Caution: God at work!

Nine months ago, our life changed.  My wife was diagnosed with cancer and was already very sick from its effects.  Our church was incredibly gracious and has given me the freedom to play nurse, take over a good number of mom responsibilities for our 15 year old and be where I’ve needed to be for chemo, surgery, etc.  The church was changing, too.  Members of our praise band went off to college; our long time worship leader felt led to another church.  We found solutions but the energy level of the church dropped and there was little momentum. I found myself pretty much at the end of all I had to offer and a church that needed more.

Just before Christmas, it became obvious that God was doing something in Wellborn Baptist Church.  Life began to percolate under the surface.  The only way to describe it is that the Lord was drawing people to Himself.  This past Sunday was a display of all He had been doing. 

The service began with 4 excited adults being baptized, the music service flowed into a commissioning service for 5 of our members who were headed to Brazil for work on the Amazon, and then four daughters of ladies going to the river brought the special music.  I’m preaching through Romans right now and preached from chapter 1, verses 21-22.  At the invitation, four more came presenting themselves for believer’s baptism.  Two were from  normal ministry: a young girl who has grown up in our Sunday School and church who prayed to receive Christ after a recent concert and another who had come to Christ in our Vacation Bible School.  Then there were two men, both of whom came to Christ after involvement in different kinds of cults.  One had been an elder in the local Kingdom Hall.   He “happened” into our fellowship a couple of months ago and heard about grace.  He has never been the same.

I went to the lobby, rejoicing, to greet the people as they left.  After just a couple of minutes, another of our young girls came to me with tears streaming down her face.  Under conviction, she trusted Christ.

All I can do is praise Him! 

Election Results

Some reflections on the election:

1.  Most of America does not think like I do.
2.  The possibility of overturning abortion is probably gone; my tax dollars will soon assist in the killing of the unborn.
3. The assault on religious liberty will continue, emboldened by this political victory.  This will require greater political activity on the part of Christians to defend the rights assured us in the Constitution.
4. Mitt Romney was always a marginal choice for those who hold biblical views.  No one knows what his actual performance would have been like: except the One who knows all things, the end from the beginning - and the One who withheld victory from him.
5.  Barak Obama is not and never has been the hope for saving this country.  Some evangelicals made the mistake of equating a Romney win with that same hope.
6.  The only hope for our country, or of any country, is the life change that comes from meeting Jesus Christ as living Lord and Savior.
7.  He has never moved off His Throne.

My Take on the Amendments to the Florida Consitution

One of the challenges of a democracy is that many times we are asked to make decisions about things that require research (to understand what is being asked) and wisdom (to recognize the agenda behind the change).  The 2012 Florida ballot asks us to make decisions about 11 proposed changes to the Florida Constitution.  Here is my take on what is going on and the direction that I will vote:

Amendment One

No one who is involved in a health fight would deny the need for health care reform.  Most people understand that the reforms made by the Affordable Health Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, have a huge number of problems.  One of the most significant issues is the issue of freedom.  In order to make ObamaCare appear to work, everyone must be in a program of some type: universal health care coverage is a mandate of the program.  This amendment attempts to battle the freedom issue, giving Floridians the right not to participate in health care coverage if they don’t want to.  The problem is that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the Affordable Health Care Act is essentially a new tax and the government has the right to levy taxes.

RECOMMENDATION: Though it will be probably be only a symbolic act, I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment One.

Amendment Two

Expands the availability of the property discount on the homesteads of veterans who became disabled as the result of a combat injury to include those who were not Florida residents when they entered the military and schedule the amendment to take effect January 1, 2013. 

For me, this is obvious.  I would happily pay higher property taxes to make up the discount to honor the sacrifice of a veteran who has become disabled serving our country…and this would be the point.  They served our country whether they lived in Florida while they served or not.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Two.

