House Hunting

Some time ago, when Westside began talking to us, I began looking around at buying a house in the Murray area. Apartment living is nice, but so is having a place of your own, a yard for a puppy, and the lack of noisy neighbors moving couches all hours of the day and night.

Looking for a house is a lot like going to the store for a shirt. You have a pretty good idea what you're looking for when you go. With a cup of coffee in your hand you scour the ads, the website, and you look for what other people are wearing and how it fits them. Then, when you go to the actual store, you look at 2 or 3 top choices, and some other ones just to be fair since you're already out.

When you realize that you can't afford the one you really like, or when you see it in person it looks hideous, you retreat and sulk for a while and make the statement that you have nothing and will never find anything. Then you buy a loom and start thinking about making your own shirt, until all the headaches associated with that come to mind and you decide to give Old Navy another try.

After some more looking you decide to go for the markdown section. Never being trendy or cool, this is the place you should have looked all along. You dig and dig and find a shirt with a stain on it, another one that looks like it was in a 70's disco movie, and then you find it! How could it be overlooked, you ask.

You begin to wonder what is wrong with it until you realize that somehow or another, it fell to the clearance rack and it is a shirt you can afford and you will like. You frantically run to the front to check out before anyone else starts to negotiate with the manager for the same shirt, and you excitedly tell people about it, put it on Facebook, your blog... um, well... yeah :)

You then wear your shirt proudly, and know that for years it will fit perfect and never go out of style because it can always be washed.

That's pretty much buying a house in a nutshell, except a shirt costs $20 and you don't sign a mountain of paperwork to get the shirt. You know, buying a house is nothing like buying a shirt. What was I thinking! Sorry for wasting your time

PS- Here is the house though, in case you care to see it :)

Interesting...

Came across this from Russell Moore's Twitter page this morning. It is a commentary on a new work by Rob Bell. Many youth ministers are familiar with his NOOMA videos, and his impact on the evangelical subculture has been well noted. Bell is however associated with the "emergent church" movement. I have no problems with differing methodologies, and even different ways about doing church to meet the needs of a post-modern, post-Christian culture. However, the point at which I break (and many others have as well) with them is over a fundamental shift on doctrinal issues.

Many of the historic orthodox positions of the church are up for debate or even exclusion by many in the Emergent movement. I believe a fundamental issue for Christians is the nature of Truth, that it is both Objective and Revealed, and that Truth comes from the person and nature of God Himself. The debate over Truth is considered in the Emergent movement, and so are other views such as substitutionary atonement, men/women and their roles in the church, morality and the definition of sin, and even the character of God. The traditional view of God as Father/Son/Spirit has in many circles been replaced by Creator/Redeemer/Sustainer, in essence losing the gender language.

I submit this link and encourage you to come to grips with the issue at stake. The rise of the feminine God movement is here, and we must have an answer for those who would seek to undermine what has been taught throughout the centuries. We must be able to explain that the Fatherhood of God is part of His goodness, and that while God is Spirit and has no physical form, He has chosen to reveal Himself to us in the masculine, and we are not to redefine how He has revealed Himself. God is all good, and He is both the warrior king and compassionate parent. But to say that He embodies "she" is a reduction of God's own revealed nature to us.

Disagree if you will, but I will challenge you to follow out what a shift in the perception of God means for the church, evangelism, and the nature of theology itself.

Suffice it to say, I never had planned to use anything Bell put out in my own ministry, and I never will. Theological error can never be used when it is "relevant." In that regard, I stand as a dinosaur on Jude 3. People like Mark Driscoll, my friend Rob Turner, and others who stand on theological conviction but seek to reach the culture are men I greatly admire in this time of confusion.

Article - http://www.cbmw.org/Journal/Vol-14-No-1/Rob-Bell-s-Feminine-Images-for-God

SDG,
Scott

Well, it's almost over!

Sorry for the long delay in posting, the last few weeks have been very eventful!

For more frequent updates, find me on Twitter: ScottMDouglas

A few weeks ago, Carrie and I announced to our church that we would be leaving to pursue a ministry opportunity in Murray Kentucky at Westside Baptist Church. It is an awesome opportunity for us, to be closer to family, and to be able to invest much more of our time and effort into the ministry of a local body. There are many great things we are looking forward to, and we are very excited about the chance to pour Scripture and time into student's lives in the hopes of seeing Kingdom impact. I personally am very excited about the opportunities to be discipled and mentored by our senior pastor, and for the chances to be part of the pastoral ministry of the church.

