Nice service with the BJU Drama Team

On Sunday night, Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury had the privilege of hosting the Bob Jones University Drama Ministry Team. (I kept referring to them as the "Truth in Action" Drama Team from BJU, but I think they have dropped that name.) The team did a great job as they dealt with the concept of the goodness of God even in the midst of trials and difficulties. In particular, they told the story of a truck accident of Missionaries Terry & Rachel Ritschard in Papua, New Guinea and how God worked in the details of the situation. One of my good friends is a missionary in Papua New Guinea and it was interesting to hear some of the situations that were mentioned in the team's presentation. Overall, it was a great emphasis on trusting God and I think that our folks were blessed by the presentation - I know we were as a family. This particular team will be traveling in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Their itinerary can be found here. If they are in your area, stop by and see them. Just my thoughts, Frank (Okay, I am adjusting the time stamp on this one to allow it to count for Monday night even though it is really early on Tuesday morning. Don't tell anyone.)

Some spelling humor

Recently, Don Johnson caught a few of my spelling/typing errors in my post and comments regarding the straw man version of Fundamentalism (or as I spelled it "Fundameentalism") that is often attacked online. Anyway, I thought that I would share this picture in light of those comments from Don. Enjoy. Just someone else's thoughts, Frank

Evangelistic Unction

One of the well-known sayings of Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. was that "It takes evangelistic unction to make orthodoxy function." Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in our own things and forget the importance of being an active and earnest witness to the lost around us. We would be wise to take to heart these words of "The Prince of Preachers." If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies, and if they perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon HT: Elon Wood via email

Prayer Request

In much of Fundamentalism (including the church where I serve as Pastor), tonight - Wednesday night - is prayer meeting. I should have posted this earlier so that it could be included in prayer bulletins, since many of those have already been printed by now (depending on where you are located). Pastor Mark Franklin, who is the Pastor of Hardingville Bible Church in Monroeville, New Jersey, is undergoing lung surgery tomorrow (Thursday, May 15) to remove a cancerous mass in his lung (among other things). Pastor Franklin is a friend and mentor of mine and a great asset to Christianity and Fundamentalism. I had the privilege of serving as his assistant for over five years and I learned much from him. I would appreciate your prayers for Pastor Franklin and his family as he prepares for and undergoes this surgery tomorrow. (I am sure Pastor Franklin and his family would appreciate the prayers as well.) Just my request, Frank

Some Thoughts for Mothers

Kind of tired, but I thought I could put up these items that I found in relation to Mother's Day - bookmark them for next year. I Corinthians 13 for Mothers (by Jim Fowler) If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper, not a homemaker. If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness, not godliness. If I scream at my children for every infraction, and fault them for every mess they make, but have not love, my children become people-pleasers, not obedient children. Love leaves the dust in search of a child’s laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window. Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk. Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys. Love accepts the fact that I am the ever-present “mommy,” the taxi-driver to every childhood event, the counselor when my children fail or are hurt. Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, and runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood. Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in God’s perfection of my child. All the projections I had for my house and my children have faded away into insignificance, And what remain are the memories of my kids. Now there abides in my home scratches on most of the furniture, dishes with missing place settings, and bedroom walls full of stickers, posters and markings, But the greatest of all is the Love that permeates my relationships with my children. A Special Breakfast One Mother's Day morning, a mother was awaken by her two children who came into her room and ordered her to remain in bed and not to get up. The children then ran down the stairs to the kitchen and before long, the mother started to hear the "cling" and the "clang" of cooking utensils. Thinking how nice this was, she lay in bed in anticipation of a special breakfast in bed from her two adorable children. The smell of bacon wafted up to her room and intensified her anticipation as she waited. And waited. And waited. And worried. Finally, the children called her to come downstairs. She got up and went down to the kitchen only to find my two kids sitting at the table and finishing off a couple of plates of bacon and eggs. "As a surprise for Mother's Day," one explained, "we decided to cook our own breakfast." Just some other people's thoughts, Frank

Really??

