What Does It Mean to Be Saved?

David Gushee teaches Christian Ethics at Mercer University. He has helped me to clarify my thinking about what it means to be saved.

He writes that in the Gospel of Luke twice (10:25, 18:18) Jesus is asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer who asks it. The lawyer replies with the Old Testament commands to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself (cf. Mt. 22:34-40). Jesus affirms his answer: "Do this, and you will live." The lawyer then tries to narrow the meaning of neighbor. So Jesus tells the unforgettable parable of the compassionate Samaritan, who proved to be a neighbor to a bleeding roadside victim.

In Luke 18, Jesus responds to the same question, this time from the man we know as “the rich young ruler,” by quoting the second part of the Ten Commandments forbidding adultery, murder, theft, and false witness, and mandating honor towards parents. His questioner says that he has kept these commandments, and Jesus calls on him to "sell all … and distribute to the poor." Jesus assures him, "You will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." The "extremely rich" ruler won't do this, and Jesus goes on to teach his disciples about how hard it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.

In our Baptist tradition, we direct people to "invite Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior," using a formula called the "sinner's prayer." Or we simply say, "Believe in Jesus, and you will be saved." But Jesus never taught easy believism. Whether he was telling the rich young ruler to sell all and follow him or telling a crowd near Capernaum that to do the work of God was, yes, to believe on him (John 6:28-29), he called people to abandon their own agenda and trust him radically, which calls for both belief and action. “Mediocrity and hypocrisy,” says Gushee, “characterize the lives of many avowed Christians. Anyone can, and most Americans do, ‘believe’ in Jesus rather than some alternative savior. Many Americans say a prayer asking Jesus to save them. But not many embark on a life fully devoted to the love of God, the love of neighbor, the moral practice of God's will, and radical, costly discipleship.”

“We tend to confuse the beginning of the faith journey with its entirety. Yes, believe in Jesus—that's the first step. Yes, invite Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior. Then, empowered by God's grace, embark on the journey of discipleship, in which you seek to love God with every fiber of your being, to love your neighbor as yourself, to live out God's moral will, and to follow Jesus where he leads you, whatever the cost.” That is the approach to being saved I want New Hope Baptist Church to preach and teach.

Look Back and Honor the LORD

We at New Hope have many reasons to thank God as we begin a new year. In 2008 we grew in several ways. We received 18 new members. We met our budget goal for the year. We exceeded our goal for our Global Missions Offering.

You did it. You warmly welcomed, you were witnesses, you grew spiritually, and you gave. New Hope depends on God’s goodness, your faithfulness, and your generosity.

What are some of your favorite moments as you think back on 2008? One of mine is baptizing Gabi Abdenabi, Samantha Senatro, and Annie Roberts. All of the baptisms we did are memorable, but only theirs was in 69-degree water. They were brave. God was present. And when I came up out of the water, I had found great temporary relief from my backache: getting into a cold swimming pool. Who knew?

Looking back over the year is an opportunity to see and celebrate God’s goodness. In what ways has God helped you this past year? God blessed me through the discipline of writing an article every week for the back of the bulletin and another one each month for Connections. Deadlines are a good discipline for me. Getting started is hard, but after doing the writing, I am grateful to have the opportunity to communicate with you this way.

Certain Bible verses come to mind as I think about how we can look back and see how God has been at work for good in our lives: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

“You were in serious trouble, but you prayed to the LORD, and he rescued you. He made the storm stop and the sea be quiet. . . . You should praise the LORD for his love and for the wonderful things he does for all of us. Honor the LORD when you and your leaders meet to worship.” (Psalm 107:28-32 Contemporary English Version)

Our Trust Is in God's Faithfulness

We have been hearing about the dire straights of the automobile manufacturers, "The Big Three." We hear predictions of massive job losses. We Americans will buy a whole lot less on credit. We will spend less and get by on less. We will, I pray, depend more on God.

I think of a hymn about God’s trustworthiness: “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” number 54 in our hymnal. The words of the comforting chorus are inspired by the prophet Jeremiah found in the Bible in Lamentations 3.

Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

Will Christians allow their thoughts and feelings to be shaped by words from the Bible like these and by their deep awareness of God's mercy? Can you hear these words being sung and felt by each of us at New Hope Baptist Church?

How the Kingdom Comes Today and Tomorrow

Advent is our time to be reminded that Jesus has come, is coming, and will come. I grew up in a church that tended to think of the gospel message as getting yourself right with God and claiming Christ as your savior so that you could go to heaven when you die. It was all about “Do you know where you will spend eternity?” I have come to see that salvation is about more than making sure you can go to heaven when you die. I believe in the resurrection, the final judgment, heaven and hell. But the good news of Jesus not only has to do with life after death, but also with life as God wants us to live it before death. The Gospel has to do with following Jesus every day, saying to God, “Not my will but Your will be done. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

Daniel Vestal, the Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship writes in his Christmas letter, “The goal of the Gospel is not only that one day when Christ appears we shall be like Him, but also that we be conformed to the image of Christ today.” He continues, “The good news is that this Kingdom that has come in Jesus is now available to all . . .. As people are born of the Spirit, as people become like a child, as people care for the suffering, as people become humble, as people live as servants to one another, the Kingdom comes. As people confess ‘Jesus is Lord’ and live in radical obedience to His ethic, the Kingdom comes.”

