About America

If you are a citizen of the United States, Happy Independence Day! If you are not, please tolerate my patriotism for a moment. In spite of her flaws, America is a beautiful country. Her ideals are primarily Christian. Even today, though veiled in secular terms, a significant number of America's values are Christian. For that, plus many other reasons, I am not ashamed to rejoice in the birth of that great nation. I am not ashamed to identify myself as American. I love America, I pray for America, and I continue to defend America as "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

I am going to include in this post an abridged manuscript from a message I preached in 2002, one year after that horrible tragedy that struck our nation. While some of the illustrations are now dated, the content and context is still valid.

One last word: God bless America!

What’s Right about America?
Proverbs 14:34

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

This message was born about 15 years ago, in the labor room of intercession. I was seeking a word from God regarding this country, the United States of America. Since that time and after many, many miles of world travels I have refined the message. Last year’s catastrophic events helped a lot to move me to continue to meditate on this important question.
As America wept, men and women all around asked rhetorically, “What’s wrong with America?” I stood on a rooftop in a Latin American country, where I watched a riot in progress; men shouted to me, “Death to the United States!” Two days later, as we attempted to sneak out of that troubled city under the cover of darkness, men who saw us shook their fists angrily at the bus carrying my friends and me to the airport. My heart cried, “What’s wrong with America?” Why do men and women want to dance in the streets when we suffer calamities that they would weep over? Why do countries who so readily receive our dollars offer us death in return?

That is the wrong question. It is not a question of what is wrong with America. Anyone can easily see the decadence and moral corruption that takes more time on the evening news than anything else. The question that needs to be asked in times like these is, “What is right about America?” I believe if we could rediscover what is right about this great country, then our greatness would loom even larger in the face of certain determined enemies. I believe it is what is right about America that makes madmen design attacks to bring us to our knees. I believe it is what is right about America that makes it even more imperative that we rediscover our roots.
In this message I want to share four truths that will speak to your hearts about America. Some of these are little known truths. Others have been “colored” to fit modern revisionist philosophies. Hopefully, this will help to set the record straight.

First, America has the right foundation. The foundation is the most important aspect of construction. Ask any builder. If the foundations are destroyed, the building will not stand. If the foundations are built without proper preparation, the building will not stand. So it is with a life; so it is with a family; and so it is with a country.

Before I describe that the foundation is, I need to tell you what the foundation is not. Unlike what some want to believe, the foundation of America is not freedom from taxation. The colonists did not completely oppose taxation. They understood the need to tax in order for a government to function. What the colonists opposed was taxation without representation.
The foundation of America is not freedom from government. Our founding fathers said repeatedly that any society needed government to help maintain and preserve order. This is not to laud the monstrous government we have today; it is just to debunk one of the many myths out there, that the colonists were escaping government.

Not only is the above true, but the foundation of America is not freedom from moral restraints. We have all heard it all our lives: that cry to be free to do whatever you want. No society can function without moral restraint. Even the most primitive of the Amazon tribes have a set of mores that preserve the order of their societies. The writer of Proverbs said, “Where there is no vision, the people perish (29:18).” Modern translations state that as, “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.” The founding fathers were very careful to ensure moral restraint.

The right foundation of America was freedom to pursue a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our founding fathers established a society and government which was intended to protect this, the most valuable of all pursuits of life.

Unlike what Mr. Michael Newdow, that infamous atheist of California, believes, America’s foundation is not freedom from religion. All of the original 13 colonies’ constitutions insisted that one had to believe in God in order to hold public office. Almost all the states insist on Godly not godless leadership. Our founding fathers believed very strongly what we have cast aside: righteousness exalts a nation. Righteousness can only be found in a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

In spite of a small group of small-thinking, mean-spirited, godless senators who refuse to appoint to the Federal Courts anyone with moral integrity, America’s foundation is still the moral convictions found in Scripture. One senator recently opposed the nomination of one candidate for the appellate court, based on the candidate’s recommendation that her pastor serve as a chaplain in her home state. How low can you go? Try refusing to appoint men and women who think most forms of abortion is murder, but who still swear to uphold the law. What are these senators afraid of? Are they afraid that someone might insist that our leaders be godly once again? This is one citizen who does!

From the Mayflower Compact to the Constitution itself, you will find repeated evidence of a hunger for one nation under God. These documents are pregnant with Bible references.
Kenneth Woodward and David Gates, writers for Newsweek magazine, said in 1982, “Historians are finding that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our founding document.” How often do you hear that discovery voiced in the classrooms of today? Noah Webster said, “[O]ur citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion.” This, dear friends, is the foundation of America.

Secondly, America had the right founding fathers. From the Pilgrims to the Puritans, the founding fathers of this country followed what is today called Evangelical Theology. They were almost entirely Evangelical Christians. To be sure and fair, there were a few whom we would not consider to be Christian. Some were considered to be Deists. They believed in God, but would not embrace Jesus as God come in the flesh. Still, many of them attempted to govern themselves according to the moral principles outlined in the Bible. Others were Christians, but of other denominations, such as Anglican, including the Father of our Nation, George Washington. But there were no atheists among the founding fathers. There were no Buddhists. There were no Muslims. There were no Hindus. The founding fathers were overwhelmingly Christian.

