Many Christian institutions provide comparatively low pay and relatively weak benefits but still advertise for positions with the phrase “enjoy working in a Christian atmosphere.” Isn’t this hypocritical?

Whether such advertising is hypocritical may depend more on the working conditions and overall budget than how the pay and benefits compare to those in the private sector.

The comparatively low pay and benefits received at many Christian organizations and other nonprofits may result from the lack of generosity of those who allegedly support their mission and who may be hypocrites. To be both ethical and accountable, an organization must live within its budget. So, the better question is, “Are the pay and benefits of all employees just when the organization is viewed as a whole?”

Consider a Christian organization whose board was discussing annual salary raises. Those at the top with six-figure incomes were getting the same percentage raise as employees at the bottom who could barely afford to feed their families. A proposal was made to give a small number of employees at the very bottom of the pay scale an even smaller raise because they were only part time and might leave anyway. That attitude in a Christian institution is both hypocritical and un-Christian.

Shouldn’t a Christian organization give those who are struggling to put food on the table and pay their utility and healthcare bills more wage and benefit consideration than those at top? Depriving a receptionist of the ability to obtain a needed prescription medication for her child is a far different proposition than depriving a highly paid executive an extra restaurant meal that month.

More than pay and benefits is the attitude and atmosphere of the organization. Do those in charge value each person’s contribution, regardless of education and status? Do supervisors treat those over whom they have authority with the same dignity and respect they afford the CEO? Is work going above and beyond the call of duty recognized and rewarded? When the organization’s budget is in the black, do those at the lower pay grades still receive smaller raises, while officers and directors receive higher raises and perks like conferences in exotic places.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently released a poll of teachers who unquestionably are underpaid for the work they do. They valued supportive leadership and adequate equipment above higher salaries. What is hypocritical for Christian leaders is to allow those working under them to do the work of Christ with low benefits and pay while accepting luxurious salaries and perks. When all of the employees in a truly Christian organization struggle to get by with low pay and benefits, they are hyper-Christian and not hypocritical. Then the mirror needs to be turned toward us.

Cynthia Holmes, attorney

Former moderator, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

Clayton, Mo.

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.

“When we lose our golf ball in the weeds, we go looking for it. When we lose our soul in the weeds, God comes looking for us.”

Jim Denison

BGCT theologian-in-residence and president of the Center for Informed Faith (GodIssues.org)

“I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. ‘Social justice’ and ‘economic justice,’ they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes.”

Glenn Beck

TV political entertainer (Fox News)

“Beck says Christians should leave their social justice churches, so I say Christians should leave Glenn Beck. … What he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show. His show should now be in the same category as Howard Stern. Stern practices pornography, and Beck denies the central teachings of Jesus and the Bible. So Christians should stop watching the Glenn Beck show and pray for him and Howard Stern.”

Jim Wallis

Founder of Sojourners (SojoMail)

“We never asked the hard questions about the war on terror, and that is, I think, why Iraq happened. It has everything to do with the inability to distinguish between the Christian ‘we’ and the American ‘we.’”

Stanley Hauerwas

Duke University ethicist (RNS)

“It is unrealistic to think that one person can change the mess that this country has gotten into, but to pick on him is like picking on one of my kids.”

Jeremiah Wright

Former pastor of Barack Obama (Washington Post/RNS)

Reaching cowboy culture

Dale Person shares the same opinion about cowboy churches (March 15) held by many men I look up to in the ministry, but I must respectfully disagree. For starters, plumbers, doctors, and lawyers are a profession. Cowboys are a culture. You’ll be hard-pressed to find even a large minority of professional cowpokes in a cowboy church. It’s about people who identify with the cowboy culture—like being Greek, or from Samaria or Jerusalem.

All churches naturally congregate with like people—whether it’s based on race, socio-economic similarities or causes. The cowboy church culture is just another stratum of society.

Our church started the Cowboy Church of Leon County a few years ago. Within the first year, half of their members were people who had either never been to church or had not darkened the doors of a church since they were children. The cowboy church here has had a tremendous impact on our county and on the kingdom.

Like all things, it has to do with leadership, and the Cowboy Church of Leon County has tremendous vision and leadership.