We look forward to the day when the kingdom of God will come on earth as it is in heaven. There will come a day when “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). There will come a day when "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15), when perfect justice will be done in this world. This is the Good News: The Kingdom has come. The Kingdom is coming. The Kingdom will come.
Thank you for your gifts to the Global Missions Offering of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. We have already given $449. Our goal is $500. We will exceed our goal and we will be serving “the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah,” helping missionaries in many places on the globe to live as servants, preach the Good News, and care for the suffering.

Ideas Welcome in the CBF Not Welcome in the SBC

I am often asked, “What is the difference between the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.” The Way We Were by Fisher Humphreys, Professor of Theology at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, has helped me understand what has happened to the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Humphries writes, “There are four progressive beliefs that are no longer welcome in the Convention.” These beliefs are welcome in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

1. The ordination of women to serve as pastors is the first belief that has no future in the Southern Baptist Convention. Perhaps the words of 1 Timothy 2: 11, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man," were expressing God's will for the first century, when a woman's exercise of public leadership of any kind would have been considered a scandal. But women today exercise leadership in government, business, education, and many other realms. Today it is a scandal to exclude women from leadership roles and will hurt the cause of the gospel to do so in the church.

2. The critical study of the Bible is the second progressive belief. The word "critical" does not mean that anyone is to criticize the Bible. It means putting critical faculties into play when we read the Bible and asking what it meant when it was written. We want to study the Bible in our church using the best scholarship and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

3. That the best higher education is exploration not indoctrination is the third progressive belief that Dr. Humphreys says is now not welcome in the Southern Baptist Convention. The danger of indoctrination is that it will prevent students from studying alternative views so that they can freely decide for themselves which view is truthful.

4. That Baptists should participate in ecumenism is the fourth rejected progressive belief. Leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have shown that they are willing to have constructive conversations with leaders of other denominations in order to serve Christ alongside them. They engage in constructive conversations with leaders of other religions for the sake of mutual understanding.

Giving Thanks for Life

This past Wednesday I attended the funeral of the Reverend Jim Hammock, founding pastor of Compass Community Church in Apopka. I had known Jim for years, but had not seen him in more than two years. He preached a revival for me in 2002. We were in a Peer Learning Group together for three years. Jim was a kind, thoughtful man who loved his church and family. While scuba diving in the Keys, he died of a heart attack. His funeral was a celebration of his life, but it also was a reminder of how short life is. Jim was only 57 years old.

I came back from the funeral thanking God for my wife and family, my friends, and my church. It focuses the mind to have such a vivid reminder that life on this earth can come to an end at any moment.

Life is gift. God decided to share the joy of being alive with us. I did nothing to deserve my time on this earth. God simply gave me this chance at life.

I want to thank God in words and in deeds. I want to live with an underlying awareness that this time is all I get, and I don’t want to waste it. Thank God for the holidays when we get to be with those we love most. Maybe you know Edgar Guest’s poem, “Thanksgiving.” Here is a piece of it.

Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;
Oh, but we’re grateful an’ glad to be there.

Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,
Let me sit down with the ones I love best,
Hear the old voices still ringin’ with song,
See the old faces unblemished by wrong,
See the old table with all of its chairs
An’ I’ll put soul in my Thanksgivin’ prayers.

May you be with people you love this Thanksgiving and Christmas. May you put soul in your Thanksgiving prayers. Reach out to those who are lonely. Do some work of love for those who are in grief. Life is gift – God’s good gift.

Seeking the Kingdom First

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.” For an individual, “all these things” means clothes, food, and shelter. For a church, “all these things” means buildings, grounds, staff, and money to pay bills. To seek the kingdom first is to focus our time and energy on what God wants from us – love God, love each other, and make disciples – while we trust God to provide buildings, staff, and money.

As I look at New Hope, I see us seeking first the kingdom of God. Jesus told us to make disciples and baptize them. We have baptized Lindsey Rodriguez, Bobbi Frederick, Tim Fisher, Gabi Abdenabbi, Sam Senatro, and Annie Roberts. Jesus told us to teach disciples to obey his commandments: “Wash on another’s feet” (serve one another); “Love one another as I have loved you.” We love each other and are growing in receiving and giving Real Love, unconditional love.

I like the way Eugene Peterson puts Matthew 6:33-34 in The Message; “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.”

As we focus on “God-reality” and “God provisions,” we don’t have to worry about missing out. God is taking care of our “everyday human concerns.” Our grounds look better every day. John Rising and Jim McCroskey have given good leadership to getting our lights and our sign in place. Meanwhile, we have called Cheryl Secunda to be Director of Children and Youth Ministries and Vernon Buchanan to be Caretaker of Buildings and Grounds. Cheryl will continue to lead Kid’s Connection and Youth Connection and serve as a resource person to all who teach Children and Youth in Sunday School and Children’s Church. Vernon will take care of the cleaning and upkeep of our buildings and grounds.

