Posted: 9/15/06

CYBER COLUMN:
Thinking of Carolina

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, thinking of the mountains of North Carolina. My family roots are there from way back, and I just went to visit two aunts in their eighties. I love the mountains and North Carolina, and on some days I may suddenly break out in song, James Taylor’s Carolina in My Mind.

Today I have Carolina in my mind. My grandfather served as a foreman in the mining industry. I imagine the business is much today like it was, with dump trucks and tractors with huge front end loaders and conveyor belts and blasting techniques, with dynamite and guys wearing hard hats and taking lunches to work in steel pales, and dust, grit and grime. My grandfather, best I can tell, was a man of the earth. He also lived as a man of heaven: Sunday school superintendent at Pine Branch Baptist Church in Spruce Pine, N.C.

John Duncan

My grandmother, Ruth, passed away on July 7, 1997. Her middle name was Easter, and if your middle name is Easter, because she was born on Easter in 1904, then you can pretty well decide that she was a spiritual person. She drank of Christ’s living water and began drinking it, like most of us do, early on. Legend has it that her mother, Ibbie Wilson, prayed every night in a house with the window open while the curtains blew in the cool mountain breeze. I never met her, but my great-grandmother prayed the devil out of things. From all I can tell, she took the Apostle Paul’s admonition to pray without ceasing seriously.

Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote about prayer: “I will not cease to grasp the hope I hold of saintdom, and to clamor, mourn and sob, battering the gates of heaven with the storms of prayer, have mercy, Lord and take away my sin.” They say Ibbie Wilson prayed by the window, and you could hear her praying in the meadow below. She battered heaven with storms of prayer. I pray you have some dear soul in your life who prays and one dear soul who prays for you.

On my recent trip to North Carolina, I visited Pine Branch Baptist Church and its adjoining graveyard, a place where the relatives of yesterday have been given a place of rest.

I love the church, not just Pine Branch, but any church where the cross is lifted up and Jesus is glorified. Eugene Peterson once commented that what he liked about church was “the mess,” a conglomeration of people serving Christ that only Christ could make clean. Barbara Brown Taylor says the church, people, “need each other, to save us from self-righteousness,” and “we also need each other to keep us in shape for God.” We cannot go at it alone! We need God and each other. Frederick Buechner says the “visible church is all the people who get together from time to time in God’s name.” I think church is the body of Christ, alive, vibrant, human, divine, messy and clean all at the same time. Christ and his name form the common bond. Christ is the super glue.

I picture that mountain church like the church used to be, the center of God’s work, the center of the action, the focus of the gathering of people, the ones who smoked on the steps before church and the little babies who cried when the preacher screamed and the teenagers passing notes and shooting spit wads on the back row and the saints praying and amening and shouting and singing Amazing Grace and Give Me that Old Time Religion and Kum Ba Yah. I know church used to be where the community gathered and prayed and laughed over fried chicken and homemade biscuits and mashed potatoes and corn and green beans out of the garden on the annual church homecoming picnic while the children played. Problem is, that’s all changed, the Internet and all and Palm pilots and day planners and busy schedules and restaurants open on Sunday and cable TV and people working on Sundays to make a living and people finding rest in the graveyard near the front door of the church and mobility, and things aren’t the way they used to be anyway. Life changes, and I am not saying it is bad thing because, I must admit, I do like my iPod and I like to eat out on Sunday after church, but it’s just the way things go sometimes.

Oh, as I was saying, there was a time when the church used to be the center of community and God, for that matter, but now it’s the workplace and money at the center of most communities.

With Carolina in my mind, that red-brick mountain church and manicured graveyard brought back memories—of Preacher Joe Pitmann, who foamed at the mouth when he spoke, took long gasping breaths, and yelled when he preached the word of God because it’s the only way he knew to preach and yet people still talk about him like he’s a saint because he loved his flock like kids love candy; of Adam Duncan, who led the music one arm at a time and checked on our relatives and took them popcorn some nights and opened the church and closed it for years, so much so that when he died of cancer it left a big hole in the church; of other relatives and folks, too, people you called aunt and uncle even if you never knew how you were related to them. Then there was “Uncle” Faye.

I should tell you Faye was not really my uncle. Nor was Faye my aunt. She was a relative, for sure, and a woman who always came to visit when we arrived in the mountains. She had a dog, liked to sit on her porch and watch the TV with the volume on “loud” and talked of prayer and had this unique ability to blow on the wounds of life. Once I skinned my knee playing baseball or jumping over the boxwood bushes in the front yard of the house my grandfather built in the ’30s, I am not really sure. I cried. I moaned. I held my knee. I sat on the porch, and Faye calmed me and blew on the wound. If I were preaching, it makes for a great illustration, you know, something like “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people” from Isaiah 40:1 or Hebrews 4:12, where it says that Jesus is our high priest whom we can trust and call on to find grace and mercy just in the nick of time. If I were preaching, I would tell that story of my Uncle Faye, who was not really my uncle and say that Jesus is like that; he blows on the wound and soothes our broken hearts. He heals. But since I am not preaching, I must tell you that my Uncle Faye could blow on a wound and heal like no nobody’s business. You are fortunate if you have a healer who blows on the wounds of your life. And you are blessed beyond measure if you let Jesus blow on the wounds of your life, too.