Joe Dacus

Leona

Jesus & social justice

Fox News figure Glenn Beck recently stated that if your church and/or pastor teach social justice, you should discuss the matter with your pastor. If the pastor refuses to change, then you should leave that church. Beck says “social justice” is just a code term for socialism and communism. For emphasis, he held up posters with the hammer and sickle and the swastika.

Ironically, at about the same time Beck was making his comments, Selma, Ala., was preparing to observe the 45th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when civil rights protestors were brutally beaten on the bridge.

The Bible contains many teachings promoting social justice. This was one of the major themes of Jesus’ teachings. So, if one follows the teachings of Beck, you should leave your church if it teaches from the Bible.

Many are concerned—and rightly so—about the sexually explicit content of many TV programs. If you go into your doctor’s office and the TV is tuned to Jerry Springer, will you be concerned? I would hope so. But how many are concerned when you see the TV tuned to Fox News with figures such as Beck spewing forth his comments against America and Christian teachings?

Carl L. Hess

Ozark, Ala.

Consistent principles

I am not the biggest fan of the tactics of Southern Baptist Convention leaders, which tend to be too rigid and draw too many lines in the sand. When moderates talk about the importance of soul competency and freedom of biblical interpretation, I am generally right there with them.

It bothers me, though, when I see them violating these same principles. Much rhetoric coming from moderates has tended to link Christ’s teachings on personal compassion and ethics with what is essentially a “progressive” political agenda and is hostile to political conservatives. One is certainly free to believe that political agenda is best, but to make it mandatory requires taking Scripture way out of context. Jesus’ teachings are not public policy prescriptions and do not easily translate into them.

I do not believe one has to be a political conservative to be a Christian, but I do think one can be. It is just as wrong for moderates to be hostile to those who disagree with them as it is for the SBC leadership to do so.

What is essential, anyway? Can we truly not be united around our mutual acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior and our commitment to evangelism, mission and ministry, regardless of our differences on things like taxes, government spending and military policy?

What was the moderates’ resistance to the fundamentalist takeover about, anyway? Was it genuinely about resistance to excessive dogmatism, or was it merely preference for one type of dogma over another?

David Rodgers

Texarkana

For two years, we have been praying for and working toward Resurrection Sunday 2010. It is now only days away.

We came with our palm branches and praise this Sunday to celebrate Christ. Yet behind these symbols and the celebration, the Cross and the Resurrection confront us with some difficult questions.

These events single us out from other world religions. The Baha’is cannot include us in their syncretism of prophets and rituals. Muslims and Jews cannot tolerate one who was accursed—hung on a tree until dead. Some academicians have long joined with the Athenians in laughter over the Resurrection of Christ. It is rationally impossible.

The Crucifixion is troublesome for us as well. Why do we spend a month celebrating the birth of Jesus, which fills two or three chapters in our gospels, and only a few days celebrating the week of Crucifixion and Resurrection, which is detailed in about half of the Gospel of John?

Perhaps we prefer a sentimental faith. It’s easier to talk about “Peace on Earth” and focus on a baby in a manger than it is to witness the brutality and humiliation of Jesus hanging on a cross. The Cross reminds us of our own sinfulness. Words like “sin” and “repent” don’t fit well with a tolerant society. We prefer to live and let live. Yet the Cross shows us our sins must be horrible if it requires such a costly payment.

The Cross/Resurrection summarizes God’s relationship with humanity more than any event in history. God is holy and cannot tolerate sin. He also is love and bears the penalty for our sin. Not even sin and death can overcome him.

Several years ago, Sheila and I had the opportunity to spend some time with Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York. We first visited with Jim and Carol Cymbala and then had dinner with several from their staff. It was Tuesday, and they said they would save a place for us that night for prayer meeting.

If they had not saved us a place, we could not have found a seat in the 1,500-seat auditorium. Fifteen minutes before the service, about 200 men already were standing at the altar praying out loud simultaneously. The service lasted for two hours with very little preaching and a whole lot of praying. We learned many of the folks present had been addicts, prostitutes, drunks and convicts. They didn’t come to the service to be affirmed. They came to be delivered.