Let’s keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and the kingdom of God. We won’t have to worry about missing out. God will take care of our needs. Think about these things. Give “your attention to what God is doing right now” as you make your commitment to give to New Hope Baptist Church in 2009.

God Healing Racism

The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States caused John McCain to say in his warmly gracious concession speech, “A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on earth. Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country.”

At the age of six, I saw a “Whites Only” sign on the water fountain at the Sears and Roebuck store in Greenville, South Carolina. During the summers of my college years, I worked in a textile mill in my hometown and saw the first African-Americans being hired for jobs other than cleaning restrooms and sweeping floors. Until my junior year in college, I never went to school with a black person. Furman University admitted its first African-American undergraduate student in 1965. Joseph Vaughn, a freshman, was in my biology class in the fall of 65.

During my two years at Furman, I lived at home and drove to school each day. On that 15-mile trip each morning, I listened to Bob Jones University radio, which carried extremist commentators Carl McIntire and Billy James Hargis. They argued that Martin Luther King, Jr. was part of a communist conspiracy to destroy America by forcing integration. That stirred my interest in the Civil Rights Movement, and Dr. King became my hero.
When Dr. King was assassinated, I wept. I was sick at heart that people I knew and loved in the South were saying, “They ought to reward the man that shot him.” Ignorance and hatred were still in control of many minds just 40 years ago.

I thank God for working in American history to heal us of our racism. A good friend told me this morning that his grandchildren can’t see why electing a black man president is such a big deal. They don’t see race. Look how far we’ve come! My dad was sad just eighteen years ago when his small South Georgia church refused to allow a young black student to sing in a worship service. I wish I could talk to him about the election of an African-American President. I’m sure that he is looking down from heaven and celebrating that America is “a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry” he saw in his lifetime.

Forgiveness Preparedness

On October 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV carried his guns and his rage into an Amish schoolhouse near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Five schoolgirls died that day, and five others were seriously wounded. These facts are stated in the preface to Amish Grace, an inspiring attempt to explain the Amish response to the killings. Within hours after Carl Roberts shot the girls and turned his gun on himself, Amish community leaders were visiting his widow, his father, and his grandfather to tell them, “We want you to know that we will not hold a grudge against you.” Then parents of two of the little girls who were killed invited Roberts’s family to attend their funerals, and many Amish people attended the funeral of Carl Roberts. Out of their compassion for Roberts’s wife and children, the Amish brought meals to them and gave them funds to help with their expenses.

The media began to focus on Amish forgiveness more than on the horror of the event. Donald Kraybill, one of the authors of Amish Grace writes, “When forgiveness arrived at the killer’s home within hours of his crime, it did not appear out of nowhere. Rather, forgiveness is woven into the very fabric of Amish life, its sturdy threads having been spun from faith in God, scriptural mandates, and a history of persecution.”

If we members of New Hope Baptist Church are going to be found faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ when the worst happens to us, we must develop a process that promotes spiritual growth. We are going to have to become fully devoted followers of Christ who are radically different from the nobody-tells-me-what-to-do, pleasure-seeking world that surrounds us. We are going to have to become a community with traditions, rituals, discipline, and ways of teaching that will produce more than casual, unconcerned Christians.

The grace extended by the Amish was in their hearts and minds before this terrible event ever happened. Their way of life did not make much of emergency preparedness, says Kraybill. It gave them “forgiveness preparedness.” Their story raises questions for us. Are we members of New Hope being shaped by our faith in God, by what the Bible demands of us, and by our life together? Are we preparing for the uncertainties of tomorrow? Are we allowing the Spirit and teachings of Jesus to be so woven into the fabric of our life together that we are being prepared to forgive and show compassion when our time of suffering comes? How do we promote forgiveness preparedness in our church like that of our Amish bothers and sisters in Christ?

Why I Don’t Endorse Presidential Candidates

A group called the Alliance Defense Fund is encouraging pastors to endorse a presidential candidate from their pulpits. The leaders of this movement say they are trying to provoke a legal battle over the Internal Revenue Service restriction which, as a condition of churches’ tax exemptions, prohibits them from endorsing political candidates.

I have been a pastor for 38 years and I have never endorsed a candidate for president in any church I have served. A member of New Hope asked me recently if I would vote for a certain presidential candidate. I said, “They put curtains around the voting booth so that no one will know how I am voting.” There are some good reasons why I won’t endorse any political candidate for any office.

The main reason is that I want to be the pastor of all the members of New Hope Baptist Church. The Bible in Romans 14:19 tells us to “aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.” That is what I want to do: aim for harmony. Getting us divided over presidential candidates or any other candidates would promote disharmony and would keep us from building each other up.

Brent Walker, director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty wrote that pastors endorsing political candidates from their pulpits would “politicize churches more than it would Christianize politics.” I agree. We don’t want our church to pursue something as fleeting as a partisan political agenda when our purpose is to create a spiritual community that loves God and each other and reproduces followers of Jesus Christ.

Churches exist to enrich people’s spiritual lives, not act like political machines that issue marching orders to voters. Our church is tax-exempt because we are a spiritual community, not a political block. I am more interested in keeping our spiritual harmony than in keeping our tax exemption, but let’s keep both.