We leave Broadmoor with many fond memories and will cherish the friendships that have cultivated since our time there. If you are ever in the Murray area, stop by and say hi!

Jesus Fan Pages, Cheesy T-Shirts, and a False God

The latest thing to catch my attention on Facebook has been the "Be a Fan of Jesus" invites that are all over the place. This, I must admit, puts me in a quandary. If I decline, it looks (on the surface) like I don't like Jesus. If I accept it, a part of me feels like I am cheapening the Lordship and Transcendence of Christ.

Another thing that catches my eye concerns our local Christian bookstores, or trinket-houses as I call them. Carrie has probably gotten tired of me every time we go into one look to the vast array of religious artifacts and say "Here are your indulgences, buy them and be forgiven." I'm sure they mean well, but really... how cheap we have made being a Disciple of Christ. Now what distinguishes as a Christian is what we put on the walls of our living rooms, the centerpiece of our dining room table, or dare I say the t-shirts we wear. It used to be that being a Christian meant a life of death to self, service to Christ, and a call to sanctification. Now, pray the magic prayer, walk the magic aisle, go into the magic water, and buy a few trinkets and you are a Christ follower! This is a humorous look at American Christianity, and deeply humbling when we get to heaven and meet brethren from other countries and other times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayVegIVejis

Some of you are probably asking, "Why the big deal over this?" "It isn't hurting anyone" or "They're just showing they believe in Christ" I understand all these statements, and sometimes I wonder why things like this get me riled up. Here is why it is a big deal: It is part of a cultural shift away from a biblical view of Christ to a post-modern, therapy-driven, culturally-acceptable Jesus. He has gone from our Lord whom we fear to our "homeboy," from a sovereign Lord who controls all things by His decree to "our buddy who always is there for us to cry on," from the Risen Messiah to a self-help guru.

Shame on us in America for how we have portrayed God. Shame on us for moving away from what Scripture says about God to making for us a god of our choosing. We have chosen to work with a God who is much like us, because that would be a God we can control, a God we can influence, a God we do not have to be afraid of.

Jesus is not my homeboy, and He better not be yours too. He is Lord and Savior, the King of the Universe. And I will never be a "fan" of Jesus. He is not something to be trivialized and marketed like any product, sports team, or personality. To quote a dear brother "Jesus had many fans, but few followers." I choose to be a follower, to be a disciple, to carry my cross and bear the Name, not to carry my Bobble-Head and bear a t-shirt. Counting all as loss for the sake of Christ is more than an image or product, it is a lifestyle. What the Church needs is fewer fans, more followers, more Jesus, less garbage, more Christ, less Man.

Christians and Earth Day... Creation Stewardship Day

Around the world today millions of people will celebrate Earth Day. This can be seen as one of the most successful grassroots campaigns in terms of both impact and visibility. It is a day celebrated with rallies, TV specials, speakers, fun runs, parades (you get the picture...). I scanned Discovery and it looks like a full day of making me feel bad for driving a car, using disposable anything, and not having a garden.

In light of the enormity and visibility of Earth Day, what should the response be of Christians to this?

To begin, I did some research into the origins of Earth Day. This can be found on the Wikipedia page. It seems to be a great story of wanting to bring awareness to issues with the climate, and recognizing the need to better care for our environment. But what shocked and disappointed me about this was the idea of "Zero Population Growth," which was what fueled a rising interest in environmental issues and was a key component of Senator Nelson's sales pitch. The association of a movement supportive and encouraging of active birth control (i.e. abortion on demand) and the environmental movement may be harmless associates, but I fear the connection is one that must be seriously considered and evaluated based on the biblical witness. The irony is, at the time the concern was over "global cooling." My how the agenda has changed (giving, in my opinion, some evidence to dismiss global warming, but that's just me)! Spaceship Earth is also a concept that has arisen from the global impact of Earth Day. The concept here is careful use of the limited resources, and to work together. That sounds great, but the whole thing reeks of a desire to work towards a perfect world through saving the earth.

Several great things have come about as a result of Earth Day and the environmental agenda. Many species of wonderful animals have been saved from certain extinction, recycling efforts are up and are cutting back on logging and deforestation, toxic disposal regulations have been enacted, and air quality concerns have been addressed around the world. I am glad for these, and all people should be thankful that groups have fought to ensure a clean and profitable environment for future generations.

However, there are many areas of concern to bring up regarding Earth Day.