Amendment Three

Replaces the existing state revenue limitation based on Florida personal income growth with a new state revenue limitation based on inflation and population changes. Economic rules are hard because they address situations that require something that we don’t have: knowledge of the future.  This amendment is attempting to address the amount of revenue the state has on hand to spend.  This amendment makes sense to me because it addresses the very real fact of inflation.  I may have the same amount of money next year as I have this year, but I am unable to buy as much because prices are higher. 

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Three.

Amendment Four

In certain circumstances, the law requires the assessed value of homestead and specified non-homestead property to increase when the just value of the property decreases.   Should this amendment pass, there will be immediate financial consequences for local (town and county) governments.  There will be an estimated $200 million less available for those entities in our state based on the recalculations of property values that will be required by the amendment.  On the other hand, individuals and small businesses are paying higher property taxes than is equitable under the law.  Since the actual value of their properties have declined,they should be able to pay taxes on the real value of their property and not some mythical amount invented by the property tax code.  If government wants additional revenues, it should have to pay the political price required to pass legitimate property tax increases that affect ALL citizens and not just some.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Four.

Amendment Five

This amendment basically limits the power currently held by two branches of state government.  It limits the power of the Supreme Court by making it easier for the legislature to overturn practices and procedures that seem to be out of line with the desire of the electorate.  Under current law, the Governor appoints a justice of the Supreme Court from a list of nominees provided by a judicial nominating commission, and appointments by the Governor are not subject to confirmation. This revision requires Senate confirmation of a justice of the Supreme Court before the appointee can take office.   This would limit the power of the Governor and give the legislature a voice in the makeup of the Supreme Court.

l like anything that provides more checks and balances where power is concerned.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Five.

Amendment Six

This proposed amendment provides that public funds may not be expended for any abortion or for health-beOne of the challenges of a democracy is that many times we are asked to make decisions about things that require research(to understand what is being asked) and wisdom (to recognize the agenda behind the change).  The 2012 Florida ballot asks us to make decisions about 11 proposed changes to the Florida Constitution.  Here is my take on what is going on and the direction that I will vote:

Amendment One

No one who is involved in a health fight would deny the need for health care reform.  Most people understand that the reforms made by the Affordable Health Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, have a huge number of problems.  One of the most significant issues is the issue of freedom.  In order to make ObamaCare appear to work, everyone must be in a program of some type: universal health care coverage is a mandate of the program.  This amendment attempts to battle the freedom issue, giving Floridians the right not to participate in health care coverage if they don’t want to.  The problem is that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the Affordable Health Care Act is essentially a new tax and the government has the right to levy taxes.

RECOMMENDATION: Though it will be probably be only a symbolic act, I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment One.

Amendment Two

Expands the availability of the property discount on the homesteads of veterans who became disabled as the result of a combat injury to include those who were not Florida residents when they entered the military and schedule the amendment to take effect January 1, 2013. 

For me, this is obvious.  I would happily pay higher property taxes to make up the discount to honor the sacrifice of a veteran who has become disabled serving our country…and this would be the point.  They served our country whether they lived in Florida while they served or not.
RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Two.

Amendment Three

Replaces the existing state revenue limitation based on Florida personal income growth with a new state revenue limitation based on inflation and population changes. Economic rules are hard because they address situations that require something that we don’t have: knowledge of the future.  This amendment is attempting to address the amount of revenue the state has on hand to spend.  This amendment makes sense to me because it addresses the very real fact of inflation.  I may have the same amount of money next year as I have this year, but I am unable to buy as much because prices are higher. 

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Three.

Amendment Four

In certain circumstances, the law requires the assessed value of homestead and specified non-homestead property to increase when the just value of the property decreases.   Should this amendment pass, there will be immediate financial consequences for local (town and county) governments.  There will be an estimated $200 million less available for those entities in our state based on the recalculations of property values that will be required by the amendment.  On the other hand, individuals and small businesses are paying higher property taxes than is equitable under the law.  Since the actual value of their properties have declined, they should be able to pay taxes on the real value of their property and not some mythical amount invented by the property tax code.  If government wants additional revenues, it should have to pay the political price required to pass legitimate property tax increases that affect ALL citizens and not just some.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Four.