This is a little bit old, but I think it is still relevant. I started writing it in March, but it got saved in draft mode and never finished. In March, 9 Marks published an e-journal in which the question was asked, "What can we learn from Fundamentalists?" There has been quite a bit of discussion regarding the articles in that journal and I have basically just watched from afar. (A dear and faithful lady in our church had a very serious stroke around the time the articles came out and we had a number of other things going on at the time of the publishing of the journal.) At the time, however, I noticed a comment by Ben Wright (aka Paleoevangelical) that I wanted to address, but never completed my post. Ben wrote an article over at Paleoevanglical regarding Dr. Dave Doran's article in the 9 Marks e-journal. In the comments on this thread, Ben comments to Bruce: So Doran seems to be arguing that we can disagree on issues that are not directly tied to the gospel (music, head coverings, the Rapture, etc.) and still have some meaningful level of fellowship together for the gospel. I think that's different from what you (and I) might be used to. I probably live in an isolated world, but one of the things that I have seen repeatedly running around the internet in the last few years is a memory of some regarding Fundamentalism that just seems strangely distant from the memories of Fundamentalism that I have. I recognize that there are some different streams of Fundamentalism, but I seem to find these divergent memories even from those who are mainly from the same general stream. For instance, I don't know much regarding paleo ben's background, by my assumption has been that he spent some time at (or even perhaps graduated from) my alma mater or at least from one of its "sister schools" (NBBC, MBBC, etc.). I know that he also was involved in a youth ministry/publishing ministry that I found to be profitable when I was a youth pastor - and whose Leadership Training Course I used and adapted for training our youth leaders. While I do not agree with everything that organization did (and remember my wife and I getting up and leaving at one event that the leader was "performing" at a camp that I like a lot), I think it has been one of the better youth ministry sources available. However, when I think of those things, it makes it hard to imagine how the statement that I put in block quotes could be accurate. (In fact, it reminds me in some ways of the faulty memories of the Israelites who started to long for the "fleshpots" back in Egypt when things went a little difficult in the wilderness - they "misremembered" the conditions that existed in Egypt before the exodus.) Mainstream Fundamantalism has always allowed for disagreement on issues not directly tied to the Gospel. For instance, Ben uses the example of head coverings. Come on, Ben. Surely, you are not ignorant of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church where Dr. Mark Minnick serves as Pastor (and where Jesse Boyd, Rod Bell, and Les Olilla served before him) or the Free Presbyterian Church or even BJU up until a decade or so ago. To try to indicate that up until recently Fundamentalism would have viewed head coverings as something to be separated over is implausible and irresponsible. Are there wacko fringe groups that refer to themselves as Fundamentalist that might make such a thing a matter of separation? Sure. But this discussion was not that it was different from the fringe, but that it was different from the Fundamentalism that Ben and Bruce (Countryman?) were used to. Therefore, I ask - Really? Just my thoughts, Frank

I came across this poem somewhere and was bothered by its opening statement. See if you can tell what bothered me. A little more kindness, A little less creed, A little more giving, A little less greed, A little more smile, A little less frown, A little less kicking, A man when he's down, A little more "we" A little less "I", A little more laugh, A little less cry, A little more flowers, On the pathway of life, And fewer on graves At the end of the strife. - Anonymous Maybe I am reading this incorrectly, but why is it that this author (and many others) seem to think that kindness is in contrast to "creed"? A creed is simply a system of principles which are believed or professed. Since love and compassion are things that are professed and believed by Christians, it would seem that the encouragement would be more upon fulfilling that Christian creed rather than asking for less creed. Just my thoughts, Frank