I realized we were no different from them. We are all desperate sinners needing a Savior.

Easter is not a time for good folks to come together for a celestial hug so that we might all feel better about ourselves.

Easter is a time when we are reminded God “… rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

Resurrection Sunday 2010 is a time for celebration!

Randel Everett is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

Anne Rice, she of Interview with the Vampire fame, recommitted to her Catholic faith a few years ago and since has dedicated herself to writing novels that explore the life of Jesus. First came Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and in 2008, Rice published Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. This novel, which I am reading now, depicts Jesus’ life as a young adult leading up to his first miracle at the wedding in Cana. It is fiction, of course, but Rice has tried hard to be as faithful to historical knowledge about Jesus’ life and world as possible. She imagines in this novel Jesus facing the temptation as a man in his late 20s to marry like all of his friends and brothers.

As I read one particularly powerful scene of Jesus imagining—and ultimately rejecting—that life, I couldn’t help but think of The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. This novel, written in the 1950s, was made into the controversial movie of the same title a few years ago. I never saw the movie and don’t know anything about it, but I read the book a couple of years ago. Until reading the book, I never knew what “the last temptation of Christ” was referring to. What was this last temptation? According to Kazantzakis’ story, the last temptation Christ faced was to live a normal life—a wife, 2.3 kids, a dog and a house in a nice neighborhood. It is a fascinating insight to ponder.

Kazantzakis writes, “Every moment of Christ’s life is conflict and victory.” He conquered temptations repeatedly until he finally reached the cross. Kazantzakis goes on to write: “But even there his struggle did not end. Temptation—the Last Temptation—was waiting for him on the Cross.” Hanging on the Cross, before his eyes “unfolded the deceptive vision of a calm and happy life.” In this vision, he had taken the smooth and easy road. “He had married and fathered children. People loved and respected him. Now, an old man, he sat on the threshold of his house and smiled with satisfaction as he recalled the longings of his youth. How splendidly, how sensibly he had acted in choosing the road of men! What insanity to have wanted to save the world! What joy to have escaped the privations, the tortures and the Cross!”

“But,” as Katzantzakis writes, “all at once Christ shook his head violently, opened his eyes, and saw … . He had accomplished the mission which the Lord had entrusted to him.” He had not lived a normal life. “He had reached the summit of sacrifice: he was nailed upon the Cross.”

We serve a God who calls on us to pray the hardest and most important prayer of all—the prayer of relinquishment. Jesus said, “Those who cling to their life will lose it, and those who are willing to let go of their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” And this God not only calls on us to do so, but Jesus prayed it himself when he resisted temptation and said: “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.” And also when he prayed: “Father, let this cup pass from me. But not what I want but what you want.” And also, most finally, when he said, “It is finished.”

Thanks be to God.

Brent Beasley is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth. This commentary is adapted from his column in Broadway’s church newsletter and was distributed by Associated Baptist Press.

Our pastor took a trip earlier this month, and he asked me to preach in his absence. While I enjoy preaching just about anywhere, my favorite place to preach is our own church, First Baptist in Lewisville. These are my friends and extended “family.” I know the joys and sorrows, hopes and dreams, and opportunities and challenges of our church far better than I know the dynamics of any other congregation. The times when I preach at my home church are the times when I come closest to feeling like a pastor, because that’s when I look out into the faces of people who have walked life’s journey with our family for nearly 15 years. They have shared our pain and gladness, and we have shared theirs.

As I prepared for this latest sermon, I realized I’m sort of a hybrid church member. Most Sundays, I fill the role of a regular church member—a deacon and Sunday school teacher and hearer of sermons. But I also preach quite a bit, and I’ve earned a seminary degree. My father and brother are pastors, and many of my closest friends are pastors, and so I understand their lives and tasks about as well as any non-pastor, except pastors’ wives.

As I pondered this dichotomy, I thought about what I wish laity knew about pastors and what I wish pastors knew about laity—particularly when it comes to preaching.

Laypeople should know:

• Preaching is much harder than you think. The Bible is God’s word, the greatest book ever written. It’s filled with powerful poetry and prose, stunning stories and tremendous teaching. It’s also thousands of years old. The time, effort and intellect required to understand the ancient text is enormous. And the challenge of taking what it meant then and applying it to life today is even more ominous.