So here I am under the old oak tree. The space shuttle has launched. Scientists talk about an explosion of light. The Friday night lights, Texas football on Friday nights, has started up again, the parents cheering, the teenagers hanging out, and stars being born on fields of green. Church is in full swing. Fall is in the air. And Carolina is in my mind. And Jesus, well, he has you on his mind.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines. You can respond to his column by e-mailing him at jduncan@lakesidebc.org.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Storylist for week of 9/18/06

TAKE ME TO: Top Story |  Texas |  Opinion |  Baptists |  Faith in Action |  Faith & Culture |  Book Reviews |  Classifieds  |  Departments  |  Bible Study



Expanded Coverage: 9/11 Five Years Later
• Children of Abraham: Muslims view God, church & state through different lenses


• BGCT budget proposal reflects reorganization, other changes

• Called board meeting focuses on Valley

• Buckner brings hope to orphans in Guatemala

• Transitional home provides refuge for teenaged girls

• BUA breaks ground for major expansion

• Program offers training for Rio Grande Valley families

• ‘Jesus and Me' camp benefits Brenham's children

• Scrapbooking enables women to pass along their values

• On the Move

• Around the State

• Texas Tidbits


• Group critiques prosperity gospel

• National Baptist leader asserts nation, church abandoning ideals

• Baptist Briefs


• Volunteers share gospel with children in Dominican Republic


• Cyberbullies harass, humiliate peers

• Predators make Web risky for teens

• Georgia minister produces movie as tool for ministry


• Book Reviews


• Cartoon

• Classified Ads

• Texas Baptist Forum

• On the Move

• Around the State


• EDITORIAL: Eternal lament: Why did God do this?

• DOWN HOME: Not just a house, this was a home

• TOGETHER: Problems can lead to divine opportunities

• RIGHT or WRONG? Three parts of a larger whole?

• 2nd Opinion: A ‘giant' who cared for all children

• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cybercolumn By John Duncan: Thinking of Carolina


• BaptistWay Bible Series for September 17: Trust in a God who cares for you deeply

• Bible Studies for Life Series for September 17: Responding to the agony of defeat

• Explore the Bible Series for September 17: Listen to God's word and remain true

• BaptistWay Bible Series for September 24: Longing to be in the presence of God

• Bible Studies for Life Series for September 24: Passing on the baton of leadership

• Explore the Bible Series for September 24: Heed God's word through obedience


Expanded Coverage: 9/11 Five Years Later
• Who's Who in Islam: major groups

• Christian presence in Holy Land small and getting smaller

• Islam built on five pillars of worship & five pillars of faith

• Poll shows some prejudice against Muslims

• Children of Abraham: Muslims view God, church & state through different lenses


Previously Posted
• Higgs will lead BGCT western-heritage ministries

• For American Muslims, everything changed on 9/11

• Differentiate 'Muslim' from 'terrorist' scholars say

• No sweeping revival, but impact of 9/11 still felt in churches

• Negative perceptions of Muslims persist, panel says

• Volunteers at HPU Impact Weekend help rebuild fire-damaged homes

• FDA approval of new contraceptive stirs reaction

• Stem-cell advance raises hope, ethical questions


Wayland Student Summer Missions Report
• Skiles confronted world needs on NYC internship

• 'Auntie Joy' humbled by summer in Malawi

• Jalissa King traded basketball for shopping on Asia missions tour

• Student found niche helping renovate Philippine Baptist camp

• Student's technology skills helped support missions, humanitarian groups



See complete list of articles from our previous 9/04/06 issue

Updated: 9/14/06

BGCT says controls in place
to guard mission offering fund use

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—Contrary to allegations, there is no indication any Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions funds have been mismanaged, Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade said.

Financial controls are in place to ensure the Baptist Building staff administers funds from the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions according to plans approved by the Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas Executive Board, Chief Financial Officer David Nabors added.

One charge, leveled against the BGCT Executive Board staff by a source who asked not to be named, concerned Mary Hill Davis Offering funds being used to pay an employee’s salary without the knowledge or approval of the WMU and its board.

“It’s important to note that neither policy nor philosophy excludes salaries from being funded through the offering.” –Executive Director Charles Wade

“It’s important to note that neither policy nor philosophy excludes salaries from being funded through the offering,” Wade said.

He pointed to River Ministry, Texas Partnerships and LifeCall as programs where catalytic funds from the missions offering were used initially to pay salaries and benefits to help launch the ministries, with WMU’s approval. But using missions offering funds for BGCT Executive Board staff salaries is the exception, not the rule.

“In general, salaries and benefits are among the first items picked up by the Cooperative Program budget, as soon as possible,” Wade said.

A source also alleged funds from the missions offering were used in the past to cover administrative overruns in the church missions and evangelism area.

“Controls are in place to prevent that from happening,” Nabors said.

Specific accounts are established for Mary Hill Davis Offering receipts collected and disbursed by the treasurer’s office, he explained. The mission offering funds are not mingled with the general fund, and the annual financial audit regularly tests receipts to ensure they are used according to the donors’ desired purposes, he stressed.

Texas WMU Executive Director Carolyn Porterfield and Texas WMU officers met recently with Wade, Nabors and Chief Operating Officer Ron Gunter to discuss the Mary Hill Davis Offering.

At the time, Porterfield said, she was unaware of any allegations circulating about mismanagement of funds, but as a matter of course, she and the officers made their expectations clear.

“We said we expect Mary Hill Davis funds to be used according to the allocations approved by our board, and we were assured by leadership that is the case,” Porterfield said.

The Texas WMU Executive Board approves allocations for each year’s Mary Hill Davis Offering, but BGCT personnel whose program responsibilities include areas designated in the allocations administer the funds, she explained.

“I have always trusted our leaders and felt they acted with integrity,” Porterfield said.

“We must have the highest standards of accountability. If our board ever felt that was not the case, we would take action.”