Halloween and All Saints' Day

Halloween means so many things to so many different people that some Christians are perplexed about how to observe it, if it should be observed at all. More and more Christians are rediscovering the ancient connection between Halloween and All Saints’ Day.

In the seventh century, All Saints’ Day was first observed to honor all those who had been designated as saints but did not have a particular day dedicated to them. In the ninth century, All Saints’ Day was placed on the calendar on November 1. The preceding day, October 31, which had been observed as the Celtic festival of Samhain, was renamed All Hallows’ eve, or Halloween. (Hallow is an archaic word for saint.) Around the year 1000, the church began to observe All Souls’ Day on November 2.

More and more churches are reclaiming Halloween’s relationship with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, and are using it as a time to acknowledge the power of death and celebrate our victory over death through Christ. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54b-55).

Drawing on the apostle Paul’s use of “saints” in the New Testament, most Protestants consider anyone who belongs to Christ a saint, not just an individual who has been recognized by the church for living an exemplary life of faith. Many churches use November 1, or the Sunday closest to that day, as a day to remember and celebrate their members who have died over the past year and to celebrate the victory their loved ones have won over death through Christ’s death and resurrection. When the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, the living are reminded that, at the Lord’s Table, they share that “mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.” (I am indebted to Pastor Steve Lytch who wrote a Sunday School lesson about Halloween for thethoughtfulchristian.com.)

On Sunday, November 2, New Hope Baptist Church will observe All Saints’ Day in our morning worship service. We will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and remember church members, family, and friends who have died during the last year. Worshippers will be invited to come to a table with a light-of-Christ candle in the center and light a small candle in memory of someone who has died. Please be with us to reclaim this important celebration of our loved ones’ victory over death through Christ.

Radiant Over the Goodness of the LORD

For several days now I have been “radiant over the goodness of the LORD.” Fleda and I experienced a blessing when we traveled to Columbia, South Carolina last week for the annual homecoming service and covered dish lunch of Greenlawn Baptist Church. I was amazed at how connected we felt to people who were our church family 25 years ago. This was our first church after I graduated from seminary with my doctorate in theology. They remembered us and we remembered them in so many positive ways. It was good to share memories and to reconnect after all these years.
“I am a part of all that I have met.” I don’t know who said those words, but they come to mind as I think of how I was called to serve a suburban church in 1974, went through many joys and sorrows leading that church, and left to come to DeLand, Florida in 1983. The experience shaped me in some ways that I can identify and in others that I cannot see. The people of that church are still in my heart after all these years. I have a deep sense that through it all God was at work for good.
Bob Hubble was our host in Columbia. He picked us up at the airport, rented us a car, set up a drop-in for us to have some time to talk to those who came to see us, took us out to dinner, and then suffered a heart attack and missed the homecoming worship service. He had triple heart bypass surgery on Tuesday morning and called me on Wednesday night just as we at New Hope were going into our prayer time. Do we not live in an age of medical miracles? God is so good.
I listened this morning to Boyd Frank’s message to New Hope recorded last Sunday. He spoke about Jesus as our Good Shepherd and told of how God had surrounded him with care when his first wife died at the age of thirty. His conviction of the loving presence of God in a time of trouble, born of his own experience, enlarges our trust in God’s goodness.
We are living with uncertainty these days because of America’s economic crisis. Whatever is going on in your life, don’t let your heart be afraid. Keep your eyes on the goodness of God. Live out the prophecy of Jeremiah: “They shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD” (31:12).

What It Means to Be Saved

Arthur Burns, Jewish economist and a man of influence in Washington circles, offered a provocative prayer before an evangelical audience:
“Lord, I pray that Jews would come to know Jesus Christ, And I pray that Buddhists would come to know Jesus Christ, And I pray that Muslims would come to know Jesus Christ, And, Lord, I pray that Christians would come to know Jesus Christ.”
When I read those words in a sermon by Mark Buchanan, I realized that the prayer is also mine. “Lord, make us Christians here at New Hope Baptist Church come to know Jesus Christ.” To be saved is to be more than casual admirers. It is to know Jesus so well that when we come to a difficult decision or a conflict with someone or face a tragedy, we have his teachings in our heads and his Spirit in our hearts and react with obedience.

In 2006, five Amish girls, aged 6 to 13, were shot and killed by a man in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who then killed himself. The event stunned the world. But what happened next stunned the world all the more: a whole community not bent on retaliation, not shouting with anger or collapsing in despair, but standing with quiet dignity and deep calm. The community was quick to forgive. They even established a charity fund for the killer's family. We saw a people face the worst and become their best.

What does it mean to be saved? It means being freed from our sins and being given eternal life. It also means being given freedom and power, here and now, to live a life transformed by obeying Jesus.

I would rather be in a small church that is coming “to know Jesus Christ” than in a large church with lots of resources that is challenging no one to take up a cross and follow Jesus. Please, let us be a church whose members are learning to see every personal struggle, every conflict, every joy, and every sorrow as an opportunity to live out the teachings of Jesus.

