Knowing your Audience

Perhaps the most pressing issue on my mind of late has been the quickly approaching and much longed for responsibility of preaching to the congregation on a weekly basis. In just a few short weeks I will step behind the pulpit of Cornerstone Baptist Church, Wylie, TX as the Pastor for Preaching and I am daily reminded of my need for growth in regard to a consistent preaching ministry.

As with most of the areas of my life where I understand my need for growth, I have made my need a matter of prayer, I have bought a few books on the topic and have begun to listen to more sermons by preachers who stir my affections for Christ. This morning however, I came across a timely blog post by a brother who always challenges his readers to think more deeply about their life in Christ.

Tim Brister has highlighted an area of preparation for preaching that many are quick to overlook and his encouragement in this post serves as a call for me and others to be mindful in hopes of being an effective agent of reconciliation. Read his post here.

Dr. Mohler’s 2009 Presidential Forum

The calling of the Christian life is one that is unchanging, because it is established upon Christ’s limitless authority and his timeless command,

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…(Matt 28:19-20)

This great calling or commission is the reason the church is still here and the end has not yet come. The task entrusted to the faithful remains incomplete. So the question comes, how does the church in America carry on the work entrusted to us in the 21st century? The answer according to Dr. AL Mohler is that we must first look back in order to see best how to proceed ahead.

Dr. Albert Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY and in his presidential forum he delivers his thoughts regarding the future of the Southern Baptist denomination. I strongly encourage you to take the time to listen to or watch this address because it is a bold and accurate assessment of where Southern Baptists have been, where we are and most importantly what we must become in the days ahead.

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

We speak of martyrdom, but we know little of it. We speak of persecution, but it is nothing more than an idea to the majority of American Christians. The church in America is guilty of turning her back on her brothers and sister around the world,  whose faith brings torture day after day. Are you among the guilty? I am.

For years, as a young believer, a seminary student and Associate Pastor, I have spoken of suffering in the cause of Christ from an ideal point of view. The text of Scripture makes clear our calling as Christians; “It has been granted (by God) to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake (Phil 1:29).” Yet, it wasn’t until recently that my heart has been truly pierced by the sufferings of my brothers and sisters and my neglect to love and care for them as I ought.

I have one biological brother and he and I live approximately 515 miles apart. Our families see one another once a year on average. The distance makes me forget how much I love and care for he and his family. But just a few weeks ago we all got together for a week long vacation at the beach. I was quickly overwhelmed with a desire to spend time with him and enjoy the fellowship of his family. Since that visit, he, his wife and their children have been on my mind constantly, but I know that the more time we spend apart the less I will think of my only brother.

As a Christian, I have brothers and sisters around the world that I have never met, many of whom live under horrific conditions as a result of their faith in Christ. While I lean back in my cushioned chair to read my bible, they strain not to move for fear of the pain of nail points embedded in iron shackles. While I tuck my kids into warm and comfortable beds, they pray someone will risk their lives to feed their children who have become orphans because of their imprisonment as criminals. And what is their crime? Faith in Jesus Christ.

The reason this has come home to me as of late is due to the fact that a visitor to my church placed a copy of a book in my hand that has stood as a testimony for years of the sufferings of the Underground Church around the world. Tortured for Christ is a book written by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand a minister of the gospel who lived to tell the story of the persecution of Romanian Christians at the hands of Communist Russia. He was ransomed to the states from a Romanian prison, and upon his arrival he wrote his book and began a ministry we know as The Voice of the Martyrs.

In this book he not only gives details of his and others suffering, but he tells of the power of the Gospel to change the lives of even the hardest Atheist. He speaks of the love the suffering church has even for their torturers. And in the midst of his testimony he pleads with the church in the West to not forsake her brothers and sisters around the world who suffer for Christ. He pleads with me not to forget and not to overlook those who are my sisters and brothers whose lives have been torn apart and burned to the ground because they believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of the world.

My hope in this post is to pass on to you a book and a plea that will stir your heart to pray for, support, and love the Underground Churchwhose beautiful feet carry the wounds of the faith. If you would like more information about the Underground Church please visit the website of The Voice of the Martyrs here.

Redeeming Fall Sports with Bold Gospel Speech

With the school year getting underway and fall around the corner, I find myself getting excited about new opportunities. My two oldest kids will be playing organized sports for the first time and I truly can’t wait. I’m excited but also trying to be balanced, I mean after all they are kids playing a game. They are not world class athletes vying for the cup or anything, and let’s face it the tendency for some parents is to get way too serious about something that is supposed to be a game.

As a Christ-follower I want to not only keep it in perspective, but I also want to make the best use of my time while on the sidelines. As a former athlete, I will have a tendency to get real focused on the ins and outs of the game itself and would prefer to stand silently analyzing things. Lord please don’t let me waste my kids activities by standing on the sidelines with my arms crossed, but let me redeem this game and use it as an opportunity to build relationships with new people and glory in the gospel through conversation.

That is my hope and so my prayer is that Christ would make me bold in my speech. In fact, I am borrowing the prayer of the Apostle Paul from Ephesians 6:19-20. “Pray also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought…”

This will be my prayer as I engage as a father for the first time on the sidelines of my kid’s soccer season. Please join me in prayer and join me in laboring to redeem fall sports by boldly proclaiming the mystery of the gospel…as we ought.

The Box is Opened

I am currently reading Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael Behe, so far it has been a good read and full of helpful information and insight.

The basic premise of the book is simple: Darwin postulated his theory of the Origin of the Species at a time when much of what is well known today was hidden. Therefore, much of what modern scientists take for granted today was encapsulated in an unknowable “Black Box” for Darwin.

Behe states that this box is now wide open and the contents that are being studied are leading many scientists in a direction that grates against the Darwinian foundation that all of today’s science is based on. But for all the scientific discoveries, Darwinism still reigns in the classroom and in scientific circles.

In Ben Stein’s documentary Expelled, which is both intriguing and entertaining, the finger is pointed at the Scientific educational establishment. Behe, hailed by many as the most prominent scientist working in the field of intelligent design, seems to back up the claim made by Stein in the film.

Scientists, like everybody else, base most of their opinions on the word of other people. Of the great majority who accept Darwinism, most (though not all) do so based on authority. Also, and unfortunately, too often criticisms have been dismissed by the scientific community for fear of giving ammunition to creationists.

It is ironic that in the name of protecting science, trenchant scientific criticism of natural selection has been brushed aside.

For too long the issue of debating Darwin has not even been an option; but thanks to the genuis, bravery and hard work of men like Ben Stein and Micheal Behe the debate is coming into the open.

I encourage you to read Behe’s work; either Darwin’s Black Box or The Edge of Evolution. I also encourage you to get Ben Stein’s movie Expelled and watch it with your family, especially your kids. If you value the freedom of ideas in America, then you owe it to yourself and the future generations to not check out on this issue.