Missions

On November 11th, I will be leaving for a mission trip to Southern Sudan, Africa. The truth of this hasn't hit me, yet. Honestly, I think it is just now starting to sink in. I will be doing a ministry in which I will be training local pastors through Bible stories. And as much as I love teaching the Word, this has me a bit anxious.

I wouldn't say that the trip has me scared, but I don't believe I have felt as behind the eight-ball with anything I have ever done, as I do with this, except maybe starting seminary. I am really concerned that I am ready for this, and want to be used and useful for the Lords service. For those who are willing, the best form of support that you can show me is to just pray for me over there. I don't have a clue as to what is going to happen.

these two things

I have just finished a study in the gospel of Matthew. Having taught a Sunday school class for 8 years now, I have never had a greater desire and hope that those who had to sit and listened to me got as much out of what I studied as I did. After 28 chapters and 10 months there are two things that are stuck in my head. The two ordinances left to us by our savior, the Lord's supper and baptism.

How I have sold baptism short. Growing up a Southern Baptist, I couldn't begin to tell you the number of baptism I have witnessed. Yet, it has been in the last year that I have really begun to understand what is happening when those waters are stirred. It is our declaration to the world of whose we are. Paul said it in Romans 6, that we are buried with Jesus in baptism unto death. We are dead. Sin no longer has a hook in us. The enemy no longer can cause us to quake with his toothless roar. We are dead, what is there to fear. In baptism we can accept all that comes our way as loss compared to the riches that await us in our Savior's kingdom. And as we are risen to walk in the newness of life, we are able to shake our fist in the face of the world and it's god and say do your worst, take all I have have, hurt me, even kill me, but you can't destroy me for I belong to Jesus and he will keep me, even to his coming kingdom.

Yet the bread and the body and blood. Oh, I am so grateful for these. Just as baptism begins my outer testimony, the host, the sacraments, the Lord's supper is my inner confession. The bread reminds that it is under the weight of my sin that He, my Savior, was crushed. How dare I live in my own self-righteousness, and needlessly suffer under it's weight. And the wine, the blood that was shed to seal my salvation. The fulfillment of the great promise of sin forgiven.

Giving Up!

Giving up!

It's worse than losing. When you lose, at least you finished you tried. But "Giving up"! That's not even making it to the end. But what if giving up could lead to winning?

Well sure, people give up smoking, give drinking, and give up drugs. In that case "Giving up" means ridding yourself of negative characteristics. But what about giving up good things? I don't mean just giving up things that are not bad, like one less piece of chocolate a day. But giving up GOOD THINGS.

Jesus gave a list of things we should be willing to give up, a hand, a foot, an eye. Those aren't just good things those are important things. Things we need. But what if they are keeping you from putting your full faith in the Lord?

We trust our hands to work for us. We trust our feet to carry us. We trust our eyes to help us learn. These are the small, insidious things we do that aren't bad, but that we grow to trust in.

And when we put our faith in the small things we do instead of Christ we stumble. Here are three truths about stumbling:

1. Stumbling hurts
2. Stumbling hinders
3. Stumbling humbles

When we stopping putting our full faith in the Lord, we get hurt by our failures. We are hindered from hearing the leading of the Holy Spirit. We are humbled when we realize how we have missed the righteous will of the Father.

Trusting in the things that we have convinced ourselves are important will lead us to falter. When we falter in faith, we fall into sin, and finally we fail to please God.

Education in Schools

I recently read an article by Dr. Morris H. Chapman, who is the president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee.  In this article, Dr. Chapman suggests the idea of church getting together to create community school to counter secular society's effect on public education.  Here is an excerpt from his article.

"But in celebrating accomplishments like these, I now wonder if our focus in the evangelical community should shift at least in part from training our children during the transition to adulthood to placing greater emphasis on training up a child in the way he should go. I'm not advocating the neglect of what we have already established in higher education, but simply a course correction in an area that seems to have suffered neglect -- the protection and nurturing of the spiritual health and growth of children and adolescents. In far too many public schools throughout the country our children are being bombarded with secular reasoning, situational ethics and moral erosion." (1)

I absolutely agree with Dr. Chapman's assessment of the problems with public schools.  I, however, disagree with his remedy.  He would encourage churches to create their own public school model, driven by their own values.  Now my values are their values, but I would suggest not less involvement in the public schools but more.  I reprinted below the email that I sent in response to Dr. Chapman's article.