Wade also emphasized if any specific concerns are brought to the Baptist Building staff’s attention, they will immediately investigate them.

“If there’s a problem, we can fix that. We can correct it,” he said.

BGCT program areas such as Texas Partnerships, River Ministry, collegiate ministries and church starting—as well as various BGCT-affiliated institutions—benefit from the Mary Hill Davis Offering, but Texas WMU holds the trademark on the offering.

“It’s not a BGCT offering. It’s a WMU of Texas offering. Our reputation is on the line. More than that, God’s reputation is on the line,” Porterfield said.

Texas WMU—which receives no Cooperative Program funds and is dependent almost entirely upon the Mary Hill Davis Offering for its budget needs—recently approved its own financial audit, separate from the BGCT’s audit.

The move had nothing to do with recent questions raised about the management of Mary Hill Davis Offering funds and was initiated last spring, she explained.

“We needed to establish a clear financial identity as a 501(c)(3) (not-for-profit organization). It’s simply a matter of following best practices in our business operations,” Porterfield said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 9/13/06

BaptistWay Bible Series for September 24

Longing to be in the presence of God

• Psalms 42-43

By David Wilkinson

Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth

A few weeks ago, my wife and I drove 2,000 miles to leave our second child, our “baby girl,” for her first year at college—nearly four years to the day that we dropped off her older brother for his freshman year.

Dad did fine until the moment came to say good-bye on the sidewalk outside her dorm. The tears came as I wrapped my arms around Meredith and told her how proud I was of her and how very much I was going to miss her. And then I cried a few more tears as Melanie held her close and through her own tears whispered to Meredith the blessing from Numbers that she had so often shared with her at bedtime: “The Lord bless you and keep you … .”

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But the real ache came a few minutes later on our way to a nearby restaurant for our first dinner as official “empty nesters.” As I drove, I literally could feel the dull ache in my chest, the kind of pain that comes from a hole in your heart created by the absence of someone you love more than life itself.

When I read the opening verse of Psalm 42 in preparation for this lesson, I had a new appreciation for the psalmist’s ache for God: “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God” (v. 1).

This time, however, my tears were ones of regret, for I had to confess to the God I love that I have all too rarely experienced the depth of a “heartache” for God as intimate and real as the pain I felt that night outside Boston.

Longing for God

In his Confessions, Augustine famously wrote, “God has made us for himself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in him.” Augustine described his search for genuine love that ultimately led him to God, concluding that “my real need was for you, my God, who are the food of the soul. I was not aware of this hunger.”

The writer of Psalms 42-43, which likely were composed as a single poem, used similar language, but with one important distinction. The psalmist is not a seeker, searching for meaning and purpose in life, who finds God.

The writer is a believer, a person who has experienced a life-giving relationship with God: “By day, the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me” (v. 8), and “I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy” (43:4). He is a worship leader who has experienced the joy of leading others in the worship of God (“I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,” 42:4).

Because of these experiences, the poet-singer longs for God’s presence with a yearning as deep as the deer that searches for life-giving water (v. 1).

We can only guess at the circumstances that may have led to the psalmist’s plight. Some have surmised he is suffering from a debilitating illness from which he has received no relief despite his appeals to God. Regardless, as our own experience affirms, physical pain and spiritual pain often are intermingled, with one impacting the other.

Remembering God’s presence

While Augustine has been credited as perhaps the first truly “self-aware” person in all of literature, he certainly had some earlier soul mates in the psalmists of Hebrew Scripture. This psalmist is experiencing profound spiritual anguish borne in the pain of God’s apparent absence. Indeed, as some of the great Christian mystics have reminded us through the centuries, the pain of God’s seeming abandonment is in a profound sense intensified by the contrast of knowing the loving intimacy of God’s presence (see comments on the lament of Psalm 22 in lesson 2).

As with some of the other laments in the Psalter, the writer’s agony is magnified by the presence of his adversaries who deride his faith with taunts of “Where is your God?” (42:3 and repeated in 42:10). For this reason, the poet longs not only for God’s renewed presence, but also for vindication and deliverance from his enemies (43:1). For him, God’s deliverance is not only a matter of faith but of justice.

Amid the roller coaster ride of trust and despair—the affirmation of “hope in God” versus the lament of “Why have you forgotten me?”—the psalmist finds secure footing in the reassuring and healing power of God’s gift of memory. He recalls the joy of worship (42:4) and the experiences of God’s “steadfast love” (v. 8) and guiding light (v. 3) that have led and sustained him.

When tragedy or pain or sorrow cause our knees to buckle and our stomachs to jump into our throats, we turn to memories of those times when God has proven faithful, both in our personal experience and in the lives of those who have gone before us. With the psalmist, we sing, “These things I remember!” (v. 4) and affirm the three-fold refrain: “Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God” (vv. 5, 11; and 43:5).

Finally, in those times when we, like the psalmist, feel God’s absence even as we long for God’s presence, perhaps we would do well to remember another line from Augustine that also seems to express the sentiment of the psalmist: “God is more truly imagined than expressed, and he exists more truly than he is imagined.”

Discussion questions

• What actions or spiritual practices would help cultivate the kind of intimate relationship with God and longing for God’s presence described by the psalmist?

• In what ways can you identify with the psalmist’s “roller coaster ride of trust and despair”?

• Can you recall difficult times when the memory of God’s faithfulness and steadfast love gave you comfort and hope?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 9/13/06

Bible Studies for Life Series for September 24

Passing on the baton of leadership

• Joshua 24:14-28,31

By Kenneth Lyle

Logsdon School of Theology, Abilene

This week’s lesson concludes the series dealing with Joshua and leadership. The lesson draws together and revisits several themes introduced in previous lessons and emphasizes the importance of helping others to lead.