Listen to some of their statements of faith taken from David Barton’s book, Original Intent:
“My hopes of a future life are founded upon the Gospel of Christ….” – John Quincy Adams.
“[T]he religion I have [is] to love and fear God, believe in Jesus Christ, do all the good to my neighbor, and myself that I can, do as little harm as I can help, and trust on God’s mercy for the rest.” – Daniel Boone.

“I desire to bless and praise the name of God most high for appointing me my birth in a land of Gospel Light where the glorious tidings of a Saviour and of pardon and salvation through Him have been continually sounding in mine ears.” – Robert Treat Paine

“Principally and first of all, I recommend my soul to that Almighty Being who gave it and my body I commit to the dust, relying upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.” – Samuel Adams, in his last will and testament (lwt).

This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.” – Patrick Henry, lwt.

Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by his beloved Son…. Blessed be his holy name.” – John Jay, lwt.

Barton’s book holds many more examples of the founding fathers’ faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Evidence abounds that reveals that the founding fathers fully expected this nation to be a nation, not only under God, but especially under the Lord Jesus Christ. Even at that, it is the freedom of Christ which allows any man to pursue whatever other false god he may wish to follow.

I was equally amazed to learn of some of the founding fathers’ personal activities. Did I say personal? Some of these activities spilled over into political life. Dozens of our founding fathers were members of the American Bible Society, including such names as John Quincy Adams, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Benjamin Rush, and Chief Justice John Jay.
All of this and more makes me believe today that if the men and women who govern our country now were the men and women who founded our country, there would not be a United States of America! This nation would have foundered and disappeared in to insignificance decades ago.

The third truth I want to show you is that America had the right focus. Once again, let me remind you, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Our founding fathers had a vision for the new world. For about 7 generations, that vision predominated the drive of America. It was their vision that molded us and shaped us into the nation that slowly rose to world prominence.
At the turn of the 20th century, however, the vision began to get fuzzy. Don’t be mistaken. There were always moments when the nation had lost its focus. But there were always men who stood tall and called the nation back to its original intent. Still, it is in recent times that the vision has so blurred that we can’t seem to find the right “prescription” to correct the problem.
What was that vision that drove this great country? Was it financial prosperity? Not at all. Yet, because of the founding father’s vision, prosperity came to be commonplace in America. Was it world dominance? No. Leaders throughout modern times have accused America of empire-building, but that has not been the true vision of America. The vision of America was two-fold. It was to be a strong moral influence around the world, and it was to carry the Gospel into all the world.

John Winthrop, one of our founding fathers, wrote, “We are a company, professing ourselves fellow members of Christ. The end is to improve our lives and do more service to the Lord, that ourselves and our posterity may be better preserved from the common corruptions in this world.” John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Do you see those words, “only for a moral and religious people?” Hear me, the United States of America was founded a moral nation. The entire structure of its government depends upon moral restraint.

There are six words that do not exist in the Constitution of the United States: “The separation of church and state.” But if you asked most men and women in America today if these words were a part of the Constitution, they would tell you they were. Listen to the 1854 minutes of the House Judiciary Committee of the United States Congress: “[Religion] must be considered as the foundation on which the whole structure rests…. In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity; that, in its general principles, is the great conservative element on which we must rely for the purity and permanence of free institutions.” Yet, in the name of church and state separation, we have effectively eradicated Christianity from the mainstream of America! To borrow the misspoken and ill-timed words of one of our elder senators of today, that is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!

Not only did our founding fathers hope to be a moral influence around the world, they also planned, prayed, and purposed to carry the light of the Gospel into all the world. In the Mayflower Compact, the Pilgrims stated they were planting a colony in the northern parts of Virginia (they missed by a few hundred miles), “for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith….” The first few presidents of the US, including Thomas Jefferson who was not a Christian, directed federal funds to mission efforts among American Indians.

You have to ask that if this was the original vision of this great nation, what happened? Well, that vision began to be actively reshaped at the turn of the 20th century, more particularly, in the 1920’s. This happened when the educational system began to be reshaped. Before then, your mind was to be developed, to be filled with knowledge and information. But educator John Dewey taught that schools were for socialization and that the mind was not the property of the individual, but of humanity. Did you get that? The man taught a new thing in America. That means schools are not for learning knowledge; they are for learning how to get along with others. That also means you should not be allowed to think for yourself. This, ladies and gentlemen, is known as socialism.

In order to accomplish this, the National Educators Association knew they had to get Christianity out of the school system. Why? Because Bible reading and prayer helped to keep our focus on the main things. Courses on the Bible taught us the morality that makes this nation great. It only took 3 generations to accomplish their goal to make our education system a godless one. Coupled with liberal, sin-satisfied, prayerless churches, the NEA took God out of public life. Add to that judges who began to legislate rather than to adjudicate and you have a nation with a skewed vision.

