What’s Missing Is Tears

I have always deeply respected Tullian Tchividjian, the grandson of Billy Graham, and the now pastor of the late James Kennedy’s church.

In the reading of Tullian’s blog today, I read these words:

Grieving anger is far different from the kind of anger commonly associated with Christians. Lots of people think of Christians as embittered, angry people. They view Christians as being frustrated by our culture because things just aren’t going our way—our conservative political agenda is being thwarted.

Years ago I was one of five thousand people listening to a panel discussion at a Christian conference. An editor of a conservative political-theological magazine was expressing his frustration with many of the political left-wingers, and doing so in an unnecessarily sarcastic and condescending way. When he finished, John Piper (another speaker on the panel) turned to him, and with utmost seriousness and precision, he said, “For a long time I have appreciated your ministry. You are an astute observer of our culture. I read your magazine every month. It’s always insightful. But there’s one thing missing from your ministry.”

The editor looked at Dr. Piper and asked what it was.

“Tears,” Piper replied.

As I read it hit me what I believe that we as Southern Baptists are missing, tears. I don’t see or hear tears for those who have been hurt by some self-righteous actions using the name of God. I don’t see tears for the lost of this world, I don’t see tears for those whose lives are torn apart by sin.

There are those who fight for right doctrine, but no relationship. They will fight political battles, but not for those who are hurting. I can tell a true story about someone who is hurting, and I might receive a comment of good they deserve it. I hear anger but without tears.

May God soften our collective hearts as Christians first, Southern Baptists second, and may we collectively be so burdened that we feel tears running down our cheeks. I believe with all my heart, that this will be a sign that God is doing revival into our churches. Until tears are shed, change is doubtful as far as I am concerned. And I include myself in this prayer.

I’m convinced that until we start shedding tears we are nothing more than the embittered angry people that the world thinks us to be.

Now That’s What I’m Talking About

JD Greear has a post entitled What I am praying to see in the SBC: the Conservative Resurgence Task Force of the SBC

Things Not Brought Out When Glorifying The Conservative Resurgance Pt. 3/Should Christians Battle Each Other

First Corinthians 13 was written to the church of Corinth who was in the midst of a heated battle that was splitting the church apart. There were predominately three groups: The Libertines who had a radical view of Christian freedom, believing that the believer could do anything because of the grace of God. There were the Ascetics who developed a very rigid view of Christian discipline, and the Ecstatics, who believed that the Christian life should be manifested through joy and celebration. But their celebrations were over the top and went to far. Then there was the fourth group who wanted peace and were not a part of any of the groups. They simply wanted to go to church, learn, worship in peace.

Paul was saying that all the groups were right yet all were wrong. Paul was for Christian freedom, he brought this out in the book of Galatians, Romans 14. He believe in walking holy and in disciplining ourselves. He also believed in the joy of our salvation and enjoying God. The problem is that all of them believed these things at the exclusion of the other, and all of them took it further than scripture does. They expected everyone else to believe and experience God their way. As a result there was conflict so deep that it was causing division, it became a verbal knock out drag down fight. Paul was saying that they were all wrong because none of them had the whole picture(looking into a mirror darkly).

Paul was teaching them the error in their thinking and in their behavior. 1 Corinthians 13 was written to show the church of Corinth how Christians are to behave toward those they disagree with. It is a mark of a true born again Christian. Love is patient, Love is kind etc. Arrogance, or there is no one right but me has no place in the Christian life or in the church. This is what kills most churches.

Following 1 Corinthians 13 and given that it was addressed to the church of Corinth during a huge battle, how does the CR fit into this passage, and what do you believe it says about the CR?

The world fights, we are to be a model for the world and how are we going to be a model, showing that Christianity is the only way, the right way, when we are no different than the world both in our battling and in our methods. It makes us nothing more than hypocrites, and no wonder the world mocks us and turns away. We offer them the same thing they already have, they see no difference.