Baseball in Small Town America

I recently had the privilege of experiencing Opening Day of Little League for the town of Delmar, Maryland and Delmar, Delaware. (Delmar is "the little town too big for one state" and sits on the border of Delaware and Maryland and has an interesting make-up due to the fact that the town is split down the middle by the state line.) I played Little League baseball back in the day, but we never had anything to resemble what I witnessed and participated in a couple of Saturdays ago. In honor of Opening Day, Delmar Little League puts on a parade - complete with all of the teams in their own floats (okay, mostly just in the backs of pickups or on trailers pulled by pickups), candy being thrown out to the folks lined up along the parade route, the high school marching band, the town police and other emergency vehicles, etc. It was pretty neat to see the parade go by and see all the players from all of the divisions (from t-ball on up) in their uniforms and excited to get ready to play their first day. Following the parade were some opening day activities at the National League field. Since this is the 50th year that Delmar has chartered Little League Baseball, there was some extra things that normally do not occur. Local politicians played a roll - including representatives from both Maryland and Delaware due to the nature of the town's bi-state residence. Plaques were presented, balls were thrown out, the National Anthem was played by the marching band, even a benediction was made (during the parade, I was asked to give the benediction). It was a pretty neat spectacle. Since this was a special 50th year celebration, they assembled the first ever all-star team of Delmar Little League and they honored the man who hit the first ever home run in Delmar Little League history - by giving him the ball that he hit many years ago in a nice casing. (In preparation for the celebration, someone asked his mom - and sure enough, she still had the baseball tucked away in the attic after all these years - my kind of mom!!) After the ceremonies, there were games on all of the fields and bar-b-q chicken and cotton candy and the concession stands were open. In addition to the festivities, God gave us a beautiful day for baseball. One of the events that were included in the festivities was the recital of the Little League pledge. I trust in God I love my country And will respect its laws I will play fair And strive to win But win or lose I will always do my best When I looked out over the great group of young people assembled and heard them repeat this pledge, I thought how great it would be if this first line were indeed true of all of these kids. Would to God that some of these young people - perhaps even some on Josiah's team - will come to really understand that first line in the Little League pledge this year. Just my thoughts, Frank

A Nice New Feature for Blogger

Some of you may already be aware of this, but I just discovered that Blogger now allows you to prepare posts ahead of time and publish them at a future time. Blogger has had a "Save as Draft" feature which allowed you to write articles for future publications. The only problem was that you still had to long back on when you wanted to publish the article (and adjust the time options as well). Now you can write a blog post and set the date and time you want it to be posted and blogger will automatically publish it at that date and time. While this will not necessarily be that big of a deal with this blog, if I decide to ever get serious about regularly updating one of my side blogs such as - Daily Quotes and Illustrations or What Happened on This Date - this would be very helpful. Just my thoughts, Frank

Great Meetings - Ending too soon!

This last few days we have had the privilege of hosting special meetings at Fellowship Baptist Church with Evangelist J. Mark Kittrell. These meetings ended tonight with an excellent message on the wise and foolish virgins from Matthew 25. As I mentioned the last time we had meetings with the Kittrells, one of the things that I appreciate about his preaching and his ministry is that he seems to approach things from a Pastoral focus and gives the Word of God the focus rather than stories to attract attention. I do not mean that Mr. Kittrell never uses illustrations - he does. However, his illustrations tend to be more subdued than what is typically used by evangelists and he actually uses them as "illustrations" - to illuminate - rather than as the driving force behind a message. One of the things that I had a special privilege of witnessing this week was his interaction with some of the folks from my church. Since the re-scheduling of the meetings meant that Tammisue and the boys could not be with him this week, I accompanied him to a couple of meals instead. It was very enjoyable to join him in the homes of some of our folks. We had great times of fellowship together, even though they were just meeting him for the first time. There was no pretense that Mark was supposed to be treated as royalty because he was THE EVANGELIST. Having traveled with Mark and Tammisue for a summer, I had observed their transparency up close, but it was a refreshing reminder this week to observe his interactions with folks he barely knew. I want to again recommend Evangelist Mark Kittrell to those of you Pastors who may read this. You will not be disappointed. (BTW, Brother Mark also has a good understanding of local church ministry. Not only was he raised in a Pastor's home, he also planted a church in Hawaii before resuming full-time itinerant ministry.) Just my thoughts, Frank

Christians and Popular Culture - Who Said This?

