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What could Hillary have been thinking?
The story has apparently been around a few days but I just saw it this morning, then checked it at the Washington Post website for verification. This week Hillary Clinton claimed that back in 1996 when, as First Lady, she flew into Bosnia, they were under hostile fire and the welcoming ceremony had to be called off. Everyone was told to put their heads down and run for the cars. However, Sunday morning's Fox News with Chris Wallace re-played Hillary's claims at the same time they ran the actual video from that 1996 event. The video showed a crowd was gathered to welcome her, little children were presenting her with flowers, everything was all peace and joy. People along on that trip have spoken out this week, remembering that it was nothing like what Hillary now says. The reality was as far from what she is now claiming as it's possible to get.
I suppose she's trying to show how she functions well under fire. Maybe trying to contrast her "courage under fire" toughness with Barack Obama's lack of military experience. If that was her aim, she might want to back off, because if she wins the Democratic nomination, she'll then have to try to match the record of American hero John McCain and that ain't gonna happen.
You would think that by now she and her advisors would know that every public moment of her life has been caught on camera somewhere and it's hazardous to claim anything they're not sure she did.
Is there a sermon in here or what!
What if we all had to endure this kind of scrutiny and public airing of our "misspeakings." Some newspapers--the Washington Post among them--have "fact checkers" on their websites. It's a great help to the average citizen who listens to politicians and have no idea to what extent they're being conned.
Back in 1976 when Jimmy Carter was running for president, he promised he would never lie to us. He said this country was looking for a president who was an honest as our people. And he said it with a straight face. Coming after Watergate and the lies of Nixon, the message resonated with the country and he was elected---but for a single term. It turns out that it's almost impossible to keep that promise in politics.
What was it Churchill said, something to the effect that in wartime, truth is so precious it must be protected by a bodyguard of lies. Not that this is what Hillary was doing this week.
In fact, Hillary may wish she was in New Orleans yesterday.
Saturday, March 29, 2008, was Expungement Day in the Crescent City. The event, sponsored by the Orleans Parish public defender's office and held at the Treme Community Center, drew some 400 people eager to get their criminal records cleaned up. You have some old charge still on your record, but it's false or has been dealt with and should not be left on the records, you brought your evidence and made your case.
We celebrate the quality of our Lord by which He takes little things and achieves spectacular results. "Who has despised the day of small things?" said the prophet Zechariah (Zech. 4:10). Many a preacher has waxed eloquent (or as the kid said, "waxed an elephant") on the way God uses the least, the lost, and the last to achieve the most, the best, and the first. Think of the widow's mite, a baby in a manger, and a dozen nobodies chosen as apostles. The rod in Moses' hand, the witness of a servant girl to a Syrian general, a little boy's lunch of a few loaves and fishes--all bear eloquent testimony to the power of God to achieve much with little. A word here, a gift there, a deed.
Our Lord is a powerful God. As the gospel song puts it, "Little is much if God is in it."
But there's another side to this story. God is a great God who likes to do big things and when it pleases Him, to do them in grand ways. He made a universe whose size we are still trying to calculate. He created the galaxies, stars, suns, planets, oceans, and the egos of several people we could name. Big things.
God likes His children to dream big and is not complimented when the people He is counting on to serve Him in this world make small plans and expect little or no results.
Here's an interesting story from the Old Testament. In the 8th century B.C., the king of Judah--Ahaz was his name and fear was his game--was shivering in his boots as he watched the kings of Aram and Israel surround Jerusalem with their fierce armies. God sent the prophet Isaiah out to calm Ahaz' fears. "Take care and be calm," he said. "Have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands..."
Eugene Peterson ("The Message") puts it like this: "Don't panic over these two burnt-out cases...they talk big and there's nothing to them."
Didn't work. Ahaz needed something more than soothing words to settle his shattered nerves. So God raised the ante. "The Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 'Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.'" (This is all in Isaiah 7.)
That's quite a blank check the Lord handed the timid king. What would it take to stop your knees knocking and convince you that God is handling the matter, O king? Need a sign in the heavens? Just name it. Make it as big as you please.
True to character, Ahaz would not act decisively against the enemy nor would he boldly seize the offer God had made him. Fence-straddling was his spiritual gift. He said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!"
We'd like to help him with his theology and remind Ahaz that it's not "testing" the Lord if God invites you to do it.
Well, the story goes on and gets better, but I'll stop here. The point here is that God wanted big faith, decisive action, and a bold initiative out of his leader, and got none of it.
Now, move that scene over to your church. Your leader, the pastor, looks out his window--i.e., he observes the city where he lives, reads the paper, and watches the news--and feels outnumbered, overwhelmed, and outmatched. He wrings his hands, throws up his hands, and considers hiring some new hands. What is the church to do?
So, Jim, you're leaving the comfortable nest and trying your wings. You have served well on our staff for these four years and now God has called you to a congregation where you will be the point man. The shepherd, the overseer, the leader. The one who blazes the trail, rallies the troops, sets the mood, coaches the team, and--let's face it--gets the credit and takes the blame.
I hope you will not mind if I make a few points here which I intend only as an encouragement to you in this new ministry. Entire books have been written to beginning pastors, but you will not mind if I don't attempt one here. Here are ten pointers, most of which I have learned the hard way, and have the scars to prove it.
1) Remember to say 'we' and 'our,' not 'I' and 'my.'
When you are referring to a staff member, say "our minister of music" or "our minister of students." It makes little difference to you, but a world of difference to him/her. As a former staffer, you of all people know this. The assistant on your staff may take direction from you and be accountable to you, but you can magnify their ministry and encourage their faithfulness by speaking to them and of them with the greatest respect.
2) Never claim any authority as the pastor.
Any time you tell someone you have authority, it lessens it. If you truly have the authority to do a thing, you may sit quietly by and listen to the controversy that surrounds you, knowing within yourself that when the moment of decision comes, you will make the call. You must be prepared to do just that.
You might recall, Jim, a meeting in my office a couple of years back when I cautioned you about using that word "authority." It was just before I did the same thing with the two lay leaders who mistakenly thought they had some too. Serving the Lord and leading His church are servant jobs, not positions of authority. Slaves have no authority other than to help and bless and give and suffer. They take orders from the Master or the Master's representative.
