still let the kiddoes enjoy fun and frivolity with their friends, and refuse to romanticize gore, violence and general creepiness, not to mention voodoo and witchcraft?

No doubt, you know parents who don’t allow their children to participate in Halloween festivities. Maybe they let the young ’uns dress up and attend the “Fall Festival” or “Trunk or Treat” at church. Or maybe they stay home, turn off the porch light, hang out in the back of the house and hold on until Nov. 1.

Other parents—Joanna and I were among them—help the kids pick out costumes, carve pumpkins into jack o’lanterns, stand by the door to pass out treats and, after all the little ghosts and goblins trudge home, try to talk their kids out of a few candy bars. They don’t condone dark arts and evil. But they think the worst result of the night is insomnia brought on by too much sugar, not pagan chicanery.

Mutual respect?

Now, I’ve always respected parents who look askance at Halloween. They’ve got the sole responsibility for raising their daughters and sons, and they have a right to set the bounds of propriety. If they don’t want their kids to dress up as Spiderman and Snow White and mix and mingle with headless horsemen and Lord Voldemort, that’s their business. I always hoped they showed us the same respect. That hope rarely received confirmation. But one can hope, can’t one?

Halloween reactions create a microcosm of a larger issue: How should Christians respond to culture and “the world” around us? It’s not a simple question, is it? In fact, one of the greatest books ever written—Christ and Culture  by the late ethicist H. Richard Niebuhr—plumbs the depths of that question and offers five major historic approaches.

Ultimately, Christians who believe Jesus came to redeem the world must work to transform it. Ironically, that can provide cover for parents who hide out until Halloween howls over as well as parents who dress up and stand out on the sidewalk while their kids ring doorbells and shout, “Trick or treat!”

Finding common ground

They can find common ground in how they help children navigate the event. Children love make-believe and enjoy exercising their imaginations. This practice is vital for creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity—traits vital for a full and meaningful life. Parents provide interpretation, meaning and boundaries, whether they shun or engage culture.

At Halloween, lessons can be learned by contrasting the negative and highlighting the positive. Children can learn the difference between pretend and real. They can hear that love is greater than evil. And they can appreciate good-natured fun and frivolity.

Whether children dress up and fill plastic pumpkins with candy or stay put at home, learning from cultural events is a treat that doesn’t demand a trick.

Some days serving at the University of North Texas are just plain hard.

It’s not the kind of morally conservative Christian campus I knew at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

It seems most students do not care about God or want to engage in spiritual conversations—not because they don’t see the reason for believing in God, but because they really just don’t care. However, I am learning when you make the conversation about meeting their needs and hearing about their lives, the Holy Spirit moves.

The Baptist Student Ministry serves free lunch on Wednesdays. Each week, a different church provides the food and helps serve hundreds of students on campus. Each week, new faces come in for the first time.

I greet students at the door. So, I am the first person students see when they walk into the BSM. Truthfully, I love that I get to be the first smiling face. My goal is to make them feel welcomed, but that isn’t always an easy task. Most students at UNT are always looking for the hidden agenda. They want to know: “Why they feeding us?” or “What’s the catch?”

It never fails that I have to convince a student it’s OK—it’s just a hot dog or just a taco salad. It’s funny to think they are so scared to accept food because they might be told something they do not want to hear.

I did not understand at first, but then I remembered my life before Christ. I thought what I was being taught was crazy. I thought it was foolishness. I thought that it was not a life for me, but then I met Jesus.

In the story of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus meets the people’s physical needs and because that need was met, they began to trust him. This trust led to conversations with Jesus and ultimately coming to know him as Savior and Lord.

Free lunch is one of the easiest and hardest days of my job. I can easily have conversations with unbelievers, but those conversations are hard. However, they produce fruit. Students are presented with Jesus each week through various ways, but first we meet their physical need. The Lord uses free lunch to bring people to himself and the students of UNT are shown Jesus.

Lauren McKee, a graduate of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, is serving as a campus missionary at the University of North Texas in Denton with Go Now Missions.

I work with kids in town who are selected for the feeding program on the basis of their family’s need. They burst in through the classroom doors each day with so much energy and excitement. It does not matter what the weather is like. They are always here.

Seeing the kids from the program and their involvement in my classroom makes my heart sing with joy. Even though at times I feel drained, and my voice is almost gone at the end of the day, I feel satisfied because I know God is using me.