• Preparing to preach is harder than you think. A pastor’s life is filled with infinite distractions—most of them important things we all want our pastor to do—that can postpone, if not outright prevent, thorough sermon preparation. A pastor’s week can be dominated by events and factors that were unforeseen when the final “Amen” was said last Sunday. And many of those distractions can’t be explained away, because the pastor maintains confidences.

• Telling people what they don’t want to hear can be downright scary. Sometimes—no, often—the enemy of a great sermon is the pastor’s knowledge that folks don’t want to see the places where the Bible shines light in our lives. So, pastors who aren’t blessed with innate courage and pastors who aren’t blessed with strong laypeople who defend their right to preach can be tempted to soft-sell their sermons, which misses the point.

Pastors should know:

• Preaching is much harder than you think. If you excel at exegeting Scripture but you don’t apply it to our lives, you haven’t really preached. And if you talk knowingly about life today but don’t ground your guidance in the Bible, you haven’t really preached. A great sermon requires both. You must exegete both the Bible and society. And that requires time, courage, wisdom, insight and empathy.

• Give it to us straight. We can take it. Sure, some folks want sugar-coated sermons, little homilies that make them feel better. But most laypeople really want to know what God has to do with their lives. They thirst to know what the Bible says that helps them with their relationships, teaches them how to make better decisions, makes them more like God created them to be. Even when it hurts, if it’s delivered in love, we are grateful to hear it.

• You reach us best when you identify with us. Of course, some irrational church members expect you and your family to be perfect. But we know you’re not, and we don’t expect you to be. Your sermons convey healing truth when you are transparent and vulnerable, so that they reflect your own honest struggle to be an authentic-yet-flawed human being and an honest-to-God follower of Jesus—in the real world.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard. Visit his FaithWorks Blog.

Shame is a powerful motivator.

That’s how I came to be shivering in the middle of Houston Street in downtown Fort Worth early on a frigid Saturday morning.

My buddy Peter got me into this, and he knew exactly what he was doing.

For ages, Peter tried to get me to run a half marathon with him. A marathon is 26.2 miles, so a half marathon—as anybody who went to MIT or who owns a calculator knows—is 13.1 miles.

Running has been one of the joys of my life. (OK, to be accurate, I probably should say jogging is one of the joys of my life. But let’s not debate petty nuances.) In seventh grade, I made the track team and discovered running is something even a little kid with unremarkable coordination can do reasonably well. As I got older, I realized running relieves stress, keeps my blood pressure down and makes me feel like a kid again.

For me, running always meant moving at an accelerated pace for four miles. Or maybe even six miles if I were feeling particularly energetic and/or stressed.

Working my way up to a half marathon always seemed too time-consuming. You don’t just go out and run 13.1 miles when the most you’ve been running is six. You’ve got to increase the distance incrementally each week. So, you run six miles this Saturday, and seven miles next Saturday, and so on, until you get up to 10 or 11 miles, and then you figure adrenaline will carry you the last two or three miles on race day. In-between, you run shorter distances three other days a week.

And I never thought I had the time.

Peter got into running half marathons with his daughter, Kristen, who will graduate from college this spring. That’s not fair. He had incentive—run a half and hang out with his kid. Every time Peter tried to get me to ramp up to join them, my only incentive was being able to say, “I ran a half marathon.” That doesn’t get you up off the couch on a cold January night.

So, that’s where shame kicked in.

Peter is the director of the young-adult Sunday school class I teach. Every week, he sends out an e-mail with prayer concerns and announcements to all the class. One Monday last November, the announcement said I would run the Cowtown Half Marathon with Peter.

The guy had me pegged. He knew I could think up excuses not to prepare, but I’d be too ashamed to back out after he told everybody I was in.

Well, he was right. A couple hundred miles and a bad hamstring later, there I was—shivering in the cold dawn with Peter and our pal Sarah.

After a smidge more than two hours, I crossed the finish line, tired but elated. We enjoyed a brisk run on a gorgeous late-winter morning with 21,000 friends and neighbors.

A little shame goes a long way. Or at least 13.1 miles.