Two quotes regarding "Christian" music and "Christian" culture. Who said them? When you make loving Christ sound just like loving your boyfriend, you can do damage to both your faith and your ballad. That's true when you create a sanitized version of bands like Nirvana or artists like Jay-Z, too: You shoehorn a message that's essentially about obeying authority into a genre that's rebellious and nihilistic, and the result can be ugly, fake, or just limp. It's always been a stretch to defend Christian pop culture as the path to eternal salvation. Now, they may have to face up to the fact that it's more like an eternal oxymoron. Just for you to guess, Frank

Good sermons by Evangelist Mark Kittrell

Tonight we had our second night of Special Meetings with Evangelist Mark Kittrell. Tonight, Brother Kittrell preached on 1 Corinthians 1 and dealt with the need to be a mature church in Christ. He emphasized the fact that the calling of the church is such that it is God's church - not the church of any particular person. As such, the God who has called us and gifted us, expects us to use those gifts in the service of His Church. He also cautioned against the contention in the church that showed up in Corinth. Whereas the Corinthian church became divided over personalities and styles, the mature church recognizes that God has gifted everyone differently and rejoices in the differing gifts rather than dividing over the various gifts. He then focused on the aspect that the mature church has the cross of Christ as its message. While the world may place its prominence upon the wisdom of philosophy or the academics of the scribes or the rhetoric of the disputer, God has went a different direction and has chosen instead to work through and honor the foolishness of preaching. The God who has called His church has chosen to do so by calling the foolish, the weak, the base, and the despised. On Sunday, during Sunday School, Mr. Kittrell preached on the parable of the soils (my term since the emphasis is not really on the sower, but upon the soil upon which the seed falls). My son took my only pen that I had with me, so I do not have good written notes, but I believe the terminology he used for the various hearers was that the first (wayside) had no understanding, the second (stony ground) had no depth, and the third (thorny) had no commitment. I could be off on this, but I think the idea is at least close. For Sunday afternoon, we considered Solomon's prayer for the temple dedication and how that the emphasis was on what God would do when His people fell away and sinned. Even though the temple dedication was a high spot in the spiritual history of the nation, Solomon was concerned about the times that would come when Israel would fall away and when Israel may find itself in captivity. I had never really noticed this before. I wonder if there is a lesson for Pastors in this regarding the way in which we pray with and prepare our people. Solomon seemed to have assumed that the people would fall away and face great difficulties. Are we sometimes too optomistic when we expect to see continual growth in tose with whom we minister? Doesn't the very question even sound more negative than it should? Just some thoughts, Frank

Good Start of Special Meetings with Evangelist Mark Kittrell

Today, Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury began Special Meetings with Evangelist Mark Kittrell. Some of you may remember that these meetings were originally scheduled for March and I blogged about them in an earlier article entitled, "Upcoming Meetings with Evangelist Mark Kittrell." As I mentioned on another post, Mr. Kittrell's mom became very sick around the time of our meetings and we had to reschedule the meetings so that he could be with his mom before she died. Well, this week is the rescheduling of those meetings. I am planning on giving some notes and comments from the various messages as the week progresses, but since the post that was supposed to be for today (Sunday) ended up being for last night, I will at least make some brief comments real quickly before a more full review tomorrow. (I may re-think the every day thing to allow for no posting on Sundays :) ). While there are blessings and struggles with every church, I appreciate the congregation of people among whom God has placed us. In a small church, it is sometimes difficult to know who will show up and what will happen when you try to schedule something special - so much so that at times you are weary of scheduling some things. (Or at least this is true of me.) Since these meetings were rescheduled meetings, there were some folks with some scheduling conflicts. It was real disappointing that they could not be here for the start of the meetings, but I was greatly encouraged by the ones who did come. One gentlemen who usually works an evening/night swing shift even took the week off so that he could be here for the meetings every night!! We got off to a good start as Mr. Kittrell laid some groundwork for the week and the people were encouraged, please pray for God to use these meetings and the preaching of His Word in a special way this week at Fellowship Baptist Church. Just my thoughts, Frank