I submit that until we swallow our pride, admit the wrongs that were done publicly, we will continue to lose people and lose our effectiveness. After all, the world loves a good fight, and the only time we get attention from the media or from the world is when we are in battle against something. I think it’s time to change. Love is what marks us as children of the King. And until we practice love, we are being disobedient to the very scriptures we supposedly fought for.

Things Not Brought Out When Glorifying The Conservative Resurgence Pt. 2: Truth Or Fiction, Chronological Timeline Of The Takeover

1976: Paul Pressler, a Houston judge, and Paige Patterson, then
president of Criswell College in Dallas, met in New Orleans and
planned a political strategy to elect a president who would nominate
like-minded people to the Convention’s Committee on Committees.
This Committee would nominate like-minded people to the Committee
on Nominations. This second committee would nominate likeminded
trustees and directors to Southern Baptist agencies and institutions
who would hire only like-minded staff members. Pressler
called this strategy “going for the jugular.” Fundamentalist candidates
have won the Convention presidency every year since 1979.
By early 1989 nearly every one of the SBC boards had a majority of
Takeover people on it.
(In 1998: the same Takeover strategy was used successfully to Takeover
the Missouri Baptist Convention. Along the way it was also
used in Georgia and Kentucky.
(In North Carolina, Fundamentalists secured control of the state convention’s
Board of Directors and its powerful Executive Committee,
but the convention-related agencies and institutions have so far
avoided a Fundamentalist Takeover of their boards of trustees.
(Other state conventions have more peacefully transitioned “from
free to subjected” — Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina,
and Tennessee.
(The strategy failed in Virginia and Texas where Fundamentalists
then set up new state conventions.)
1984: The SBC voted in Kansas City to adopt a strongly worded resolution against women in church leadership roles “because man
was first in creation and the woman was first in the Edenic fall.”
1987: The president of Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest,
North Carolina, resigned after the trustees voted to hire only faculty
members who follow their interpretation of the Baptist Faith and
Message.
1987: The SBC voted in St. Louis to adopt a report from “The Peace
Committee” that had been set up in 1985.
1988: The Baptist Faith and Message became a creed for hiring new
staff members rather than a guideline — a stark deviation from historical
Baptist roots.
1988: At the SBC Convention in San Antonio, a resolution was
passed critical of the cardinal Baptist belief in the “priesthood of the
believer” and “soul competency” and elevated the pastor to the position
of authority in the church he serves. W. A. Criswell told a group
of pastors that “the man of God who is the pastor of the church is the
ruler.”
1990: Roy Honeycutt, president of the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, was accused by a twenty-five-year-old new trustee of “not
believing the Bible.” A new president, Al Mohler, was appointed in
1993 and hailed as “a hero of SBC Fundamentalism.”
1990: Al Shackleford and Dan Martin of the Baptist Press, the official
news service of the SBC, were fired for “persecuting” the Fundamentalists
in their news coverage. Don McGregor, editor of the
Baptist Record of Mississippi, wrote: “Today we have seen the final
destruction of freedom of the press among Southern Baptists.” Immediately
the Associated Baptist Press was established to offer freeflowing,
objective, and accurate news coverage.
1991: At their October meeting, the Foreign Mission Board trustees
voted to defund the Baptist Theological Seminary in Ruschlikon,
Switzerland, thus breaking a contract the SBC had with the seminary.
Parks, president of the Foreign Mission Board, resigned under pressure.
In his thirteen years as president, missionaries entered forty
new countries with a total of 3,918 missionaries.
1992: Lloyd Elder, president of the Sunday School Board, resigned
under pressure and was replaced by a Fundamentalist Texas pastor,
Jimmy Draper. A total of 159 employees retired (voluntarily or involuntarily)
in November 1992 alone.
1994: Russell Dilday, president of Southwestern Seminary in Fort
Worth for fifteen years, was fired abruptly and trustees changed the
locks on the president’s office immediately, thus denying him access.
The day before, these same trustees gave Dilday a favorable job performance
evaluation. These trustees sent 40,000 letters to pastors and
directors of missions to explain their reason for firing Dilday. They
said he failed to support the Takeover in the Convention and that he
“held liberal views of the scripture.” The Seminary faculty refuted
all these charges against Dilday.
1997: In October a forty-year staff member was fired at the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary for writing a private letter to the
President of the SBC disagreeing with a statement he had made
while speaking in chapel. Also in October 1997, a professor of systematic
theology at Southwestern Theological Seminary was relieved
of his teaching duties because he “voiced dissent about actions of the
administration of the institution.” Obviously there is still no room for
diversity or disagreement.
1998: In June, Paige Patterson was elected president of the SBC
without opposition. The man who helped plot the Takeover strategy
of the Southern Baptist Convention was now its leader. Jerry Falwell,
a long-time critic of Southern Baptists, attended his first SBC
Convention as a messenger along with others from his church in
Lynchburg, Virginia. Falwell has become the most visible SBC
spokesperson. Also the SBC amended the Baptist Faith and Message
statement by adding a wife is to “submit herself graciously” to her
husband.
2000: The SBC adopted a new Baptist Faith and Message statement.
It eliminated the preamble that had been part of the 1963 statement.
This version, used as a creedal statement by SBC agencies, elevates
the Bible to a position above that of Jesus himself and downplays the
doctrines of priesthood of each believer and local church autonomy.
It is now used as a creedal statement by SBC agencies.
2002: Jerry Rankin and the IMB trustees undermined missionary
morale by requiring them to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.
2004: SBC withdrew as a member of the Baptist World Alliance.
2005: The SBC voted to discontinue its boycott of Disney.