So, if someone in the church gives you authority over them--and that's the only kind you and I have in leading a church--it is their gift to us. We should wear it lightly, use it sparingly, and try not to let the recipient know they just saw it on display.
3) Learn to listen.
My new friend Barry of West Virginia checked in the other night. He's planning to be a pastor, he said, and while surfing the net in search of ideas, inspiration, and such, he found our website. He said, "I read it from 8 o'clock that morning until 5 o'clock that afternoon."
I told him he holds the world record.
Wednesday of last week, our pastors' group numbered only about 15, so we pulled two tables together and got our coffee and doughnuts and visited. Eventually, I said, "Let's start with Eddie here, and go around the table. Introduce yourself--some of you don't know the others--and tell something the Lord has done for you recently. Not 38 years ago, if you don't mind."
I had no idea this would be the agenda for the next 90 minutes.
Ann: "We lost 12,000 dollars---and then found it lying in the road in the basket where it had fallen off the car. It was untouched. The Lord protected us."
Lawrence: "I had a series of strokes. God brought me through them."
Marc: "I went through a time of serious depression. It was affecting my home and my church, everything. Even my wife said my sermons were boring. Finally, at a spiritual retreat, I recovered my closeness with the Lord and my energy for Him."
Manuel told how one day on the job his body had taken 37,000 volts of electricity. "That's why I have an artificial hand and foot," he said. "I'm blessed to be alive and serving God."
Jeff: "While we were evacuated from Katrina, I decided to try to find my son. Some 18 years ago, I walked out on his unwed mother and after I came to the Lord, I've felt so bad about that. I had tried over the years to locate him. I walked into a police station in the town where we used to live and identified myself, and told them what I was attempting to do. They arrested me on the spot."
He went on to explain how his name was found on the list of deadbeat fathers, and he was kept in jail for two nights while he stayed on the phone, trying to raise $18,000. Eventually, he was reunited with his son. He explained what had happened and asked his forgiveness. "My son is down here right now," he said, "living with us. He is such a fine young man." There wasn't a dry eye in the room.
Jeff pointed out how that as a pastor, he wants to be able to address this issue--dads who need to find the children they have fathered and do the right thing--and so had to go through this himself so he would have the integrity to call them to own up to their responsibilities.
Other pastors around the table had their stories of what the Lord was doing or had done in their lives. Then, it was Bobby's turn.
"Well," he said, "I've never lost $12,000. I've always been in good health and was never depressed. I've never had strokes or been struck by lightning. I've never fathered a child out of wedlock..."
A preacher on the other side of the table said, "And you call yourself a pastor!"
We laughed the rest of the morning at that.
"Father, hear my prayer. There is a need in my heart from the soil in my soul. Please cleanse me of all my sin.
Take away everything in me that does not confess Thee as my Lord, tha does not have Thy name on it, that is resistant to Thy Spirit, and unworthy of Thee.
Remove from me all attitudes and opinions and convictions that do not originate from Thee and conform to Thy will and every desire and motive and ambition in conflict with Thy purpose. Take away anything that runs and hides when You enter, that laughs when I believe, that squirms when I pray, and fears when I trust.
Whatever in me that does not give Thee joy, make Thee proud, or honor Thy name, I hereby give my permission for it to be gone.
Anything that holds me back, weights me down, cheapens my praise, dampens Thy fire within me, and threatens my future effectiveness, please remove.
By the precious blood of Jesus, purge my iniquity.
In the matchless name of Jesus, make me clean.
For the wonderful sake of Jesus, draw me to Thee.
Make me whole and holy and wholesome.
Make me right and upright and righteous.
Give me a heart that wants only to do Thy will, that answers only to Thy call, and serves only to hear Thy 'well done, good and faithful servant.'
Amen."
"We do not know how to pray as we should," admitted the great Apostle Paul. We may say with confidence that if he didn't, it's a sure bet that the rest of us don't either. And yet prayer to the Savior is our lifeline in this dangerous world. As the Apostle Peter watched the multitudes drifting away from Jesus because of His tough teachings, he confessed, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."
The title is actually a corruption of Ecclesiastes 12:12 wherein "the preacher," whoever that was--the implication is that he is Solomon, but I wonder--said, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh."
We beg to differ. But of course, we have access to a much greater variety of books than even Solomon did.
One of my friends begins our too-infrequent visits with, "What books are you reading?" and another with, "What book is by your bedside at this moment?"
My wife laughs at that last question, because for me, it's not "book," but "books." Usually a pile of them. Some I read, some I started on and stopped, and often I'm somewhere in the midst of three or four which I fully intend to finish.
The ones by my bed at the moment are mostly World War II era books. I don't get very far at night before sleep beckons. I'm halfway through "You Must Remember This: The Filming of Casablanca." I checked it out of the Jefferson Parish Library, one of my favorite places. "Casablanca" is one of my favorite movies.
The last book I finished was--ready for this?--Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." I know, I know, it's a "woman's book." Here's how it happened that I came to read it.
Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, said recently, "If we were to get up a trip to Paris and really push it, we might get a half dozen students to go with us. However, if we announced a mission trip to Afghanistan and told the students they had to buy their own flak jackets, we'd have to turn some away. Today's students respond to a great challenge."
Abraham Lincoln attended church with a friend in Springfield. Afterwards, the friend asked the future president what he thought of the message. "It was all right," he said, "but it was not a great sermon." Asked what made him say that, Lincoln said, "The pastor said many fine things, but he did not ask us to do a great thing."
Joe Brown, long-time pastor of Charlotte's Hickory Grove Baptist Church, returned from a mission trip to a difficult area of the world and shared this experience with his congregation.
"At 'The Edge' they have an underground church.... They meet on different nights, and when they reach the number of 10 or 12, they split the church because it causes too much attention."
"They have a man.... He's not the pastor. He's not a teacher. He's an usher. He volunteers to go down into the center of the city, and he stands there. The members of his church will ride down there and he'll tell them where they're meeting and when they're meeting, because the telephone lines are monitored.... There was such a man in this city, and the government found out about him. They arrested him. He lost his job. When he lost his job, he lost his housing. He lost his medical benefits. He lost everything he had. He was beaten and put into prison."