One, we have to look at the creation (and in particular Earth) as being under a curse and subject to futility and decline. The creation will not be redeemed and restored until the return of Christ. Until then, we will continue to see the labor pains and cries for redemption (earthquakes, volcanoes, fires, storms, hurricanes, etc.), and we as humanity are powerless to reverse the trend. Thinking that being as eco-friendly as we can will fix the problems denies both the authority of Scripture and a Christian understanding that creation itself is cursed.
That said, we as humanity, the crown of Creation, have a duty and obligation to subdue the world and rule it as God's stewards. We have a responsibility to care for our environment, to use well the resources given us, and ensure that our children will enjoy the same possibilities we do. We must not deny though that ultimately the Earth will not be perfect until the Curse is lifted and Christ reigns supreme over it.

Second, the whole thing reeks of Earth worship, you know, Gaia and Mother Earth and all that sort of thing. Look, like every kid in the late 80s to early 90s I watched Captain Planet. But it wasn't until later that I realized the whole thing was built on goddess stuff, and preached a naturalistic worldview that all things could be explained in nature and existence contained the Divine. I'm all down for saving the trees, whales, and whatever else needs to be saved, but we must be careful not to get to the point where we worship the created realm. This is where I fear many on the environmentalist side have strayed, and they are living out the words of Romans 1:18-22 in their agenda. To think that we should save the Earth because it is all there is or that the Divine is contrary to Scripture. Panentheism would hold that the lion who devours a zebra calf is as much God-contained as a lamb innocently grazing in a meadow. That is just crazy talk! Christians, stop calling it "Mother Earth." God is your Father, and the Earth is a created thing, subject to His rule and dominion. I know this is speculative, but it is bothersome that the flag for Earth Day contains the Greek letter Theta. Theta is held in many circles as an abbreviation for God (Greek word theos). I really have to wonder if there was something behind that. Perhaps it is meaningless, but if it is true it is a strong statement of the agenda of the Eco Movement.

Third, we have to recognize that this is the greatest of all possible worlds or possibilities of existence. God is in control of all things, and in His holiness and majesty He has ordained all things to happen so that He receives the most glory and worship. Therefore, we have to recognize that our efforts to "save the earth" are at best going to simply slow the bleeding. Placing hope for a redeemed earth in recycling, species rescue, and other eco-movements is putting our hope in someone or something other than the Triune God of Scripture. We must take heed of the fact that all of our efforts will ultimately be futile because of two things. One, we are not God and therefore we are unable to reverse the Curse in Eden. Two, Scripture itself bears witness that the ideal world disappeared in Genesis 3 and will not be a reality again until the consummation of the ages in Revelation 21-22.

What does this mean for us as believers? Should we buy SUVs and throw styrofoam into whales' mouths and burn the rainforest down? Absolutely not! God gave our parents Adam and Eve the command to have dominion over the Earth (Genesis 1:28), and that command is not to wreck it for our own pleasure, but to care for it and rule it wisely. We have done poorly in this in recent years, and our consumption of what God has so generously provided for us is something that does need to be corrected.

As believers, we should be on the front lines of demanding better care and stewardship of the Earth. We should be the ones first in line to recycle, and we should make every effort to control our pollution and negative impact on the enviornment. We should also make it VERY clear, that what we are doing is not because we believe in a realized utopia, but that we are the bearers of the Image of God and have a duty as His servants to care for the Creation that He spoke into existence. Our care and stewardship should be Gospel-saturated, and any of our effort should be met with the call of "We are merely taking care of it, one day Christ will come and redeem it"

So, have a happy Creation Stewardship Day! And do your part, share the Gospel with the Earth Day crowd, and let them know why it is you do what you do and who it is that calls on you to do it.

SDG,
Scott

Some interesting thoughts from Ezine Articles. This is in regard to a previous post I did about Christian blogging. There are many great things being done in the blog world, but also many tragedies and character assassinations.

1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us to do all things to the glory of God. As Christians, we must ask why we do the blogs we do. Are they do to being honor to the Name of the Lamb, or are they done to vent, to air grievances in a way not seen since the Festivus episode of Seinfeld (Frank Costanza), or are they done with a grudge. I submit if you are not doing it to the glory and honor of God, as an ambassador of God through the ministry of the Gospel, I say to cease and desist. Nothing infuriates me more than reading cowards using the internet as a bully. Dr. Pittman was right, this is the new grumbling from the pages of the Gospels.

Here is the article in its entirety, submitted for your consideration.

Everyone knows that controversy sells news and it also creates interest on Blogs, but if you allow your blog to turn into the latest Hollywood paparazzi soap box, you will find your readership change. How so you ask? Well, you will soon notice the intellectual level of your comments decline and the types of folks you attract may not be exactly what you had in mind.

