12 Witnesses

You can check out more pictures on my photoblog.

Steeples

Of course, the “Christian Scientists” have their non-steepled effort…

Just so you know, I’m not the “every church must have a steeple” guy. Ours has a peaked roof with stained glass in the peak. It’s pretty and it’s unique.

Though I am always engaging in conversations in an effort to build relationships in order to communicate the Gospel, it sometimes frustrates me when those conversations end quickly and we never get there.

So God, being the gracious, amazing and humorous God that He is found me praying yesterday morning as I woke up. (Me to God) “Y’know, if I could just plainly lay out the Gospel sometime real soon, that’d be great.”

No problem.

On my way to the office after an eye appointment, I call my secretary to check if everything is ok. I have had a church member call and tell me that an extended family member, living apart from God, was badly ill in the hospital, and she wanted me to go by and share the Gospel.

Hmmmm.

So I find myself in ICU in a very real “Mars Hill” conversation with a man that has his own ideas about God and is convinced that he is fine, but denies some real core beliefs of the faith. I am hearing these things, quoting back Scripture in affirmation about what he says that is right about God, but also to correct what he has wrong about God.

Long story short, he wasn’t buying what I was selling, but was very grateful for me to be there.

I’m praying for his recovery and the opportunity for more conversations that will lead to his salvation.

I am also praying that I will be quicker to get to the Gospel. Not in a “shove it down your throat” kind of way, but in an “urgent, this is important enough not to let the moment slip by” kind of way.

I spoke with Alan Cross last week. That conversation prompted this article.

You may know that Alan and Erika, along with the rest of their family, are dealing with the possible recurrence of cancer in their son, Caelan.

As I spoke with Alan, my words were pretty simple. I told him that I loved him and his family and that my family and church were praying with them. I said that our hearts were breaking with theirs. Beyond that, I kept quiet and let Alan tell me about what was going on and share where they were.

Then Alan mentioned something that had happened that always happens when things seem desperate in the life of a believer (for that matter, it may happen in the lives of unbelievers, as well). He said that he had a few people come and talk to him or call him and try to “work out their theology on him.” It has to be said that Alan is and always has been more patient and gentle than I am. He said that he just received what they were saying for the good intentions that they had and went on. I told him that he was a better man than I am.

The truth is that people often do this in a time of seeming crises. Alan is right, they usually have good intent. I think a rare few are driven by some need to be right, but the vast majority are really trying to help. I think they believe that if they can impart some wisdom to the situation and help the grieving person see things “rightly,” then the perception of this truth will bring peace.

In fact, it doesn’t.

Peace only comes with a sense of God’s Presence. Accurate understanding may, in fact, enhance someone’s realization of God’s Presence in their situation, but the time to come to that understanding is not in the middle of their pain.

Let me give you a few things I have learned about being a help to someone who is facing grief, whether their sense of devastation is from something that has come to pass or something that may yet come to pass.

1. Most people don’t want to try and work through complicated theology. If you try and explain the sovereignty of God (if you adhere to the Doctrines of Grace) or the pernicious nature of the Devil (if you trend more Arminian), they are likely to sense that you are intruding on their emotions and are forcing them to think about some abstract irrelevancy when the thing foremost on their minds is their loved one.

2. They may ask the question, “Why did God let this happen?” If they do, it doesn’t mean that they want the theological discussion that would result from a well thought out response. I’m not saying they don’t want to know. I am saying that they don’t want to deal with complexities, especially the difficult answer of the problem of sin and pain in the world that would be reduced to something that will actually sound pithy.

What they are really looking for is peace. If you could answer them in one sentence with an answer that would reveal God’s thoughts and lend them His perspective, then you would be able to give them what they want. The problem is, obviously, that you can’t do that. The truth is you don’t know why God let this happen, and your speculation would not be helpful. No matter where you stand on the problem of pain, you must admit that you don’t know the mind of God, and that should be your answer to the question.

“Why did God let this happen?”

“I don’t know…”

3. I left the ellipses after that phrase because you shouldn’t, and I rarely if ever, stop there. What they need is the comfort of God’s Presence, so when they ask this question, give them what they need with an answer similar to this:

“I don’t know, but I do know that He loves you and He loves your family. I know that you are all important to Him and that there is nothing in the world that escapes Him. This is not being ignored by God.”

4. Then you should stop. Then you should listen. What most people need at this time is to talk. They need to express their feelings and frustrations. They need sympathy. You can easily give that to them by giving them your attention and time.

Remember that at all times you, as a part of the Body of Christ, represent the person of God - imperfect though we all may be. They need His presence, and you can model it by spending some time and attention with those who are hurting.