The leadership theme in essence comes full circle as now the question “Who Me? A Leader?” transfers to the lips and minds of the next generation of God’s people. The remembering of victories and defeats leads to the challenge to serve God.

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Joshua 24 focuses on the covenant renewal gathering at Shechem. The events relate closely to Joshua’s farewell in chapter 23. There, Joshua “…summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, judges and officials—and said to them, ‘I am old and well advanced in years’” (v. 2).

Joshua proceeds to recount the immediate past history of the conquest and distribution of the land. Joshua emphasizes God’s primary role in all that took place: “You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you” (v. 3).

Joshua recalls the essential words of encouragement Moses and God gave to him at the outset of his leadership journey: “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or the left” (v. 6, compare Deuteronomy 31:6-13; Joshua 1:6-9).

Chapter 23 concludes with a reminder of the recent victories wrought by God on behalf of God’s people: “The Lord has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. So be very careful to love the Lord your God” (vv. 9-10). Joshua amplifies this call to love God with sobering reminders about the perils of violating God’s covenant (23:12-16).

The subtle transition to chapter 24 suggests a separate gathering; however, the flow and focus of the chapter closely parallel the presentation in chapter 23. Joshua summons together all the tribes of Israel (v. 1); he recounts the extended history of Israel (vv. 2-13); he places before all the people a challenge to serve God alone (vv. 14-27).

At least two important differences distinguish the farewell scene of chapter 23 from the covenant renewal gathering in chapter 24. First, Joshua’s farewell in chapter 23 comes in the form of a “testament,” a final word from Joshua to the people and their leaders. In chapter 24, the final words from Joshua come in the form of a dialogue between Joshua and the people—the difference between a final statement and a final conversation. The dialogical encounter increases the drama and suspense of the scene: Will the people respond positively to Joshua’s challenge? What choice will the people make?

The scene calls to mind Moses’ call to “choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). The people there at Shechem enter into this conversation with Joshua fully aware of consequences of poor choices.

Second, the history recounted in the opening of chapter 24 extends to the earliest memories of the people. Joshua recalls the call of Abraham, the miracle of Isaac, the struggle between Jacob and Esau, and the transfer from Egypt (vv. 2-4). Joshua succinctly brings to mind the role of Moses and Aaron in the exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the flight from Egypt (vv. 5-6).

Joshua alludes powerfully to failure along the way with the terse turn of phrase, “Then you lived in the desert for a long time” (v. 6). Only then does Joshua turn to the more recent history of the conquest and occupation of the land (vv. 7-13).

While Joshua’s testament, or final words of chapter 23 bring to a close the narrative begun in Joshua 1, the historical review and dialogue of chapter 24 bring to conclusion the longer history and struggle of God’s people from the time of their beginning.

The focus on the conversation between Joshua and the people pushes the challenge to serve God beyond the boundaries of the historical event. Subsequent generations of God’s people can and must respond to Joshua’s challenge: “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (v. 15).

The people’s response to Joshua’s challenge is instructive. Joshua dismisses their rather flippant initial agreement to serve God and suggests they will fail. The people protest, “…No! We will serve the Lord” (v. 21). Joshua capitulates, but reminds them, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord” (v. 22).

The encounter betrays the persistent human tendency to underestimate the cost of following and serving God. It calls to mind the encounters between Jesus and his disciples when he presents to them the true cost of discipleship. Peter, who has a brief moment insight into the identity of Jesus, “You are the Christ,” balks at the realization that he must serve a crucified messiah (Mark 8:27-33). All the disciples, who argue about who is the greatest without understanding, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35). James and John, who want to be elevated to positions of honor and prestige, to positions of leadership, without understanding the true cost of “taking the cup” and “experiencing baptism” (Mark 10:35-40). Like the people before Joshua, they agree to something that they may not fully comprehend.

God’s gracious challenge still comes to those who enter the waters of baptism without counting the cost, who take the cup and the bread without considering the sacrifice, or who seek positions of leadership without understanding the nature of service. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”

Discussion questions

• What has following God cost you? Would the cost be greater or less if you followed him more closely?

• What things in your life prevent you from taking more of a leadership role in the body of Christ?

• How are you going about molding others to grow in their leadership capabilities?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 9/13/06

Explore the Bible Series for September 24

Heed God’s word through obedience

• Hebrews 3:16-4:7, 9-13

By Howard Anderson

Diversified Spiritual Associates, San Antonio

God offers to humankind the blessings of a life far beyond what we can live without him. We must be willing to stake our lives on his promises.

In any realm of life, success depends on obedience to the word of the expert. God is the expert in life, and real happiness depends on obedience to him. While there is yet time, while we still can speak of today, give God the obedience he must have.

Example of disobedience (Hebrews 3:16-19)

What was it that caused the Israelites to disobey? Observe the three-fold movement of this calamity. First, there was the evil—unbelieving heart, faithlessness, and forgetting or ignoring the mighty power of God.

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Second, there was fear, brought on by that lack of faith. Rather than obey God’s command, they asked to choose a captain who would lead them back to Egypt. They whined and murmured against Moses for bringing them out into the wilderness. They were willing to go back into slavery in order to have the luscious foods they could grow in the delta of the Nile. Their minds were on their comfort, and they feared the rigors of desert life that would toughen them and make them ready for conquest.

Third, the result is a hardened heart—a will no longer stimulated by the desires of God. A hard-hearted person will stand before the people of God and declare, “I do not care what the Bible says because I am going to do it my way.” Let God or the pastor approach the hardened heart with a challenge, and that one will revolt in ridicule.