Amendment Five

This amendment basically limits the power currently held by two branches of state government.  It limits the power of the Supreme Court by making it easier for the legislature to overturn practices and procedures that seem to be out of line with the desire of the electorate.  Under current law, the Governor appoints a justice of the Supreme Court from a list of nominees provided by a judicial nominating commission, and appointments by the Governor are not subject to confirmation. This revision requires Senate confirmation of a justice of the Supreme Court before the appointee can take office.   This would limit the power of the Governor and give the legislature a voice in the makeup of the Supreme Court.

l like anything that provides more checks and balances where power is concerned.
RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Five.

Amendment Six

This proposed amendment provides that public funds may not be expended for any abortion or for health-benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion.

I could spend a whole lot of time discussing this, but for me, abortion is the huge moral issue of our generation. 

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Six.

Amendment Seven

NOTE :Amendment 7 was removed from the ballot by the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled that some of the language in the ballot summary was misleading. It was replaced by Amendment 8, which clarified the language.

Amendment Eight

Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution providing that no individual or entity may be denied, on the basis of religious identity or belief, governmental benefits, funding or other support, except as required by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and deleting the prohibition against using revenues from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.

Current law discriminates against faith groups by not allowing access to state funding when it comes to services that faith groups provide that contribute to the public good. 

I would never personally lead a church to seek funding from the government.  If the Lord wants us to do something, I believe He will provide resources that bring glory to Him and not to the state.  That said, my personal conviction should not limit the freedom of another church to seek funding.  It also has overtones into the use of state scholarship funding to Christian colleges.  Again, the choice of college by a student should not dictate their right to scholarships that would be available should they choose another type of school.

 RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Eight.

Amendment Nine

Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to authorize the Legislature to provide by general law ad valorem homestead property tax relief to the surviving spouse of a military veteran who died from service-connected causes while on active duty or to the surviving spouse of a first responder who died in the line of duty.

It would be different if these important jobs were paid on the higher level of the wage scale, but they aren’t.  When one of these important people go down, we should acknowledge it in a long term way since their loss is, definitely, long term for their families.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Nine.

Amendment Ten

This amendment makes a slight change to the way property taxes are calculated.  This change would help small businesses individually in a small way, but collectively could provide additional revenues that would create jobs.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Ten.

Amendment Eleven

An amendment to the State Constitution to authorize the Legislature, by general law and subject to conditions set forth in the general law, to allow counties and municipalities to grant an additional homestead tax exemption equal to the assessed value of homestead property if the property has a just value less than $250,000 to an owner who has maintained permanent residency on the property for not less than 25 years, who has attained age 65, and who has a low household income as defined by general law.

This enshrines protections in the constitution for long-time Floridians when an area becomes involved in a land-boom and the property values sky-rocket.  This has happened over and over again in the history of our state and is likely to happen again. 

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Eleven.

Amendment Twelve

This is an esoteric amendment to the constitution that would normally be handled by the legislature, but in this case must be treated by an amendment change because of the way that it was originally handled.  It expands the representation among the student government organizations of our universities and colleges in its representation on the state Board of Governors.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that we vote FOR Amendment Twelve.