5. When the time has passed, ask if you can pray for them. If they are willing, and most are, ask God to provide them comfort, wisdom and strength. If they have a loved one who is sick, ask God to give the health professionals guidance. If the Holy Spirit confirms with you, ask God to bring healing. (I’m not going to enter into a debate concerning “Word of Faith” theology that God wants to heal all people, especially His people. Another time and place.) Above all, ask for the family and all involved to be aware of God’s presence in the situation - that none could be in the room without knowing He is there.

Pray this last phrase for two reasons. First, ask this because you want it to happen - that all would realize His presence. Second, do it out loud with them because it helps them to picture the reality that God actually IS present in the middle of their crises.

Remember that you are there as a servant of God and of them. Realize what they really need (a sense of God’s presence) and then work hard to give it to them.

Also, though this post is not specifically about the Cross family, please allow me to ask that you continue to pray for Caelan Cross and all those that love him.

If you are looking for the video post of traveling gear, I’ll put it up next week.  I think the timing is better for it then and this now.

I’ve had a couple of wake up calls in the last week.  Dennis Jeffares, during our training session, informed us of some particular sensitivities to which we are going to have to adjust.  We have to rearrange our vocabulary a bit, especially in the use of the M word.  It turns out that it is offensive to that culture for reasons I do not yet understand.  Nevertheless, because it is offensive, we must avoid it.

I’ve had to edit it out of emails and I’ve retroactively edited posts to eliminate it as well.  At this point, I am putting the word in my “moderation” filter so I can catch it if someone uses it inadvertently.

Moreover, we have to be prepared to have all of our belongings searched.  This is an affront to our pride in our culture.  All of that has to go away, and is not that big of a deal.  I wish I could say more about this, but I can’t.

The other thing that is a shock to my system is the Spiritual Warfare that we are beginning to face already.  A friend who was raised on the field warned me last week that the rooms in which we will stay have been blessed by Buddhist Monks, and that our team needed to be bathed in prayer.  That our judgment could be cloudy, that we could suffer nightmares, are all a part of the reality of Asia.   Couple that with the exhaustion of traveling around the world and we will be in desperate need of God’s strength.

I’ve been so excited about going that I’ve ignored the Spiriutal Realities that surround what we are doing.  Make no mistake:  I am confident in God’s sovereignty.  There is  no doubt From Whom and Through Whom and To Whom are all things (Rom 11:36).  That is why it so vital that we be dependent on Him, and not ourselves.

My Dad sent me a link yesterday to a new tool that has been created by John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted” television show.  You may or may not know that Walsh, host of the show, had his son kidnapped and murdered, which sent him down the path of catching those who prey on others.  The tv show is a part of what has come from the trajectory his life has become.

Go to www.familywatchdog.us.

On the left hand side of the screen, type in your zip code or address and search.  A map will appear on the right side of the screen that will depict schools in white boxes with a blue line through it.  All other boxes represent convicted criminals that are a part of the national sex offender registry.  The boxes are color coded to the type of crime committed and whether it is the place of business or the home of the registered offender.

If you click on a box, an information pop up window will appear that will give you all kinds of information, including a mug shot.

It is not perfect nor can it track those who have never been convicted, but it is a valuable tool.  As my friend, Richard, likes to say:  The best indicator of future performance is past performance.  That is simply to say, that of all the people that live around you, the most likely to offend are those who have a history of offending.

Let me also say, that I think that these people need the Lord.  They need love and grace.  That does not mean that we blindly trust, nor does it mean we should endanger our children and families by being obtuse.

You get the picture.

NFL to allow church Super Bowl parties

Art Toalston is reporting for Baptist Press that the NFL has relented and will allow churches to show the Super Bowl on any size screen that they might choose, so long as they do not charge for the event.

Some members of the US Senate were beginning to investigate the matter and high profile Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) had sent a recent letter of inquiries that might lead one to believe he suspected an anti religious bias.  Another high profile Senator, Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania), had begun to draft legislation that would resolve the issue in favor of the churches.

Apparently this legislation was enough to back the NFL down.

A few personal thoughts here.

I was a little amazed that the NFL didn’t back down when so much was made of this in the media last year.  It really surprised me that they did not seem to want to budge this year at all.  I would have thought that in the year since, they would have worked hard to resolve this as it was clearly a publicity nightmare.  Whatever anti-church sentiments American culture maybe breeding, they are not so deep that the whole of the culture would side with bars over churches, which is how this is seen by the average person.

