Kids talk about Thanksgiving

Inspiring devotional on the character of God

I was attending a writer's conference, and a publisher said that books often sell well because of marketing and famous authors, not because of the quality of the books. Someone asked the publisher to name a book that did not sell well but was such a quality book that he was glad it was published. The publisher said, "Yes, the book is Lord, Show Me Your Glory by Ethel Herr."
The book was out of print, so I ordered it from amazon.com. I'm glad I did.
I spent the year of 2008 going through this devotional (I finished a month early because I read ahead). A wonderful journey it was. The book is divided into 52 chapters to be used as 52 weeks of devotions. But each "Week" actually has two or three qualities of God to study, so it really amounts to about two or three devotionals for each week. For example, Week Four is a devotional on God is Carpenter, Potter, and a Working God, Week Twelve is on God as Living Bread and Manna, and Week Twenty is on Discipliner, Teacher/Master and Rabbi. You get the idea.
Herr has a very descriptive writing style. For example, in Week Eleven she describes God's omniscience by saying, "grace without God's omniscience would be as elusive as a hollow wind whistling through the broken window panes of an empty church" (p. 72). She also has keen insights into the character of God. In Week Eighteen, she says this about God as Resurrection and the Life: "So, when He chooses to let our dreams die so He can give us a resurrection rather than a healing, we sometimes feel abandoned" (p. 114). Each section lists scripture readings for further meditation on that particular quality of God. I found that looking up those scriptures was almost as enriching as the text of her book.
The experience of going through this book will help you understand the character of God in a powerful way. If you are looking for a practical devotional that is all about you and how you live your Christian life, this is not it. But if you are looking for a devotional that will make you forget yourself and will leave you in awe of our wondrous God, bowing before Him in worship, then find a used copy of this rare gem of a book online and order it.

Georgia Baptist Convention concludes

I really enjoyed the Georgia Baptist Convention as it concluded today at FBC Jonesboro. The preaching and music was incredible. Here's a picture of the mass choir from our three Baptist colleges that sang.
I enjoyed meeting people and seeing friends. I even talked to a lady who was in the movie Fireproof. They had a huge BBQ on the church grounds for all the messengers for supper. That's a lot of BBQ, since we had 1,545 registered messengers! I saw Paul Moore from Elim-Egypt Baptist north of Guyton and Marty Youngblood, the student minister at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, and Curtis Meador, who used to pastor in Garden City and is now an associational missionary.
We approved the name change of Shorter College to Shorter University, to take effect in about a year. We approved the 2009 budget, which was a 5% decrease, due to the economy. We approved a missions partnership with New York City Metro Association.
The convention approved a controversial new policy which allows the Executive Director and Administrative Committee of the Executive Committee to refuse a gift. The purpose of this new policy was to avoid a situation where somebody gave a gift that we didn't want, such as property that needed environmental cleanup, or money from an organization that we don't agree with. The reason it was controversial was that it would allow them to refuse money from a Georgia Baptist Church, and thus that Georgia Baptist Church would be unable to send messengers to the convention. The specific example given was a church that had a female pastor, when Southern Baptists do not approve of female pastors. (FBC Decatur has called a woman pastor.) But those who object fear that it put too much power in the hands of a few, and that it could open a Pandora's Box of reasons why they might not approve of something a church did, and thus refuse their money and lock them out of having a voice in the convention. It was debated in the morning, then came back up for another vote in the afternoon, and after debate the decision was sustained. I do not support female pastors, but I voted against the new policy, because I'm concerned that it is a dangerous precedent to put too much power in the hands of a few.
We heard some more outstanding sermons. Fred Evers gave a powerful sermon from Psalm 115 about how God alone is God, and with the growth of pagan religion and secularism in America, we must stand up and say that our God is the only God.
Bucky Kennedy, pastor of FBC Vidalia, was re-elected as president. He did a great job of presiding over the meeting, keeping things on track and using his sense of humor to keep people in a good mood. He kept reminding us about the BBQ, and then he said, "Next year we're going to have a wild game supper. Whatever you kill on the way to the meeting, load it up and bring it-- deer, possum, cat or dog. The theme of next year's convention will be 'you kill it, we grill it.'"
There's a picture above of Bucky Kennedy preaching.
There wasn't much to the resolutions. The only resolution presented other than thanking the host church was that we adopted a resolution asking the Congress to recognize the 400th anniversary of the King James Version Bible in 2011 by issuing a commemorative silver dollar. Although I was glad to honor the anniversary of the KJV Bible, I was a little surprised that we had no resolutions about the important issues facing our nation today.
The final sermon was brought by Jonathan Falwell, the son of Jerry Falwell. He talked about how he took the pastorate of his father's huge church last year when Jerry Falwell died. He brought a great message about how the great established churches and the great new contemporary churches in America need to work together instead of being suspicious of one another. He pointed out that the woman at the well asked Jesus how he was going to bring her water when he didn't have a bucket (John 4:11). He said, "She was focusing on the bucket instead of focusing on the living water." He said it's not important whether we have contemporary in the bucket or traditional in the bucket, whether a coat and tie in the bucket or a loose shirt, blue jeans and flip flops in the bucket. What matters is that the bucket has the living water, the saving gospel of Jesus Christ!"
And finally, among those nominated and elected to various boards of the Georgia Baptist Convention, I was elected as an at-large member of the Executive Committee, for a term lasting until 2013.