*The Southern Baptist Convention Takeover(A Brief History, Fourth Edition)

Is this timeline truth or fiction. If fiction, where is it fiction? What is wrong with the methods used? What is right about the methods used?

Things That Are Not Brought Out When Glorifying The Conservative Resurgence

I am not one to give praise to the Conservative Resurgence. I do believe in the inerrancy of the scriptures, I believe all the Bible to be true, the final source for our theology. I do not however believe in the Conservative Resurgence. It’s methods were more of a witch hunt than based on actual fact. People were not dealt with in Christian love, but with hate and vengece, more for control than for the battle for the Bible.

Proof of my opinion is based on this article written in the ABP, dated November 23, 2003. In it Jerry Rankin was defending charges given in a paper written by Keith Eitel, sent to IMB trustees, and Paige Patterson, that the IMB was not conservative enough.

Although Rankin and his critics all support the conservative movement that has risen to power in the Southern Baptist Convention, Rankin has found himself defending the IMB against charges it is not conservative enough

.

In the paper, Eitel accuses Rankin and other IMB administrators of failing to be doctrinally stringent enough. He specifically cites concerns about partnerships with other Great Commission Christian groups that require lesser doctrinal adherence and the role of women in missions leadership.

During a Nov. 10-12 meeting in Lexington, Ky., IMB trustees adopted two statements in response to the Eitel paper.

The first statement, which was adopted without discussion or dissent, affirmed “the strategies and leadership” of the board and resolved “to review the concerns and the issues raised and take appropriate action to guarantee that the vision to lead Southern Baptists to reach the world for Christ is not compromised.”

The second statement, also adopted unanimously, affirmed an initiative by Rankin to arrange for a meeting of IMB staff and trustees with Eitel and Patterson “to resolve misunderstandings and perceptions communicated in Eitel’s assessment of the International Mission Board vision and strategy.”

Rankin said he would write Patterson “to seek an explanation as to why he would cast aspersion on our board relative to the conservative resurgence.” Trustees of the IMB are “God-fearing, Bible-believing men and women, products of the conservative resurgence within our convention,” Rankin declared. Yet, “our staunch embracing of and adherence to the Baptist Faith and Message is not considered adequate from your perspective.”

As we know, Jerry Rankin is still President of the IMB, though slated to retire later next year.

This is just one of the many concerns I have with the Conservative Resurgence being glorified. It is not to be glorified in my opinion, in fact many humble apologies should be issued by those who participated in this movement. We also must learn from history so that this type of witch hunt will not happen again. It is so far from Biblical practice, so far from Christ, that the fact we are still here as an organization is due to the Grace and Mercy of God, who may be preserving it because God found men and women who were sincerely willing to follow God’s direction based on scripture and not politics. Only time will tell.