A nation with a godless and clouded vision gives way to heinous sins and hedonistic pastimes. Abortion is a product. Marital infidelity is a product. Premarital infidelity is a product. Homosexuality is a product. High murder rates are a product. Suicide is a product. Corporate scandals are a product. Cutthroat business practices are a product. The destruction of the family is a product. The loss of personal rights to an ever-growing government is a product.
Where there is no vision, the people perish!

If we were to end this here, the tendency would be to despair. I want to end on a positive note: America can have the right future. I believe that the future of America rests squarely on the shoulders of America’s Christians. God blessed this great country for years and years. As Christians grew cold and silent, however, God’s blessings grew leaner; we are mistaken to think that the wealth of America is a sure sign that God is pleased with us. Some, if not a lot, of that wealth has been obtained in ways that do not reflect the presence of God. You see, capitalism is a Christian way of doing business; but it does not accomplish its intended end without committed Christians running the businesses!

Deuteronomy 28 spells out much of this for us. God told Israel, his covenant people, that if they honored him, then he would honor them. He would bless them, protect them, grant them wealth and power, cause their enemies to flee from them, and in general watch over their borders. But, if their heart grew cold toward God; if they attributed their wealth and power to themselves, then God said he would send them diseases, disasters, death, and determined enemies who would cause them to flee. He said he would allow their enemies to penetrate their borders and carry them away.

You may wonder what that has to do with us. Our founding fathers made a covenant with God. They often referred to Deuteronomy 28 when they felt a need to call our ancestors back to God. Christians are God’s covenant people, too. We are grafted into the tree, as Paul says in Romans. God offers us a blessing or a curse; it is up to us.

We can have a future that is bright. On 9-11, a reporter asked a fireman how he got out of the falling tower #1 of the World Trade Center. He replied, “I followed the light.” America can have a bright future if it follows the light of Jesus.

Or America can have a future filled with fright. Compared to what we will face if we don’t repent, 9-11 was nothing. God will not bear much longer with an unrepentant America.
Historian Benjamin Hart said, “All gods require submission: either we will submit to the God of Scripture, immutable and unchanging, or we will submit to the ever-shifting god of human convenience. Agnostic pluralism, too, is a jealous god. It is a militant philosophy, a closed system that in the end cannot tolerate other creeds.” Joshua told Israel to put away its gods and decide whom they would serve. Elijah told Israel to quit wavering between two opinions and choose whom they would serve. God tells America’s Christians to put away their idols, to quit wavering, and to choose whom they will serve. Todd Beamer – “Let’s pray. Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” To the men and women who hear my voice now, “Let’s pray and let’s roll.”

Revival, final part

Why would a missionary in South America want to comment so much on the subject of revival in North America? It comes down to this: un-revived churches are unconcerned churches. Unconcerned churches do not continue to send great numbers of missionaries. A dark world grows darker; a world once known for its spiritual light, grows dim. Everyone loses.

I want to be in South America as long as God allows. I also want a strong spiritual base back "home."

May God bless America with revival!

Revival, part 2

Last week I attended meetings of a sort that are slowly, but surely fading away. It's called a Revival Meeting. This one was poorly attended, based on what I know of the church where it was held. I don't plan to get into all the potential reasons for the disappearance of such a thing. But I think this needs to be contemplated.

There are those who would oppose them for theological reasons. In Jonathan Edwards' day they opposed them, too. Edwards and others ignored their protests. God rewarded their faithfulness.

Yet, revival meetings are now a thing of the past. I still recall when meetings lasted all week long. In my lifetime, they moved to lasting just 4 nights. Now a weekend is a long meeting. One evangelist told me he gets more invitations to "One Night Revivals" than ever before. How, pray tell, do you have one night revivals? Doesn't that sound contradictory to you? Or perhaps its very descriptive. After all, I have seen moves of God that lasted all of 3 hours--one night. After that, all was as it was before, if not worse.

No, I believe that the chief reason for the disappearance of the revival meeting in North America has more to do with our misguided sense of practicality over our theological convictions. If it is a theological conviction on your part, may God teach you otherwise!

By practicality, I mean that such meetings are no longer practical for us. It is an inconvenience for us; and we all know that making time for a revival meeting would mean sacrificing something else. I only have to look at America's spending habits to know we are not real keen on sacrifice. For example, I went to a popular sporting goods store the other week. They sell boats, guns, fishing gear, clothing, and all the things one needs to be an outdoorsman. Some of those boats sold for more than 40 thousand dollars. [I could use 40 grand. It would go a long ways to funding our ministries and the men and women being called to work with me in South America.] If a man can afford it and has the discretionary income to buy it, more power to him. But there are men and women who will go to the bank, take out a loan, buy a boat and trailer, a new truck, and all the gear they need to go "enjoy" a few hours on a lake front. They will create a level of indebtedness that causes them to sacrifice on the altar of pleasure, all the while claiming there is no time (or money) for a revival meeting. Behold your god, America!