If you watch the evolution of bloggers and see a few of them rise to fame only to fall in failure there seems to be a common theme. They go overboard on the controversy and often resort to copying ideas and re-writing content. The problem with this is that they will take a news article and embellish reality, then another blogger copies them and does the same and so on. Eventually they are slandering folks all in the increasing pressure to create content.

As their blog goes out of control and as they make more and more enemies, they set themselves up for future lawsuits and become alienated as they crucify innocent individuals, many of whom their blog viewers actually favor. These sorts of tactics always end the same way, but the need of some bloggers to become famous, appears to trump their ethical nature and integrity. Personally, I have one comment to bloggers like this; "You Ought to Be Ashamed of Yourself!"

Blogging slander is wrong and it destroys what the internet is all about, it hurts social networking and only proves that humans are little more than chimpanzees playing out their normal everyday primate politic games. Think on this.

The URL: http://ezinearticles.com/?Blogging-And-Slander---You-Ought-To-Be-Ashamed-Of-Yourself!&id=1176643

Faithfulness

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Hebrews 11:35-38

How often do we take seriously the call from Christ to take up our cross? What do we expect to get when we seek to follow Him with all our being? I think we must look to those who have gone before us to see what exactly is in store for those who truly follow Christ. Our precedent is not a life of comfort, ease, and peace. Rather, we see from those who truly stood for the cause of Christ a life of hardship, difficulty, and in many cases persecution. While we do not live in a closed country where the Gospel is a crime, we do see many instances of God-fearing, Christ-honoring people who endure hardship for the sake of Christ.

So many times, I believe we as Christians in America expect our walk with the Lord to be easy. We do not understand the difficulty being associated with the Gospel means for us. It puts us diametrically opposed to the cause of the World, and it places us in direct opposition to forces much stronger than we could ever conceive. We find ourselves on the front line of a tremendous battle, where the casualty count is high. We forget that we live in a world where more martyrs are made than ever before in Church History, and that we live in a world where husbands and fathers are brutally tortured for bearing the cross of their Lord.

So it should come as no surprise to us that when we remain faithful to Christ, we do not have an immediate and guaranteed claim to blessings and fortune (and if any preacher has told you this, he has lied to you). We have an inheritance and we do have great blessings, but those are found in Christ and not in the things of the world. The examples we are to follow from Scripture lead us to one conclusion, faithfulness to Christ will undoubtedly lead to personal hardship, spiritual warfare, and great opposition.

I have shared before that the past year has been the most difficult I have ever endured, and I do not nor can not rescind that stance. I have felt hardship and opposition in an entirely new way, and in the midst of it all I consider it a joy to have been found worthy to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. I have sought to be faithful to the teaching of the Word and the growth of His people, and while there have been glorious moments of rejoicing, there have been many more moments of personal angst. And for that I am thankful.

I encourage you to pray for and support your pastors and leaders. They have/are/will endure/d great hardship for the sake of Christ. They deal with things and carry a weight many other people will never know or understand. And it is my prayer that the people I serve with would never know the full depth of my weight I carry. Stand behind them, support them, love them, submit to them when they give instruction. Follow their faithfulness, and heed their instruction.

May the Lord find us faithful, and may we consider all things a loss for the surpassing greatness of knowing Him, making Him known, and living in the joy of our salvation in Christ

Lenten Season Begins!

As we approach the coming celebration of the highest holiday in Christianity, Resurrection Sunday/Easter/Paschal, we prepare ourselves by spending 40 days in preparation both individually and corporately for celebrating the defeat of the Curse. Individually many people choose to forsake something of worth as an act of sacrifice and fasting, and corporately many churches are teaching series based on the Passion of Christ. For example, we are taking our students through a biblical look at Jesus as the Lamb of God as seen throughout Scripture. Tonight we start with the provision of a sacrifice in Eden for the sin of Adam and Eve and the future-looking promise that one day a sacrifice was coming that would defeat the Serpent and reverse the curse God had placed on the earth.

A thought for meditation today comes from the hymn "The Church's One Foundation"

The Church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav'n He came and sought her
To be His holy Bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

'Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
In love may dwell with Thee.

Eat Drink and Be Merry...