In deacons’ meeting, our pastor suggested strategic planning for our congregation. He received responses like, “We’ve never done that” and “Seems like a waste of time and energy.” Not only did this affect our pastor negatively, but I also think we are missing an opportunity. What do you think?

I would agree with your pastor. Strategic planning can be very helpful to a congregation. By intentionally evaluating the history of your church, the physical circumstances in and around your congregation, your strengths and weakness, and the ministry needs of your community, a church can get a handle on a ministry strategy. The process can be very healthy.

However, when new ideas like strategic planning are introduced, people hear many different things. Some may ask: “Do we need a stranger to come in and tell us what our church should be doing?” “Does this mean extra meetings?” “How much does all this cost?”

Think of your pastor for a moment. It is difficult to lead a congregation that does not share a common vision. Let me suggest you meet with your pastor. Ask him to share his vision and why he believes your church needs to engage in strategic planning and what he hopes will come from the process. He can share the goals or ministries he hopes will develop. Let him know you are interested in continuing to explore and willing to help. The overall goal should be that the congregation discovers and adopts its own mission strategy.

Here are a few suggestions for thinking about strategic planning. Highlight the advantages of the process in the life of church. For instance, long-term members and newer members will have a chance to interact and learn from one another. Members from every generation have the opportunity to listen to one another and share their visions for the church.

Strategic planning intentionally engages the church with the needs of the community. As you sit with elected officials, law enforcement officers, school officials and so forth, the church can begin to get a feel for the needs of the community that may or may not surface if your church is not actively looking for ministry opportunities. As well, assessment can be made about the contributions the congregation can make through ministry opportunities.

Consider inviting an experienced strategist to discuss the planning process with the church leadership. Maybe you could invite a pastor or others from a sister congregation that recently completed a strategic planning process. Their personal testimony could create avenues of thinking that ignorance never unveils.

Strategic planning can bring a great deal of energy and purpose to a congregation. I would encourage you to continue to explore and support the idea.

Stacy Conner, pastor

First Baptist Church

Muleshoe

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.

“We know what it means to care for children through extended families. We are committed to work on behalf of those who are most vulnerable in the aftermath of this tragedy and to labor to help children know safety, security and nurturing care.”

David Goatley

Executive secretary-treasurer of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, announcing a $50 million effort by the five largest African-American Baptist denominations to help rebuild Haiti (ABP)

“The arrest of 10 Southern Baptist church members on a self-styled rescue mission in Haiti provides churches with a sobering reminder—even if your motives are pure, you must know and follow the laws of the country you are in.”

Chuck Warnock

Pastor of Chatham Baptist Church in Chatham, Va. (EthicsDaily.com/RNS)

“The prophet isn’t judged by the success of his message but the fidelity of his message.”

Donald Wuerl

Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., about his failure to stop the city’s new gay-marriage law (Washington Post/RNS)

Compartmentalizing

I don’t mean this to be critical or judgmental, but only an expression of a concern: I believe a movement that has come into vogue in the last several years—namely “cowboy churches”—may not necessarily be a desirable phenomenon.

Could it be that those attracted to “cowboy churches” do not feel welcome or comfortable in other churches?

It concerns me that we may be in danger of compartmentalizing groups of people who attend churches. Taken to extreme, we could have plumbers’ churches, carpenters’ churches, doctors’ churches, lawyers’ churches and so on.

The bottom line should be that every person should be welcomed and made to feel wanted, loved and comfortable in every church.

Dale Person

Marshall

Baylor’s new Starr

Since the “give away” of Baylor University by Texas Baptists in fear that it “might” be turned into another Liberty University, Baylor has finally come back to its senses by hiring Kenneth Starr as president (March 1).

F.A. Taylor

Kempner

I’m shocked and appalled at the selection of Kenneth Starr—a partisan, right-wing Republican zealot who isn’t even a Baptist—to become president of Baylor. I can’t imagine a more divisive and destructive choice.

As a lifelong Baptist, I have always felt close to Baylor. Two of my three children earned degrees from Baylor, and I have had countless friends at Baylor. I was mayor of Waco when Herbert Reynolds worked to prevent this kind of ideological takeover at Baylor.