Some additional thoughts regarding evaluations

I meant to include this in my original post, but I was getting a little long and I am planning on sending that article to a Pastor friend of mine who asked more for some devotional type articles for a church newsletter he is starting and I wanted to stay under the 800 word limit he recommended. One of the most striking illustrations of God's evaluations in the lives of the kings comes from the life of King Omri. When we look in Scripture, King Omri is not given a very prominent place. We read about his life in 1 Kings 16:16-28 and it is not very impressive. The most important things that the Scriptures indicate about Omri are the unusual circumstances of his becoming king, the fact that he moved the capital of the Northern Kingdom to Samaria and that he "wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him." (1Kings 16:25) Yet, when we look at Omri's role from a secular standpoint, we may get the impression he was one of Israel's better kings - or at least most powerful and influential kings. In regards to his military strength, he apparently had conquered the Moabites and subjugated them according the the Moabite Stone. In regards to his foreign policy, he apparently had good relations with the Phoenicians based on the marrying of his son Ahab to the Phoenician Jezebel. In regards to reputation, the Assyrian chronicles reveal that the Norther Kingdom is referred to as the "land of Omri" for years - even to the point of calling Israelite kings "sons of Omri" even though they were not of his actual line. If an American president had made similar advances in these important areas - military, foreign policy, and cultural (the successful move and improvement of the capital), he would probably be given some prominence in the history of the nation. Instead, Omri is relegated to just a few verses and the fact that "he wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD." Just some additional thoughts, Frank

Some thoughts about evaluations

Recently, I was once again studying the life of one of my favorite Bible characters and became intrigued by a little description that was given concerning his life. I had notice the expression many times (in fact, I even have a sermon which uses part of the expression as part of the title), but as I thought about the expression again, my mind went in a different direction than normal. In Second Chronicles 34, as we read about the life of King Josiah of Judah, we find that in the second verse, the author gives an evaluative summary of the life of King Josiah. The content of that summary is simply, "And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left." Josiah did "that which was right in the sight of the LORD." This is the evaluation that the Chronicler makes of Josiah's life under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. While I have generally gone from that truth to consider what it means to do that which is right in God's sight, this time I thought about the evaluation itself. If you were to take the time to read through the records of the various kings of Israel and Judah after the division of the kingdom as presented to us in God's Word, you will find that a similar evaluative statement is made repeatedly regarding the various kings. The pattern for such an evaluation is usually rather simple: "(King's name) was (age) when he began to reign . . . and he did that which was (right/evil) in the sight of the Lord." Following the summary evaluation, usually some additional details are given regarding the king and his reign, but it is the evaluation of the king that sticks out. When God chose to evaluate the kings, He did not do it based on the external matters that often concern us - he instead evaluated the kings based on if they did right or evil in His eyes. While most of us would evaluate rulers based on things such as military strength, foreign policy expertise, economic stability, cultural advancement, God shows a higher concern - did this person do right in my sight. When we evaluate our own lives or the lives of others - what qualifies as success to us? Is it financial well-being? Is it the importance of our job - or how high up the corporate ladder we stand? Do we evaluate the success of our lives by how many people follow us or what kind of special skill we might have? OR do we evaluate our lives based on the simple criteria established by God's Word - am I doing right in the sight of God? What about the lives of our children? Are we most happy when they are getting good grades and scoring goals OR are we most pleased when we see them growing in Christ-likeness and doing right in God's eyes? Perhaps it is time that we evaluate things from God's perspective. It is not the pocketbook, the position, or the popularity that determines success - it is a life of obedience to God. Just my thoughts, Frank