We have traded the Living God for the no-gods of pleasure, practicality, and possessions. And that, to me, is one reason that the revival meetings of old are no longer a thing to be attended.

Americans think they are doing okay with God. So did Israel just before God took them to Babylon. While the revival meeting is not, in and of itself, the answer to revival, it does give us a chance to be revived. I believe America would do well to spend some corporate time together, seeking God's face, turning from their wicked ways, and begging God for forgiveness. That, after all, was the original intent of the revival meeting.

May God send a great revival!

Revival

I just wrote an entire discourse on revival. Where it went, no one knows. I hit that "publsh" button and the good folks in the cyberworld told me it had been published. But it was gone. Vanished. As we say in South America, se hizo humo. Up in smoke.

So I will try again. This subject is important enough I cannot let the cyber-demons eat it.

What do you know about revival? Have you ever experienced a true revival? What about a spiritual awakening among the lost; have you experienced that? I heard a man preach Sunday. He is hungry for revival. He wants to see his church revived. And he was honest enough to say he had never seen a revival.

His message made me think. It was a good one, to be sure. The long arm of the Holy Spirit stirred among us. Some were able to ignore Him; but not all of us. God spoke.

Why do we not hear about revival in America these days? Has God closed up heaven and told us that it's too late? I don't think so! I actually believe the problem is on our end. We have not because we ask not. When we do ask, we ask for the wrong reasons. I think those words from James 4 are applicable to revival.

There are many reasons we do not see a revival today. One of them, perhaps one of the greatest reasons, lies with the preachers. We preachers are too soft, too complacent. We love our comfort. We love our frills, our fringe benefits. We even believe we deserve them, all the while preaching against prosperity theology.

I listen to preacher talk among themselves. I have heard the coarse language. I have heard the off-color comments. I hear them laugh at things that should bring tears.

I read the surveys. I know that preachers are far more in love with the internet than they are the Bible. One man told me that his preacher bragged about not studying the Bible. He did not prepare sermons because he feared he would forget them before he ever got to the pulpit. Preacher, fall in love with God's word. If you cannot, then quit preaching. Quit starving God's sheep.

I know that preachers have lost their zeal for prayer. The demands of a modern-day church suck out the zeal like a hungry leech. Yet we have not because we ask not. We must rediscover the joy of sacrificial prayer.

Our cups do not run over. Norman Grubb wrote of that on page 19 of his booklet, "Continuous Revival:" "But here comes the point of it in this message of revival. We are to recognize that'cups running over' is the NORMAL daily experience of the believer walking with Jesus, not the abnormal or occasional, but the normal,continuous experience."

If America is to experience revival, my prayer is that America's preachers get in on it.

Revive us, Oh Lord!

Farewell to a Friend

I am not somewhere in South America today. I am somewhere in South Mississippi. I am here with my wife's family. It's a sad time. It's also a joyful time. I guess that means it's a bittersweet time. What time is it? It's time to say goodbye to my wife's dad. He was my friend before he was my father-in-law. He was my patient mentor when I was a know-it-all preacher boy. That was over twenty-eight years ago.

As I look back at the past twenty-eight years of preaching ministry, when I see where I began, I see the fingerprints of a good man. My father-in-law/friend/mentor shows up in some of my preaching style today. To be sure, I have long since developed my own style; but this man showed me how to read a passage of Scripture for all it is worth. He gave me tools that have never grown dull, never worn out, never become useless.

Soon--very soon--we will say "farewell" to this good man. But it is really more like a "see you later." My father-in-law was sure and satisfied with his relationship to Jesus Christ. I am sure of mine. So one day we will see one another again.

His last words he intended to share with his church were these: I am saved, I am sure, and I am satisfied. Is there anything more fitting to ask the readers today? Are you saved? Are you sure you are saved? Are you satisfied? Is Jesus enough?

To God be the glory for a man who did what he could with what he had. He buried nothing in the ground; it was all used for the glory of God.

Kevin,
Somewhere in South Mississippi

Are You a Junk Food Junkie?

I think I sat here two full minutes, staring at a blank text box; I felt I needed to write something, but what? After all, it probably does more good for my mental processes than it does for your eternal value. Still, time ticks by and the text box is not filling up with anything important. It must be all that pizza I ate this week.

Yes, I can blame it on pizza. My wife is somewhere in North America, taking care of our daughter, son-in-law, and their new baby. I am somewhere in South America, whiling away my Saturday after three consecutive days of pizza. Yes, pizza. After all, I have a 15-year-old daughter who needed to eat, too. Otherwise, it may have been peanut butter imported by the last volunteers who came to see us.

But how could something that tastes so good be so bad for your thinking process? Or your motivation? Answer: GREASE. It's not the cheese; it's the grease! It wasn't the tomato sauce; it was the grease! All that pepperoni was loaded with the stuff. And this pizza was loaded with pepperoni. The truth is, it's junk.

I purged my guilty conscience yesterday when I went out to buy groceries to feed my daughter and me. I stopped and ate a delicious salad. It had stuff in it from every major food group. That made me feel better. It felt so good I didn't mind stopping by the cinnamon roll place and picking up some of those.