To glorify the Conservative Resurgence, which has been done over the years, and quite recently by several blogs, need to ask at what price and by what innocents, did we achieve this goal? I certainly am, and the more I research, the more disturbing answers I find.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It…Fantastic

I am a fan of the arts. I made sure my children were introduced to all genres of music, art, books, movies, especially the classics. Singing, playing different instruments(which I wasn’t good at) , even dance, has been a part of my life since I was a young child. I love beautiful music, art work, books, movies.

I am also a huge fan of Michael Jackson, and have been since his introduction through the Jackson Five in the late 60’s. I even watched the Jackson Five cartoons every Saturday morning without fail as a kid. I grew up with Michael Jackson, me being three years older than him. I know the words to practically every Michael Jackson/Jackson Five song, and can dance the Thriller dance. Even today.

I went to the movie This Is It, which opened officially yesterday worldwide, but had a special IMAX Premiere Tuesday night. I carefully guarded my tickets which I had purchased two weeks ago in advance, to make sure that I was definitely going. I picked a time to attend this movie that was of the least resistance to picking my husband up from work. He is a trucker, and he wanted to be sure that I went and saw the movie, knowing I am a big Michael Jackson fan, but I am also his way home.

I got off of work at 3:30 pm yesterday afternoon, so the 4:00 matinee seemed the better choice, plus I saved two dollars by going to the earlier showing. I’m so glad I went.

The reviews coming in from the top critics in the country say that people missed a spectacular concert when due to Michael Jackson’s death, the concert in it’s full production would not be. We got a big taste of what that would have looked like in this movie.

Despite reports to the contrary, I don’t remember seeing Michael Jackson look this good, and his singing, his dancing was as good as his singing and dancing in the 1980’s and 90’s. Nothing short of amazing. Same moves updated to 2009, same perfect pitch, and his falsetto was as great to listen to as when he sang in his early years.

Watching him create this show, treat his dancers and crew with such dignity and respect. Gently telling them exactly what he wanted, patiently working through the music and the steps along with them, praising them when they got his vision, made me want to work for him.

Michael sang standard classics that Michael Jackson fans, including myself, can’t get enough of. He sang a medley of hits from his time in the Jackson Five, which was a wonderful surprise and something I had not expected.

I would not necessarily recommend this movie for children, although there is no cussing, no sexual scenes, there is a lesson in crotch grabbing in one sequence with the dancers with another instructor that I was uncomfortable with that lasted approximately sixty seconds, and was used in one series of dance steps, and the new Thrillers sequence may be a bit too scary for little ones, although I thought it fascinating to watch.

The best part of this movie was that I hooked up with two other women who were Michael Jackson fans and we ended up enjoying the movie together. One woman in particular and I had a great time discussing the movie, dancing while sitting down in our seats to the music, and just having a good time, while crying in between. That alone was worth the price of a ticket.

In short I could go and see this movie several more times, it’s Jackson at his height and shows him just a few days before he died looking healthy, fit, trim(he said he is at his perfect dance weight), his voice is better than ever despite media reports to the contrary before this movie came out, which goes to show that the media gets it wrong 90% of the time. I’m just sad that this music will no longer be except on film or CDs. This was it.

To read a review of this film by Roger Ebert which begins:

“This Is it,” Michael Jackson told his fans in London, announcing his forthcoming concert tour. “This is the final curtain call.” The curtain fell sooner than expected. What is left is this extraordinary documentary, nothing at all like what I was expecting to see. Here is not a sick and drugged man forcing himself through grueling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied by music. Michael Jackson was something else.

Read the rest: Roger Ebert Chicago Sun Times

STEVE HARVEY’S TEARFUL TESTIMONY!

