Taking the Great Commission to Baltimore

Next week, I will be going to Baltimore, MD on a mission trip with a group of young adults from my church to share the Good News of Jesus with those in the suburb of Brooklyn.

Last week, my husband and I attended the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination with which we serve.  At that meeting, the messengers to the convention overwhelming approved (by 95% or better) the Great Commission Resurgence.

You may be wondering how I see these two events as connected, but hang with me for a minute.  While parts of the GCR are related to the business of the convention – how the agencies and entities do their work and whether or not they are effective in fulfilling the Great Commission through the way they work – the central concern of the movement is whether or not we are personally and as a denomination carrying out the final orders left to us by Jesus Christ while He was on earth.

If you take the time to read through the GCR, and if you are Southern Baptist I encourage you to do so, you may begin to wonder how this affects those who are not convention leaders and ministers in local congregations.  Some of the points are certainly directed at those in leadership.

However, I would issue the challenge that the GCR begins with me – and with you.  It begins with every man and women in the pew who professes the name of Christ taking upon themselves the burden to take the gospel to a world that each day falls further and further away from the Truth found in the Bible.

A renewed commitment to the Great Commission as outlined in Matthew 28:19-20 begins with each Christian deciding today to share the gospel in her hometown, around her state, across the US, and to the far corners of the world.

So, my first, tiny little step in a renewed commitment to Jesus’ Great Commission to believers begins in Baltimore.  Please pray for our team.  Pray that God will be glorified through all that we say and do.  Pray that we will share the gospel with boldness.  Pray that those who hear will have hearts and ears that are open to the Word.

 

New WorldCrafts Article Online

I have a new article up at MyMissionFullfilled.com on WorldCrafts in Sri Lanka.  I hope you’ll check it out!

 

Glorify and Enjoy God

What is the chief end of man?  Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.  (Westminster Shorter Catechism)

When we look to God’s Word, the Bible, we find the only objective source of Truth available to us.  Other people may try to influence us with what they believe is the truth, but they can be deceived by their own desires and ideas.  The media will try to influence in ways that benefit the bottom line.  We are even deceived by our own sinful natures that seek to glorify ourselves rather than God.

What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him?  The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.  (Westminster Shorter Catechism)

The world seeks to glorify itself, rather than God.  Even with the best of intentions, those around us may try to influence us in ways that do not bring glory to God.  At our core, we are all sinful and selfish creatures … but the good news is that through Christ, we can be made new!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  1 Corinthians 5:17

If you have a relationship with Christ – if you have repented from your sins and turned to Him in faith – then you (we) must live – think, act, believe – like it.  We must seek to glorify God with everything we do, say, think.

We must also seek to enjoy Him.  We rest in the comfort of His care, knowing that whatever comes our way is for His glory and our best.  Even in unpleasant circumstances, we can seek to bring glory to God and to enjoy His presence.

All of these actions require a deliberate choice on our part to change our ways of thinking and acting.  We must choose to glorify and enjoy God each day, in every moment.  We choose to reject whatever is convenient, comfortable, self-serving, or sinful in order to choose to obey God.

Are you enjoying your life as a new creation in Christ?  Are you glorifying Him in every moment of your day?

 

My Utmost for His Highest for June 11

I know that this is tomorrow’s reading, but I accidentally read it today – and I needed to share it:

“…and I will give you rest” – that is, “I will sustain you, causing you to stand firm.”  He is not saying, “I will put you to bed, hold your hand, and sing you to sleep.”  But, in essence, He is saying, “I will get you out of bed – out of your listlessness and exhaustion, and out of your condition of being half dead while you are still alive.  I will penetrate you with the spirit of life, and you will be sustained by the perfection of vital activity.”  Yet we become so weak and pitiful and talk about “suffering” the will of the Lord!  Where is the majestic vitality and the power of the Son of God in that?

 

NAMB Sojourners

This past Sunday, we said farewell to one of our church youth for the summer.  During June and July, K. will be serving as a Sojourner missionary through the North American Mission Board in San Diego, CA.  While we and her friends miss her already, we are looking forward to hearing how God is going to use her this summer to share the gospel with people on the West Coast.

Sojourners are “high school students who work with missionaries and churches in evangelism and church planting projects in the United States and Canada.”  K. will be working with a church in San Diego doing Back Yard Bible Clubs and other tasks in order to reach people with the Good News of Christ.

We pray that the people she meets will be changed by the message, and we know that she will be changed by the experience!

 

Baltimore Bound!

Two weeks ago we traveled to Baltimore, Maryland with our student minister and another volunteer to scout out possibilities for a summer mission trip with our graduating seniors and college students.

FBC Brooklyn, Baltimore, MD

For a week in July, we will be working with First Baptist Church Brooklyn, located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Baltimore.  The great fun of this trip has been the opportunity to reconnect and work with a couple with whom we went to church when we were newlyweds at First Baptist White House, TN.