That wasn't my tongue you saw in my cheek; it was a piece of a cinnamon roll!

I had to stop and admit it. I love junk food. Junk food producers love me, too. Mark Lowry sang a sarcastic song one time: "I can eat it all!" Sing it, Mark!

Let me get somewhat serious for a minute. Before any nutrition fanatics go for my juglar, you should know my blood will glob out; it won't flow. Seriously, I have a point to this.

What we put in our bodies has its impact, for good or for bad. That is equally true about what we put into our souls. Your soul is the focal point for your mind, will, and emotions. If you feed the mind with meaningless trivia and nothing more, then you deprive yourself of greater things. Our kids once imbibed on television; now it's the computer. There is little difference, in my opinion, as to the ultimate outcome of mindless entertainment. It starves your spirit and feeds junk into your mind.

It is in your soul that the thing called "flesh" resides. "Flesh" is what makes sin so fun. "Flesh" is what makes us brag when we blast another person (believer or not). "Flesh" is what makes us brag about what we did before we knew Jesus; or what we do now. "Flesh" is what makes us pleased with our spiritual accomplishments.

And the Flesh craves "food." Not that kind! Though it could be physical food. Some people I know are fat because they crave to an excess the food God intended to be both sustaining and pleasurable. But the food the Flesh wants is that food that feeds its passion and ways. So Flesh tells your mind what it wants; your mind tells your emotions; your will then becomes the key. To feed the Flesh, or not to feed the Flesh.

Sometimes we feed the Flesh, feel guilty, and then purge our consciences by some so-called spiritual thing. We pray. We read our Bibles. We attend church services. We help someone. We think about God for ten minutes. And then we go back to our feeding frenzy.

The Holy Spirit has a really good plan regarding the Flesh. Kill it! Deny yourself, take up your cross DAILY, and follow Jesus. If you die to the Flesh, your perspective begins to change. Paul said he died daily.

So what do you plan to feed on this week? Will it be true spiritual nourishment? Or will it be junk food?

Kevin,
Somewhere in South America

There's a Happy Dance Goin' On!

My firstborn had her firstborn today. The delivery process actually began a few days ago. The really tough part began last night. The part that fulfills Genesis 3:16 began this morning. Michelle's pain was greatly multiplied. But God's hand was firm and the beauty of a new birth unfolded for Michelle and her husband Kory. Sometime close to 11:15, Grace Elizabeth greeted the world with a cry.

It was a joyful experience for all who were there (I am not there; I am somewhere in South America). Tears flowed freely, and not just down Grace's cheeks. The multiplied sorrow and pain soon gave way to overwhelming joy and pride. The Psalmist captured the moment, though speaking of something else: Weeping will endure for a night; but joy comes in the morning. - Ps. 30:5 Someone just wrote me and said, "There's a happy dance going on here." Yes, joy comes in the morning.

Being a part that experience is unspeakable. Holding a newborn is delightful. Gaither's words were dead on:

How sweet to hold a newborn baby, and feel the love and joy [she] gives.

As joyous a thing as a birth, especially that of the firstborn, there is greater joy in the new birth, that birth that only comes by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and his finished work. When one sinner repents, there is joy in the presence of the angels. When one sinner repents, heaven takes notice. When a man or woman is born into the kingdom of God, the Godhead shines with joy. Angels thunder praises to the Lamb who was slain, and who is worthy. Saints in heaven fall on their faces.

Why is it, do you suppose, that we so often receive the news of the new birth with barely a yawn? Why--HOW--can we receive such news with stoic looks, when in heaven the King of kings is having a party over it? Could it be that we have become the elder brother of Luke 15?

I look forward to listening to my daughter and son-in-law as they describe all the new things that both they and Grace will discover in the years to come. I look forward to the joy that will bring. But I want to have greater joy over those newly born into the kingdom of God.

Kevin, Somewhere in South America

Peace, Y'all!

It's Easter weekend. Well, it's Good Friday where I am. When much of the world thinks of Easter, images of peace and messages of world peace innundate the media. Perhaps only Christmas rivals Easter on its messages of "peace on earth."

It would be wonderful to speak about peace. I would love to shout, "Peace on earth, and to goodwill to men!" Or, "Peace!" to the SBC. "Peace to South America!"

But that Passover weekend around 30 AD was anything but peaceful. That passover was marred by at least three crucifixions. And one of them was God. In one of the Gaithers' songs, there is a line that said something like, "The earth shakes with the force of the conflict, and the sun refuses to shine." (My apologies to the songwriters if I missed that.) Do you see that word? Conflict. Does that sound like peace?

God was fighting for the souls of mankind. There was a conflict going on. His only begotten son was hanging on a Roman death tree. His hands and feet were fixed to the wood with spikes. His body was unrecognizable. If we had been there, up close, we could have smelled the horrible odors rising from his ravaged body. And would have heard, not just seen, the blood as it puddled down, slowly, steadily, drop by drop, around the ground. Does that sound like peace?

