The mass shooting earlier this month at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in Texas left 26 people dead, made a hero of a civilian who confronted and shot the murderer, and raised lots of security-related questions for Christians: Should I buy a gun? Does my church have a security plan? Is it ok to defend myself, or my church family, when threatened? How do I reconcile Jesus’ instructions to buy swords with His rebuke of Peter for using one? What would Jesus have done in … [Read more...]
Over the top for the top of the world, elsewhere
The promotional materials for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions are out in circulation. This time of year, our Missouri churches often use the materials for promoting a week of prayer for our 3,800 international SBC missionaries, or some churches host a missions event that promotes all levels of missions – international, domestic, state and associational missions. One of the stories in the packet especially caught my interest because of Missouri Baptists’ … [Read more...]
Missouri Baptists follow Leland’s lead in historic case
It may be the most important religious liberty case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in our lifetime – and Missouri Southern Baptists are right in the middle of it. Such action is not unusual because Baptists have always been champions of religious liberty. So it is right and proper for Missouri Baptists to challenge tyranny whenever it threatens a free conscience. “God alone is Lord of the conscience,” states The Baptist Faith & Message 2000. Our rights come from God, not … [Read more...]
Sutherland Springs: Proof texts and guns in church
After the recent horrific church shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX I saw a lot of varied reactions on social media. Of course there were renewed calls for stronger gun control laws and there was the predictable defense of Second Amendment rights. Many of social media posts both for and against gun control came from self-identified Christians. I believe that followers of Jesus should be vocal in this debate, but that is not subject of this post. I want to discuss the exegesis of some of … [Read more...]
Is God an ethnic cleanser?
In The God Delusion, atheist Richard Dawkins vents: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” It seems odd that Dawkins, who has made a career out of pillorying a God he says does … [Read more...]
The cost of ingratitude
In Romans 1:18-22 the apostle Paul traces the downward course of human departure from God, beginning from ingratitude to Him in verse 21, to the deepest moral depravity in the statements that follow. In verse 18 he says that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” – a warning we would do well to heed in these critical days. It all begins with ingratitude to God. Three times Paul says that … [Read more...]
‘A conversation on the ways of God’
Christians are saved by Jesus to be like Jesus. The Christian life is the lifelong practice of becoming like Jesus, of saying the things Jesus would say, doing the things Jesus would do, and loving others the way that Jesus would love them. As we become more like God we bring glory to him. We also serve as witnesses of just how glorious he is. Of course, we aren’t always like Jesus. Sometimes our words don’t match what we say we believe. Sometimes we do the right things in the wrong way … [Read more...]
Pray across Missouri, a call for leadership
As I write this column, Sharon and I, along with state missionary Spencer Hutson, are wrapping up the 2017 Pray Across Missouri tour. Our goal is to hold a prayer meeting on the Courthouse grounds in each of the 115 county jurisdictions in our beautiful state of Missouri. On Friday, Nov. 3, we pause the tour with the 110th prayer meeting in Carroll County. We will complete the final five in the spring of 2018. We are grateful for every person who participated, and above all we are … [Read more...]
Darkness & light at Sutherland Springs
GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) – John’s prologue in the Gospels is my favorite Christmas passage, showing us in theological outline what happened in Bethlehem’s stable. We know that Jesus is “the Word,” the light that shines in the darkness. With somber joy we read that “the darkness did not overcome it.” I thought of that passage as I’ve considered the darkness manifested at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs Nov. 5. As I write this, hours after the event, pundits are talking in the … [Read more...]
America dangerously downplaying sin
Given recent events in Las Vegas, New York and now Sutherland Springs, Texas, we ought to ask ourselves if we are ignoring the seriousness – and inevitable consequences – of sin. It seems the instances of sin preached from America’s pulpits are too few, particularly among mainline churches. The prosperity gospel reigns. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” a sermon that triggered a national revival, is relegated to antiquity while human relational adjustment dynamics is all the rage. … [Read more...]
Less hashtaggery, more Spirit-connectivity
One of the funniest things on the planet was when I used to say something super Internetty-savvy and ultra-cool to my then teenage kids. I’d be all hashtaggy and super-swaggy until they would cancel all their social media accounts and pack their bags like they were moving in with the neighbors. The techy-like conversations still happen these days but they’re kind of different. I was talking to a teenager the other day and told her we used to have to take our pictures on cameras that … [Read more...]
Is Islam hostile to Christianity?
November 5 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. North Korea continues its run as the nation most brutal toward its Christian citizens, but the vast majority of the top 50 persecutors are Muslim-dominated nations, according to the 2017 World Watch List. Which begs the question: Is Islam hostile to Christianity? Many Muslims worldwide condemn the violence done in the name of Allah, especially to Jews and Christians. They desire peaceful coexistence with their … [Read more...]
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