A boy from my class participating in answering questions from our devotional.The kids in the program arrive with empty stomachs. If not for this program, many would not get to eat, either because their parents work so much and are never home to prepare meals or there is not much to eat at home. While the kids eat, each one loves to tell me about his or her day. They ask me how to say certain words or phrases in English. They all want my attention. They share with me, and I share with them.

In the classroom, I divide the group in half. I teach one group first, while the other group plays. Then, I teach the other group. It is double the work, but it yields better results, because I am able to give them more attention. Because I share with them and let them see my heart, they know they can trust me.

Since I started a Bible study with the middle school girls, they open up to me and ask any questions they have. Sometimes I have no idea what a simple smile or a hug does. I only pray each morning God uses all that I am for his glory. It is such a blessing!

I know God is planting the seeds in each one of their hearts. As they come to get their physical body fed, they are getting spiritually fed as well. What a blessing to be given the opportunity to make an impact on so many lives.

Although they are kids, they have the power to be the light in their homes and bring their families to Christ.

Janet Ruiz, a student at the University of Texas-Pan American, is serving with Go Now Missions in Peru.

Lately, I’ve been in a bit of a slump.

I can’t get the windows in our cars clean. Especially inside the windshields.

Joanna, who vowed to stick with me through thick and thin and even my goofy obsessions, thinks I’m about 99.44 percent nuts over this.

But I like clean car windows. Especially inside the windshield.

Who knows when I developed an intense desire to see clearly through car windows. But I remember as a teenager contorting my young, lithe torso in order to wipe the inside of the windshield forcefully enough to remove all hints of smudge.

Now, more than four decades after I received my first driver’s license, that’s not so easy. I wish carmakers produced a pop-up windshield so you can get at it cleanly. Not to mention clearly.

My two-step process

Through the years, I’ve developed a two-step process for cleaning windows. Start with normal window cleaner and a soft cotton rag. Spray and wipe. And then wipe some more. And turn the rag over and wipe again. Then get a new, softer rag and a solution that’s half rubbing alcohol and half water. Spray and wipe until your elbow wears out. When you’re done, you’ve got absolutely transparent windows.

Or so I thought.

Lately, I’ve not been able to eliminate the streaks. And they seem to get worse within a day or two and then even worse after that. It probably has to do with all the rain we’ve had lately.

Here’s the weird thing: Suppose you’ve got a window that never gets touched, like the inside of a windshield. You’d think you could clean it once and never need to clean it again. It’s just there. Unless you reach up and touch it or sneeze, it should stay pristine. Right?

Nope. I think it’s because you can’t completely eliminate the traces of soap from the window cleaner. Over time, the slightest residue attracts dust. So, every flaw in the cleaning process shows up. What you thought were smooth, clean swipes become awful smears. And they amplify as dust and grime accumulate.

I keep hoping I’ll eventually figure out the perfect amount of window cleaner to spray, plus the correct ratio of alcohol to water in the second application. Then, voila! I’ll drive around with super-clean windows.

It’ll never happen. Because I’m not perfect. I can’t clean perfectly.

A streaky and stained soul

When I think about it, I reflect on another way I’m not perfect. Sometimes—far too often, I’m afraid—I have been more annoyed by the smears and smudges that accumulate on my car windows than by the streaks and stains that accumulate on my soul. Too often, I’ve paid more attention to the balance of alcohol and water in my cleaning solution than I’ve paid to the balance of Scripture reading and prayer in my daily life.

No wonder my spiritual windows fog over when the storms of life roll in.

Lord, forgive me when my perfectionism turns toward something as silly as car windows. You know I’ve always believed everything worth doing is worth doing right. But sometimes, I misvalue “worth.” I place a premium on thoughts and things that don’t matter, while I ignore the truly monumental events and issues and people you’ve placed in my life. Help me see my life more clearly, Lord. Just as if I’m peering through a perfectly clean windshield.

How should Christians go about meeting their neighbors’ needs?

That question lies at the heart of this edition of the Baptist Standard. It’s also a dispute older than Christianity itself. The prophets, particularly Amos, railed against well-off religious folks who scrupulously tended to the letter of the Law but overlooked the obvious suffering of people they encountered every day. Centuries later, the scribes and Pharisees repeatedly lambasted Jesus for taking care of outcasts and ne’er-do-wells at the expense of religious rules and regulations.

Editor Marv KnoxTwo thousand years later, we still don’t agree. The lead article in this week’s feature package, “Meeting needs: How can Christians really help the poor?”  presents dueling perspectives offered by compassionate, well-meaning Christians.

