About the Gospel

I’ve been a Southern Baptist my whole life.

What that may mean to you is ‘whoa, disney boycott’ or ‘prohibitionist’.

What it means to me is hard to explain. When I was a kid my prayer in church was ‘Dear God, why is this taking so long?’ The pews were as hard as the preaching. And guess what? Some of it started to sink in. This Jesus (or Je-Sus! as the ol’ country preachers used to say. Syllables may vary by county.) Back then it wasn’t about the Convention or the ACP or whether or not the church was going to split over the color of the carpet in the sanctuary. It was a matter of going and hearing the Word of God. You can fill in the blank on my conversion and Baptism probably. I’m OK with that. It happened. I know it happened and it happened in a Southern Baptist Church where something 20% of the total membership showed up for Sunday School and they all stayed for Church plus a few guests. Sound familiar?

Of course it does. There’s a lot of that going on still in this country. People get together and hear the Word of God preached on Sunday and just about any day in between. I read about missions in strip mall, coffee shops, and abandoned bars. I read about preaching points and evangelistic crusades…you get the point. But most of us have got a humongous freakin’ Sequoia of a splinter in our eye because we’re not happy with their language. Or maybe that pastor has a tattoo that shows when he stands in the pulpit. Maybe the music’s loud as the preaching can get but its the Gospel. You can’t deny the content.

Take some fiber. Man up. Or mind your own business, that’d probably be better.

People need the Gospel, they need Christ. Who are you to deny them that?

“But the word of God is not bound!” Are you?

COD: A Book Review and a donnybrook too

I don’t know if I’ve ever heard the word ‘donnybrook’ used outside the movie ‘Quiet Man’ but you’ll know if you’ve ever watched it. It’s sort of a long brambling brawl…kinda like some of the long rambling threads I’ve seen in blogs. Anyway, here’s a great book review by Tim Challies and as a bonus, a brawl in his meta about the proper way to reach people for Jesus. I shake out with the Baptists on a lot of issues but this probably isn’t one of them.

Sunday School This Ain’t

As you can tell from this postpolitics really bothers me sometimes. I can’t explain it other than I have many strenuous objections to a system that rewards the best ’spinner’ of truth with extreme power and leadership. Anyway, this morning I’ve seen some other Christian folks
talking about whether or not to vote for McCain and I have to say I’m not that concerned about John McCain in the White House. What bothers me is the idea of Obama–which we could probably survive as a nation–or *shudder* The Clinton’s for eight more years. I may not enjoy some of the things McCain has done or said but he has at least DONE something other than talk. Unlike the last Republican President we had, he knows how to compromise in order to actually get something done.

And lets not forget about the Christian Slaves in Caesars house. Lets not forget about Paul in chains and in Rome and how nearly all of Caesars household was converted. The athiests and the agnostics may not like Christians but I bet they like doing business with them if they practice what they preach. Thats the sort of situation we have here.

Grow up people. This ain’t Sunday School.