authentic Baptist heritage

2009-12-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Advent Week Three
Zephaniah 3:14-20 (New International Version)

14 Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The LORD has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
16 On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
"Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."
18 "The sorrows for the appointed feasts
I will remove from you;
they are a burden and a reproach to you.
19 At that time I will deal
with all who oppressed you;
I will rescue the lame
and gather those who have been scattered.
I will give them praise and honor
in every land where they were put to shame.
20 At that time I will gather you;
at that time I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise
among all the peoples of the earth
when I restore your fortunes
before your very eyes,"
says the LORD.

The third Sunday of Advent focuses on joy. Often a pink or rose candle is lit to signify the great joy that we sense when we remember the birth of Christ. The prophet Zephaniah called for the people of Israel to rejoice because the LORD was with them. Many translations of this passage say that the LORD was in their midst, or as the Contemporary English Version says “Your LORD is King of Israel and stands at your side.” The great hymn writer Isaac Watts was thinking this way when he penned our beloved Christmas carol “Joy to the World” in 1719. Joy to the world, the Lord is come! When we remember that Christ was born into this world we rejoice just as the angel announced to the shepherds in Luke 2: 10, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” When we radiate the joy of Christmas we can bring light and joy to a dark and dreary world full of pain and suffering. Go out and be joyful this Christmas season for the LORD is with you and he is mighty to save.

2009-12-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

I have committed to publishing devotional material for each of my classes at Wayland this winter term. This is the second Advent devotional to celebrate the Christmas season.

Advent Week Two:

Luke 1:57-66 (New International Version)
The Birth of John the Baptist
57When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
59On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John."
61They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name."
62Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." 64Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.

The second Sunday of Advent focuses our attention on hope. The birth of their son brought hope to Zechariah and Elizabeth. Their son John was the herald of a greater hope that was to come when Messiah would make things on earth look like they do in heaven. We remember that Jesus’ first coming into this world signaled the in-breaking of God’s kingdom here among us. Because he came into our world we can have hope in the here and now that God’s kingdom can be enacted in our lives and the lives of others.

We look forward in hope because of Jesus’ first coming. During the advent season we remember the hope that was born into this world because God came to live with us and show us how to live. May we hold on to the hope that was born in us when we trusted Christ and carry it into this season and the rest of our lives.

2009-12-07T10:34:00.000-08:00

Advent devotional for week one

Matthew 24: 42-44
42"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

The first Sunday of the Advent season focuses not on Jesus’ first coming, but on his second coming. Jesus warned his disciples that his second coming would be unannounced but not unexpected. We are in the same situation that the early Christians found themselves after Jesus resurrection and ascension, we are waiting for the second coming. Waiting is something that we don’t do very well is it? We are an immediate gratification society. We want what we want and we want it now. This first week of Advent provides us an opportunity to renew our anticipation and longing for Christ’s return. We know that his return will establish eternal peace and justice and we long for the day when that will happen. In the meantime we work to help establish his kingdom here “on earth as it is in heaven.”

In his Advent address from 2002 Pope John Paul II reminded us that Advent “helps us to understand the fullness of the value and meaning of the mystery of Christmas. It is not just about commemorating the historical event; which occurred some 2,000 years ago in a little village in Judea. Instead, we must understand that our whole life should be and advent, in vigilant expectation of Christ’s final coming. To prepare our hearts to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the creed, will come to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize his presence in the events of daily life. Advent is then, a period of intense training that directs us decisively to the One who has already come, who will come, and who continuously comes.”

May we have that longing for Christ’s coming renewed in our hearts and experiences.

Basilica bones are St Paul's, Pope declares after carbon dating tests -Times Online

2009-06-29T09:42:00.001-07:00

Basilica bones are St Paul's, Pope declares after carbon dating tests -Times Online

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2008-10-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

After a few years (7 to be exact, but who's counting) I am going to be a full-time professor. I am headed to Lubbock, Texas to be assistant professor of religion for Wayland Baptist University.

Here is our campus photo

I am looking forward to getting started in January and getting established.