On one hand, some Christians advocate a spiritual version of tough love. They disavow one-way support for needy people, citing dependency fostered by a welfare mentality. They reason the long-term solution to poverty and need is self-sufficiency.

In contrast, other Christians point to Jesus’ model of unconditional love. They stress the necessity of taking immediate steps to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked and heal the sick. They realize millions of people suffer because of external conditions, which must be ameliorated and relieved.

Both/And

The most obvious answer to this dispute is both/and. Meeting needs requires tangible, immediate acts of compassion as well as discipline-instilling expectations for self-improvement and personal sufficiency.

That’s why churches and other faith-based organizations work on a broad range of fronts. Especially in hard times like these, we need well-stocked food pantries and clothes closets. But we need tutoring programs to keep children in school and parenting classes to help moms and dads understand how they can raise their children in a competitive, education-based society. We need relief programs that provide rent- and utility-assistance. But we need mentoring and practical training programs to help people understand how to get and hold jobs. We need more GED classes and English-as-a-second-language programs.

But that’s not enough, is it?

Advocate for the poor

If Christians hope to make a broad-based and lasting impact, we must advocate on behalf of the poor and powerless. We must demand quality education and economic justice for all people. We must correct social systems that perpetuate poverty. We must champion both private and public strategies that address all these problems on a scale churches and other faith groups cannot handle by themselves.

Of course, this is controversial. Americans divide over the nature and size of government. So, we similarly disagree over the focus and scope of our activity in the public square.

Some—ironically from both the extreme left and far right—decry the engagement of faith in public issues. The extreme left thinks “separation of church and state” means people of faith should have no voice in public policy. The far right believes government has no business doing “the church’s job” of looking after the poor. Both fallacies don’t hold up. Christians are citizens, too, and have a right to advocate for public policy. And poverty and need are so great, they’re beyond the means of the church alone to resolve.

Holding politicians accountable

The demand for people of grace and compassion to advocate for the common good never has been more obvious than in the past few weeks. The embarrassing and inconceivable stalemate in Washington illustrated why Americans must hold their politicians accountable. Rather than serving a political party and focusing on the next election, they must serve the greater good and focus on compromise and practical solutions to national need. They must recognize and respect our national heritage for protecting and caring for all people.

U.S. Christians could establish a binding moral imperative and a lasting positive legacy by bridging our national divide. What if Christian politicians—maybe Baptists, just to start—would stand up and say, “What we hold in common and value together is greater than political divisions that threaten to tear us apart”?

Christians cannot operate soup kitchens and jobs-training programs fast enough to heal America. We need unified Christian voices—from both the right and the left—demanding our so-called leaders strive for the common good.

Or God help us all.

3-D laser printers produce human tissue. Surgeons implant ears, noses and other tissues. But I haven’t heard serious biblical and theological discussion of these advances. Have we moved to yet another stage of “playing God”? Can you help me form an opinion about this technology?

Questions concerning the use of new technology, particularly in the field of healing, remain complex. These questions revolve around the central ideas of “should we do something simply because we can” and the tension between dominion and humility.

For many Christians, technological advances remind them of the Tower of Babel experience described in Genesis 11. With technology comes the temptation to use it to “make a name for ourselves” and to usurp the power, authority and will of God.

Opponents of using this technology are quick to point to Psalm 139. The argument is God creates us just the way he wants us; and thus using technology to interfere in this creation is “playing God.”

Healing in Jesus’ ministry

Proponents prefer to reference the healing ministry of Jesus. They particularly reference to the fact Jesus includes “recovery of sight for the blind” in Luke 4 as one of the specific ministries he came to fulfill.

These arguments resurface with each major development in medical technology. Whether it is development of artificial limbs, the artificial heart, organ transplants, skin grafts or now 3-D laser tissue, the question remains, “Have we gone too far?”

The Tower of Babel experience does indicate it is possible for us to exceed our authority and usurp the power of God. Babel also demonstrates, however, God is completely prepared to stop any such intrusion before it gets out of hand. In that sense, faith insists God keeps final control over these matters.

More significance applies to the healing ministry of Jesus. The fact we need healing is a direct result of the sin and fallen nature of our world. Jesus came to provide healing as a solution to this fallen nature. Often, he used physical healing as a direct metaphor for the spiritual healing he came to provide.

Opportunities for good

Developing technology continues to offer new opportunities to deliver goodness and mercy to a hurting world. The Christian community bears the right and responsibility to capture these opportunities for the cause of Christ. Taken properly, as in the words of Micah 6:8 to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God, these technological advances provide an opening to share the love of God with people in the same manner Jesus himself did.