Happy Fat Tuesday all! Today is the day that people "get it out of their system" before the observation of Lent as a preparation for the Paschal/Easter season. It is a day that New Orleans and other cities will become so drunk and stuffed that they wake up tomorrow looking forward to giving up something for 40 days. Truth be told, one time I did a 30 Hour fast in high school and we went to Gattiland before to stuff ourselves full of pizza, suicides, and breadsticks in order to get through the "eternal" time between meals we would have to endure. So I have no room to talk when I talk about the sanctity of a fast for the Lord.

Anyway, that said, I hope and pray many of you are considering walking away from something that is causing tension or difficulty in your faith walk, and giving it up for the Lenten season as an act of worship and sacrifice unto the Lord.

Tomorrow begins my voluntary withdrawal from Facebook and soft drinks, so I am sitting here at my desk enjoying a Coke Zero and Friend Updates for the last few hours before I walk away from them in order to devote myself to prayer, meditation, Scripture study, and personal piety. Buckle up, here we go!

My arms still hurt!

Friday we went back up to Kentucky for a couple days and while we were there Carrie and I helped her parents with the cleanup task in the wake of Ice Storm 2009. Seeing the pictures gave us an idea of the extent of the destruction, but it paled in comparison to what we felt and saw when we got to the Jackson Purchase area (the part of KY hit hardest). It reminded me of the scene in Band of Brothers when they are in the Bastogne woods after the German bombardment with trees down everywhere, snapped in two, and debris everywhere.

The morning started with a hefty breakfast of pancakes, coffee and bacon (which I believe I ate my body weight in). We got going around 8:30 with gathering limbs and burning them in what had to be the biggest bonfire this city boy had ever been around. A couple hours in, I began to hurt in places that have never hurt before, and muscles were aching that I didn't know I had. Carrie and her mom did a wonderful job gathering pine needles, small limbs and sticks, and giving us encouragement as we took trailer load after trailer load of timber to the fire.

By the end of the day we carried... well I lost count... trailers of debris and the property began to take on a sense of normalcy despite the damaged trees. It was a pleasure and honor for us to be able to come alongside them and work. It was hard and demanding work, but far more satisfaction and joy in knowing that we were able to be a blessing to them!

The casualty count for the day
Scott - One nasty scratch across my back, burn holes in my shirt from sparks, a sore back and shoulders
Carrie - Trembling hands from having to hold a rake tightly all day, a sore back from constant scooping and bending

Let's just say that night we had no problems resting :)

Some Disciple Now Thoughts

We had a great time with Disciple Now 2009 with our youth, talking about the issue of purity and in particular going with a "True Love Waits" theme. Special thanks to Scott Yackel and Cary Beth Duffel for giving up their weekends to invest in the students as small group leaders. Also, props to Will Cranford for leading worship, Casey Frye for being a very needed help. And lastly thanks to the lovely Mrs. Douglas for all her work and encouragement through the weekend.

The format was different from what was normal for the church, going to a small groups model where our students were able to dialogue and discuss issues with their leader in the comfort of a host home. Thankfully we were able to have good discussion with very sensitive and relevant issues that are very different from the high school world I came from.

The highlight of the weekend for me personally was our "Late Night" worship session at the home of some youth parents. By late night I mean 10 PM, know that's not late for most of you but when you regularly get up at 4:30 in the morning, anything past 9:30 is pushing twilight hours! It was awesome to see our students in a relaxed, "non-church" atmosphere praising the Lord with their voices. I hope it was as significant for them as it was for me.

I do pray that the cards signed, the commitments made, and the lessons learned from the weekend will translate into a renewed mind and dedication to living a life saturated by Christ.

Oops

Would like to thank all of you who gave such good feedback and encouragement after preaching this Sunday! It is a pleasure, an honor, and a deeply serious task to expound the Word to God's people, and I appreciated your prayers and support.

Sorry we went a bit long in the second service, not going to lie it comes from my Puritan influences. I should have done the A-Rod and said that my cousin who will be unnamed said it was a good idea, but like A-Rod that would be a lie. Forgive me as an eager young minister who thinks everyone else in the world cares as much about Puritan-like preaching as I do :) Looking forward to doing it again sometime!

SDG
Scott

Go Carrie Beth!!!

Just found out my wife passed her PhD comprehensive exams!! So proud of her for all her hard work on it!
Congrats to her, Julia, and the rest of the "Impostors" who passed! You did it!

Defending Christian Blogging

This entry is not intended to be a gossip or divisive entry, let me first make that perfectly clear. The purpose of writing this is in response to comments made during a service I attended at the church I am on staff at. During the service, a comment was made by a guest preacher that Christian blogging is the newest form of gossip and backbiting, and that it is something that Christians should avoid. I heard some of our students respond to that, and knowing that I try to regularly post blog entries, felt burdened to respond to that statement. This entry is public, but it is directed to those in attendance that night, and for those in the Broadmoor family.