See from His head, His hands, His feet

Sorrow and love flow mingled down;

Did e're such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Why did the sun refuse to shine? Did God turn out the lights? Or were the demons of hell so thick in that place that their presence darkened the whole earth? Or had that spot of ground become hell? After all, Jesus said that unbelievers will be cast into "outer darkness." And the Scriptures say that God made "him who knew no sin to be sin for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Cor. 5:21) Does that sound like peace?

In six short hours, it was over. Jesus was dead. The demons croaked with glee. The priests and the rabble they had aroused were not so certain; after all, an earthquake had raped their temple. Their most holy place was desecrated by light from without. The ark, if there was one, was now exposed for all to see. I can envision those poor Levites scurrying about, trying to close the doors so that no one could see within their sanctuary. The priests were so uncertain they asked for Pilate to grant a guard for the tomb where Jesus was buried. It was an armed guard. Their weapons were not for show. Should anyone approach, death would have been likely. Does that sound like peace?

Again, it's a stretch of my imagination, but I can envision the procession from the cross to the grave. Men and women walked, carefully, mournfully, carrying the body of Jesus. Maybe there were others there, warning the pallbearers that they were ceremonially unclean and no longer eligible to partake of the fast-approaching Passover. Waltzing, buzzing about, jumping for joy, and cackling were those foul, stench-covered demons. They drooled with delight. They strutted like proud turkeys. Not far away were the legions of righteous angels.

Waiting.
Watching.
Silent.

Joseph and the others laid the body in the niche inside the tomb. They came out and rolled the stone into its groove in front of the opening. As the stone groaned while the men pushed it into place, those forces of evil wheezed for joy. The stone finally rolled into place, fully covering the opening. What light there was, was extinguished. The son of God was dead and buried. Does that sound like peace?

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior.

Time passed by slowly. One day melted into another. Who really wanted to taste the roasted lamb this year? There would be no celebration for Jesus' friends and family. The bitter herbs the disciples had tasted on Preparation Night were more bitter than ever. They laid heavy on their stomachs. Every belch was a bitter one. There were no more tears to shed. All that was left was the empty heaviness that accompanies death and separation. All that enshrouded their hearts was confusion. They walked the streets, perhaps kicking at a lone pebble here and there. "Peace I give you," said Jesus. Peace? What peace? "My peace," said Jesus. Is this what your peace feels like? I am not sure I want this!

The Sabbath gave way to Sunday. Early in the morning the brave ladies went to the tomb. We know what they found. The stone was rolled away. Before too long, their darkest doubts gave way to the light of a sudden realization. Jesus was alive! No devils were there now! Stalwart angels, illuminating the glory of God, stood erect and regally. Soldiers lay in heap, sleeping a holy sleep placed on them by the brush of angels' wings. King Jesus rose from the grave!

He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

It's the evening now. Sunday has come and gone. At least nine apostles (Judas is dead, hanging by a rope from a tree,and cursed is everyone who hangs from a tree, Peter is out, still processing his encounter with Jesus, and Thomas is just absent) are still huddled in the upper room. Jesus appears out of "nowhere" and calls out, "Peace, y'all!" Once the shock and awe passed of seeing someone alive whose death they had witnessed only a few days earlier, that peace began to grip their souls. Not like it would on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to indwell them. But it was there. And it was real. And it is real. Because it is his peace.

More than 2,000 years later, I want to stand on my rooftop. I want to shout to my lost neighbors, to the two men I watched sipping their suds at a local gas station, to the Jehovah's Witnesses who doggedly pound on my door, to all of this city somewhere in South America, to the SBC, to its leadership, to the IMB, to its leadership, to you, "PEACE, Y'ALL!"

What Kind of Churches Do We Plant?

Let me begin by stating a few salient facts. First, I am a Baptist. I am not ashamed of that. I am not ashamed that God saved me through the teaching/preaching ministry of a Baptist church. I am not ashamed to have been called to preach under the preaching of a Baptist preacher. He was a "Landmarkist." The particular Baptist denomination where I was at that time had statements that were so exclusive in their nature that I could not continue there.

Second, I am a Baptist missionary. I am not ashamed that God called me to missions through the ministry of a Baptist missionary and her husband. I am not ashamed to be a Southern Baptist missionary. I take joy in that.

Third, I have been a church planter and continue to participate in church planting, though my role is much larger. It's one of those things that cannot be equaled in other walks of life. The joy of seeing souls come to faith in Christ is incomparable. The satisfaction of seeing a church formed is unspeakable.

So that leads me to an important question: when a Southern Baptist missionary sets out to plant a church, what does he have in mind? What is the "final product" that any SBC M wants to see?

Logically, we want to plant Baptist churches. I happen to live in a megacity somewhere in South America. I happen to be able to plant Baptist churches. Those churches suffer mild persecution (mostly emotional), but they can paint a sign with the words "Baptist" on it and their non-evangelical neighbors will understand that it "ain't mainstream."