First night of Georgia Baptist Convention

I'm in Jonesboro, attending the Georgia Baptist Convention with our associate pastor, DBG (Dr. Bill Gammon).
We saw two Effingham County pastors: Erik Palmberg from New Providence Baptist Church in Guyton and Bobby Braswell from Pineora Baptist Church. We also saw our ministry resource consultant, Ted Kandler, who is also a messenger from FBC Rincon at the convention.
This year we're meeting at First Baptist Church of Jonesboro. After declining attendance (from over 4,000 early in the decad, down to only 1,400 last year) they decided to stop meeting in convention centers and instead meet at large local churches. I'm glad. FBC Jonesboro looked very full tonight, but it was also more personal and intimate in a church than a convention center. It reminded me of the warm feel of the Mississippi Baptist Convention that I attended for years at FBC Jackson.
Bucky Kennedy really shucked the corn in his president's sermon on David and Goliath. Wow! He was all over the place. At one point, he went and played a sloppy version of "Chopsticks" on the piano to illustrate how poorly he played piano, then he had a real pianist come and play "Amazing Grace," and while she prayed he pointed out how God makes beautiful music with our lives when we place ourselves in His hands.
One of the comments from Bucky that I wrote down was his statement about how Christians are known too much for what we're against instead of what we're for. Then he said, "It's time to stop protesting before men and start praying before God."
Another good comment from Bucky: "I don't want them to like me, I want them to love Him."
We heard "This Hope," the incredible men's vocal group that did a concert a few years ago at our church. DBG was amazed at their vocals, and got excited about the fact that "This Hope" will be doing one of the concerts during "Marvelous Mondays in July" at our church in 2009.
The missionary sermon was brought by Steve Parr. Awesome message. He talked about "The Great Lost Cause" of evangelism from Luke 15:4 when the shepherd left his 99 sheep to go after the one that was lost. His point was that going after the lost should be our great cause. Steve showed a video of a grainery dropping grain from a conveyor belt and said that's how many people are going that rapidly into hell. He told a story of a woman who was upset that a 14-year-old girl wore short pants to church when the woman didn't even know the girl's name or whether the girl knew Jesus as Savior. Steve said that the girl didn't call him and ask what to wear, and he doesn't wear shorts to church himself, but instead of being upset that a 14-year-old girl wore short pants to church, she should be rejoicing that a 14-year-old girl wanted to come to church and hear about Jesus. Amen!
Tomorrow we will be at the convention all day. They're providing a free BBQ dinner to all messengers. Should be a fun day.

Post-election thoughts

However you voted in the recent election, let us remember that rulers change on earth, but God still reigns over all. Isaiah was probably worried about the future when King Uzziah died after reigning nearly all of Isaiah's life, but we read in Isaiah 6:1 that "in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord..." He got a vision of God's greatness, and forgot about the change in power on earth. Regarding our new president-elect and other newly elected leaders, 1 Timothy 2:1-2 commands us to pray for those in authority. Some people might object that they don't agree with the politics of their leaders. I share that concern, particularly on the issues of protecting life and marriage. However, let us remember that in Paul's day, their political leaders were throwing the Christians to the lions, and Paul still said we should pray for them. So should we.

Missing the love dare?

If you have been reading the "love dare" daily devotionals on this blog and wondered where they went...
Our church finished the 40-day love dare challenge, and since the love dares took up so much space on my blog, I removed them. But if you would like to do the love dare, you can get the book The Love Dare by Stephen & Alex Kendrick, B & H Publishing, 2008. It's available at LifeWay Christian Stores. You can email me for more information at brotherbob@windstream.net.

Divided vote eventually unites church

I heard about a church that called a pastor with a vote of 200-3. The pastor spent his first six months trying to find out the names of the three who voted against him. Then he spent the next six months trying to please those three. At the end of the year, the church voted to fire the pastor. The vote was three to keep him, and 200 to get rid of him!

There's an old saying that you can't please everybody, and that is certainly true in church, which is why we need to try to please the Lord first. However, if the church is evenly divided, it is wise to back off a decision and seek to bring spiritual unity before proceeding, especially when voting on a pastor.

A pastor told me an interesting story about a close vote to call a pastor in a rural Baptist church near Claxton, Georgia. The church voted 51% in favor and 49% against calling a man as their pastor. Ignoring conventional wisdom, the preacher accepted the call, and came to the church as their pastor. After a couple of years, however, he resigned. Upon his resignation, he said, "I have unified the church. When I came, half of them were against me. Now all of them are against me."

Elections can either unite people or divide people. Unfortunately, our country is pretty divided over politics. But as Christians, God calls us to be uniters, not dividers. In fact, however we voted, we are called upon to pray for those in leadership. Scripture says, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness" (1 Timothy 2:1-2, NIV). Someone might say, "Yeah, but our politicians are so bad these days." I would remind that person that in New Testament days, the politicians threw the Christians to the lions, but the Christians still prayed for them.

We can do no less.

Copyright 2008 by Bob Rogers.

My wife likes this song