On the Calvinism debate

The first time I encountered the “Doctrines of grace” produced one of the greatest crises of faith that I have experienced in my life.  I was auditing a course at a Bible college while attending university.  My crisis was, perhaps, augmented by the fact that I was facing the concepts of Hegel in literature.  I emerged from the crisis stronger in my faith; I did not emerge as a Calvinist.  Later on, I had the privilege of studying “The Life and Ministry of John Calvin” under one of the leading lights of Calvinistic advance during this generation: Tom Nettles.  The Lord allowed me to pair this encounter with a course called “The Calvinist-Arminian Controversy” under Dr. Reginald Barnard.  Dr. Barnard had been the Prizeman in Theology in his class at Spurgeon’s College and had gone on to pastor in London for 25 years before coming to the States and taking his doctorate.  His European perspective on the subject is something I have valued as I have continued my personal struggle through these difficult concepts. For almost 15 years, I worked my way through various African countries as a missionary. At every stop, I found myself in the training of pastors and leaders. These experiences have also contributed to the understanding that I have about the debate.

I have come to the place where I do not allow the theological position of a brother to determine how I relate to him.  My standard is to discover if grace is operational in a person’s life, in that they have become what I label “a great lover of Christ”.  Tom Nettles was an inspiration.  He came through the door of class with a song on his lips and joy in his heart; joy that was produced by his love for Jesus Christ and Him alone.  It was not his Calvinism that made him a “great lover of Christ”.  It was the living Lord, working in and through Him.  No less was this true of Dr. Barnard.  The quiet European demeanor could not hide an affectuous joie de vivre that came from his love of the Lord.  I walked by the side of wonderful African pastors; men whose educational level did not give them great entrance into the Word of God, but whose commitment to Christ was unequivocal and whose desire to learn was undeniable.  They were “great lovers of Christ” though they will never enter into the debate that seems so important to many in our Convention today. 

So, I’m going to refuse to participate in debate.  I will happily discuss my understanding of the Scripture and the great themes of theology with those whose love for Jesus is palpable.  I will avoid those who are contentious and pray that they will discover the admonition to “love the brotherhood” (1 Pt. 2:17).  The issue is far larger than the Southern Baptist Convention.  It is the very warp and woof (as Schaeffer used to say) of the outworking of the Christian faith. 

Need to rethink evangelism

I left the United States to become an international missionary in 1990. The ten years previous had been spent in a church plant in the Bible belt where evangelism had been the primary means of church growth. Of those church planting years, 1980-1990, the best year from an evangelism standpoint was the last year.

I returned from the international experience to be a pastor again in 2005. People do not seem to respond to the gospel message in the way that they did in the days of my first pastorate. I conjecture that this is not only a personal issue. In the 80s I would regularly hear of other places where great numbers of people were coming to Christ through personal witness in churches that utilized Evangelism Explosion or some other method of that nature. I know that no church close to me is experiencing this kind of evangelistic success and I have not picked up on stories where great harvest seems to be happening. This has caused me to reflect a bit on the evangelistic field that we are called to harvest.

Shortly before our return to the US from the field, I had the privilege of sitting with Viggo Sogaard, a media driven research missiologist. Viggo, a student of James Engels, had added an additional axis to the Engels' scale. Engels had demonstrated that people have to reach a cognitive level in order to come to Christ. The scale begins at -10 (no knowledge of God) and moves upwards to conversion (0) and on to maturity in Christ (+10). What Sogaard added was an affective axis, measuring the attitude towards things of Christ. Sogaard's premise, as applied to a media perspective, was not from an individual, but a societal perspective. Drawing from his experience in Thailand, Sogaard's goal was to move the general knowledge in Thai society to a place where an evangelist did not need to introduce many new concepts to bring an unbeliever to a place of belief. Simultaneously, the goal was to also improve the societal attitude from negative to positive. I think that this has relevance for the American culture that we work.

In my diagram, I have graphed what I think has happened in the United States since 1990. The culture has shifted dramatically in its understanding of things of faith. To move the average unbeliever along to conversion will require more than just the Four spiritual laws or "How to have a full and meaningful life". The culture has moved further out in its basic understanding of things of Christian faith, requiring that we move individuals further in their understanding of faith. This additional information will be more difficult to deliver because we are in a day where Christian values are rejected; Christian morals are considered odd and out of date; and, Christian interest in giving the gospel is seen as a negative activity instead of a genuine concern.