Kenneth Starr is one of the most divisive partisan political figures in American history. He led the partisan witch hunt to undo the results of the 1992 presidential election. Whitewater and Blackwater tell us everything we need to know about him.

Starr spent $52 million of taxpayer money on Whitewater to get President Clinton—twice the amount spent by the 9/11 Commission. That investigation was one long, unethical abuse of power. Starr’s only success was in trapping Clinton into lying about the Lewinsky matter.

Now, Starr is involved in defending the Blackwater mercenary corporation. Blackwater is responsible for the murder of countless innocent civilians in Iraq.

From what we know about Starr’s background, the board of regents is either completely out of touch or is trying to establish Baylor as a right-wing Republican university. Move over Liberty University and Regent University—Baylor is coming through.

Were the regents unable to locate a competent, ethical Baptist for president of Baylor?

Charles Reed

Waco

I am sure Kenneth Starr is a fine man and is well-educated, but his training has been in law. I doubt he has any idea how a Baptist university is operated, since he does not know what Baptists believe or why they do certain things the way they do them. The Baylor University regents, if they had put more time in their decision, could have found a Baptist with as much education and in the right field of study.

Baylor University is a Baptist university supported by Texas Baptists. I doubt very seriously many Texas Baptists agree with the decision the regents made in appointing Starr. I know I don’t.

The purpose of Baylor University is to educate men and women in a Christian atmosphere. Since it is a Baptist university, I would think that not only the president, but the entire faculty should be longstanding Baptists. To me, appointing Starr as president of Baylor would be like a Baptist mission board appointing a Methodist, Catholic or Church of Christ to go out on the mission field to witness for Baptists. It does not make sense to me.

I have no idea what the regents were thinking when they pulled such a stunt. I believe they should reconsider their decision in this matter.

Bob Logan

Weatherford

Muslim bias?

Regarding “Nearly half of Americans admit to anti-Muslim bias” (March 1): Americans are not biased against Muslims! Reality is not bias.

Just this morning, Muslim terrorists set off two car bombs; the dead haven’t been counted yet. Tens of thousands of men, women and children are hideously and indiscriminately murdered every year by Muslim terrorists. Show me the Muslim outcry over the murders. I read the above-mentioned article looking for a statement from a “good” Muslim who condemns terrorism. Such statements do not exist.

Islam is an evil religion. Am I biased? Bias is an unfounded belief. Are Christians or Jews setting off car bombs? Did Saudi Arabia or Pakistan go into Iraq or Afghanistan to stop the slaughters? Who stopped the slaughter of Muslims in Bosnia?

What is being called “bias” of Muslims is not a bias but an accurate perception. The silence of Muslims and ever-mounting mountain of dead are the testimony of reality.

Fred Rosenbaum

Gainesville

Martha and Mary both said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32). Have you ever been tempted to ask God where he was when we needed him?

I recently participated in a worship service at a Baptist World Alliance meeting where we received direct reports about the devastation of Haiti and Chile following the destructive earthquakes. Also a Nigerian messenger told of 500 people who recently were killed in violence in his country, many of whom were targets because of their Christian faith.

Have you asked: “Lord, where were you when my husband died?” “Where were you when I got cancer?” “Lord, where were you when I lost my job?” We join the prophet Habakkuk in asking: “If God has the power to intervene, why doesn’t he?” This leads one to ask: “Can we trust a God who uses power selectively?”

Even the skeptics of Jesus’ day asked, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man (Lazarus) also from dying?” (John 11:37)

Even though we may have unresolved questions that arise from God’s sovereignty and God’s benevolence, we still can make some observations from John 11:

• God is aware of our situation. Jesus indicates in verse 3 that Lazarus’ illness was no surprise to God. Jesus reminds us God even knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. He knows all that is happening in your life and relationships.

• God has an eternal perspective. He knew the purpose for Lazarus’ illness, which would lead to the glory of God (verse 4). God even uses our sorrow as a part of his kingdom work in our lives and in his larger mission.

• God is capable of intervening. Even though God answers some prayers with “no” or “later,” we should still be bold in our asking. Miracles still occur. Martha knew that even though her brother was dead, Jesus still would receive what he asked from the Father (verse 22).