The Need for Community

I spent lots of time Monday night and Tuesday morning, September 29 and 30, watching the cable news channels tell us that partisan disagreements kept Congress from being able to pass legislation that would prevent the collapse of the American economy. They couldn’t agree on whether the plan was to be a “rescue” of the economy or a “bail out” of “fat cat” CEOs who got us into this mess. The President looked and sounded absolutely defeated when he gave his 8:45 A.M. speech on Tuesday.

This is a crisis. There are ominous signs. Some banks are having to sell out to larger banks. Mine, Wachovia, has been bought. Some businesses in our area (Heard Chevrolet for example) are closing. Jobs are being lost. Our daughter-in-law, an experienced elementary school teacher, applied for a teaching job in Ft. Myers, and learned that more than 300 people has applied for the same job. A wealthy eccentric who lives in Port Orange told me that he had taken his money out of banks and put it in a vault. First Baptist Church of DeLand, where I used to serve as pastor, opens the church office on Monday mornings at 8:30 to people who ask for help with bills such as utilities and rent. In the last few weeks, people have begun to line up at 1:30 A.M. to be first in line when the church office opens.

The message I keep hearing is this: The Church is called to be on the front lines in the difficult days ahead. In hard times, people look for community. When we are faced with challenges to our financial security, and we see others suffering for lack of basic necessities, our better instincts tell us to come together and rely on each other for moral support. Without a sense of community, we go off into competitive individualism and start fighting over scarce resources.

I believe God is saying to New Hope Baptist Church, “Be a strong family of faith. Look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. As things get more difficult, people are going to need you to be their community. They are going to need to find hope to make it through hard times and come out on the other side.”

We at New Hope can work together to serve each other and the strugglers that come to us looking for a place to belong. They need us to accept, love and teach them. In times like these we all need the knowledge that we are loved and that we belong to a family that is healthy and strong. That is what I hear the Spirit saying to our church.

Storm Warnings

On Wednesday afternoon Fleda called me from her office at Freedom Elementary School to tell me there was a tornado warning in our area. She was concerned to make sure that I knew and took shelter. The warning was soon canceled, but the experience set me to thinking that we are hearing other storm warnings these days, and we need to pull together and be prepared to help people.
The News Journal headline Thursday, September 18, was “Wall Street wallows in financial quagmire.” We may be entering an economic storm such as we have never seen. How is this going to affect our church? Hearts and minds may get turned to God. That would certainly be what God wants. The Bible is clear that God wants us to come to him in our times of confusion and need. Perhaps going through tough times financially will help us to realize that everything we have is a gift from God. Maybe we will see more people reaching out to our church, because they are being made aware of their dependence on God.
At the Port Orange Ministerial Association meeting on Wednesday, September 17, Dennis Bucher and I heard ministers from several churches agreeing, “More and more people are coming to us for help with paying their bills. More are needing the basics of life than we have seen in a long time.” I am grateful that we have a “Benevolence Fund” to which we give every first Sunday as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper and every Wednesday night as we thank God for the good things he is doing and give our “Happy Dollars.” We have recently helped people referred to us by Westminster By the Sea Presbyterian Church and by Chaplain Jim Smith of Halifax Hospital. We will continue to help people financially, and we will also help people to have faith in Jesus. We will help them understand in their own experience what Jesus meant when he said, “If you keep on obeying what I have said, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)
We have an important task these difficult days. When people ask us what we have to give them, our mission is to be ready with some compassionate help. Our compassion may involve helping them to pay the rent or the power bill. It will also involve offering them the truth and love of Jesus. That is why our worship, our teaching, our relationships, and our fellowship must be healthy – the best we have to offer. Having a daily relationship with Jesus and belonging to his people who obey what he has said, is the way to true security and freedom. That is more important than having a secure retirement or plenty of money in the bank.
When a storm is coming, a family pulls together and concentrates on the things that really matter. It looks like a storm is coming. Let’s pull together. Let’s be ready to help others. Let’s point them to the Way that leads to life and peace.

The Joy of Reaching People

Scott and Cheri Heatherington joined us last Sunday. They were members of New Hope in our earliest days and joined a larger church that had more activities for youth. Now that their children are out of the nest, they are back with us. We are grateful to God to have them in our church family. Cheri’s mom and dad are our Marge and Herm White who live in Monongahela, PA in the summer and in Port Orange in the winter.

This has been a good week for me as I have visited in three homes where people are interested in New Hope. I talked with five couples in those homes. I enjoyed all the visits and was especially thankful for my conversation with Samantha “Sam” Senatro and Gabbi Abdenabbi; two sweet teenagers who have been attending our youth group for a while. They indicated to Cheryl Secunda that they wanted to become Christ followers among us here at New Hope. It was my privilege to talk with them and their parents about what it means to accept Jesus as your savior and your teacher. I put together a PowerPoint slide show about baptism to show them on my laptop. I look forward to introducing these two new believers to our congregation and to planning their baptisms.

We celebrate new members. God is adding to his family. Fleda and I look forward to the New Members Class after worship today.