"Another man stepped forward and took the job. And he was turned in, and he was beaten and put into prison and lost everything he had."
"Someone traveling with us looked at the house-church pastor and said, 'I suppose you have great difficulty in filling that job.'"
"He said, 'Oh no, we don't have difficulty in filling that job. We have a waiting list.'"
"Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb." (John 20:1)
Mark is a young pastor in his first church, and is still laboring under the back-breaking, death-defying habit of getting up on Monday morning and deciding what he will preach the following Sunday. That's why today, Monday before Easter, when I threw out my weekly question to him and the other two pastors--Jim and Carl--he had only a partial answer.
"I knew you were going to ask that," he laughed. I had said, "What are you preaching this Sunday?" This is the one Sunday of the year that almost no preacher varies from the subject on everyone's mind, the resurrection of Jesus. But Scripture has so much to say on the subject that a pastor can pick a text and head out in a hundred directions.
Mark said, "All I have is an idea. In Easter, we have the open tomb, right? Well, it seems to me that that's not all that was opened on Easter Sunday morning." He paused and said, "I haven't figured out what, but I know there has to be an answer to that!"
I said, "All right, guys. We have our assignment. Mark wants our help with this sermon."
I told a friend once that if I have gone to seed on anything in Christian theology, it's the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm about to qualify that. As essential an element in the Christian faith as it is, the resurrection of our Lord did not end the fears, settle the nerves, conquer the phobias, or break the chains with which the early disciples were bound. It took one thing more.
To be sure, when the Lord Jesus Christ walked out of that garden tomb on the first Easter Sunday morning, it settled a lot of issues. His identity was forever established. His claims were solidly substantiated. His promises had just received the guarantee of Heaven.
When Jesus arose victorious from the grave, His enemies were routed. His opponents were silenced (or should have been, had they been men of even a little integrity). His executioners were shamed. A bamboozled Satan and his imps were beside themselves with rage.
The resurrection of Jesus answers our questions, excites our hopes, and escalates our anticipation. It draws us back to the Scripture, back to the Church, and back to a new reality.
No wonder the disciples' later preaching centered on the single key ingredient of belief in Jesus' return from the grave as an essential element of saving faith. "If you confess with your mouth Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)
Settle that--that Jesus actually died on that cross, that He lay in that grave from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning, then walked out whole and healthy--and so many things fall into place.
Everything, that is, except one. And we see it in the Lord's disciples, as recorded in John 20.
"So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" (John 20:19)
Did you see that? They've locked the doors out of fear of the people who executed Jesus.
All right, that's to be expected I suppose. At this point, the resurrection of their Lord was still just a rumor to most of them. But that should change now that He's present with them, right? I mean, they see Him, touch Him, and know He's alive. Everything should have changed for them at that moment. But did it?
"After eight days, His disciples were again inside.... Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, 'Peace be with you.'" (John 20:26)
Pause for a moment here. The Greek word translated "shut" is "kleio," which means "shut, lock, bar." It is in the perfect passive participle in both verses 19 and 26 and means "locked tight." The disciples have shut the door and drawn a bar across it from the inside.
The annual meeting of the NOBTS Foundation Board was held this weekend--supper Friday night at the Plimsoll Club on the 30th floor of the World Trade Center at the foot of Canal Street, and business session Saturday morning on campus at the Leavell Center. The foundation is composed of more than 70 ministers and laypersons who have gone the second mile in showing their support of the seminary. Banker Gordon Campbell of St. Petersburg, Florida, our president for the past year, presided. It was a time of fellowship and inspiration, but mostly getting updates on the seminary. Another banker, Tom Callicut, member of FBC-NO and all-around good guy, is the incoming president.
Because of the strategic importance of NOBTS to this city (i.e., to our residents, our churches, and the members of our congregations) and because so many of the readers of this blog have ties to New Orleans particularly through the seminary, I'm filing a brief version of the meeting Saturday morning.
1. The seminary campus looks radiant. It's loveliest of all in New Orleans' springtime. Everything has been either newly built or rebuilt, so there is nothing looking old or shoddy on this campus (other than a professor or two, but John Gibson and Charlie Ray are doing the best they can!).
2. The enrollment is healthy. Some 3,600 students are enrolled in classes, with 45 percent on campus and 55 percent at the various off-campus centers (Atlanta, Orlando, etc.). This enrollment ranks in the top five of all the years since the founding of NOBTS in 1917.
3. The five stages which our seminary has been/will be working since August 29, 2005, are: Crisis (figuring out how to survive immediately following the hurricane), Recovery (restarting normal operations), Challenge (meeting the new situations head-on and adapting to the new realities; we're in this stage right now), Opportunities (Trying to figure out what we learned and take advantage of the lessons), and Future (planning a longterm strategy for some 8 to 10 years out).
4. The seminary's recovery costs from Katrina will end up being some $75 million. If that sounds terrible--and it does--consider that two universities not far from our campus suffered in the hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Insurance reimbursements came to an encouraging $33 million-plus. Southern Baptist gifts to the seminary (from various entities of the denomination, churches, and individual Baptists) passed $12 million. The State of Louisiana gave each institution of higher learning $1,951,000 to help pay faculty salaries during the crisis.
No money was received from FEMA or the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund. "We have a long-standing tradition of separation of church and state," President Chuck Kelley reminded foundation members.
5. What are the greatest needs the seminary has at the moment? Dr. Kelley gave these answers:
Barack Obama's former pastor has been in the news. Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr., is said to have been the chief spiritual influence in the senator's life. He performed Obama's marriage to Michelle, and was the inspiration for his book. Now Wright has become a dead weight on the campaign and the senator has removed his name from his advisors.
All week I'd been hearing bits and pieces of this tale and was wondering what the preacher could have said that was so inflammatory. Tonight, on my way home from downtown New Orleans, a local radio station played a 3-4 minute excerpt of the sermon.
The pastor seemed to be preaching to a congregation of his own people along the theme of: "Jesus was a black man who lived in a white man's world (i.e., the Roman Empire) and knew what it's like to be the victim of hatred, slander, innuendo, and needless suspicion." It was pretty much "the white man is the oppressor" and "he's the cause of all our problems," followed by "Jesus taught us to love our enemies."
He got personal and crossed the line when he told how "Hillary never was the victim of prejudice because of the color of her skin," and "Hillary never had a taxicab pass her up because of the color of her skin." "Hillary never had anyone accuse her of being too white and no one ever called her the N-word." That sort of thing.
Which is right, I assume.
A lot of half-truths, I'd say. Right much of the time, pointless part of the time, inflammatory half the time, and ill-advised almost all the time. I mean, what does he want Hillary to do, apologize for the color of her skin?
My main conclusion on this is: "Ignore him. He's just preaching."
The chamber of commerce won't appreciate this, but take a look at this morning's newspaper headlines, scattered throughout the first two sections....
Front page: "Landrieu cousin kills his wife, himself." "Algiers man guilty of shooting officer."
Section B, page 1: "Mother claims insanity in baby's killing." "Man indicted on drug, gun charges." "Suspect admits to string of break-ins, Kenner cops say."
Page 2: "Womans says she was held hostage in Slidell." "St. Tammany's schools will tighten security." "No charges filed in fatal stabbing."
Page 3: "Man booked in motorist's death." "Charge upgraded to murder." "Suspect indicted in 2 murder cases." "3 charged following teenager's drug death." "Feds accuse pastor of diverting aid."
Page 4: "Man dealt drugs at SUNO, feds say." "Fatal shooting victim is Metairie man, 46"
Don't let anyone tell you we're not a city in crisis. We're in deep trouble. Granted, some of these events occurred in suburban communities, not in New Orleans proper, but if that's any consolation, I don't see how.
When my wonderful mom reads these things--or similar news items from that area of Alabama (they have tragedies and crime, too)--she will sometimes remark, "Don't you think things are worse than they have ever been before?"
I reply, "Yes, and better, too." That doesn't make sense at first, but it seems to be the reality of the world we're living in.
Where I'll be preaching (and, of course, you're invited)....
Easter Sunday night (March 23), 6 pm, at Emmanuel Baptist Church (on Highway 82 west), Gordo, Alabama. Our longtime friends Tommy and Diane Winders will be singing. I can't wait.
That week---Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings (March 24-26), 10:30 to noon--I'll be speaking at the annual senior adult revival for that area, the Pickens Baptist Association, held at Stansel Baptist Church, on state route 17, above Carrollton, Alabama. The service calls for special music and a testimony from senior adults before my sermon, followed by a pot luck lunch.
Saturday morning, March 29, at 9:30 am, I'm doing a leadership training session for a group of African-American pastors at Lower Light Baptist Church in New Orleans East. If interested, call Jeffery Friend at Suburban Baptist Church (504/242-0955) or Kenneth Davis at the host church (504/421-1802).
April 20, 9:30 am, preaching on missions at Calvary Baptist Church, 2401 General DeGaulle, New Orleans.
In between, during, and throughout, my days are comprised of a ton of meetings, boards, retreats, conferences, training sessions, and the like, but I'll not bore you with those.
And now, the apology....
Attending the semi-annual meeting of the board of New Orleans Baptist Missions is always an experience. It's a four-hour-long experience, but there's not a boring moment in the day.
Okay, stay with me here, gang. We'll do this in question and answer form.
WHAT IS THE N.O.B.M.?
A group of people charged with the oversight of the four SBC inner city missions--the Brantley Center (for the homeless), the Baptist Friendship House (for troubled women and their children), and the two centers--Rachel Sims and Carver--which minister to neighborhood children. The chairman is David Crosby, pastor of New Orleans' First Baptist Church, and board members are mostly local folks like Freddie Arnold and me, but we also have Dr. Wanda Lee, the executive director of the SBC Woman's Missionary Union--she flies in from Birmingham--and Kay Cassibry, leader for the Baptist women of Mississippi. All our local missionaries are present, plus a group of our leaders from the North American Mission Board in Atlanta, people like Dr. Richard Leach, Dr. Jean White, and Dr. Mickey Caison. Fred Luter of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church serves, along with Gwen "Miss Chocolate" Williams. Dr. Guy Williams serves, as does Dr. Loretta Rivers from the seminary, and attorney John Occhipinti. Today we elected five new members of the board: Gary Mack, Skider Chatham, Mike Hammer, Denise Shannon, and Mardel Earley. (Hope I got their names right.)
WHAT'S HAPPENING REGARDING THE HOMELESS IN NEW ORLEANS?
We're told this city has twice the number of homeless now as before Katrina.
The North American Mission Board is putting the Brantley Center up for sale. The building is old and unusable since Katrina. Volunteers have moved most of the equipment and supplies to other mission centers, and given some to Camp Living Waters, but there's still a lot of material in the building to be moved out. "What kind of material?" I asked. "Stuff," was the answer. Nothing of any value. It has to be out by the end of April. The power company is shutting off the D.C. power on May 15 which means the elevator will no longer function.
We have an ad hoc committee working on finding some kind of long range program to help the homeless, not simply by providing a shelter, but something deeper, more helpful, and more permanent. We are full participants with the New Orleans Mission, a downtown shelter which recently erected a tent-like facility to quickly get large numbers of homeless off the street.
WHAT'S GOING ON WITH NOAH, THE REBUILDING ARM OF NAMB?
She: "Men! What is it about men!"
He: "The governor of New York gets caught hobnobbing with call girls and you blame it on all men?"
She: "You know what I mean. How men are."
He: "I do not know what you mean. And just how ARE men?"
She: "If they could get by with it, every man would do what the governor did."
He: "Wow. You are really down on men today. Do you really believe that?"
She: "Well, think of the pornography problem. Women don't buy those magazines and videos to look at men. It's a male thing. Men are like animals."
He: "We are all animals, I don't know if you have noticed. Not plants and not rocks."
She: "Don't try to change the subject. I mean men are naturally unfaithful and not very discriminating about who they have sex with."
He: "You've heard me say that the lower nature of man is naturally polygamous."
She: "I've heard you say it, but I'm not sure what you mean by it."