• Jesus is the resurrection and the life (verses 25, 44). Christ followers cannot lose. Jesus has conquered the grave and given eternal life to his children.

• Jesus sympathizes with us in our sorrow. Even though Jesus knew he would raise Lazarus, he still wept with Mary. Often our dearest time with Christ is in our suffering.

• God’s work has kingdom consequences. Through this painful experience in the lives of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, many believed in Jesus (verse 45).

We are days away from Resurrection Sunday 2010. For two years, we have been participating in a challenge to share the hope of Christ with everyone in our state. Many have responded. Yet some are not yet convinced, and others still have not heard. Can we still speak of God’s hope while the world continues to see images from cities destroyed by natural disaster or violence? Absolutely! Our hope is secure in Jesus!

Randel Everett is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

I’ve seen Jesus. And this is how it happened.

When you are young, you don’t realize your mother has a special radar. God gives it to her when she has children. So on the night I came home late from a youth event at my church, my mother’s very keen radar was working overtime. I unlocked the back door and quietly tiptoed toward the kitchen for a midnight snack. I left the lights off and carefully opened the refrigerator. That’s when I saw Jesus.

Our youth minister wanted us to seek the presence of Christ in our lives. His message that night was powerful. A small group of us stayed after the meeting and talked about spiritual things, the deep things of God. That is why I was late. As I drove home I was praying: “Lord, let me see you. Jesus, let me see you.” I was sincere as a teenager can be. I truly wanted to see Jesus, I thought.

Before I tell you any more about seeing Jesus, I want to tell you about my mother. My mother was a dedicated Christian, a prayer warrior, an esteemed Bible teacher adored by little children and a fine representative of God’s kingdom. But she also had a mean streak. If my mother thought she could scare you, scare you really big, she went on the attack. Perhaps my tardiness pushed her over the edge that night. Who knows. What I do know is that my mother heard me when I unlocked the back door. She got out of bed and silently, cat-like, and with questionable intent, my sweet little mother crept into the darkness of our kitchen and stood as close to me as she dared without revealing her presence. Just stood there in the darkness. In her long white gown and robe. With her white fluffy slippers. Quietly. Silently. Waiting.

As the faint light of the refrigerator filtered just beyond the refrigerator door, and as I bent over peering into the culinary possibilities, and while still deep, deep in prayer, precisely at that moment, a tiny ray of illumination fell across the bottom of my mother’s long, white robe, not a foot away from where I stood. As my peripheral vision alerted me to the fact that I was not alone in that shadowy darkness, my response was immediate, and unmistakable. Instead of thanking God that Jesus was near, I nearly ripped the refrigerator door from its hinges as I let out a primordial howl and attempted to distance myself from what I thought was the answer to my prayer. To put it simply and clearly, seeing Jesus standing in my kitchen in the dark freaked me out. At least for a few seconds. Then I noticed that Jesus belly laughed just l like my mother. And I don’t think Jesus ever wore fuzzy slippers.

Sometimes, in an instant, worlds collide. And our two worlds collided that night in front of our Frigidaire. A boy thinking about Jesus and a mother thinking about her boy.

I’ve learned a lot since that night. I’ve learned the best way to see Jesus is in the people who know him. Jesus is seen in acts of kindness, in tender mercies, in forgiveness and restoration of friendships, in sacrifice and honor, in righting wrongs and fighting injustices. In caring for something other than self.

I have seen Jesus in the congregations where I was pastor. They went the extra mile. They turned the other cheek. They left the judging to God and obeyed Jesus’ simple command to “love one another.” They gave generously, served faithfully and prayed earnestly. They were Jesus to me.

Brenda and I have missed worshipping with a congregation where we were serving each week, but we are forever grateful they allowed us to see Jesus in them through the years.

I never again asked God to let me see Jesus after that experience in my kitchen long years ago. I’m glad I didn’t have to. For since that dark night, I have seen Jesus a thousand times in the radiant lives of those who know and love him. I am thankful to them, dear friends, for the privilege.

Charles Walton retired last fall after serving as pastor of First Baptist Church in Conroe 14 years and serving in the ministry 40 years.