I had to examine what was said for what it was worth in the context. There are many different kinds of blogs online. Some are silly, some are serious, and any mix in the middle. When it comes to blogging done by Christians, there are devotional blogs, commentaries, distribution of information, insight from Bible study, and sadly there are also blogs which are used to destroy churches and pastors. The last kind is what I will address first.

I treat blog entries that are divisive and disruptive and slanderous the same way I treat the dreaded "anonymous letter." I discard them and do not even give them a passing glance. Anyone who is not adult enough to sign their name to something they have written, or who pass it on in an email, is not worth the time or stress to worry about what they have spoken. They have chosen the coward's way, and I will not even give what they have to say any attention. The same goes for blogs whose purpose and content is to slander a church, a pastor, or to spread rumors and gossip. Matthew 18 at NO point ever allows for any such foolishness or cowardice to be employed within the church. There is a church here in Memphis that has been rocked and disrupted by unruly members among the congregation who have used the anonymity and comfort of the Internet to slander and divide the church. What they are saying may be true, but regardless of that I consider these people to be unregenerate and they should be brought up for church discipline and publicly called to answer for their sin. The same goes for ANYONE who uses their blog to divide the Church of Jesus Christ or to attack His appointed leadership in the congregation. Matthew 18 declares that you are to go to the person who has wronged you or the believer in error, not to attack them from behind on the Internet. I am sickened by what I see online from people who call themselves Christians, and I would dare to say that this is conduct unbecoming of a born-again believer. If you are reading this and involved in such a blog, stop immediately, repent, and apologize to those whom you have slandered. Restoration is the goal of confrontation, not ruining reputation and character assassination.

With that said, I give a hearty "amen" to those who say that this type of blogging has no place within the Church. I cannot however, say that in all forms all blogging is divisive and disruptive. Many times, blogs are used to share great Truths, and as a way of communicating en mass to people. Some great blogs are out there, and I subscribe to many of them. It is a blessing and encouragement to read what great Christian thinkers and leaders have to say about the issues that we face in an increasingly post-Christian society, and how we as Gospel ministers and Christians must respond to these new challenges. The speed at which information travels now is amazing, and the power of the Internet to be used for good is amazing. We are able to receive information and news as soon as it happens, instead of hours or days later! Praise the Lord for His grace in giving us this amazing technology. We ought be good stewards of it, and not abuse it for personal gain or selfish ambition.

As Christians, we have the delicate and serious task of carrying the Gospel to all people in the world, by our word and action. Let us not slander the name of Christ and His Gospel by resorting to childish and cowardly tactics. Let us as Christians stand above the crowd, and let us use this awesome treasure to His Glory and Renown in all the world.

SDG,
Scott

A Year Later

This is a few days past, but recently we celebrated our 1 year anniversary at Broadmoor. It has been a great year of learning and growing both as a Christian and as a Pastor. I truly have felt a wide array of emotions through this year, and am thankful to God for every last one.

A couple things have really stuck out to me during this year of service. One is that no amount of seminary training can prepare you for dealing with real life situations of spiritual warfare. The theoretical aspects and principles are useful, but on your first Wednesday when a purse is stolen from one of your students and I had to deal with the Memphis Police Dept, parsing Greek does very little good. There have been other times that I wished I could have taken an elective on youth culture, because it has changed so much since I was 18 and dealing with vastly different issues than students deal with now. Many things I have learned on the fly or still do not truly understand.

A second thing I have learned is that sometimes Satan can use people within the Church to discourage, divide, and attack the ministry. I never knew the depth and viciousness of spiritual warfare until I began truly striving to serve the Lord in ministry and standing to teach the Word of God faithfully on a regular basis. Then, the floodgates opened and I was forced to deal with many different issues. Praise the Lord for having to go through them though, I count any struggle and stress for Christ to be a blessing to endure, and I pray the Lord finds me faithful to Him.

I talked about this with my sister-in-law the other day, that I have never been so tired, so stressed, so down, and with so much on my shoulders as I have now. It made me think back to all those times I heard people talk about ministry not being like work if its truly where you are meant to be and all that jazz, and it was then I realized I had been lied to for so long. Between that and a message on living dangerously from Southern Seminary, I have come to the conclusion that being in the center of God's will often times will result in harder times and more difficult circumstances than any other time. The weight I carry for our students and their spiritual development and for the church as a whole weighs me down constantly, and I feel like I get less rest and less encouragement. But those who came before me in the Bible are the ones I look to, for they endured far greater hardship than anything I could imagine for the sake of following God with their lives.