Thank you, John Rising, for the work you have done to make sure our sign got moved, properly placed, repaired and cleaned up. How about our sign! Doesn’t it look good at the corner of Taylor and Summer Trees? The new visibility will help people to notice that we are here. Soon the sign will be lighted at night again. If you are interested in volunteering to change the letters on the sign, please see me or call me. I want us to make good use of it, now that it is so very visible to people driving by our property. There are ways we can use our sign to serve our community.

Making Disciples

Last Wednesday evening was good in several ways. The food, as always, was good thanks to Erma and Garfield. Cheryl Secunda and her daughter, Kelly, led our youth in an enjoyable and effective time. Our discussion about how our church is going to obey the Great Commission and “make disciples” was stimulating to me and, I hope, to others. Two couples came to Prayer Meeting/Bible Study to learn something about our church. I left the sanctuary after choir rehearsal thanking God for the family atmosphere and the sense of God’s presence we often feel on Wednesday nights.
Our Church Health Team (Bill Batchelor, Leesa Holloway, Jim McCroskey, Cheryl Secunda, and John Wood) is working on a simple, clear, strategic plan for moving people through the steps of becoming like Christ. The very last instruction Jesus gave to his disciples according to Matthew’s Gospel was this: “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am always with you.” We believe Jesus not only gave that commission to eleven disciples on a hill in Galilee that day, Jesus also gave it to us. We members of New Hope are given the charge and the authority to “make disciples.” The question before us is this: How will we go about turning unbelievers and uninvolved church members into fully devoted disciples of Jesus?
We agreed Wednesday nigh that disciples are people who are learning from Jesus, people who know and obey his teachings, people who are serving others just as Jesus served. We saw that being a Christian is not only being saved from hell when you die. It is being saved from hell while you live and having “life in all its abundance” today in your home, in your work, in your school. Therefore, our job is to teach people to do much more than say, “Jesus is my savior.” Our job is to teach them to obey Jesus.
Making disciples is not easy. Eugene Peterson calls it “a long obedience in the same direction.” Jesus said, “Not everyone who calls me their Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father in heaven will get in” (Matthew 7:21 Contemporary English Version).
The question before us is clear: How are we going to move people along a process of learning to obey all that Jesus has commanded? That is the gate to life. It is narrow and the road is hard, but we had better be helping people to find it, because Jesus made it clear that the broad gate and the easy road is the way to hell. (Read Matthew 7: 13-14.)

Families Faith and Freedom

Have you noticed how much attention is being paid to the families and the faith of the presidential and vice presidential candidates? Their children fascinate me: Barack Obama’s little girls during the Democratic national convention and Sarah Palin’s five children as she was presented as the Republican candidate for vice-president; Joe Biden’s son tearing up as he talked about how he and his bother call their step-mother Mother; and John McCain’s children surrounding their adopted sister from India. This presidential campaign has brought us more emphasis on family than any I remember, and I am grateful. I believe we have four fine families before us.
I appreciated Saddle Back Church and Rick Warren hosting a discussion with both Presidential candidates on the same night. We were enabled to hear something from the mouths of the candidates about their own faith in God and to get a feel for how they try to live out their faith. Rick Warren said, “I believe in separation of church and state, but not in separation of faith from politics.” I think he is right. We benefit from hearing the candidates talk about what they believe. Thank God for the freedom of religion we have in America. It is freedom for all religions.
A survey was conducted by the First Amendment Center. See http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?item=FAC_publications. The results showed that many people don’t understand our religious freedom.
28% of the American people, it said, believed that freedom of worship was never meant for fringe groups. They must not know that Baptists were a fringe group in the early days of the colonies. So were Catholics. So were Jews and Quakers and about any other religious group you can name.
46% strongly agreed that our founders intended the U.S. to be a Christian nation. Incredible! Our founders knew from the beginning that we were a mixture of orthodox Christians and Universalists and Deists like Thomas Jefferson, as well as Jews and others.
38% strongly agreed that the U. S. Constitution established a Christian nation, while 17% mildly agreed. How can that be? Have they not read the First Amendment to the Constitution?
Compare all this to dear old Roger Williams who founded Rhode Island and the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island: "It is the will and command of God that . . . a permission of the most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish or anti-Christian conscience and worships be granted to all men, in all nations and countries." One of my teachers, Dr. Walter Shurden says, “The Baptist point of view is freedom of conscience in the will of God for all people. No exceptions. None. Zilch.”

Ravenous Wolves

Jesus gave us a warning about our tendency to judge people by their outward appearance. He said, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). There are people who work on presenting an outward appearance that fools us into trusting them. They want our trust because they want to use us for their own selfish purposes. Jesus' guidance is this: Question your own judgment of another person’s impressive outward appearance. Looks can be deceiving. Don’t relax your vigilance. Pray for wisdom. Use your critical faculties. Be on your guard!

Years ago, a friend asked me if the church of which I was pastor could help a young woman. This compassionate man had developed a ministry to women in prison. One young woman in his imprisoned flock had gotten out of prison. She had an infant to whom she had given birth in prison. He was asking us to provide some diapers and formula for the baby. I found her living in a small apartment. The TV was prominent in the apartment. On the table was printed material from a certain “Television evangelist.” She told me that she has sent him some money. I asked why. “Because,” she said, “he told me that if I would send money to him, I would get more money.” I told her it was a scam. “Even though he looks and sounds holy,” I told her, “he just wants your money.”