I do not post the link to this video because I agree with all TBN, or that I agree with all that Steve Harvey is saying here, although hear his words as he looked for someone to talk to. I post this video because I want you to see Steve Harvey’s heart. His pain, his tears. I listened to the words and saw the pain.People are hurting and are we so busy or not wanting to be bothered that we aren’t available to those who are hurting? And they are many.I don’t know if I can wait a year for the GCR to occur in our churches. I want it to occur now! When you see Steve Harvey in this video, I hope no one else can wait either. People need to hear of Christ now.

New Covenant Faith Despite Old Testament Teaching

I have so many writers that I enjoy reading. Chuck Swindoll, Max Lucado, and in the blog world, one that I always love to read is Mary Burleson. She is among the writers in the above list who have the message the Bible teaches on Grace down pat. Yet, it’s the hardest teaching for many Christians, including long time Christians, to grasp. I know because I had a hard time grasping it when I first heard of Grace as the Bible uses it and the New Covenant that Christ ushered in. Now I drink it all in and can’t get enough. I love this message.

In Mary’s latest post entitled Reality Check: Payback or Freedom she rightly points out that we are no longer under the law that says ‘You do and then I will do, you don’t do and I won’t.’ It’s an important lesson for us to learn, because it was something else that was accomplished at the Cross.

A Tale of Deportation And The Tearing Apart Of Families

I listened today as a dear friend’s daughter tearfully told me that her Mexican husband who was in this country illegally was deported, leaving behind two small children ages 3 and 2.

This young woman is left to be the sole support on a part time job and her husband whom she loves dearly is gone, deported to Mexico, and where in Mexico she does not know as he is currently not allowed to contact her. The lawyers she has hired have simply taken her thousands of dollars and done nothing further in helping her case. She is desperate and does not know what to do. She came to me for answers and just to talk. I listened. I comforted. I have her permission to write her story on this blog after I promised not to use any names.

Another case story from a friend. A girl pregnant with an illegal Mexican’s child. A child that is wanted by both mother and father. Both wish to be married. But, the young man was whisked away by authorities, held in Oklahoma City and then transported to the borders of Mexico. He was left to find his own way to the town where he is from.

These are just two of many heart wrenching stories. These men have children, girlfriends, wives, here in this country that they wish to be with, nurture and support. Yet, without warning, they are ripped away from their families and taken to jail where they are usually held for thirty days, then transported to the nearest big city jail, then transported to the Mexican borders, dumped at these borders, leaving their women, children, to cry and grieve their leaving.

Women’s incomes that were once supplemental incomes, are now the sole income for their families. They spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to attempt to get their loved ones back into this country legally, only to find out that they have to pay thousands more. Most have to eventually get on public aid in order to fully support their children in meeting all their needs. It’s not easy to become a citizen in this country since 9/11.

There are some children who become wards of the state as their parents are both here illegally, yet they were born in this country and therefore are considered American citizens. What is wrong with this picture?

Mexicans that are here legally or illegally are accused of stealing our jobs, usually by those who already have jobs. What is wrong with this picture?

In an effort to rid this country of so called undesirables, we have set the bar of citizenship so high that those without means cannot possibly meet them. We have cried out for stricter immigration laws, and we got just that, at the expense of families being torn apart, and children have no father and in some cases no mother or no mother and father.

We asked for it and we got more than we bargained for. In the long run it will cost each of us more as more and more families must get on public assistance when they didn’t have to before their husbands and fathers were being drug away. Wives and children are crying as they have lost the one they love, and who loves them, and worse, they do not know where they are as information is difficult to find. Is this right? Should we as Christians stand by and just watch this happen doing nothing? Most of us don’t know the horrors that occur when deportation takes place. I know more than I did before because of the stories of these two women and I don’t plan to stand and do nothing to help them.

Please begin to help by praying for these women that Christ would be their Lord and Savior, and that God would be a husband, a father to these women and their beautiful children. Pray for wisdom for me as I strive to help these desperate women, or that God would send someone into their lives to help them be united with their loved ones soon.

Changing Our Perspective About Asking Jesus Into Our Life

Alan Cross has written a wonderful post with the message that we don’t ask Jesus into our life, God invites us into His. The key to knowing what the scriptures actually teach begins with perspective, and Alan has changed my perspective radically. I hope he changes yours as well.