This will require a complete rethink of evangelistic strategies and methods. It is no longer enough to equip our members with the Roman Road and think that they can charge the gates of hell successfully. The enemy has successfully changed the defense to his gates! Breaching the defenses of 2011 with weaponry designed for the 1950s or 70s or 90s will have, at best, limited success.

Without doubt, the Lord of the harvest has the answers that we need, but He will not give what is unsought. I am convinced that the method, whatever it turns out to be, will not include a mere invitation to church a la the seeker sensitive approaches of the previous decade. The church is already superfluous to secular thought. Real disciples engaged in real and thoughtful dialogue with the lost, over time, will produce real disciples, but it won't be easy and it won't be done with methods designed for other times.

Careful of what you forward

April Fool’s day is still a day for pranks and tricks. Some of the best ones have been pulled in the media. As reported in the McCready County Record, “…back in 1957, a BBC (British Broadcasting Corp) TV show called "Panorama" announced that because of a very mild winter and the elimination of the dreaded "spaghetti weevil," Swiss farmers were harvesting a bumper crop of spaghetti. Along with this report, the BBC ran film of "Swiss peasants" happily plucking strands of spaghetti off of low hanging tree limbs. Many viewers were taken in by this prank, flooding the BBC with calls asking how to plant their own "spaghetti trees." They were told to place a stick of dry pasta in a can of tomato paste and hope for the best.”

April Fool’s day tricks have lost a little of their luster, however, because of the Internet. Via email, we perpetuate myths like the BBC trick, over and over throughout the year. No, Madelyn Murray O’Hair has no active petition with the FCC to ban Christian programming on the air. If someone forwards the message to you and ask you to send it on, just say “no”. No, there is no movie being made called “Corpus Christi” that portrays Jesus as a homosexual. (I got this one just last week, forwarded out of the office of the City of Lake City.)

Before you forward anything; before you get incensed; make sure that you check out the truth of rumors and petitions. When we perpetuate myth at the expense of truth, we compromise our ability to stand for the Truth – and that is our primary mission.

Welcome to Spring!

It’s that wonderful time of year that is a study in contrasts in north Florida. It is beautiful, isn’t it? The trees are budding out; the birds are singing; the flowers are blooming.

But there is the flip side. All north Floridians drive the same color car: yellow. Pollen from the pines and live oaks is visible both from the car color to the sniffles of allergy sufferers. It is also dry. It doesn’t look dry because of all the green, but it is dry. Dry means the possibility of forest fires.

This contrast outside points toward the contrast in each of us. Rarely is life perfect. At the same time that we experience great happiness, we can have nagging little irritations. Or, at the same time that we experience great hurt and tragedy, we can be blessed by little things.

Christian living is a matter of choice. We chose to place the One who has demonstrated His ultimate care for us in the position of control. When the negatives come, we yield to His plan that demands our personal inconvenience or suffering. When the blessings come, we remember that it is not a matter of coincidence but of conscious giving on His part. And, we say, “Thank you”. Have you given thanks for His blessings today?

A bad place to hide

A free-tailed bat with an injured wing found a quiet, orange place to rest and recover. Things went well until the orange place suddenly began to move…rapidly. Three engines ignited with such force that mere seconds later the orange place was moving 17,180 mph. The orange place was the side of the space shuttle. NASA scientists admit the bat probably died.

When we are wounded, our tendency is to be bat-like. Too often our pattern is to go off by ourselves and try to lick our wounds. We want to find a place out of the public eye; we don’t want to seek help; and, we don’t really want to deal with the situation.

When we are wounded, Christ points us in the right direction: reconciliation and correction. We need to identify our hurt and seek to be quickly reconciled to the brother or sister who wounded us. If we don’t we can end up in a place that does not contribute to restoration. Instead, it simply explodes.

If you’ve been hurt lately, remember the bat!