Of course, that is why it was taken up by these Senators.  The perception that churches were being discriminated against was just too much and the NFL was finally in a corner.  For whatever reasons, they were willing to deal with churches complaints and whatever sympathy they might stir in the media, but being legislated against by the Senate legitimizes the complaints and solidifies any doubts the American public may have about whether or not they were doing something wrong.

Last year, believing that they were discriminating against churches, we went ahead with our party as scheduled.  This year, when they did not budge, I thought the better solution was to disperse and have several parties in homes.  This gave our people a chance to invite lost friends and co-workers into their homes and generate conversations.  As with any change, the early response is often mixed.  Though we did not have any complaints, we did not have as many parties as I had hoped we would.  We did have a few and some positive conversations were had as a result.

You can read about the full plan and reasoning here:  Super Bowl Quandry

I think we’ll stick with this plan, regardless of the NFL’s acquiescence to allow the big screens to be used again in the future.

The truth is, lost people don’t want to come to a church building, even if they are showing the Super Bowl there.  They are much more likely to come to our homes.  Our church building parties often turn into church wide fellowships where the believers huddle and omit the commercials so we can have a sanctified fellowship that is unburdened with  the uncomfortable.

On the one hand, I feel somewhat justified in our “civil disobedience” last year.  On the other hand, I wish I would have figured out the better solution a year before.

I am not putting up a Phriday foto today. Really I need any and all traffic that should hit this site to pray and to refer this to anyone else that is a believer and ask them to pray.

Caelan Cross is a wonderful child, whom I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting. I take the word of his father, Alan Cross, on the beauty of his son.

Caelan was diagnosed with cancer as a 5 month old child and had it surgically removed from his side, along with a rib or two, if I remember correctly.

The doctors said that if this cancer ever returned it would be a hard thing to overcome and the odds of his survival would not be good.

At his recent 3 month scan, a swollen lymph node was discovered behind his heart. The doctors, because of the previous cancer, are treating this very seriously and have scheduled a dangerous biopsy next week. If they are unable to get at it with a probe, they will have to open Caelan’s chest right then.

When dealing with aggressive cancer, it is good to have aggressive doctors. This does not change all of the emotions the family is going through. Also, Caelan, who has been through all manner of medical procedures, from surgery to chemotherapy, faces a yet undetermined round today and beyond.

I ask for you to please pray for Caelan, his parents, Alan and Erika, and siblings, whom I sadly confess I don’t know their names.

You can check for ongoing requests and leave comments for the Cross family at Alan’s blog: Downshore Drift.

In an effort to get Younger Leaders to the Annual Meeting, The Executive Committee commissioned Lifeway Research to work on a project that would result in higher turnout among the vanishing generation.

The following is the result of that effort…

HT: SBC Voices, Tony Kummer

re: the final screen message - I guess I’m out…

Next week, I’ll try to post a video rundown of the gear I’m taking and how I’m packing it. We’ve been really busy and haven’t had time to mess with the video stuff, but with the trip coming up fast, I need to work out the kinks.

We’ve sent off our Applications and Passports for Visas to the Embassy of Vietnam in Washington, D.C. and expect them back next week. Not all nations require Visas, but some do. If you are going overseas, it is one of the things you need to make sure is taken care of in plenty of time. GVI turned in our names to the Embassy and got us a pre-approval so that our visas should get processed a little faster and they will get processed as a group.

Clearly, we are reaping the benefit of having Northwood and GVI already having developed relationships and gone through the process ahead of us.

That is not to say that the local church shouldn’t go through such a process on its own. Northwood did. I say this because some of the immediate reaction to news of our going was the question if we were going with the IMB. The truth is that this is not in opposition to the IMB or, really, in anyway about what has been going on with them, but we are not partnering directly with them in this venture.

I think many local SBC churches have gotten lazy in their dependence on the CP and the IMB. We can not simply delegate the going to others. Cooperation is necessary, but so is personal engagement.

Soon and very soon. We are headed for Vietnam.

WordPress blogs have struggled to get along with embedded You Tube videos, which have become a staple of blogging. For whatever reasons, they would only work if you embedded the code and published the post immediately. If you ever needed to come back and edit the post, the video would drop.

This was, obviously, a major problem for those of us, like myself, who like to write our posts at convenient times and set them to “drop” for a time much later on.

Last week, the WordPress news blog posted a link to a new and useful plugin that allows WordPress users to easily embed a You Tube video. The plugin’s name is embedify, and you can check out it’s download page here.

After downloading, install the plugin to your plugin folder and activate it.

After that, all you need to do is to put the web address of the video’s You Tube page in the post where you want the video embedded.  You can even do this in the visual editor, and don’t have to go to the code page.

You can set it to drop for a later time, as well.

For WordPress users, the process just got very easy.