January 19, 2000

Texas Baptist Forum
Short nails
___Lawrence and Lucille Mitchell always invited their pastors home for lunch. And they made no exception when I became their pastor.
___Lucille was the "canner" of the community. Lawrence built her a special room with shelves to store their garden vegetables. Her colorful jars of food made this a showcase in

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their home. The red beets and plums contrasted beautifully with the yellow corn and green pickles.
___ They arrived at church one Sunday with noticeably somber faces. Awakened by a loud crash around midnight, they had rushed to the "canning room" to find a goulash of fruit, vegetables, jelly and glass mixed distastefully on the floor. A summer's labor was destroyed.
___ I jovially asked Lawrence what God was trying to tell him. "Was he telling you to stop feeding the preacher? Was he telling you to quit canning?" With a sheepish grin, he slowly replied, "He told me that I built those shelves with nails that were too short."
___ We know from the Bible and experience that God chastises his children. But we can't fault him every time we have a flat tire, nor can we hold him accountable for illnesses that result from ill living. In many cases, our very sins punish us.
___Before blaming others for our calamities, we should examine our self-built shelves that have fallen down around us. We could find that neither God nor our fellow man is responsible for their collapse. Maybe our nails were too short.
___ Doug Fincher
___ San Augustine

Spirit-led life
___It's interesting that the debate (over the Baptist Faith & Message) centers on the word "submission" in Ephesians 5, rather than on the most important part of the passage of Scripture!
___This part of Ephesians begins with verse 15: "See then (referring back to v. 1, "be imitators of God," literally "mimic God"), that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise," and then vs. 17-18, "Do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ... Be filled with the Spirit."
___There's the real key! A Spirit-controlled life will be "Spirit-led," not "man-led"!
___The issue is: "Are we filled (controlled by) with the Spirit" or controlled by self, "drunk with wine"?
___A Spirit-controlled life will yield to one another, and there will be God's kind of submission and love!
___Interesting note: The parallel passage in Colossians equates "Spirit-filled" with "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly," then the love/submission statements. Hmmm.
___ Tom Hughes
___ Fredericksburg

Model marriage
___Mutual submission is the key regarding the controversy of the Baptist Faith & Message.
___As a 19-year-old, I consider myself lucky because I've had the opportunity to see a Christ-centered marriage. My grandparents were married for almost 70 years and had one of the godliest marriages I ever saw.
___Submission never was a question that was addressed or taken for granted. My grandfather was clearly the head of the household, but yet he never treated my grandmother with anything but love and honor and respect. They thought of the other one's needs before their own and never forsook or forgot their marriage vows.
___I thank God every day that he let me see a perfect example of a Christ-centered marriage at work. And I pray he will bless me with a marriage like my grandparents had, where love and honor and respect--not submission--are the key.
___ Brooke Wooding
___ Houston

Who cares?
___After 40 years in the ministry, I wonder--who cares? When every-other person you meet in Texas does not know the Lord, can we say we care? Is it more important to be denominationally correct or to provide ways to reach lost multitudes in Texas?
___Every congregation is autonomous in its financial choices. However, it is difficult to understand a church that purposely avoids support for starting and strengthening churches.
___The Baptist General Convention of Texas 2000 budget provides $1.7 million for new congregations and many other dollars to strengthen church ministries. The state missions offering gives starting churches its highest priority.
___Are we people of the book if we ignore the Bible's admonition to reach the lost? Who is responsible for lost/unchurched Texans? We are!
___We have the challenge to touch every Texan with the good news before 2000 ends. Concentrate on this, because it determines eternal destiny. No individual church can accomplish this task, but cooperatively we can by financial support and personal involvement. Let's do it--together!
___ Bill Roe
___ Cleburne

Make decisions
___The Jan. 12 Standard has many letters from good people who have no clue as to the cause of our denomination's search for its beliefs. The trigger for the present confrontation is the desire for power by some persons.
___This problem affected many denominations before it got to us. It is the battle between ecclesiastical and congregational methods of church management: Should decisions be made at the top and passed down, or should they be made at the congregational level and passed up? This decision must be made by each member, and we must stand up for our beliefs.
___In early days, preachers for many denominations were guided by their congregations. They led in developing churches, schools, colleges and seminaries and built a system of loose affiliation between the congregations that worked well for many years. Those who wished to control the denominations pushed for an ecclesiastical control. One of the last was the takeover of Southern Methodists, who were congregational, by the northern branch, which changed the direction of the denomination. We face that challenge today.
___Rather than name-calling and fighting, let us search our souls and decide where we want the decisions to be made and align our membership accordingly.
___We will have to make our choice--to make our own decisions or have them made for us by others.
___ Felton Martin
___ Santa Anna

Such are they ...
___As I read the Standard, a picture forms in my mind. It is like a room, filled with six-month-old infants with messy diapers. Infants screaming for "personal attention." Infants who have gone far too long unattended and chaffed and burned from their own messes.
___Such are they who continue to jockey for power and position in the denomination. Such are they who have been contaminated and enter into and follow after so-called leaders who have learned how to stand up and speak up but have never learned to shut up.
___Such are they who have left their first love. Such are they who have become hirelings. Such are they who have become blind leaders of the blind. Such are they who are weak in the faith and have turned to vain jangling and doubtful disputations, spreading discord among the brethren.
___Self-centered, self-serving and self-assertive. Jesus-talkers and Satan-walkers who get fat from the abuse and misuse of the widow's mite.
___ R.D. Adams
___ Scroggins

Miracle star
___I read with keen interest and enjoyment the article on the star of Bethlehem (Dec. 22). I have had a casual interest in the star since first reading Matthew 2 and a studious interest since a Christmas Eve star of Bethlehem show in the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles.
___I have read nearly every theory and statement of astronomers to get the final answer to this mystery. If you take Matthew's statements literally, there is no conjunction of planets, comet or other natural phenomena that exactly fits what Matthew wrote in 2:9: "The star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was."
___"Went before them" and "came and stood over" is where the problem lies. Conjunctions and comets hardly behave this way.
___My conclusion, and I am not alone in this, is that the Bethlehem star was a miracle, and a similar object to the "pillar of cloud and pillar of fire" that led the children of Israel through the wilderness (Exodus 13:21).
___If you know any fact or reasonable theory that refutes this, I am still in a learning mode.
___ H.F. Dearing
___ Belton

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