2007-11-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

Texas Baptists and Missions

Lost in the shuffle of interesting events at the latest BGCT meeting in Amarillo was the speech by Texas Baptist Committed Executive director David Currie. The speech was summarized in the Texas Baptist Standard by Ken Camp
http://www.baptiststandard.com/postnuke/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=7018

Currie's comments were interesting and give a cue to what at least some Texas Baptist leaders envision for the future.

One particular observation caught my eye and that was his comments about Texas Baptists stepping up to the plate for world wide missions.

Currie said:
"Texas Baptists should provide at least a portion of the direct funding for any Texas Baptist who feels called to serve internationally with any missions-sending agency."

World-Connex should be the mechanism to accomplish this task! I have thought from the very inception of World-connex that at least part of its mission should include sending missionaries. While modern missiological theory says that there are new ways to do missions in the post-modern era it has been true since the days of William Carey that resident missionaries are still the "bread and butter" of the mission force.

The task of missions has always been important to Texas Baptists. Let's step up and support world-wide missions and start putting our money where it should be, in financing and supporting missions around the world.

2007-11-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Vacation this past summer was in Washington, DC. We spent a week and had a great time. I have always enjoyed vacation destinations, but this time I was ready to stay. Perhaps one day I will get to move to Northern Virginia near the capitol and its historical places.

Here I am in the Lincoln Memorial. It was an emotionally moving experience because so much history has occurred there. Even Forrest Gump was there once!

2006-11-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

Check out this article on NYTimes. It refers to the way in which American foreign policy is affected by a particular or peculiar? way of interpreting the Bible in dispensationalism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/washington/14israel.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1164038613-evQuD24ebXTZyRKqERnt2A

Evangelicals and politics is a major topic of conversation currently and well it should be.

2006-11-16T00:31:00.000-08:00

I have read a few blogs around and some other sources that are talking about the end of state conventions as viable Baptist entities. These bloggers may be right that the current shape of Baptist connectionalism will change, but I am not so quick to predict the end of state conventions. I think that they will change shape significantly, perhaps morphing into affinity groups rather than geographical entities, but Baptists have been connectional from the very beginning.

The first associations were formed for mutual help and connection. The associations enjoyed getting together for fellowship and discussion about issues that faced the churches. Just read the minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association and you'll see. That association is about to celebrate its 300th aniversary next year.

Baptists are connectional people because they have discovered that they can and should work together to "advance the Redeemer's kingdom" as the founding documents of the Southern Baptist Convention describe things. This connectionalism will remain because Baptists know that they accomplish so much more when they work together.

Baptist conventions and associations are worth keeping not just because we've always done it that way, but because they serve as useful tools to do God's work and connect together for fellowship and Christian love.

2006-10-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

Baptists have always utilized confessions of faith to express their understanding of the Christian life. Leon McBeth's Baptist Heritage describes several ways in which Baptists used confessions.

What ways were you particularly interested in?

Are these still valid uses of confessions today?

How can they be abused?

How do they relate to the other notion that Baptists hold called the "priesthood of the believer?"

2006-10-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

The theories on Baptist origins have fascinated me since I first began to study Baptist history. I took William Estep's course on the Anabaptist Reformation and wrote a very basic paper on the relationship between Baptists and Anabaptists. Estep was a proponent of Anabaptist influence on the formation of both the General and Particular Baptists. Later on, in my dissertation on Primitive Baptists, I articulated the idea that the successionistic theory of Baptist origins was so popular among rank and file Baptists in the 19th century because they were intent to prove that they did not fall victim to the corruptions that had rendered the bulk of Christianity invalid. Baptists were pure because they had never lost the authentic expression of New Testament Christianity which they found expressed in the pages of the New Testament.

Are Baptists today interested in preserving New Testament Christianity? Is it necessary to do so? Do we need biblical authority for all our organizations such as associations and conventions? These are just some of the questions that can be raised after examining the different theories of Baptist origins. What others can you think of?

2006-10-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

I really am a bowtie Baptist. Here I am wearing my "Vitruvian Man" bowtie from Beauties Ltd. of Vermont.

2006-09-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

This blog is dedicated to exploring the Baptist Heritage in all its complexity. Along the way I hope to explore this complexity, looking at what it is that Baptists have in common as well as what makes each group distinct.