Dear Dr. Chapman,

I read with great interest your recent article concerning the need for more Christian elementary and secondary schools. As a Christian who has been a public school educator for fifteen years, the majority of them working in a school that services high poverty, high-at-risk students, I have observed with some dismay the ethical and educational decline to which you referred. The devastating effect our societies lack of a moral center has had on our public school system cannot be over-stated. However, I would disagree with your conclusion that the answer is for the church (or the SBC) to further insulate and remove itself from society.

I cannot help but feel that by building our own schools to teach things the way we want, further abdicates our right to be salt and light to the community around us. In my fifteen years of teaching, I have yet to see the church take an overwhelming interest in being involved with the public education system. Yet, I have heard many Christians, some behind a pulpit and some in the congregation, criticize how schools are run. It would seem that since the "removal of prayer in schools" argument of the sixties and seventies, the church has slipped off into the corner to lick its wounds and has taken an "I'll show you, just wait 'til my dad gets here" attitude. 

If we are to affect real change in society, we need to lose our "separate but equal" mind set, and get back involved. Start by volunteering in the schools. Become an overwhelming presence in the hallways of education. Practice life style evangelism. Don't encourage parents to remove their students from school, but instead encourage parents to be apart of their child's class. Join the PTA and be active in it. These are just some of the ideas I can think of as I am sitting on my couch.

Sincerely,

Matt Stone

(1) Chapman, Dr. Morris A Case for Christian elementary and secondary schools, April 24, 2009, www.sbc.net

Very Superstitious Writings on the Wall

I really don't care for basketball, but I enjoy sports talk radio.  So right now, in the midst of the NBA post season, if I want to hear all the sports talking head talk about the teams I do care about (the Tampa Bay Rays in baseball season, and ,more importantly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during football season) then I must suffer through the debate over who the most important player is, Kobe or Lebron, and whether either of them can get their team to the NBA finals for the game that all the basketball world would love to see, the Lakers versus the Cavaliers.

It is interesting to note, though, that both teams look to be in quite the fight just to make it out of the playoffs. The rhetoric is so heated that a person would almost think that the success of each players career hung on their achievements in these very games.  However, such talk is not unique to the NBA.  Every year, and in every sport played everywhere it would seem the fate of all existence hangs  on the welfare of any given team. Fans of the Chicago Cubs have been feasting on humble pie for decades.

The emphasis to achieve  greatness has pervaded every aspect of our lives.  A baby born today can enter beauty contests, in a few years participate in Little League World Series, be a part of a  National Honor Society in high school and graduate summa cum laude from college all before entering the work force.  Several aisles of shelves in book stores are filled with tomes on being a better you.

Now before you think that this is just another rant about the growing pressure to succeed, let me tell you that I see nothing wrong with doing your best, and really, nobody wants to be thought of as an also-ran. As the cliche goes, everyone loves a winner.

And really, who loves a loser?

Hmmmmm???? How about what Christ said, "those who lose their life for me and the gospel will save it"?  Or Paul who considered everything a loss in comparison to the knowledge of Christ? Where was the success there?  Obviously, it was in a life committed to the knowledge of Christ and his Gospel.

I worry today that we have been so conditioned to succeed in every aspect of our life, that we have allowed that to taint our Christian life as well.  And in so doing we have made our Christianity little more than a package of superstitions tied up with the twine of faith.

I say superstitions, because we have created rituals and myths to reaffirm our beliefs instead of leaning on faith.  We pass on false stories about missionaries guarded by angels, and watch movies where every problem is neatly tied up by the end of the story.  They make us feel good and convince that we are living successful Christian lives.  But, unfortunately our faith is never challenged and our dependence on God does not grow.

We have been convinced that Christianity is outside the realm of reason.  Worse, we have become satisfied to not even challenge our mind to understand the deeper thoughts of God.  We share in the scolding the the first century church received when they were told that they should be eating meat, but were still drinking milk in their understanding of the faith.

Consequently, instead of going deeper, we just spread the shallowness out further.  It is easy to get to the bottom of the pool when the water is only a few feet deep.  But, this shallowness allows us to feel successful.  We would rather watch movies and read books that give us happy endings, than to seek out that which might challenge our faith.

 Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living.  I would paraphrase it that an unchallenged faith is not worth having.  I echo Paul's challenge to the Corinthians, examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith.