NRBC Blog

How God’s patience must be tried by a pointless, puny, peaked, pusillanimous church! The first believers were filled with a holy fire, charged with the mindset that with God’s helps, they could change the world. Laying aside everything, even their own personal safety, they challenged religious institutions and traditions, governments, even hell itself with the exciting message that life must be more than just accumulating things and surviving three score and ten. They lived and proclaimed a life that is eternal in the heavenlies and that comes only through the crucified and risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Their’s was a bold message and a bold proclamation. They faced insult, assault, threats, torture, even death; but, they would not… they could not quit. The blood of the martyrs did, indeed, become the seed of the church, and governments crumbled, lives were changed, and the church lived!

Today, believers seem more intent upon doing church than discovering what church is. Is it formal or informal, casual, contemporary, or charismatic? Do you dress up or dress down? Is there a choir, a piano, a pipe organ or a rock band? Do you sing hymns or choruses, and do you serve coffee, bottled water, or just sit reverently in order to be still and know that He is God? But, where is the fire, the boldness, the signs and wonders that announced to a lost world, "God is here… come meet with Him!"

I suggest to you that none of the things we do when we do church are unimportant, but neither are they important. They are preferences, styles, reflections of the cultures we come from or in which we live. Does God really care if the building has a steeple or if you serve gourmet coffee? Is He offended by lighting and visual aids or turned off by praise songs accompanied by a bass guitar? And, is He impressed by either a suit and tie or shorts and sandals? Are these the things He is looking for or that He has promised to bless? No! "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." And, He says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise." (Ps 51:17)

When will the power return? When we command it to appear? Would we really be so brazen? No, it will come when heavenly food is served to people with good appetites! When the Word of God is faithfully and powerfully and clearly taught to hearers who are eager to learn and put into practice what they learn, the fire will again fall. When the church once again grasps the vision of changing the world, one soul at a time; when believers seize their calling and surrender to the Savior Who has called them, it will come. But, we must pray that God would start the fire. Our eyes must be opened and our hearts changed from a people who are more preoccupied with the temporal than with the eternal. There must be a transformation in the pew before there will be a significant and eternal impact upon the community and the world. "God help us!" That must be our cry!

God has promised that His church will not fail. It will continue, and there will be faith when He comes. The question is, will we miss the blessing? Will we enjoy our services and do church in our favorite setting while our calling goes unheeded and the message goes unheard? Will we miss the power because we have missed the presence?

When the early believers asked for boldness, God sent the power. The building shook and the people spoke. Lord, do it again.

The Lord’s church rocks!

Well, Sharon and I have just returned from the SBC annual meeting. I confess it was more spirited than I’ve seen it in the past couple of years; a welcomed change if you ask me! Complacency and apathy are two of our greatest enemies. It’s a good thing to debate among the fellowship as long as we remember that we are brothers and sisters fighting the same war.

Many will have read the papers and received the slanted view of the media. Perhaps you are thinking that the conservative resurgence has taken a blow and is in great danger of slipping back down the slippery slope of liberalism. Such is not the case. That danger does exist and always will. Greensboro, however, was a family meeting where we, who have settled the matter of Biblical authority, took a hard look at some other issues. Can we have differing views of sovereign grace and still maintain fellowship? Will we hold fast to our evangelistic and global missions calling? Will we be faithful and held accountable to supporting the Cooperative Program that has united us for over seventy-five years? And, are we willing to trust a new generation of Southern Baptist leaders to lead into the twenty-first century? These are not easy questions, but they do not in any way reflect where we were twenty years ago!

I do, however, believe that Greensboro was a “heads up.” It was a clarion call to watch out for excesses and a tendency for everyone to just do what “seems right in his own eyes.” To march together, an army must have a shared objective and obey its orders. It’s never “every man for himself.” It’s the mission! The Southern Baptist Convention is an army and the churches are the units who cooperate in fulfilling the Lord’s Great Commission. But, if we don’t march together, battles will certainly be lost, and God may well raise up another army to win His war.

We have some who want to make Calvinism (either pro or con) a test of fellowship. Others want to make a specific percentage given to the Cooperative Program the litmus test. Still others are promoting “freedom in Christ” and are being countered by those who hold to traditional Baptist values. And, somewhere in all this, there is an obvious struggle for new leaders to rise to the top. These are real issues, and they are not going away! But, don’t lose site of the fact that they are also issues that are being evaluated biblically and cooperatively by Baptist who are in the midst of recapturing their mission and their destiny.

I have no doubt that there are some out there who will think that there is a fracture in the conservative resurgence. They will begin to look towards San Antonio as an opportunity to recapture the SBC and make it more moderate and inclusive. To those I say, “Beware!” Brothers may differ and they may tend to scrap with one another, but “Katy bar the door” should anyone launch an attack from the outside. You will see them come together and fight with a fervor that only flesh and blood can inspire. We are more intent to stand upon the inspired, inerrant, authoritative Word of God than we have ever been. We will work through our issues, but we will not go back to the past.

How impressed I was at the meeting in Greensboro when we had just gone through a trying business session. Then, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a moving address and at the conclusion, messengers spontaneously broke into song; “God bless America…” It was sweet harmony indeed, a harmony of purpose and resolve. And, that’s where we must be headed. Not just laying our differences aside, but standing upon the Word, respecting one another, and working through our differences to achieve balance as we take the Good News to our communities and to the world. It is a calling we must not ignore.

May the Lord make it so… both in the SBC at large and in our own church.

Jesus upbraided those who opposed Him when he said, “You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” (Matthew 16:3)

Gordon Jensen wrote, “Signs of the times are everywhere,” and that is certainly true in our day. Hardly a day passes when I do not see some suspicious news report indicating that our world is in a downward spiral. On the one hand it would appear that we are becoming more religious because there are many more reports of a religious nature. Unfortunately, seldom are those reports Christian, and often they are downright anti-Christian! On the other hand, the proponents of immoral behavior are more proactive than they have ever been. The gay rights movement is alive and well, and it is unlikely that the Marriage Amendment will even make it off the Washington table.

Just last week, I listened as one reporter interviewed a liberal politician who labeled those who support the Pro Life and Marriage Amendment issues as members of the radical right wing. Did you hear that? “Radical!”

Synonyms of radical are extremist, fanatical, insurgent, seditious. And, most liberals would add intolerant! Is that what I am for believing the Bible and patterning my life after moral behavior that past generations considered normal behavior? But, that’s the world we are living in, and it is becoming increasingly more unfriendly and intolerant towards conservative Christian values.

Now, I am not surprised by all this. After all, I have read the end of the Book, and I know the bent of the future and the end of the story. Things will get worse… a whole lot worse before they get better. But, Jesus revealed that those who “endure to the end will be saved;” IE, ultimately delivered. Our calling is to faithfulness not popularity. It is to stand fast and to remain unmovable where truth is concerned. If we are salt and light we must shine and sometimes sting, but neither of those things will happen if we merely roll over and acquiesce to the liberal agenda.

Yes, signs of the times are everywhere, but that’s not the end of the song. It continues, “So keep your eyes upon the eastern sky. Lift up your heads redemption draweth nigh.”

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!