At this point, God comes down with the anger of his judgment and says, “And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who did not believe” (Hebrews 3:18). Paul wrote: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23). The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

It is shocking how many churches are missing ministry opportunities because of hardened hearts. No one who disobeys God ever can enter his rest.

Concern for obedience (Hebrews 4:1-7)

The term “rest of God” appears multifaceted. It is the place of God’s design. God took the initiative and promised the people a good land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8). It is a spiritual principle that we always are to be in a responding mode to God’s initiative. His design is not a delightful take-it-or-leave-it option, but rather a mandate for acquisition. God’s design is the fulfillment of our highest identity and development. It is not negotiable. To respond in faith and obedience is to step into or enter that design and know all the sufficiency and peace implied in the term of “milk and honey.”

God matched the design for his family with his gracious design of rest. God is designer and builder of the house and the one who places a family in the house by the grace of Jesus Christ. So, rest is the abiding in an ultimate design for each of us—an abiding gained by a faith-response to the will of God. In the condition of rest, the faithful Christian experiences the exhilaration of creativity and productivity; stress and anxiety are minimized; joy lifts the spirit above the waves of normal frustration, and a holy purpose stimulates a vitality not overwhelmed by difficulties. Serenity and laughter are the marks of being in the place of rest. The rest of God is not cessation from activity—but a peace within the toil.

The opportunity to enter God’s rest remains open (“a promise” in v. 1). It is not too late. God offered rest to his people in Moses’ time and continued to offer it in David’s time. He still is patiently inviting his people to enter his rest (Romans 10:21).

Obedience is better than sacrifice and will lead to peace and rest in the midst of life’s continuation for the people of God. The blend of the themes of urgency and obedience are a clear invitation to the people of God (vv. 6-7).

Exhortation about obedience (Hebrews 4:8-13)

God’s true rest did not come through Joshua or Moses, but through Jesus Christ, who is greater than either one. Joshua led the nation of Israel into the land of their promised rest (Joshua 21:43-45); however, that was merely the earthly rest that was but the shadow of what was involved in the heavenly rest. The very fact that according to Psalm 95, God still was offering his rest in the time of David meant the rest offered was spiritual and superior to that which Joshua obtained. The attacks of enemies and the daily cycle of work was Israel’s earthly rest. The fullness of heavenly promise (Ephesians 1:3) and the absence of any labor to obtain it characterize the heavenly rest.

The word of God is comforting and nourishing to those who believe, and it is a tool of judgment and execution for those who have not committed themselves to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Some of the Hebrews merely were going through the motions of belonging to Christ. Intellectually, they were at least partly persuaded, but inside they were not committed to him. God’s word would expose their shallow beliefs and even their false intentions (1 Peter 4:5).

The word of God (John 12:48) and God himself are our judges. We are accountable to the living, written word (John 6:63, 68) and to the living God who is its author.

Discussion questions

• How do you know when you are residing in the rest that God offers?

• What would prevent you from entering into that rest?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Storylist for week of 9/04/06

TAKE ME TO: Top Story |  Texas |  Opinion |  Baptists |  Faith in Action |  Faith & Culture |  Book Reviews |  Classifieds  |  Departments  |  Bible Study




• Ethicists say Colleyville pastor's real estate deal crossed line

• Bush's use of “Islamic fascism” prompts debate

• Wayland student, family fear persecution if they return to Comoros Islands

• Lebanon Baptists say goodbye to refugees, but ministry continues


Hardin-Simmons Student Mission Trips
• Hardin-Simmons students in Nigeria

• Nigeria Update: Candles in the wind

• HSU Update from Jos, Nigeria

• HSU adventure camp in Slovenia



• LIFE GOES ON: Crossroads project aims to rebuild in New Orleans


• Seminary pulls plug on trustee's online sermon

• Texas Baptists urged to adopt unreached groups in Houston

• Sweet dreams of urban transformation

• On the Move

• Around the State

• Texas Tidbits

• Quarterly Report on Cooperative Program Giving (pdf file)

Special: One Year After Katrina
• LIFE GOES ON: Crossroads project aims to rebuild in New Orleans

• Displaced New Orleans resident finds home at Gracewood

• Houston faith communities plan for future hurricanes

• East Texas church sends minister to southern Louisiana

• Texas Baptists urged to adopt unreached groups in Houston

• Miracle Farm offers refuge to Hurricane Rita evacuees

• Nederland church marks new beginning in new sanctuary

• Nehemiah's Vision helps Southeast Texas recover from Rita

• New Orleans churches radically changed by Katrina

• Churches become rallying points for New Orleans recovery

• Baptist volunteers make impact on Crescent City

• Volunteer director feels calling to restore Mississippi town

• Sabine Pass churches focus on rebuilding community

• Gulfport members learn church is not brick and mortar

• Pastor uses retirement funds to help restore church

• Couple left family, friends to run volunteer base in Gulfport

• Katrina giving did not hurt other charities, group says

• Inexperience hurt effectiveness of some Katrina relief groups

• Teens from FBC Wolfforth help Buckner get facilities back to normal



• Florida interview stirs controversy

• Baptist Briefs


• Baptist volunteers make impact on Crescent City


• Environment reveals evangelical rift

• Evangelicals part company with Bush on North Korea


• Book Reviews


• Classifieds

• Cartoon

• Texas Baptist Forum

• On the Move


• EDITORIAL: Offering touches lives across Texas

• DOWN HOME: Just take a picture of living-room stuff

• TOGETHER: Make an eternal difference in a life

• 2nd Opinion: Letters impact immigration reform

• Right or Wrong? Am I prejudiced?

• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cybercolumn by Berry Simpson: Talking to God


• BaptistWay Bible Series for August 27: The gospel transforms human relationships

• Family Bible Series for August 27: Maximize the opportunities God provides

• Explore the Bible Series for August 27: The love song of the Old Testament

• BaptistWay Bible Series for September 3: Meditate on the words of Scripture for wisdom

• Bible Studies for Life Series for September 3: Good leadership comes down to following Jesus

• Explore the Bible Series for September 3: Hold fast to the message of Christ


Previously Posted
• Loan Corporation cuts interest rates

• Cartoonist brings Christian faith to the funny papers

• New DBU students become oriented to community service

• BGCT trailer benefits cowboy churches

• Missions takes hit in proposed 2007 BGCT budget

• ‘Home Sweet Home Alabama,' thanks to relief groups


See complete list of articles from our previous 8/21/06 issue

Posted: 9/08/06

Luke Loetscher (third from left) is pictured with other members of his summer missions team in the Philippines along with Filipino workers who helped them in various projects. One named Kuya Tata (pictured second from left) was baptized by the group during the summer after receiving Jesus as his savior.

Student found niche helping
renovate Philippine Baptist camp

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW—There’s something to be said for finding your sweet spot—locating the place you’re meant to be.

For Luke Loetscher, that happened this past summer while he served as a summer missionary in the Philippines. A Wayland Baptist University junior from Cheyenne, Wyo., Loetscher has long had an interest in agriculture and especially in improving processes in farming, using his interest in science. He is also handy with tools, having participated in several construction-related service projects while at Wayland.

When he learned about the opportunity to travel to the Philippines with the Nehemiah Teams of the International Mission Board and work in construction and agriculture, the project sounded right up his alley. It was.

Loetscher grafts a mango tree in an effort to increase the yield for the farmer by improving the root system.

“This was an affirmation that God was preparing me for this for 20 years,” he said. “I have finally found the lock for my key—my niche. I had an idea before I went but this made it so much clearer.”

Loetscher arrived on the island of Mindanao on June 1 along with several dozen other students all working with Nehemiah Teams. After being split up into smaller teams of seven and sent to various parts of the Philippines, Loetscher’s team traveled to an area near the city of Butuan.

For the first month of their stay, the team did construction work on a camp and convention center owned by the Mindanao Baptist Convention. The camp, used as a retreat center for pastors and others on the island, was in great need of cement work and other projects. The team poured cement slabs for the living areas, built beds, dug a septic tank and built restrooms.

They also planted 200 banana trees and nearly 300 pineapple plants at the camp in order to provide an income-producing resource for the facility, which will no longer receive funding after December 2008 and faces closure.

During the second month, the team worked at an agricultural training center across the road from the camp, helping with usual farm tasks and harvesting.

“The training center incorporates agricultural training with the gospel, and through this, many Filipinos had come to believe in Jesus,” Loetscher said.

Wayland Student Summer Missions Report • Skiles confronted world needs on NYC internship • 'Auntie Joy' humbled by summer in Malawi • Jalissa King traded basketball for shopping on Asia missions tour • Student found niche helping renovate Philippine Baptist camp • Student's technology skills helped support missions, humanitarian groups

Assisting the Filipino farmers was satisfying to Loetscher and his team, especially knowing they were providing skills that would increase the profits for the farmers. While working with one particular farmer, the group helped him harvest his corn crop completely by hand. The crop had become small because he had no fertilizer and no way to stop the soil erosion that was threatening his crops.

“We helped him plant hedgerows along the side of the crop to prevent the soil erosion and provide a natural fertilizer for the crops,” Loetscher explained. “After the season, he just has to cut them down and spread them out for the fertilizer.”

Those types of skills and knowledge were what led Loetscher to believe he had found his calling. He’s confident enough that he’s already making plans to return to the Philippines in two years after he graduates to work at the farm and the camp and help them develop fundraising strategies to stay afloat.

“I worked with an agriculture extensionist there on these strategies to help the camp and the farm,” he said. “Our plan is to help support the local economy by buying coconuts, then producing coconut oil to sell there, and teaching others how to make coconut oil for profit.”

Loetscher said by producing the oil fresh instead of using a factory, there is a higher profit margin.

On the weekends, Loetscher and his team did ministry projects in the village of Mabuhay, working with house churches and their members. They became close to one member, a man named Kuya Tata, whom the resident missionary said had been delivered of demons and had come to faith in Christ just a week before. The man was baptized during the group’s visit, a move Loetscher said was a bold display of his newfound faith, given the culture.

Those two months in the Philippines left Loetscher with some valuable lessons he brought back home and to Wayland.

“As I come back, I realize that we’re all on mission. The same things I did in the Philippines we can do here,” he said. “We need to look for what we can do here and now and be on mission where we are.”

Loetscher serves with the Baptist Student Ministries at Wayland, heads the Servants With a Tool ministry—SWAT—and works with local Habitat for Humanity projects.

“My main thing is need-based ministry, looking at not only the physical needs but also the spiritual needs,” he said. “It’s a holistic thing. I want to meet needs at all facets.”