He: "That the base nature--the Bible calls it the 'old man'--is unfaithful and promiscuous. But the higher nature, the 'new man' he becomes in Jesus Christ--has higher standards and wars against that nature."
She: "Meaning what?"
He: "Meaning that every man is vulnerable, that every man you will ever meet has it in him to be the worst rat and most unfaithful person on the planet."
She: "That's what I've been saying."
He: "That is not what you've been saying. You've been saying all men are dirty rats and not worthy of their wives' trust. And I'm saying they are capable of being that way, but their better nature knows a higher way of life. And that to one degree or the other, it's a constant battle inside every man."
She: "That's why I hate to see our little boy grow up. He's the cutest guy right now, and so full of innocence and sweetness. But he's going to grow up to be a man, and something in me hates that."
He: "You might as well try to hold back the sunrise, Honey. That's the natural order of things."
She: "I know. I just dread him becoming a teenager and the hormones raging and finding dirty magazines under his bed."
He: "Listen a minute. Men and women are different. A man is turned on by the visual. He sees a great looking woman and his heart skips a beat. He stands near Miss America and the blood rushes to his head and he becomes a babbling idiot. We did not make ourselves this way; it's part of our nature."
She: "Original sin, if you ask me."
The "Extreme Makeover" television people are in town, rebuilding a couple of homes and one of our Southern Baptist churches, Pastor Willie Walker's Noah's Ark Baptist Church. A call has gone out for volunteers of all types to come and help.
Willie told me the plan is to work around the clock rebuilding his church until they finish. I said, "What about the neighbors?" He said, "They bought them off."
Karen Willoughby of our Baptist Message (state paper for Louisiana Baptists) arrived in town today to cover this event.
I'll not belabor this, but the headline in Tuesday's paper, upper center of the front page, reads: "New corps maps show that when the levee system is completed in 2011 the area should stay largely dry in a major hurricane--if drainage pumps work." Underneath a huge headline reads: "The best news yet."
The talk shows all Tuesday afternoon (on my drive back from Laurel) focused on New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, in bad trouble for consorting with prostitutes and creating a contorted money laundering scheme to camouflage where the cash was going. As I get it, Spitzer's "crimes" were not the actual adulterous acts, but violating the Mann Act (transporting a woman across a state line for immoral purposes; the government gets this authority from the part of the constitution giving it control over interstate commerce; really, no joke) and using fake companies to launder the money (which violates something with the IRS I think).
Clearly, his problems are vastly different and much more involved than those of our Senator David Vitter who was revealed last year to have been a client of brothels here and in Washington, D.C. As far as is known at the moment, Vitter's main problems involved the moral aspect. Spitzer's, on the other hand, involved violations of federal law.
Two comments on that. One, as the N.Y. attorney-general, Spitzer has been one hard-nosed dude in prosecuting criminals and harassing those he suspected of criminal acts. From all reports, this man had no mercy on anyone. He was ruthless in the way he treated lawbreakers. And now, guess what? He wants mercy. We're told he's trying to cut a deal: I'll resign from the governor's office if you won't prosecute me. Don't expect that to happen. He has made so many enemies along the way, they'll be lining up to throw dirt on his political grave.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." That's from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, and it's true, thank the Lord. However, so is its opposite: the merciless shall not receive mercy. Sorry, Eliot. Am I the only one who is reminded of our Lord's parable of the forgiven man turning hard-hearted toward one who owes him a pittance (Matthew 18)?
Two, a columnist in New York State urging Spitzer to resign was asked why Louisiana did not demand that Vitter resign? He said something to the effect that New York had higher standards than Louisiana. That remark--and this is not an exact quote, but definitely was the point--was played and replayed on the local news throughout the day. Ugly. Also missing the point entirely.
Governor Bobby Jindal is something else. Hot off the successful special session of the state legislature to reform the state's ethics laws, he has turned right around and called the lawmakers back to Baton Rouge. This time, they are being asked to rewrite a number of tax laws and give the citizens some relief. Among other things, he's proposing tax credits for people who send their kids to private schools and for everyone who has to buy school uniforms for their children. He's also got a bill exempting from state taxation the money the federal government is sending to everyone this Spring to jump-start the economy.
(I promised to end at 50 lessons, but these ideas just keep insisting on horning their way onto the list.)
One of the worst policies ever to afflict our judicial system is the one that grants leniency to first-offenders. This was his first time to beat his wife, so he gets sent home with only a warning. Pity the poor wife! The kid who broke into the candy store gets assigned to his parents' care and threatened with jail in the future because, after all, he's never been in trouble before. He congratulates himself on a successful prank.
What are we doing! We might as well hand out "get out of jail free" cards. Everyone gets one free pass, no matter what we do (almost), because, "This is his first time in trouble."
I want to scream when I read that line buried in the newspaper account of some law-breaker, "Hey! Now is the time to get across to him the enormity of what he has done."
No wonder we have such a problem with crime in America today. We're practically encouraging young law-breakers.
If we hope to teach them the error of their ways, it's far better to deal swiftly and strongly with first-offenders.
Now, take that same principle and apply it at work, whether "work" for you means the church or a business office or a crew at the plant. If you are the person in charge and a member of your team breaks a "law"--he or she goes against an accepted practice put there for the welfare of the group--if you intend to maintain your leadership role, you must deal with it quickly.
First, get the facts.
I saw two widows, both lovely ladies whose husbands I helped to bury just a year ago. Neither has any children or a lot of family, and both are just now putting their houses on the market. One is still deep in her grief and we talked about where she could find a good counselor.
The other has a full-time job at a local hospital. As we talked, a lady in the church handed her a grocery bag filled with outdated Sunday School literature. She saw me taking that in and said, "I put this out in the nurses' lounge at our hospital. And would you believe--they read it and take it. Before long, it all disappears." What a great ministry, and so simple.
"I'm 85 years old," a friend said. She's the wife of a deacon and for many years served the church as wedding coordinator. "And guess what--for the second year in a row, I won first place in the Special Olympics. My area was table tennis." I was stunned. I mean, think of the dexterity, the quick reactions, and the keen focus that game demands. And at her age.
She continued, "Of the people I beat, the oldest was 72." She smiled and said, "My goal is to win the gold when I'm 90. Would you pray for me about that?" I promised her I would.
Interim Pastor Mark brought up to the pulpit Mary, who is serving on the church's pastor search committee. He paid tribute to this terrific woman and her family, then led us all in prayer for her and for the work of the committee. There is no more important assignment anywhere than being charged with the responsibility of finding the next pastor of a church.
Is it possible to take a well-known Scripture and find new insights in it? Mark Tolbert answered that in a clear affirmative Sunday. The text was Acts chapter 10, the story of the Italian centurion Cornelius and how God broke through the Apostle Peter's preconceptions to be able to minister to Gentiles.
The three points of his message were: 1) Salvation is needed by all. Cornelius is a poster-boy for a good man--militarily he was the best of the best, personally, he was devout, God-fearing, generous, and prayerful--whose goodness was inadequate for salvation. He still needed to be saved, so the chapter tells what God did to bring him into the kingdom.
2) Salvation should be offered to all. And 3) Salvation is available to all.
Mark had a number of wonderful insights in his message. I marked up the margins of my Bible with a fine-point pen. Here are three of them....
"Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, 'The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue....'" (II Samuel 23:1-2 KJV)
That's an interesting three-fold description of this greatest of all Israeli kings. All three are fascinating, but none moreso than "the sweet psalmist of Israel." The "sweet" song-writer who gave us so many wonderful psalms, many of the 150 in our Old Testament book of Psalms. There is no doubt that some of the songs penned by this man are still being sung every day somewhere on this planet, and have been for most of the 3,000 years since he walked this land.
It's worth noting that the writer of this line from II Samuel did not refer to David as the writer of the sweet songs, but the sweet songwriter for the nation. (Modern translations say "favorite.") There was a sweetness in his soul, and had to have been, in order for him to have said some of the blessed things he did.
For a long time I carried an image in my mind of the teenage David keeping his father's sheep on a green hillside, strumming his lyre, and composing, say, what would become the 23rd Psalm. But I don't think that's how it happened. The young David could not have composed such songs as this, as well as the 40th, 46th, and 91st psalms. And I'll tell you why.
He had not lived enough, sinned enough, suffered enough, and been forgiven enough to know the incredible depths of God's love, the infinite extent of His mercy, the healing balm of His tenderness, and the satisfying comfort of His faithfulness.
The Apostle Paul put it like this: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." (Romans 5:20) That set off a howling among his detractors. The very idea of implying that the more one sins, the more of God's favor he receives. No wonder they bitterly retaliated, "Well, let us continue in sin that grace may really, really be showered upon us!" (Romans 6:1) They weren't serious, but were simply taking his argument to what they saw as its logical conclusion.
You're missing the point, Paul responded. In order to fully appreciate the forgiving, merciful side of our Lord, one has to have deserved His censure, earned His judgment, and justified His wrath, and then instead of receiving these, to have been shown only His kindness.
Only penitent sinners see this side of His nature.
And only "big" penitent sinners see the greatness of His grace, the scope of His mercy, and the bottomless supply of His lovingkindness.
Never fear, friend. You have sinned quite enough to qualify. No need to return to what Scripture calls "the flesh-pots of Egypt" (Exodus 16:3).
The letters column on the editorial page of our newspaper regularly features gripes and complaints from redlight runners who got caught on candid camera.
What happened was that our leaders have contracted with a company that installs these high speed cameras at selected intersections around town, and they've been nabbing quite a few impatient drivers speeding through intersections after the light had turned crimson. Some of them are real unhappy about it, too.
What gets me is they complain about their constitutional rights being violated. Invasion of privacy, they call it, which is rather ridiculous. Hey friend, you're on the street; nothing is private here. You are driving under the control of traffic laws with a state-issued license; your rights do not apply here. You gave them up when you pulled out of the driveway.
You have to wonder why some people think they have a right to run a traffic light.
Ron Mehl is a pastor in Portland, Oregon. In his outstanding book "The Ten(der) Commandments," he tells a story you will enjoy.
Golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez was traveling with a friend who noticed that he was driving much too fast. As they approached an intersection, Chi Chi sped right through the red light.
The friend said, "Chi Chi! Man, what are you doing? You ran that red light!"
Rodriguez said, "My brother taught me to drive, and my brother never stops at red lights, so I don't stop at red lights."
A couple of blocks later, the light was red and again, they drove through the intersection at a high rate of speed. The rider said, "Chi Chi! You're going to get us killed! What are you doing!"
Chi Chi said, "My brother taught me to drive and my brother doesn't stop for red lights, so I don't stop for red lights."
A few blocks down the street, they came to an intersection where the light was green. This time, Chi Chi put on the brakes and came to a stop. "Now what are you doing?" said the friend. "The light is green."
Chi Chi said, "I know it. But my brother might be coming."
Your brother is always coming, friend. Slow down and let him go on living.
I'm very aware of the tabloid mentality of our generation and the love for scandals, but, sorry, none today, not here. However, what I will tell you is that I was in a valley of depression, Margaret and I were going through a terrible time in our marriage, and absolutely nothing I was doing was of any interest to me. Furthermore, I could not find any alternative that offered hope for anything better.
Classic depression, I'd call that. My first bout with it. I was 39 years old and truly miserable for the first time in my life.
And a pastor. Yep, I was still in the pulpit, still going to the church office every morning, still holding funerals and weddings and counseling people with problems. And me a basket case.
I looked into becoming a college professor, which had been my original career plan until the Lord called me into the ministry while a senior at Birmingham-Southern. Since we had a good college in the town where we were living, I asked a professor what a beginning instructor would earn, someone who had just received his Ph.D., which I had not done, of course. The figure he named was so low, about half of what I was making, that it was like cold water in my face. It pricked my little pretentious balloon in record time.
Margaret and I had gone into, suffered through, and emerged on the other side of a solid year of marriage counseling. We had learned much about ourselves and our different backgrounds and the completely opposite drives that had brought us into this marriage in the first place. She had had an unhappy home life and was latching onto the "prince charming" who would take her away from it. I was a young minister who wanted a wife of low maintenance who would keep the home fires burning while I saved the world. We had not been married a month when we began to see that the reality of our marriage was light years away from what we had anticipated.