Rather than fearing the development of technology, Christianity bears the responsibility of using it for the glory and honor of God. Instead of “playing God,” we face an opportunity to bear witness of what he has come to do.

Van Christian, pastor

First Baptist Church

Comanche

Right or Wrong? is co-sponsored by the Texas Baptist theological education office and Christian Life Commission. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to bill.tillman@texasbaptists.org.

Hello, Texas Baptists! Many of you will remember several years ago, at University Baptist Church in Waco, a wonderful young Texas Baptist pastor, Kyle Lake, was electrocuted during a Sunday morning baptism. He was a friend! His parents, David and Shirley Lake of Tyler and First Baptist Church, as well as the rest of his family, formed the Kyle Lake Foundation to provide, among many other endeavors, defibrillators for churches. One of their primary fundraisers is a golf tournament. I am happy to report your Baptist General Convention of Texas team played in the Waco tournament Oct. 4, had a great time and actually did pretty well.

David HardageI was honored to preach at Independence Baptist Church, where Phil Hassell is pastor. Following the worship service, Kathleen and I were privileged to participate in the dedication ceremony for the newly restored columns at Old Baylor at Independence with University of Mary Hardin-Baylor President Randy O’Rear and Baylor University President Ken Starr, along with other representatives from these BGCT institutions, plus students and alumni. Please make a visit to Independence, the old church, your BGCT museum and the old grounds of these schools. You will not be disappointed. And I recommend the Ant Street Inn in Brenham.

Kathleen and I also so enjoyed being a part of the Baptist Retirees’ Retreat in Kerrville at The Inn of the Hills. Thanks to Richard Faling and the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation for planning such a great event. If you are retired, please consider joining us next year. For information, contact richard.faling@texasbaptists.org.

I had the delight of preaching in chapel at the South Texas School of Christian Studies in Corpus Christi. Tony Celelli is the president, and they also have a campus in McAllen that is being renovated by the Texas Baptist Retiree Builders.

Finally, I was so blessed by sharing about our BGCT work with First Baptist Church  of West, where John Crowder serves as pastor. His house was destroyed in the April explosion, but through it all, he has continued to serve the church and community well. 

David Hardage is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

On a recent Sunday after church, the pastor brought out a small grill he bought and wanted to use. He had never grilled in his life, and I had never started a fire in my life. So, this was a new experience for both of us.

Members pray during a service at the church where Janet Ruiz is serving in Peru.We got the coal, wood and cardboard. We tried to start the fire by burning the cardboard and the wood. That material would burn fast, but the coal did not want to light. It was embarrassing how long it took us to get the coal to fire up, but once we got it burning, it continued to burn. It made me think about the church members.

I see members who come to church, sit in a pew and leave after every service, but it is always the same people. I see no growth, no true communion between the members, and no one wanting to step up to serve. It is a bit discouraging, but the thing that sparked a flame of hope in my life was the idea that maybe the members are like the coal.

What if they take a lot more time and energy to light? We must not give up and continue pouring into them, because they might just light up when we least expect it. We have the assurance that once they light up, they will not burn out.

The problem I see is that all the people here in the town think they know about God, but because of the actions of some church members, they decide to stay away from church. They respect the pastor and his family for what they do for the community, but they do not dare step into a church service.

God placed in my heart the desire to prayer-walk the town. Talking to people, I know they want more. We must pray like never before and trust God will open their eyes. It is my desire to see a church that burns bright for God. Only then will the town be willing to hear.

Janet Ruiz, a student at the University of Texas-Pan American, is serving with Go Now Missions in Peru.

Love, not condemnation

Thank you for “Love, not condemnation, leads the world to Jesus.” 

This is a struggle for anyone who preaches. I pray for a heart that is broken for the lost, and I pray for a deep love of God’s word and better understanding of it. I have come to this: I must love people and preach the word. If the word of God offends, that is between God and that person. I must make sure that I am not the one offending. The word may offend, but I must not. 

I wish I could share that I have mastered this, but that would be a lie.

I will pray for the offended person and the one who offended. 

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14) 

Mathew St. John

Anson

I read your editorial  with great interest and agree, but with one exception. 

Yes, the church should accept sinners as they are, but that is where many churches cease.  Instead of saying, “Sin no more,” we are saying, “It’s OK to continue to live the way you did before; we don’t want to offend you. We will even give you a position in the church.”

F.A. Taylor

Kempner