Now I don't plant Southern Baptist churches. I don't live in the United States; the SBC is not here, except incarnationally through its missionaries. My national brethren would not appreciate me planting an SBC church when they are attempting to plant churches that affiliate with their own convention.

That is as simple as it gets. But I want to complicate the matter a bit. First, the least complicated thing is the following scenario: SBC missionary V lives and works among a people group in a closed country. They are antagonistic to evangelism, church planting, and open Christianity. They cannot post their name on a sign. What do missionary V and his team do? They plant baptistic churches; that means the church is baptistic in doctrine, but not in name. To openly identify it as "baptist" could jeopardize the entire church planting effort.

SBC missionary Z, on the other hand, works among a people group that is ever-so-slightly tolerant of evangelicals. But the people group has no concept of denominational ties. Their fledgling work has been what we could describe as "independent." Missionary Z has the opportunity to work with and train some national church planters, none of whom are Baptist. What kind of church does Missionary Z then plant? Does he impose his origin (Baptist) upon the group, or does he teach and promote baptistic doctrine?

This is my humble opinion: SBC missionary Z should plant New Testament churches, which I believe will be baptistic in nature. He can later return and shore up the doctrine and reveal his Baptist origin in that subsequent teaching. But if this is a New Testament church, and we hope it is, that church will still have the responsibility to choose whether or not to be identified as a Baptist church. Missionary Z cannot force that upon them.

For that matter, neither can I require that the churches I help plant choose the name of Baptist. It is a matter of local church autonomy. The chances are that they will choose the name of Baptist, because we wield much influence. But I cannot require it. I will not require it. I will only seek to be baptistic and hope that the name "Baptist" finds its way on the sign. Anything more could be construed as paternalistic and counter-productive to the missionary enterprise.

Kevin, from Somewhere in South America

The Right to Fight

Let me be clear from the outset: this is not one of those "Rodney King-like" appeals, pleading that we all just get along. This is a mosaic; we need to know when to fight and when not to fight. After all, if any of you read Wild at Heart you know that a man's gotta fight (pardon my grammar). I mean, just look at King David: 2 Samuel 11:1 says, "Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that . . . David stayed at Jerusalem." Guys, we are princes; we are made to bend a bow of bronze. (2 Sam. 22:35)

It's right to fight for the faith. That is what Jude said, "Contend earnestly for the faith." A century ago a group of men decided that needed to be done. They set forth what we now call the essentials of evangelical faith: the virgin birth, deity, and lordship of Jesus Christ; the efficacious death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; salvation by grace, through faith in Christ alone; the innerant authority of the Bible as the word of God. Add to that the imminent return of Jesus, the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, the missionary mandate given to the church, the importance of personal evangelism, and the power of prayer. Those (and perhaps a few others I did not mention) are the essentials.

Oh, by the way, back then they called them "The Fundamentals of the Faith." Today we call a fundamentalist anything but right. We allowed the world to influence our use of a perfectly good word, making it pejorative. Forgive me if I do not allow the world to steal perfectly good words and destroy them. Ask God's forgiveness if you think all fundamentalists are crazed lunatics (yes, that is redundant) who only seek to steal your freedoms.

It's right to fight when that fight is spiritual warfare. Paul said we wrestle all kinds of principalities, powers, world forces, and spiritual forces in the heavenlies." - Ephesians 6

I did not learn about spiritual warfare in South America. I learned about it in south Mississippi. I learned plenty about spiritual warfare in south Mississippi. I know we say that we don't see demons behind every bush, but there were days it seemed as though there were as many demons as there were pine trees.

That only increased down here in South America. But regardless of when, where, or how many, the truth still remains that "greater is he that is within us than he that is in the world." Amen to that! Lift the sword of the Spirit and stand firm in Christ's strength!

It's right to fight those social ills that plague us. Abortion is a plague. Gender neutrality is a plague. Those so-called sexual preference rights are plagues on society.

Down here we can add to that list the rampant drinking. That bottle of alcohol is one baby we can toss out with the bath water. Europe may love its booze; you can keep it to yourself. And yes, I can quote all the Bible verses you can throw back at me; so please don't bother.

But it's not right to fight when that fight is motivated by selfish, sensual, and worldly desires. James 4 says, "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel." Flesh fights are from the same poisonous tree as worldly wisdom.

That man who slips in front of you in the line of traffic suddenly becomes your enemy; he invaded your space. He took your place in line. That one who buys the last imported soft drink (only those living overseas will relate to this) has suddenly stolen what is "rightfully yours." After all, you wanted a soft drink. Now he took it. It doesn't matter that the can is past date. It doesn't matter that you prefer Pepsi and they only sell Coke. It only matters that someone else got it.

For those North Americans who read the above and shook their heads in dismay, just recall last Christmas. I watched the news videos of my fellow compatriots as they wrestled over dolls, action figures, and stuffed toys. I saw women claw and scratch. And I have been in church business meetings that had plenty of verbal clawing and scratching.

As I look at what is going on in the SBC today, I greatly fear that we have some King Davids who did not go out to battle. We have some princes who cannot or will not bend that bow of bronze. Now they are bored, looking for a place to vent the energy God intended for them to expend against their true enemies.