The Brevity of Life

Bartlett, Tennessee is a suburb of Memphis where we spent one of our stateside assignments as missionaries. The news out of Bartlett from the weekend was about the disappearance of a former model from her home. Yesterday police went to interview a possible suspect. Before they could get to his room, he had killed himself with a long rifle – leaving a note about where her body could be found.

Just a few miles from the Baptist College of Florida are the towns of Samson and Geneva, Alabama. Yesterday a man burned his mother’s home igniting a rampage of killing that ended with 9 people being murdered before he was killed himself.

Sunday, Fred Winters stood in the pulpit at First Baptist, Maryville, Illinois and preached a message of hope. Before he could finish, a man known to be mentally ill entered the church with weaponry capable of killing 30, and ended Fred Winters life.

Psalm 39:5 declares: You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor. That wisp, that vapor can end at any moment…without explanation by human terms. Accusation will be leveled at God in these moments: how can a loving God allow something like this to happen? The response is that we live in a fallen world where man’s actions are reflective of his nature. God declares that humankind is fundamentally flawed; morally skewed; spiritually compromised. He offers Himself as the solution via His intervention in this world. But His intervention is extremely offensive to the human consciousness and people do not easily accept His revelation of their nature or His solution.

So, Christians, we press on: to proclaim Truth in the midst of self-deception. It is the Truth that Fred Winters died proclaiming: Jesus came, lived and died in self-sacrificial Love to clear the way for fallen man to come to Holy God. We must not forget that people die without that Message…and that they can die at without Him at any moment.

Grizzly details

We will pray tonight for President Obama, for our legislative and judicial leaders and for our military. We will, if not careful, complain about how terrible conditions are in our country and how the administration is making rookie mistakes in the World Series of economic competition. Some will admit to fear about the future.

One of my favorite writers over the years is Frederick Forsyth. Two of his books that you may have heard of are “The Day of the Jackal” and “the Odessa file”. Forsyth is stuck in the African nation of Guinea-Bissau right now due to the events of this weekend where the president of the country was killed by the military. Here’s how he describes what happened: "They went to his villa, threw a bomb through the window which hurt him, but didn't kill him," Forsyth told the BBC late Tuesday. "The roof came down, that hurt him but didn't kill him either.”
"He struggled out of the rubble and was promptly shot. This, however, still didn't kill him. They then took him to his mother-in-law's house and chopped him to bits with machetes," he added.*

I’ve been in the middle of an African battle. I’ve seen the terror in African eyes at the uncertainty of life and the fear of what is happening. I feel what the people of Guinea-Bissau are feeling.

So here’s what I want to say to you: Did you know that we live in the greatest country in the world, despite the problems that we face? I did not vote for our president; I disagree with much of his social agenda. Yet I will not only pray for our president, I will also render to him the respect he deserves. I will go to bed tonight and pray that the Lord will guide our government and help to have wisdom about what is right and the courage to do it. One thing I won’t fear is that the military leadership of our country will invade the White House and kill the president.

*(Copyright © 2009 AFP)

Yes, I know I’m blessed but….

The big sporting news of the week is that Tiger Woods is coming back to play golf after recovering from significant injury. He is such an incredible athlete that he won his last tournament, the US Open….with a broken leg. He has a personal fortune of 600 million dollars, homes and cars….and it’s just not fair. It is not fair that he has all of this and I don’t.

Some of the greatest Christians I know live in mud huts. They plant and they reap and they suffer when there is not enough rain. They have no money; no retirement funds, and, no real promise of government help when they get too old to work. It’s just not fair that I have more than they do.

Life is a matter of perspective. I am blessed; so blessed. I have pretty good health, a great family and some good “stuff”. Yet, if I’m not careful, I can visit with someone who has more “stuff” and feel that somehow I’ve been shorted. The problem with the title is one word: but. Real Christian living begins with being able to say, “Yes, I know I’m blessed” and then put the period at the end.

Yes, I know I’m blessed.