Luke Loetscher (center with shovel) and other members of the Nehemiah Team spread concrete out in one of the buildings of the camp and convention center at Mindanao in the Philippines.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 9/08/06

Kyle Kinser, a senior at Howard Payne University, measures before hanging drywall in a recently built home in Cross Plains.
Volunteers at HPU Impact Weekend help rebuild fire-damaged homes Ninety-five Howard Payne University students spent a recent Saturday in Cross Plains, where they helped homes that had been damaged by wildfires. The fires torched 7,600 acres across Central Texas on Dec. 27, 2005. The student volunteers were participating in Impact weekend, through the Baptist Student Ministries at Howard Payne, working in conjunction with the city of Cross Plains and First Baptist Church of Cross Plains. The group worked on five different homes throughout the day, doing various projects including painting, hanging drywall, clearing land and digging for a foundation.
Bethany Elmore, a freshman at HPU, paints the trim on a home in Cross Plains that was damaged by the wildfires that hit in December 2005.	Josh Rhodes, a transfer student at HPU, helps with the dry walling in a home that was recently built in Cross Plains.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 9/08/06

Stephanie Skiles, a sophomore science major at Wayland Baptist University, pauses with the Manhattan skyline at her back. Skiles worked at the New York Divinity School, located in Manhattan’s Times Squares, during the summer.

Skiles confronted world needs on NYC internship

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

Many summer missions volunteers return home eager to tell other people what they learned to do. For Stephanie Skiles, her summer taught her all the things not to do in New York.

“People kept laughing at me because I was always getting stopped by the police,” Skiles said with a chuckle.

For Skiles, a Wayland Baptist University sophomore from Glen Rose, the summer was an exercise in servanthood that took many forms.

Stephanie Skiles hugs Abby, a second-grader originally from Senegal, during a tutoring session at the African Friendship Center. Skiles taught English there two nights a week.

Her primary job was serving as a summer secretary for the New York Divinity School, located in Manhattan in Times Square, a position through Go Now Missions, a division of the collegiate ministries department of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Skiles worked for seminary President Paul deVries, helping him with various tasks and doing research and proofreading a book he is writing. Her work also involved coordinating any mission groups that came to serve at the seminary.

But like any summer missionary quickly learns, just about any task can become part of your job description if needed. She recalls one afternoon where she ended up on the floor in her business attire, dismantling an old refrigerator.

“If they said it, I did it,” Skiles said with a smile. “If you’ve ever even thought about doing it, you might end up doing it as a missionary.”

During the evenings, Skiles had other duties. On Monday and Wednesday nights, she worked in Brooklyn at the African Friendship Center, teaching English to immigrants from West Africa. Specifically, several women from Senegal attended the classes, and Skiles bonded with a young girl named Abby—a second-grader she tutored in the evenings.

Skiles also learned a lesson about giving out too much information, and an offhand comment made with some fellow summer missionaries ended up landing her another gig during the month of July.

Wayland Student Summer Missions Report • Skiles confronted world needs on NYC internship • 'Auntie Joy' humbled by summer in Malawi • Jalissa King traded basketball for shopping on Asia missions tour • Student found niche helping renovate Philippine Baptist camp • Student's technology skills helped support missions, humanitarian groups

“We were just visiting one day, and I mentioned that I had been on the dance team in high school,” Skiles said. When another girl left early, they asked Skiles to help teach dance in the Bronx at an outreach center for children.

“I had taken dance lessons but had never taught,” she recalled. “I was supposed to be teaching them hip-hop, but I don’t know how to do that, so we just made some lessons up doing other kinds of dance.”

Some of the more memorable—and humorous—lessons of the summer came when Skiles was stopped by the police several times.

“We got stopped for playing our guitars on the sidewalks, because there were rules on where you could play, and we got stopped for handing out pamphlets on the streets,” she said. “Once I got stopped while walking down the street in the Bronx because they thought I was lost.”

Free time, though it was limited, was spent doing typical sightseeing around New York and taking in as many Broadway shows as she could afford. Her parents even made the trip to see her, taking some family time to visit the Statue of Liberty and other New York landmarks.

Thanks to the quick pace of the summer, she was still processing the deeper lessons learned as the school year began.

“Things were so chaotic, we were just always on the move,” she said. “A lot of what I learned was just having a servant’s heart and doing what was needed.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 9/08/06

Joy Miller pals around in a pickup bed with children at the Rafiki Village in Mzuzu, Malawi, during a school lesson on ground transportation.

'Auntie Joy' humbled by summer in Malawi

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW—Joy Miller has spent the last few years at Wayland Baptist University taking classes and getting involved in experiences that will prepare her for her future career ministering to young girls.

So it came as some surprise to her that a summer missions endeavor on the other side of the world served not so much as a practice session but as additional training.

Miller, a junior religious education major from Amarillo, spent two months of her summer in Mzuzu, Malawi, working in the children’s villages of the Rafiki Foundation as an intern for a missionary there from her home church.

Wayland junior Joy Miller visits with national “mothers” from the Rafiki Village in Mzuzu, Malawi, dressed in their native dress. The “mothers” adopt orphan children and raise them in a Christian home while they are educated.

After two years learning about ministry, Miller felt she would be quite useful on the mission field in Africa. God had other lessons for her to learn, she said.

“The things I learned there are going to help me minister here, and I thought it would be the other way around,” Miller said with a chuckle. “God wanted to teach me that it wasn’t about what I can bring to the table but what he can teach me and how he can use me.”

Based in San Antonio, the Rafiki Foundation builds villages in African countries and hire native women to adopt orphans and raise them in a Christian upbringing. They operate a center for teen girls that trains them in a trade such as tailoring, cooking or the national trade of woodcarving, so they can earn a living as adults.

“Rafiki is a unique organization because they clothe, feed, shelter and educate these children. No other organization is able to do all four,” Miller said. “They really are changing lives and training people to be godly citizens as well.”