Jesus calls false prophets “ravenous wolves.” “Ravenous” means “hungry”. They may talk about God’s love, but they are not living out of a fullness of God’s love. They are emptiness tying to be filled, and they will use you to fill it. That is why Jesus says, “Watch out!”

On Life’s Uncertainty and on Baptism

This has been a strange week. Tropical Storm Fay would not go away. Schools were closed, and Fleda has been at home working on our kitchen and cleaning the house. All of our church activities were canceled. As I write this note on Thursday morning, I am ready for things to get back to normal. I hope that Sunday when you read this Fay will be gone for good.

A tropical storm reminds us of the fact that we are not in control of many things in life. As we make our plans, we have to keep in mind how limited in knowledge and power we are. I think of The Book of James 4:13-15 in the Bible: “What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears.”

James teaches us the wisdom of being humble about our plans. An event like Tropical Storm Fay is an opportunity to remember how unpredictable and uncontrollable life is. That leads to the wisdom of humility. There are some reasons to thank God for this strange week we’ve had with Fay.

Baptizing Bobbi Frederick is postponed until Sunday, September 7. I look forward to baptizing Bobbi, because she is so enthusiastic about it.

Here is what baptism means to us Baptists. We baptize those who are believers in Christ as a way of symbolizing that they are making a decision to follow Jesus and to trust him to save them. We baptize only those old enough to think it through and make a clear choice to commit their lives to Jesus.

We baptize by immersion under water because Jesus was baptized that way, because every baptism in the Bible is by immersion, and because it is a good way to show the meaning of salvation. Romans 6:4-5 describes it this way:

"Don't you know that all who share in Christ Jesus by being baptized also share in his death? When we were baptized, we died and were buried with Christ. We were baptized, so that we would live a new life, as Christ was raised to life by the glory of God the Father. If we shared in Jesus' death by being baptized, we will be raised to life with him."

When we go under the water, we die with Christ. When we come up out of the water, we are raised from death to our old life in order to live a new life with him.

I love to baptize people, because when we baptize them we are helping them to say, “I am giving my whole life to Jesus Christ.” Baptizing people by immersion is also, quite frankly, a lot of fun.

The Blessing

With his book, The Power to Bless, Dr. Myron Madden helped me to understand that we all have a need to be given a blessing from our parents and that a number of parents don’t have a blessing to give. Dr. Madden quotes Pat Conroy in The Prince of Tides. Speaking of his parents Conroy says, "I longed for their approval, their applause, their pure uncomplicated love for me, and I looked for it years after I realized they were not even capable of letting me have it.”

Recently, I have learned a new way to look at the issue of parental blessing from Dr. Greg Baer in his book Real Love. He says what we all need in order to be happy is “real love,” not imitation love. Real love is the blessing that comes from knowing I am seen and accepted just as I am. Mr. Rogers used to say to the children watching his TV neighborhood, “I like you just the way you are.” That is real love. Imitation love has to be earned. It is expressed in the phrase, “I love you because….” A parent who only smiles and complements a child when he or she performs well is teaching that child to earn imitation love. “I love you because you are such a good boy (or girl) who gets good grades, cleans the house, goes to bed on time.” Imitation love is “I love you because you have earned it.” Real love is “I care about your happiness without expecting anything in return."

If your parents could not give you the blessing because they just didn’t have it to give, where can you get the real love you need? Myron Madden says you turn loose of your need to receive it from your parents and you learn to accept it from your peers. This has been a tremendously helpful insight as I have tried to understand myself and to help others find emotional and spiritual health.

Greg Baer says real love is God’s love, and it flows through any human being who can accept me without my having to earn it. I don’t have to get it from any one person.

Don’t try to get anyone to love you. Tell the truth about yourself, put yourself out there just as you are, and you will see that there are many people who can be channels of God’s love and blessing by accepting you just the way you are.

God seeks to bless those who will be channels of blessing to others, to give real love to all persons. No one is excluded. In Genesis 12:3, God says to Abraham, "...and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Jesus says to his disciples (people learning to do what Jesus does), “I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you. This is how the world will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34). If I call myself one who seeks to bring blessing, then my task is to live out God's intent to bless all people, not just the ones I like or the ones who do something for me.

God's Caring Presence and Alzheimer's Disease

This past week, I had a conversation with a woman whose husband has Alzheimer’s disease. I have recently presided at two funerals of people who died of this disease that causes so much emotional pain and suffering for both the patient and the family. It is now the 7th leading cause of death in America. The difficulties for the spouse of an Alzheimer’s patient are many.

There is the fact that the person who had been so independent now needs help with more and more of the everyday tasks of life. The person who has been your marriage partner for many years is no longer the person he or she used to be. The person who had an important job that required the ability to think clearly and make critical decisions is now unable to think through the simplest tasks. What a grief to look at your spouse and know that you are losing the ability to communicate with him or her.

