To God, though we have lost our way in life, we are never forgotten. God has a way of nudging back on life’s pathway. God utilizes people, providential situations, and circumstances to get our attention. There can always be a “welcome home” party for us in God’s eyes.
Author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien, once wrote,
We often look at our negative circumstances in life and believe certain events are the final. Illness, loss of employment, a bad review, or a broken relationship can make us view life as bleak. However, what if God is at work in the seemingly unfortunate events in life?
Long ago, there once was a farmer who depended on a horse to work the land. Unfortunately, a lightning storm frightened the horse, and it ran away. The farmer searched for the horse for weeks but could not find it. His friends said, “Sorry you lost your horse. Bad luck.”
As churches emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, I often hear congregational leaders and pastors ask one another, “What’s next? What do we need to do?” Typical responses often center on the church becoming more digitally available to people. Indeed, churches have made essential investments in livestreaming worship, Zoom facilitation of small groups, technology, and making ministry programs more accessible. This is a pipeline approach: finding the direct vehicle to deliver religious and spiritual content.
As much as access to the internet has changed the way people relate to one another, work, live, and experience the world, the moveable type printing press has had an equal, if not greater, impact in the way people have access to information. The internet is over 40 years old, but the moveable printing press is over 500 years old. Much like the internet, the flow of information via a moveable type printing press made access to information economical and widespread in previous centuries. Christians saw the new technology as a way to share Christianity with the masses. Widespread efforts in literacy helped fuel the Protestant Reformation in Europe. The moveable type printing press enabled a free exchange of ideas and Christian theology, which were not available to the masses previously. The moveable type printing press disrupted the theological pipeline monopoly of the Catholic Church.
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Of all the United States Presidents, only Jimmy Carter was a Sunday School teacher AND President at the same time. On Sundays, Jimmy Carter would travel nine blocks to the First Baptist Church of Washington D.C to gather attendees to study scripture. Often not publicized, Carter would teach about 30 attendees lessons from the Bible and also offer counsel to anyone who requested. Decades later, Carter still teaches Sunday School for up to 450 people at his church in Plains, GA. It should surprise no one that Carter would lend his pen to the Simple Faith Bible: Following Jesus into a Life of Peace, Compassion, and Wholeness New Revised Standard Verison offering devotional insights and spiritual commentary.
Why should you consider this Bible?
Continue Reading…Transitional times, liminal times, like we are experiencing during the Coronavirus pandemic and crisis, are never marked with clear delineations. Transitions and crises are often bumpy, fraught with mistakes, and require high amounts of energy.
It is during times of national crisis, coronavirus, or personal crisis times we discover that we don’t know what’s next?
This is called “Liminal space” The word “liminal” comes from the Latin word limens, which means, “threshold.”
Rev. Alan R. Rudnick: John 20:19-31
Lord, in this time of anxiety, fear, and isolation, we come to you for support, encouragement, and direction. We lay our worried minds and troubled souls before you and in your care in prayer during the coronavirus. We are mindful of the words of the psalmist, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). Today, we ask for your Spirit to be close to those who are afflicted and those who have lost loved ones due to the coronavirus. We ask for that same Spirit to be with them and us in uncertain times. Help calm our mind and soul. May your peace that surpasses all comprehension guard our hearts and minds.
We confess that at times we allow fear, not faith, to overtake us. We have not loved you, O God, and our neighbor with our words and deeds. Holy Spirit, aid us in our love and compassion of those who live next door and those who live on the other side of town.
God of compassion and grace, we cling to your Word and your presence in our homes, our church, and community. Just as Jesus visited towns and villages to cure the sick and infirm, we place our faith and hope in your healing power. May your divine love come down upon us and our world to end the spread of this pandemic. Strengthen those who are ill and uplift the downtrodden. Heal the sick and comfort the lowly this day. Carry in care those who are abroad and return our loved ones home safely.
For our leaders, O Lord, we ask that your great wisdom may be instilled with them. As our national and local leaders seek protection and safety for the public, help guide their decisions and actions. We pray for the leaders of every nation. May each country receive every human resource and divine resource to combat this great ill.
Great Physician, may your hand be upon every doctor, nurse, and health care worker as they care for the sick. Lift up and care for these men and women risking and sometimes sacrificing their very lives for the public good. Guard and defend them against every harm.
Lord Christ, you are our rock and salvation in distress, worry, and doubt. Just as the light shines bright upon sunrise, we pray your light of love and guidance shines bright in our hearts and minds. May we carry your light into the world, which you love so deeply, so that we may be the bearers of your grace. Give us, Eternal Father, your peace. May the words of the prophet Isaiah be true for us this day: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
In the name of our Lord Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Published at The Christian Citizen
Although not as common as it was for generations in Baptist life, one can still hear church members refer to one another as sister or brother, such as “Sister Smith” or “Brother Jones.” These titles, indicators of respect, esteem and mutuality, also reflect our identity as members of the household of God.
A public conflict between a “brother” and “sister” in the Christian community recently garnered headlines in national religious media. I was not shocked when I heard that popular conservative preacher and author John MacArthur, speaking at a Southern Baptist conference, did not affirm women in the pulpit.
I was shocked, however, when he was asked during a question-and-answer session to comment on Beth Moore’s ministry of teaching and preaching. He responded with two words directed to Moore: READ THE REST AT BAPTIST NEWS GLOBAL.
Recently my Facebook feed was full of expressions of grief, support, and lament over two very public deaths. Both people were active in bringing a focus on mental health issues in communities. One was a professor of counseling, and the other was a well-known West Coast pastor, Jarrid Wilson. Both deaths were suicides. These two people join the list of very public suicides in recent years, including fashion designer Kate Spade, chef Anthony Bourdain, and comedian Robin Williams.
The above names and their stories are anecdotal evidence of statistics that are shocking. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States alone in 2017… Read the rest at The Christian Citizen
I share my perspective on rapper Lecrae’s baptism with Jeff Brumley of Baptist News Global:
An American hip-hop artist’s rebaptism in the Jordan River last month sparked conversations ranging in nature from mean-spirited to theologically reflective.
“Can’t be baptized in the Jordan river and make the same old music. This new album is gonna be special,” rapper Lecrae said in a Sept. 19 tweet in which he also shared a video of the experience.
Some responded with praise. But others said rebaptism, even in the Jordan, is religiously unnecessary. Some labeled it a publicity stunt to sell music.
The entertainer was unruffled, responding to naysayers with some theology of his own: “1. it’s a Mikvah,” referencing a Jewish ritual bath. “2. Jesus was God already and still was baptized…
BGN
As adults, we don’t want to be at the “kids table” – do we?
Have you ever went to a wedding reception or a fundraiser dinner only to find that your seats are way in the back away from the head table? You can’t really see or hear what’s going on at the head table and you miss all “the action” of what the important people are doing. Maybe you get your food last! You don’t get to brush shoulders with the hosts or people you’d really like to interact with. Jesus once addressed this type of situation: when you are invited to a big dinner, don’t go out of your way to get the best seats. In fact, when you host a banquet, don’t invite the upstanding important people who are the “in-crowd”, instead invite the lowly. To Jesus, this makes God’s kingdom real and visible – but why? Why do this? Why should we be eating at the reception equivalent of the kid’s table at Thanksgiving?
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Rev. Alan R. Rudnick – Journeying Through James: Do Words Have Power?
James 3:
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
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