The trip was Miller’s first extended missions adventure outside the U.S., and she admitted she might not have thought twice about the opportunity a year ago. Over the course of the school year, though, God began working in her heart and calling her to Africa, even if it was for just a short time.

Joy Miller takes a moment to share hugs with three children in Malawi, Memory (seated in her lap), Alinafe (left) and Spencer (left).

“I realized I’d lived a very safe life in my little Texas box, and God really laid it on my heart to do this,” Miller said.

The trip represented a sacrifice for many, as she raised $5,000 for her travel and expenses while in Malawi. Family, church members and even friends contributed to her fund, and the residence assistants in her dorm allowed her trip to become their “dorm project” for the semester, contributing $200 total toward the trip.

Wayland Student Summer Missions Report • Skiles confronted world needs on NYC internship • 'Auntie Joy' humbled by summer in Malawi • Jalissa King traded basketball for shopping on Asia missions tour • Student found niche helping renovate Philippine Baptist camp • Student's technology skills helped support missions, humanitarian groups

While in Africa, Miller taught in a preschool in the mornings, then played volleyball with the girls and tutored in the afternoons. She was also responsible for preparing materials for the art activities and other lessons for the school, working ahead for the teachers and gathering supplies to save them time later. She also planned a mini-Vacation Bible School for the children during a school break.

She was able to assist on a medical assessment visit in the villages —what she called “real Africa”— and glimpsed the harsh reality of life on the continent. Seeing children ravaged by disease and poverty and knowing there was no way to save them all made an impact on the college co-ed.

Called “Auntie Joy” by the children, Miller especially enjoyed just getting to love the children and watch them experience things very common to American children.

“It was amazing to watch them do things for the first time, like smell crayons,” she said. “I was completely humbled. I am so blessed here, and they have nothing there but are more content than we (Americans) are. God also reminded me that there’s really no difference between them and me. I just happen to live in America and they live in Africa.”

Even though Miller said she’d love to go back to Malawi someday, her call to minister in the U.S. was confirmed on the trip.

“I loved every minute and savored everything, but I still feel very called to ministry here,” Miller said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 9/08/06

Jalissa King, summer missionary to East Asia, pauses during a trip to the local zoo, with her friends, Anna (left), Ivy and Evans, fellow students at the university.

Jalissa King traded basketball
for shopping on Asia missions tour

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW – Here’s the assignment: Travel halfway around the world, attend classes at a university in another country and make friends with the nationals. It may sound like just a vacation, but the trip was much more detailed for the students involved.

The assignment belonged to Jalissa King, a Wayland Baptist University senior from Portales, N.M., for the past summer, her second summer missions adventure to Asia.

King spent the summer in East Asia as a missionary with Go Now Missions, an arm of the collegiate ministries division of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Traveling as a visiting student, King and seven other American student missionaries took language cultural classes from the local university during the mornings.

Jalissa King plays with a young boy at an orphanage outside the city she served in as a summer missionary in East Asia.

During the afternoons, the assignment was simply to hang out with national students in the various places they gathered, usually segregated by gender.

“The boys liked to play basketball, so our male students would go play sports with them,” King said. “The girls liked to shop, so I learned how to shop on this trip.”

King, an athlete in high school who played junior varsity basketball at Wayland, said she would have felt more comfortable on the ball court, but cultural mores dictated she join the women instead. That lesson was learned the hard way.

“I drew a crowd one day playing basketball with the boys, and I didn’t realize that the girls really aren’t encouraged to pursue athletics, except badminton,” she said. “They kept wanting me to play again, but I didn’t.”

Aside from her sporting ventures, King drew lots of attention in the East Asian country—partially because she was much taller than most Asian women. Though it was hard to get used to the stares, King said the attention she drew actually made it easy to fulfill her mission: make friends with nationals and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Shopping outings – also not much of King’s style – turned out to be great opportunities just to walk and talk as students primarily window shopped, sharing their faith in a relationship evangelism. The group was also to seek out Christian nationals on campus and help train them to win their friends to Christ.

Wayland Student Summer Missions Report • Skiles confronted world needs on NYC internship • 'Auntie Joy' humbled by summer in Malawi • Jalissa King traded basketball for shopping on Asia missions tour • Student found niche helping renovate Philippine Baptist camp • Student's technology skills helped support missions, humanitarian groups

“We were supposed to help them learn how to witness, but they really didn’t need us,” King said. “They knew how already and were doing it quite well.”

Once, a few Christian nationals were speaking to others on the street and showing them passages from the Bible, a practice frowned upon in that particular nation. The girls were not concerned, however, with what happened to them and shared boldly in public, leaving quite an impression on the American students.

“God really showed me what I should be willing to do here in America,” she said. “He was really teaching me how I was doing the same activities here and it shouldn’t be any different. Our lives should always be a ‘mission trip.’”

King said the trip also confirmed her call to missions overseas, specifically in Asia. After spending last summer in Thailand doing disaster relief with tsunami victims, King said she felt more than ever the pull to foreign service.

A big part of that, she said, was the lesson God taught her—to really love people and become broken for their eternal well-being.

“I was writing a letter to a friend (in Asia) who was leaving and I knew I wouldn’t likely ever see her again,” King shared. “She knew a lot about God, but just wouldn’t accept Christ. I didn’t know what to say (in the letter) and that’s when I really became broken for her. I totally felt out of control, and I really began to think about what it means not to accept Christ.”

King openly wept during the experience, something she’s not known for doing too often, which was proof to those who knew her that her heart really had been touched.

King, a secondary math major at Wayland who will graduate in spring 2007, said she hopes to use her education degree in a missions endeavor overseas.

 

 

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.