It is so awesome to know that while my comfort level has gone down as fast as my stress level has gone up, that I am exactly where the Lord would have me, and it is during this I must rely on Him more. Standing to teach the Word faithfully and serve faithfully has opened up assaults on me, my health and sanity, and I praise the Lord for being found worthy to endure such hardship. This is the year of living dangerously, and I say bring it!

Hopes and Fears of all the Years

Yesterday was an historic day in our nation, as Barack Obama became the first African-American to ascend to the office of President. His journey started in 2004 as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, and many people (including myself) said "that is our next President."

Your thoughts on the last 8 years depend greatly on your partisan identity. President Bush should not be automatically thrown under the bus as his legacy. There is nothing wrong with critique and evaluation, that is all part of the study of history. Truthfully, economic issues are more the fault of Congress and the banking industry than the White House. I have often heard that the President gets too much credit and too much blame for things like the economy. We should remember President Bush as a crusader to protect our national security. He answered a call that very few in our history have had to answer, and in dealing with 9/11 he was an amazing ambassador of freedom and the right person to lead a manhunt to find bin Laden and stamp out terrorism on domestic soil. That said, his legacy will be forever tainted with the double war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Public opinion has swayed based on intelligence findings showing that the war was perhaps premature, and no WMD's were discovered in Iraq. Just because a war is unpopular does not mean it was not necessary. World War II was much more devestating and costly to our nation, yet few would argue that Hitler and Hirohito did not need to be dealt with. The same can be said for Hussein, who led campaigns of genocide against his own people. Iraq has the promise of being a democratic leader in the middle east. We should pull out and leave, but let us not forget that in one day at Antietam there were thousands of casualites, and no crying mothers and protest groups were calling for Lincoln to abandon the fight.

Tuesday was the turning of a new chapter in our nation. We have a President who was brought up in a mixed family, was a collegiate athlete, worked his way through Harvard Law, and crusaded for civil rights and mobilizing communities in Chicago. He has embraced the technology of our day, has sought to strengthen the nation by unity, and has tried to reach across the Grand Canyon of politics, to the conservative evangelicals. Watching the festivities online (was in the middle of the GRE exam during the event itself), I could not help but think how far our country has come in 50 years. Living in Memphis has taught me that some people do still see in color, and that racism is real and still an issue in our society. I am amazed that only 40 years after the assassination of Dr. King, a black man is standing in the White House. It is truly a great day for us as a nation, that the melting pot of America still means something, and that anyone regardless of race or nationality can become President.

All the excitement about the Obama administration must be tempered however, because I cannot support or endorse or stand behind his views on the sanctity of human life. Many times he has asserted that a woman has the right to choose when and if to end her pregnancy, regardless of the state of development of the infant. As a Christian, this is a very tough pill for me to swallow. As a Christian, I believe life begins at conception, and that all life is a gift from God, and that human life is indeed valuable because each person by being a person contains the spark of the Divine, the Imago Dei. The taking of any innocent life is wrong, and I would go so far as to trade in the death penalty if it meant the abortion rulings could be overturned.

It breaks my heart to know that the next four years promise many great things for our country, and many new changes that hopefully will restore America's standing in the world. But my greatest fear is that because of an administration, a Congress, and a general populace that ascribes less and less value to human life, the next four years could be four years of weeping and mourning for the many of us who still believe life is more than a commodity or convenience. I pray that the day comes when all human life is respected, valued, and given worth as more than a thing or cluster of cells. Until then, I pray for all the women of every age who are considering terminating a pregnancy that they would consider other options besides ending a life. May God help us all.

Mixed Feelings?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist for anyone to figure out what I really think about the book The Shack. It has caused me great frustration as a spiritual leader to observe so many of the Lord's faithful buying into a book that has a perverted and distorted and heretical view of the Trinity. In fact, I do anticipate that one day Young will have to stand before God and answer for all the people he has led astray and I'll bet God won't be a laid back black woman at that point nor Jesus be some goofy looking putz of a guy. I have a feeling he'll come to understand what it means to fall into the hands of a Holy God.

