February 17, 1999
Texas Baptist Forum
Powerless blessing
___Less than 12 hours after we mailed our newsletter (First Baptist Church in Claude) with my column deriding the paranoia surrounding Y2K, our countryside went dark.
___God blessed our thirsty land with more than two inches of freezing rain. We awoke to ice everywhere, and no power. Power was out for at least 78 hours.
___But praise God for his awesome power. He gave us much-neededmoisture. And one father told me, "I can't remember when we spent so much quality time with each other in our family." Neighbors checked on neighbors. Cooperation was key. Some had gas cook tops; others had gas space heaters. Those with gas water heaters shared bathing facilities with neighbors who had nothing but bone-chilling cold water.
e-mail marvknox@flash.net
___God provided rich blessings--moisture for a thirsty land, family time, fellowship with neighbors and an experience to remember for a lifetime. God also destroyed our faith in our man-made electronic gods. Everything electronic was worthless during those powerless hours.
___I choked on my words as I offered thanks before breakfast after power was restored. For the first time in my life, I realized what it meant to be thankful for the common and often forgotten things in life. I still think the Y2K issue is a sham. If anything powerless happens when we turn the calendar page to 2000, I'm sure it won't even rate a footnote in the annals of my life compared to this icy weekend.
___ Gerald Aalbers
___ Claude
Crowning blow
___I have repeatedly been offended by many articles appearing in the Baptist Standard. Your Jan. 27 issue demeaning the Y2K problem was the crowning blow to your publication's credibility.
___It is no wonder that so few Southern Baptist ministers are willing to alert their flocks to the impending peril of this fast-approaching problem when the Standard has articles like this.
___Many pastors, led by the Holy Spirit, have recognized the Y2K situation as a potential evangelistic opportunity to share the gospel with the unsaved.
___ Frank Hartwig
___ Austin
High bar
___As I read the recent article (Feb. 3) regarding the staff needs of rural churches, I could not help but wonder if these churches are not contributing to their own problem. If they limit the search to "experienced, seminary-trained ministers," they are missing out on wonderful, godly men who would serve their church well but have not attended seminary.
___The excellent education and theological training at our seminaries is certainly something to be held in high esteem, but to make seminary training a requirement for all staff members adds to the biblical requirements for a minister. Many of the most effective ministers in Baptist history would be eliminated as candidates for service today in areas where God can use them.
___Dare we set the bar higher than the Father did?
___ Jerry Barker
___ Corpus Christi
Strong stand
___I want to applaud Tommy Lea for taking such a courageous, biblical stance on homosexuality. With charges of "homophobic" filling the air, it is refreshing for someone to stand tall on a heated issue.
___There is no variance manifested on this subject by God or those he inspired. Noah's son Ham was cursed because he "ogled" his father's unclothed body. Mosaic law says homosexual conduct is worthy of the death penalty and an "abomination." God himself told Abraham that the reason he was going to utterly destroy the city of Sodom was because its sin was "very grievous" (Genesis 18:20).
___But all critics invariably come up with something to the effect that "everything just becomes 'grace' and 'love' in the New Testament era." Isn't it interesting, then, that the chief exponent of the gospel of grace, the Apostle Paul, while specifically discussing grace, had the harshest words to pronounce against homosexuality, specifically including lesbianism (Romans 1:16-32).
___This uninterrupted consensus is all we have as to how God views homosexuality--unless its adherents claim divine inspiration on top of everything else.
___ Thomas F. Harkins Jr.
___ Fort Worth
Why the crusade?
___I would never be one to state that homosexual behavior is compatible with a Christian lifestyle. It is clearly forbidden in the Bible. However, I do have to ask why there is this current crusade against the homosexual lifestyle as if it is the single greatest threat to Christianity.
___In several passages that denounce the homosexual lifestyle in the New Testament, I find some interesting actions that are also denounced. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, the Apostle Paul also denounces heterosexual promiscuity, thievery, greed, alcoholism and slander. In Galatians 5:20-21, he denounces these as well as hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, dissension, selfish ambition and envy.
___If Paul denounces all of these in the same sentence with homosexuality, why do we hold homosexuality as a greater threat or more heinous act? Could it be that for most of us, homosexuality is the only one of these acts of which we are not guilty? What do you think is a greater threat to our churches, homosexuality or slander or hatred?
___Let us continue to state that homosexuality is immoral behavior, but let us also hold ourselves up to the same standard as we denounce our jealousy and selfish ambition.
___ Bill Victor
___ Fort Worth
Painful viewing
___As I read a recent response to a statement by (Baptist General Convention of Texas President) Russell Dilday, I realized it was more of a subtle attack on the BGCT and the state of Texas.
___This political attack on our convention now has shifted back to an attack on our state.
___God has placed us in what we believe is the greatest Baptist state on earth. It has produced and attracted the strongest and most godly Baptist leaders and laymen in recent years.
___Under Russell Dilday, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary became the strongest and largest and best of any kind in the world.
___To watch it destroyed by outsiders who are bent to "reconstruct" Texas as punishment for not following blindly after they have won their own "Baptist civil war" has been painful for SWBTS alums.
___ Charles Placker
___ Victoria
Charismatic lingo
___It is time to say something before we fall off the edge into charismatic lingo that is undermining the truth of God's word and confusing our people as they hear us using the same language as the charismatics.
___I recently attended a Southern Baptist event and had the pleasure of listening to a number of our finest preachers and evangelists. I heard a term used without exception--"the anointing of the Holy Spirit"-- that really concerned me.
___Wasn't the anointing of the Holy Spirit used under the Old Testament economy as God would anoint his prophets and servants with the Holy Spirit for a special job and then remove the anointing when completed with the task?
___Aren't we now under the age of grace, where the Holy Spirit is given to indwell the believer at salvation and to seal us unto the day of redemption?
___It is my understanding that we moved from the anointing of the Holy Spirit to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a result of Christ's gift of grace.
___Maybe it seems like choking at gnats, but instead of praying for anointing, it is more in line with our theology to pray for an emptying of self so we could be filled with the already indwelling Holy Spirit.
___ Jim Newton
Riverside
Annuitant aid
___At the end of each month, adult Sunday school classes at First Baptist Church in Wylie collect and send money to the endowment department of the Southern Baptist Annuity Board. It helps the old ministers and widows who are living in dire need of our help.
___About 9,000 of them in this great land of plenty are not being helped. Please encourage your church members to help them. If we all would surrender a part of our earthly goods to these old ministers, they wouldn't have any needs.
___For information about their needs, call the Annuity Board endowment department at (800) 262-0511.
___ John Hatfield
___ Wylie
___What do you think? Submit letters to Texas Baptist Forum via e-mail at marvknox@flash.net or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!