And yet, all the while I knew that this marriage was God's will for me, and that Margaret was the person He had chosen for me. Even in my rebellion, I knew that, and it even made me angrier. Like a spoiled child, I did not want anyone telling me what was best, what was the will of God, and how I should repress my own agenda to find happiness in life.
A rebellious heart is a terrible thing. I was my own worst enemy.
Two years later, when Margaret and I took the Sunday night worship service at our church and gave our testimonies as to how the Lord had changed our hearts and saved our home, I told the congregation how I had continued preaching during this bleak time: "I never said a thing I didn't believe; I said a great deal I didn't feel."
My adult children will read this and probably have only vague memories of any of it, which is good. We both always adored our children, and in fact, that only added to my complete frustration. I wanted what I wanted--which was out of that marriage and in a teaching profession and to continue being the father of Neil and Marty and Carla--and was torn right down the middle. I was holding onto two dead-opposite goals in life.
A perfect recipe for misery.
So I began to pray.
Disclaimer: I'm still a learner, and most definitely not an expert on praying.
1. The only real mistake we can make in prayer is in not praying.
If we pray earnestly, almost anything we do is better than not praying. After all, no father rejects the child's plea because she did not use the right words or form. He welcomes his child into his arms.
Someone has said, "Nothing never happens when we pray."
2. No matter how much you pray, you will never be completely satisfied with your prayer life.
You will always feel the goal is out there beyond you somewhere. We must work against perfectionism, that mental disease that convinces us because we're not doing something perfectly, that we should stop it altogether. No matter how ineffective you think your prayers are, believe that they matter to God and keep on praying.
3. The Holy Spirit helps us in our prayer.
Romans 8:26 assures us "He helps us in our weakness because we do not know how to pray." The Greek word translated "helps" is a compound Greek verb "synantilambanomai." The "syn" means "together, with us." The "anti" means "opposite to, in front of." And the "lambanomai" is a form of the verb "to lift." Together they tell us the Holy Spirit gets on the other end of our task, opposite to us, and together with us lifts the burden. He does not do this in our place, but works with us.
4. Keep on praying.
Persistence in prayer is taught so many times in Scripture. My favorite is blind Bartimaeus in Luke 18. Let nothing stop you from praying. Not your own inadequacy (of which there is much), your own needs (which can be overwhelming), not your fears (which never tire of assaulting you), and most definitely not other people (discouragement is all around us). Just keep at it.
5. Our emotions and feelings are irrelevant to effective praying.
There's no contest for this "honor," although quite a few made it into the "honorable mention" category. These are members of the seven churches I pastored over 42 years who dedicated themselves to making life miserable for the pastor. Looking back now--with much clearer vision and perspective than I had at the time--I find myself thanking God for everyone of these people. Those that didn't teach me something by their opposition drove me closer to the Father in desperation. Anything that does that is not all bad.
Mr. Wyatt stormed into my office one morning during Sunday School, a few minutes before the worship service. "Preacher, you have offended me and upset my wife!"
I said, "Tell me who you are, then tell me how I did that." I had never met the man.
He told me his name, then explained what had happened.
"Yesterday, you came into the fellowship hall where they were taking pictures for the pictorial church directory. You spent time with everyone in the room and I saw you drawing sketches for the children. Then, before you left, you stood in the doorway and looked around. You looked my wife and me squarely in the eyes, then walked out without speaking to us."
I apologized all over myself and assured Mr. Wyatt that if I did that, it was completely inexcusable, but that I had no memory of ever seeing him and his wife there.
That didn't do the job for him. He was angry when he entered and angrier when he left.
That week, I ran by his house to apologize to his wife. He was not at home, so she and I visited at the front door. "Oh, preacher, don't worry about that," she said. "That's just Wyatt."
Even if it was not an issue with her, it continued to be with him. From that moment on, Mr. Wyatt went on a tear against me. In church business meetings, he rose to speak against motions on the floor, usually with an anger all out of proportion to what we were discussing.
In worship services, he sat in the rear of the sanctuary, wearing a scowl that would have lasered a hole through me if it could.
Had Mr. Wyatt been the only church member despising me, I probably would have dealt with it more directly. But the truth is, for the first several years at that church, he had lots of company. One inactive deacon stood in the foyer of the church and told everyone who entered that I was a liberal and destroying the church. Another small group of older members met in a corner before and after the services to compare notes and feed off each other's misery. Wyatt was the least of my problems.
Then came the sermon I preached in June of 1997, the message posted on this blog a couple of days ago under the heading, "The Hardest Sermon I Ever Preached."
We throw those terms around so much, you'd think one was godly and the other evil. Which is which depends on where you stand and what you believe.
We may have found the perfect litmus test to determine which you are.
This week, police in a community just west of New Orleans arrested a woman for killing her newborn baby. She had hid her pregnancy from the family and her boyfriend, given birth by herself, and then--sorry, but this is what happened--buried the just-born baby in the backyard. Wait, it gets worse, if you can believe it.
It appeared she had pulled it off without anyone being the wiser until the family dog dug up the remains in the backyard and--again, sorry--began chewing on the body. The boyfriend found the dog and what was left of the child and, clueless concerning the facts of the situation, called the police.
The police came out, studied the situation, and arrested the woman. They charged her with two crimes: murder of her baby (she said she thought it was dead when it was born) and cruelty to her dog. The animal, it turns out, was malnourished and that's why he was digging up and eating the poorly buried body.
Sordid tale, I grant you, and I apologize for even telling it. However, we needed to tell the story in order to pose a question.
"Which charge concerns you more--killing the baby or neglecting the dog?"
Your answer tells volumes about you.
If ending the life of the child concerns you more, you are a conservative. If neglecting to feed and care for the dog bothers you more, you are a liberal.
Diane Sawyer once spoke to the chamber of commerce's annual banquet in the city where we were living. She gave us a memorable distinction between liberals and conservatives.
(It was Sunday, June 21, 1997. After putting up with the immature rants and raves of a few church members for seven years of that pastorate, I decided it was time to air this dirty linen on a Sunday morning, something pastors are loathe to do. This became the watershed moment for our church. Afterwards, I remained as pastor another 7 years, and they became some of the sweetest years of my long ministry. Recently, I ran across the typed version of that sermon, and decided to reprint it here in the hope that it may help some other pastor who may be going through his own private hell in the church where the Lord Jesus Christ assigned him.)