So why do I say "mixed feelings?" Simply put, I have a desire to avoid conflict and avoid potential issues within the church. But, that said, my calling is not to keep people happy but rather to guide, teach, admonish, and exhort God's people from God's Word. And when there is heresy rampant, it must be addressed. That is how many great works of faith came about, from pastors answering challenges to orthodoxy within the church. It is because of this that the Arian controversy was refuted, and the Gnostic heresy was challenged, and many other issues that have stood to divide the Church. It took faithful men of God to stand in the gap and declare spades to be spades.

That said, I am calling a spade a spade. I am calling The Shack to be one of the most dangerous books to be written in a long time, and it is a book that DOES NOT need to be read by faithful Christians. It presents a false view of God as being real and while it is a work of fiction the response of people to it warrants great caution. People are calling this a work up there with Pilgrim's Progress and other great works of the faith, and I have to look at that and say that it is insane to say that a book that counters the biblical witness to the Person of God can be seen as high as a work of classical Christian literature.

This is a review by Mark Driscoll about the book, and I believe he says it better that almost anyone else can. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK65Jfny70Y

I really hope that Young recants his heresy and can be welcomed back into the fold of God. And I really hope that Christians who have bought the lie repent and return to a biblical Trinitarian view of God that is in line with the witness of Scripture. Until then, I will labor to counter this and to admonish the people of God to stay far away from it.

Thank You Tony!

Yesterday was a very sad day for football fans as Tony Dungy announced his retirement as the coach of the Indianapolis Colts. For the last couple years it was speculated that Tony would walk away while still at the top of the league. He is noted as the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl, and he has led his teams to the playoffs for 10 straight years, and the Colts won at least 12 games for the last several years. He has been the model of consistency and class both on the field and off. Dungy, an outspoken Christian, is also one of the few universally respected and honored coaches in the NFL. Interviews with former players are a testimony to the character of their coach, because no one can ever say anything bad about him. He treated people with respect, and while being a very demanding coach never belittled people and worked to bring out the best in people by motivation rather than fear. He is still beloved in Tampa where he was fired (probably one of the biggest GM mistakes pre-Detroit Lions), and has an immense impact on any community he is part of. For Tony, football was temporary. Football was something he loved but it was not the primary focus of his life. He could walk away at any time knowing that his life had a greater purpose to it. It is a great day to celebrate his legacy but we as football fans mourn because one of the best representatives of what is good in sports is gone.

In the era of Plaxico Burress getting his gun off on himself in a club and PacMan still managing to find a way to get himself in trouble with his love of strippers and shootings, the steroid era where baseball itself was compromised, betting circles and point shaving, and everything else that is wrong with professional sports these days, thank you Tony for showing us that there is some good left in the game and the joy that can come from doing something you love

A Revolution of Purpose

So the other day I was reading trying to come up with a message for last Sunday night at church. I did the usual when you're not sure and just flip through until something opens up. One passage that I read was in Ezekiel 2, and it was late Saturday night (after I'd outlined and come up with a sermon, not the Saturday Night Special) that I really came to terms with a purpose and mission as a Bible teacher. Here is the passage:
And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2 And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ 5 And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6 And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7 And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.

In essence, this passage showed me that my primary concern as a Bible teacher and preacher is to proclaim the message of God regardless of the stubbornness of the people. Ezekiel was called to command the people of God to repent and turn back to the covenant. He was not to listen to the thorns and scorpions they would hit him with by their words.

After reading this I came to realize that I should not be concerned with people's happiness, but their holiness. By having a Word-focused and Word-centered teaching/preaching ministry, while the results may not be immediate I must remain focused on the call to stand in the gap. I am not calling myself a prophet, but I do desire to be used as a vessel in such a way that the words of God are what I say so that the people who hear can know that the Lord has spoken.

Pray for me that I might remain faithful to this calling and to be encouraged despite attack and assault from people who do not desire a message from God. Pray for courage to stand and boldly proclaim and not shrink down in fear of disagreement or offense.

Took too much time off

So I tried running the other day for the first time since St Jude, let's just say taking that time off and Christmas eating did not help the cause. Was only able to do a couple miles before I got too worn out to keep going (the cold wind didn't help either)
Back in the saddle here we come!

Just say no

No this isn't a post to say to stay away from drugs. Although, you should. Don't use them, they fry your brain, ruin your friendships, and are a terrible influence on society. There, obligatory save on a statement.

I am instead saying no to spousal travel. Carrie and I have only been married for 2 1/2 months, and she had to go to Louisville for her PhD comps and classes. I had lived independent for years before we got married, but in the last week I have realized how utterly helpless I am! I didn't think I'd be as lonely as I am without her, nor did I think I'd be so behind on keeping up with the house.

Praise the Lord this is the last extended trip!