When my words and actions are detrimental and do not have the ultimate goal of edifying, instructing, protecting, encouraging, and even expanding the citizens of the kingdom of God--as well as expanding the kingdom itself, then my words and actions are wrong. My motives are wrong. My fight is not right.

I defend your right to fight. But make sure your fight is a right fight.

What Are You Doing about the Lost?

I’m in Quito, Ecuador as I write this. For the geographically challenged, that’s somewhere in South America.

My purpose in being here is to dialog with a dozen other missionaries, all with a fiery passion to win their peoples to Christ Jesus. We are mobilizers. That means we work to mobilize South Americans to go into all the world.

I was singularly impressed by one thing: there are millions of lost in South America. There are peoples of hundreds of tribes who have never heard the wonderful message of eternal and abundant life Jesus Christ offers them. One man shared with us today about Colombia. I could only shake my head as I saw the graphics that revealed the numbers of tribes who have never even been contacted. As far as anyone knows, not one believer exists among those tribes.

Someone once asked me about that kind of tribe. What will God do with those who never heard the gospel? Will he send them to hell? No one I know likes the answer to that question. But here it is in clear words: the lost go to hell, period. Does God delight in that? I seriously doubt it. God is infinitely greater than you or I. If we don’t delight in that thought, how much more does it grieve our Father in heaven? But man must respond to the revelation God has given him. Man, by his nature, too often rejects that revelation. But when man does respond, God moves towards him. Someone once said that he believed God would go as far as to wreck a plane to get a man to an unreached tribe if someone in that tribe had responded to the revelation God had given him. I agree.

But let me ask an even more pointed question. If you know there are tribes that have never heard, and you have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, what are you going to do about it? Your very smallest responsibility is to obey the words of Jesus, found both in Luke 10 and Matthew 9, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray to the Harvest Master, therefore; ask him to send out workers into his harvest.” (My paraphrase) Your very minimal responsibility before God is to ask him to send laborers.

Your next response could be sacrificial. God may be answering our prayers by telling you to go to one of the thousands of tribes around the world that have not heard about Jesus. He called me to the gospel ministry twenty-eight years ago this week. That is, I heard his call that long ago. I recall something about being called before the foundations of the earth. After all, God’s plans are eternal; this is an eternal truth we are speaking about here.

You are also expected to be financially involved. If you can’t go, you can give. You may be able to give far more than Americans give (as a rule). I know people who spend thousands on their dogs and cats. That’s a yearly expense. Do you know what God can do with a few thousand dollars? Imagine, if he can multiply 5 biscuits and 2 fish, he can certainly use your giving to win hundreds to Christ.

Let me ask it again, what are you going to do about the lostness in the world? When you stand before Jesus, what answer will you give to that question?

Missional Musings

I am a missionary. I am writing from somewhere in South America. We are that other part of the world that so many people think has such ready access to the gospel that perhaps it is reached. But it is far from reached. In fact, if Jesus were to come today, 95% of South America would be left behind.

So that is why I am writing this today. It's my chance to remind the Christian church of the hundreds of millions of lost men and women in South America.

Let me define "lost." "Lost" means that a person has not repented of their sin. "Lost" means that person stands condemned already because he or she is separated from God by their sin. "Lost" means being controlled by a sinful nature, led by the passions of that nature and by the Prince of this world--Satan. "Lost" means that if a person were to die in the condition of being lost, that person would be eternally separated from God in a very real place called Hell.

Let me define "saved." "Saved" means being delivered from the condition of lostness. "Saved" means being rescued from the kingdom of darkness and transferred, or placed, in the kingdom of light--which is the kingdom of God. "Saved" means being purchased; the price was blood, pure blood.

How does one go from being lost to being saved? One must believe; he must repent. In other words, a person must exercise his will to turn from lostness to the salvation that has been offered.

Believe? Believe in what? One must believe that one person and only one person can be their savior. That would be Jesus, the Christ. He is God come in the flesh. His life was a perfect one. His singular mission was to seek and to save that which was lost. He lived perfectly, died perfectly, and was perfectly raised from the dead. Jesus' death was a barbaric and cruel death. It was a cross, a torture instrument. Yet neither the Romans nor the Jews killed him. Jesus gave up his soul. No one could take his life from him; it was his to lay down for us. And he did. But God raised Jesus bodily from the dead. And Jesus lives today. To be saved, one must believe that.

To be saved, one must make Jesus Lord of his or her life; this is because Jesus is Lord! To be saved, one must turn away from that Christ-less life to a life with and in Christ. That is called repentance. You turn your mind and your heart to Christ. You do it with your will.

As I said, some 95% of those living somewhere in South America have not made such a commitment to Christ. They are lost. They are in danger of dying lost.

While so many of my group's leaders and "theologs" are debating procedural events, I want to try to use this to call a few of us back to focus on the main thing. Some days I will write about Somewhere in South America. Other days I will take on issues special to the United States. Everyday I hope to exalt Jesus Christ.

Just another missionary