Lou Paradiso, pastor of FBC Brooklyn, and his wife Sonya were good friends many years ago, and we had such a good time seeing them again!

FBC Brooklyn is experiencing an interesting time in the life of the church.  Many of the members no longer live in the neighborhood around the church, primarily due to the economic level and crime rate in the area.

Brooklyn neighborhood

In the blocks immediately around the church building, you find houses like these.  Many of these older homes are being remodeled, and are quite beautiful.  Often they are valued at more than $200,000.

However, a couple of blocks away from the church, you find large blocks of housing like this:

Low-income housing

While we didn’t see any signs indicating that this is government housing, the appearance of these apartments is drastically different from that of the homes immediately surrounding the church – and yet they are still in walking distance from the church building.

We plan to take on a wide-range of projects while we are in Baltimore – Back Yard Bible Clubs, leading in two worship services, meeting with the church’s ESL ministry, spending time with the teenagers in the church (many of whom come to church without any family members), and anything else that we see needs to be done.

We are so excited about this opportunity and all that God has in store for us.  Please pray for us as we begin to divide our group into work teams, and as we have our planning sessions on Sunday and Wednesday evenings.  Baltimore, here we come!

 

Happy Memorial Day!

(HT: LifeWay Women Allaccess)

 

Graduation!

I have been absent from the blog for a few weeks because we have had SO MUCH of the travel and the goings-on!  Hopefully we can catch up over the next few days, now that things here are calming down a bit.

The most important “happening” of the last few weeks was definitely this…

Southern Seminary Graduation - May 15, 2009

We were so proud to celebrate the “Mister” becoming the “Doctor”!  What a moment!  When Dr. Mohler asked us following the ceremony if we would change the journey, we could honesty say that we know that God has blessed us far beyond what we deserve.

I can remember walking into Norton Hall for the first time over ten years ago as we were making our plans to move to Louisville for Chris to work on his M.Div.  During those days, the President’s Office was on the first floor, and the Dean of the School of Theology was on the second floor.

We made our way upstairs to meet with Dr. Danny Akin, and I remember thinking how dark and formal the building seemed.  (Not to mention how scary those Revelation pictures were!)

I loved Dr. Akin from the first interview with him.  I told Chris after we left, “I’d like to work for him someday.”  Who knew that I would get that chance … twice?!

Who could imagine that ten years later I would know my way around that building almost as well as I know any other place?  We had some great times there, made some great memories and wonderful friends, and learned more than we could ever imagine.

So, this marks the end of our seminary career.  Yes, we will “return to walk under the beech trees,” but we won’t return as a student and a student wife.

The Dr. and Mrs.

Those days may be past, but we look forward with anticipation to how God is going to use those experiences to impact our future!

 

Prom 2009

Yes, those are tiaras in front of the punch bowl!

No, I didn’t go to prom this year – I think I’m just a little past the age limit!

However, I did stay up until 12:30 am, and I did have a date, and I did have a fun time with high school girls!

We love having our teenage friends to our house, and when we heard that a couple of them would not be attending their prom, I just had to do a little something.

A big cookie!

I’m sure that some folks might wonder why we try to give some of our time to these kids.  We don’t have kids in the youth group, and Chris isn’t a youth or student minister. 

We do it because we hope that, someday when these girls are grown and have homes of their own, they will remember that wacky minister of education and his wife who let them come over at all hours and play games and talk and eat and drink hot chocolate.

We also do it because that’s what was done for us by this lady.

Debi V.

She opened the parsonage door anytime we came knocking.  We were always welcome in her home, and we knew it.

I realize I keep coming back to this question, but I think it’s an important one:  Who have you been investing your time in lately?  What kind of memories are you making with others so that they will want to “pay it forward” some day?

 

Ah, Spring!

Spring has certainly arrived in Owensboro in full force!  We are enjoying the buttercups, tulips, dogwoods, and many other signs that winter has gone for another few months.

Neighbors are coming out of hibernation to work in their yards, sunny days are putting people in good spirits, folks are waving as you pass by.  We are reacquainting ourselves with one another.

We have wedding showers in abundance – three in the span of four weeks!  These are fun times to get together with women to send another young woman down the path of wedded bliss.

Our spring concert at the high school is just under two weeks away.  We are feverishly working to perfect our music – all while the students are suffering from incredible bouts of “spring fever,” sometimes making an hour and a half class period feel like ten.

Summer is just around the corner – we are preparing for Chris’ graduation, the annual meeting of our denomination in Louisville, a mission trip to Baltimore to minister alongside our friends Lou and Sonya, Vacation Bible School, and hopefully a vacation before the season ends!

So many things to be involved with, so much to do.  Yet, we were created to take the time to greet our neighbors, enjoy the wedding showers, make a new friend, and reconnect with an old friend.

How are you spending this lovely spring day?