It is very common that a person who has Alzheimer’s disease feels afraid. When the brain no longer tells you the basic information you need to feel safe – where you are, where your loved ones are, what is likely to happen when the doorbell rings, who you are and what family you belong to – then your fears take over. Some people who suffer from this disease become angry as a result of their fear and try to control the people around them.

Often the Alzheimer’s patient needs to be cared for in an institutional setting. Despite some people’s determination never to place their loved one in an institution of any kind, the patient often does better in the a nursing home or in an assisted living facility than in the care of a spouse at home.

Spiritual needs of the loved ones of an Alzheimer’s patient include the need for someone to listen and care and the need for assurance that the grace of God embraces persons who have lost their ability to think and control their emotions.

As I think about my conversations with people who have experienced caring for a spouse with Alzheimer’s, my question is how can we give assurance that God is still there with the person who doesn’t have the ability to think about God. Psalm 139 comes to mind. “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”

The Law of Choice

More than one person has said to me across my years as a pastor, “If only I could get my son to be responsible. He is making our lives miserable,” or “If only I could get my daughter to behave, I could have a little peace.” The thing I have come to see after hearing this kind of sentiment over the years is that a parent cannot choose how a son or daughter is going to behave. Our children get to make their own choices.

I have come to see “the law of choice” as one the most important laws in life. Paul referred to it when he said in Galatians 6:7, “People reap what they sow.” Each of us is responsible for the choices we make and for accepting the consequences that flow from our choices. That includes our children and grandchildren.

If I tell myself that somehow someone else is responsible to make me happy, I deny the law of reaping and sowing also known as the law of choice. I am wrong if I think I get to control how somebody else lives in order to make me happy. Nobody has to do what I want.

If my happiness depends on another person’s behavior, then that person has control of me. If you “make me angry” and therefore unhappy, then you have the ability to control my feelings at will. Anytime you want to, you can “make me so mad!” I am putting you in control of my emotions. That is not a good way to live is it?

This truth has come to mean so much to me that when I am talking to someone who is telling me about the destructive behavior of a son or daughter, I say, “Let them reap what they sow.” Don’t yell at them in anger to try to motivate them. They will not hear the lesson. Let them feel the pain of their destructive choice whatever it is. Pain that comes as a consequence of a choice is a much better teacher than you are. Your child may not listen to your words, but inconvenience and consequences will get through. C. S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures. God shouts at us in our pain.” This is how I understand what Alanon, the organization for the loved ones of alcoholics means by its slogan, “Let go and let God.” They mean you cannot be in control of another person’s behavior. Recognize the law of choice. If a person in your family is choosing to drink or to misbehave in any way for that matter – don’t rescue or make excuses. Let that person face the consequences of his or her own choices. That is the only way any of us can learn how reality works, how God works.

New Hope's Movement Toward Mission and Vision

Our Church Health Team will have its first meeting on Tuesday evening, August 12 at 6:00. When you pray, ask God to give this team of church members wisdom and energy for their important work for New Hope. Church Health Team members Elaine Hardy, Jim McCroskey, Cheryl Secunda, John Wood, and Bill Batchelor are going to help us accomplish the following:

• Develop a clear Mission that defines God's purpose for our church.
• Develop a Vision that paints the picture of God's preferred future for New Hope Baptist Church.
• Define our church's Core Values.
• Develop Goals that are aligned with our Mission and are being worked into our ministry.
• Develop a clear strategy to reach our Goals with specific Action Plans and a process to make sure that we review our plans and communicate to all of our members concerning our progress.
• Implement a clear Organizational Structure and a simple, repeatable process for organizing ministries.

There is love for one another within our church. New Hope’s buildings and grounds are looking good. Now we need to develop a clear vision of our future and a process for getting there. We are commissioned to help the people of Port Orange know and love God as revealed in Jesus. Our Church Health Team will help us see how we can do an effective job of fulfilling that commission.

On the God of the Declaration of Independence

In the July 2008 issue of “Baptists Today” Dr. Walter Shurden, a highly respected Baptist historian, urges us to read the Declaration of Independence for ourselves. He points out that the D of I contains four references to God. The first reference is in the first sentence. God is called “Nature’s God.” Why? Because “Nature’s God” grants people the freedom and right to assume a separate and equal place among the people of the earth.

The second reference to God is in the second sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Dr. Shurden points out that while “Nature’s God” grants equal standing for all people, the “Creator” endows “all men” with “certain unalienable rights.” The D of I envisions human liberties as gifts of nature’s God to all people, not exclusively to Americans or to American Christians.

The third reference to the Divine is found in the first sentence of the last paragraph: “We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions . . . “ Again,” Dr. Shurden points out, “we have a generic synonym for God.”

Finally, Thomas Jefferson concluded the revolutionary document with these words. “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

The extremely generic names for God used in the D of I indicate clearly that the Founding Fathers did not want the document to be secular, but they intentionally avoided Christian imagery. The 56 men who signed the D of I wisely made room for all religions and for those with no religion in America. Dr. Shurden concludes, “To that, Baptists, who felt the nasty sting of religious oppression in the Colonial Period, can say today, ‘Thanks be to God for religious freedom for all, for those with religion of any kind and for those with no religion at all.’”

Have a Happy 4th of July Weekend,