The title was "Our Church is in Crisis--Just Like All Those Other Churches." The text was Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
I want to say a word to you who are visiting with us this morning. Normally, pastors hesitate to 'hang out the wash' on a Sunday morning. If we have problems in the church, we deal with them at other times. On Sunday mornings, we have a lot of visitors and we naturally would like you to feel good about this church and come back, maybe even join us. However, we have some church members who never come to church except on Sunday morning and they are some who need to hear this.
In my last church, I learned that one of our deacons and his wife, Pat and Betty Hance, had witnessed a fist fight on their first day at our church. I found that hard to believe, and could not wait to ask them about it. Pat told how two men in the church had a grudge going and one was bullying the other. As the Hances sat in the Sunday School assembly, the bully walked by and made a snide remark about his opponent. With that, the man got up and knocked the daylights out of the bully.
I said to Pat, "Here's my question. We pastors bend over backwards to impress visitors so they will come back. But on your first Sunday, you witnessed a fight--and not only did you return, you even joined the church. Explain that to me."
He smiled and said, "Oh, we like an active church."
I need to tell the visitors this morning, we have an active church.
Bernice Nicely was around 80 years old and sickly when she sent for me. She'd been in and out of hospitals, and I figured she wanted to talk about "last things." But she had something else on her mind. She said, "Pastor, I know I'm saved. I know I'm going to Heaven when I die. But there's something else troubling me." She paused a moment and said, "Pastor, I haven't done right by the church."
The next Sunday she joined the church and began sending her tithe.
I need to ask each of you in this building, "Have you done right by the church?"
Saturday, Northrop-Grumman's New Orleans Shipyards dedicated the "New York," the one billion dollar amphibious transport ship that will belong to the Marines. The front of the ship, the bow, the section that parts the waters and leads the way, is made up of 65 tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center. A number of New Yorkers were on hand Saturday for the dedication.
My son Neil who works for Northrop-Grumman in Human Resources was assigned to one of the buses moving dignitaries around the area. He stood at the front, held a mike, and gave explanations and answered questions for the guests. Later, when asked if he had seen any celebrities, he said, "Charlie Daniels."
I love the "in your face-ness" of this gesture, taking steel from the twisted girders of the collapsed skyscrapers and recycling them into a mighty vessel that will defend this nation against the Osama bin-Ladens of this world. I applaud whoever first thought of doing this, and doff my hat to everyone responsible for pulling this off.
In the crest--not sure what they call those things--on the side of the ship, its motto clearly proclaims: "Never Forget."
Godspeed, New York, and all who go with you.
"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.... He bringeth them into their desired haven." (Psalm 107:23-24,30)
This business of taking the ruins of life's failures/disasters and recycling them into mighty forces for good has a long and honorable tradition. In fact, Scripture teaches us that God is always at work in our lives pulling off the same trick, turning our stumbling blocks into stepping stones.
"The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." That's Psalm 118:22 and it's quoted again and again throughout the New Testament. The various writers of Scripture thought it summed up this divine transaction in a way that was uniquely God-like.
Divine alchemy, we might call it. Taking the mundane and turning it into precious.
Some four or five years ago, the Sunday "Parade" magazine ran a cover article on the actress Sandra Bullock in which they quoted her with a wonderful line. "What makes you different," she said in huge letters on the front cover, "makes you beautiful." I thought it was a maxim for the ages and eagerly devoured the article, only to discover that the writer included the line in the final paragraph of the story and it was never elaborated on. I was disappointed, because it's one of those lines which, if original with Sandra, surely carries a history.
A couple of times every year, I find myself talking with teenagers about their self-esteem. No segment of our society struggles more with issues of personal acceptance than American teenagers, particularly in their early teen years, and most especially, the girls. Somewhere in the presentation I never fail to drop in that line, assuring them that they should not try to look like everyone else, that "what makes you different makes you beautiful."
Now comes a movie which uses that line in its advertisements. My wife and I took our eleven-year-old granddaughters Abby and Erin to see "Penelope" Saturday afternoon. Margaret said the girls chose the movie; I was drawn to it by the desire to see what the movie did with this truism which had imbedded itself in my mind ever since Sandra Bullock coined it. Assuming she did.
"Penelope" is the story of a girl born with a pig's snout and ears, the result, we're told, of a curse on the family by a witch from a couple of centuries back. Only when the child thus cursed is successfully wed to a blue-blood "for better or for worse, til death do they part," will the curse be lifted. When the child is born, the parents are mortified and hide her inside their mansion until she is of marriageable age. They are revolted by her appearance and so is every suitor whom they parade by her as a possible mate. We the viewers never quite see what all the excitement is about. She has a wide turned-up nose, but is not the monster they all make her out to be.
Eventually, the curse disappears--not as a result of a wedding, but simply when Penelope quits hiding and says, "I like myself the way I am"--and she becomes "normal," whatever that means. In this case, it means she gets the nose of actress Christina Ricci who plays her. A child in a class Penelope tells the story to suggests that the moral of the story is that a curse has only the power we grant it. It's true, but too profound to come from the mouth of a seven-year-old.
I threw this question out to members of the last church I pastored and quickly wrote down their answers. Aside from an entire discussion on why in the world would anyone get bored visiting with the Ruler of the Universe, which is a great question and one that deserves its own treatment, here are their answers.
50. Repent of it. Praying boring prayers is an insult to Almighty God.
49. Determine to start believing in God. You're already saved but you need to start taking the Lord seriously and His promises at face value.
48. Sing a hymn prayerfully.
47. Be thankful for your blessings.
46. Pray for others: friends, family, those in need.
45. Get a prayer partner, especially someone experienced in real prayer.
44. Keep a prayer journal. Write your prayer list, insights God gives you, Scriptures that help you, answers to prayers, etc.
43. Find new things to pray for.
42. Pray a complete prayer--praise, thanksgiving, for God's will, supplication, and forgiveness.
41. Study the promises of God and claim them in prayer. Begin expecting.