Heavenly Heartburn

It is with a burdened heart that I write this post. I am concerned about something that is occurring among Christian blogs even as I sit at my keyboard.

Over the past month or so I have observed and even participated in an ongoing discussion among evangelical bloggers. This conversation has primarily been among those who would identify themselves in alignment with Free Grace theology or a more centrist soteriological position. These are people that I believe are sincere in what they believe and I look at them as my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Debates among bloggers are certainly not unusual occurrences. Having often engaged in them myself, I find that they can be stimulating, challenging and generally enriching when conducted in a gracious spirit.

What concerns me in this particular situation, however, is the devolvement of the dialogue into a playground brawl. I have observed name-calling, childish attempts at deceit, intimidation tactics, taunting, false accusations and even people questioning one another’s salvation. Instead of getting better, the problems are escalating, even spilling over onto blogs that are not even a part of the discussion. Not everyone involved in the debate has stooped to such tactics, but many have.

I have watched as pastors, teachers, theologians, students, authors and lay-persons alike have sullied themselves in this fray and are doing so head-long with little regard to possible consequences.

Brothers and sisters, I implore you in the name of our Lord, let us put an end to this maliciousness. I am not asking anyone to compromise their beliefs, or even end the discussion. The truth of the gospel is always worth proclaiming, but let us do so in a Christ-like spirit.

Let us keep in mind that while we may consider this to be an intramural debate, this forum is visible before the whole world. We must remember that this is being observed by those who do not know our Lord. Do we honestly think that this will have the effect of drawing them to Him?

I am sure that each person involved is convinced of the rightness of their particular theological position. That is between them and the Lord. But nowhere does God ever give us license to treat each other with such acidic behavior, even if the other person is a “heretic”.

I do not write this to sound arrogant or judgemental. This is merely a plea from my heart to those who will hear it. Let us treat one another with the same grace that God has extended to us.

“Preacher, can I please be saved?” the little six-year-old boy asked me during the invitation after yesterday’s sermon.

I instructed him to have a seat on the front pew and I told him I would talk to him after the service. When everyone was gone, he and his mother joined me in my office where I had the privilege of showing him the truth of the gospel and leading him to Christ.

As he called on the Lord to save him, he reached a point in his prayer where he said, “Jesus, I want to stop doing bad things and start doing good things.” I was not asking him to “repeat after me” or anything else. This was what was in his heart as he asked God for the gift of salvation.

With all of the debates and definitions that surround the word “repentance”, I must say that this is about as clear and biblical a definition as one will find.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m still kickin’ down here in south Georgia.

 As you can see, I haven’t posted a lot this year. There are several really good reasons and a whole bunch of excuses. As with many of us, the demands of life have mandated that blogging be pushed to a back burner for the time being.

I hope to be able to get back to a higher level of frequent posting soon. In the meantime, feel free to leave your thoughts on the election, NCAA basketball tournament (go Duke!), theology or any other family-friendly topic.

 God bless you and keep you in His love and grace.

A busier-than-usual beginning to the year has not left me a lot of time for creative writing. I hesitate to make my first post of the nova annum political in nature, but there are a few things  that I would like to say about the on-going Republican presidential primary election.

As with most of the country, it has been with great interest that I have observed the narrowing of the field from the eight or so candidates who began the race to the two serious horses still on the track. Thanks to the 24/7 rumor news mills and the abundance of information available on the internet, I feel as though I am better informed in this election than in any I have ever witnessed.

It is also with great interest, and a degree of puzzlement, I might add that I have observed the response of a number of Christian leaders and conservative pundits to John McCain’s emergence as the front-runner for the nomination.

After much prayer and thoughtful consideration, I voted for John McCain on Super Tuesday. I realize that he didn’t win my state, but if I had to do it again, I would not change my vote. I will most certainly vote for him in the general election in November if he gets the nod as the Republican candidate.

I chose McCain because of his leadership abilities, his practicality, his willingness to say what he believes and not just what people want to hear, and his proven conservative (yes, that’s right) track-record on moral issues. I believe he will do the right thing by our military, our economy, illegal immigration and given the opportunity will appoint pro-life judges to the Supreme Court.

Another reason I chose McCain is his ability to reach across the aisle. For too long now, our nation’s government has been grid-locked by the childish bickering and maneuvering that goes on between the two parties. I realize that there are certain core issues that cannot be compromised, but at some point, Congress must grow up and realize that on most issues, there is common ground between the two ideologies. This is what is best for the country. I believe that McCain is best suited for finding this common ground and making us a stronger nation.

Here is where my puzzlement lies with many of the conservative mouth-pieces. For years now, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, et al, have raised hue and cry about the Democrats’ unreasonable attitude and unwillingness to work together. Now, given the opportunity to support a candidate who is capable of effecting this, they choose to withdraw into their corner and pout, threatening to vote for Hillary (what?!?) or Obama (WHAT?!?) or even worse, not even vote at all. Their theory is, “We will let the country have four to eight years of liberal leadership and then they will see why we need a conservative president.” Ignoring the potential damage that this could bring to the country, they are demonstrating at best a shortsightedness, and at worst an arrogant spitefulness that shows that they value their ideas above their country. In my opinion, this makes them no better than the liberals that they so handily criticize for the same thing.

If these individuals wish to sit out the upcoming election, that is their right. I would suggest, however, that if they do so and the true liberals win, they have forfeited their credibility and have no right to complain about the leadership that the Clintons or Obama will bring to the Whitehouse.

After weighing all the issues, it is my opinion that John McCain might just turn out to be the best president we have had since Ronald Reagan. Conservative voters need to follow Mitt Romney’s lead and get behind him. Otherwise, we can prepare ourselves for the political and moral nightmare that the alternative will bring.

The only thing that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.  Edmund Burke

Due to a busy holiday schedule and fighting a bad cold the last couple of weeks, I haven’t had a lot of time for productive blogging. Hopefully, after the new year, things will settle down and return to normal (whatever THAT is).

 In the meantime, I want to wish all who come by this site a very Merry Christmas. I hope that the hope, joy, peace and love that characterizes the birth of Lord fills your life. I pray that you and your family will be warmed and filled with the bounty of God’s graciousness.

I pray for our troops. May they be successful in their endeavors, safe in their tours of duty and may our leaders agree upon a reasonable plan to get them home as soon as possible.

I pray for our missionaries. May they know the presence of their Master in a very special way. May God bless them and keep them and give them souls for their labors.

Most of all, I pray that everyone who reads this has received the greatest Christmas gift of all, the eternal life that is found only in the Jesus whose birth we are celebrating. Unto Him be all glory, honor and praise.

 Merry Christmas.

You can’t tell the Christmas story without including the visit of the wise men. They have always been favorites of mine for some reason. Every year, I would try to land the part of playing one of them in the church Christmas program and one of the first carols I learned was, “We Three Kings”.

Jesus came as the Savior of the world. We know that He will come again as King of Kings. To those of us who are believers in Him, this time of year is a wonderful celebration of the birth of our Savior. Between now and Easter we will think about His life, ministry, death and, of course, His resurrection. Our Savior and our salvation are real and that is a cause of great joy for us, is it not?

I am afraid, though, that many Christians do not celebrate Him as our king. We often think of His sovereignty in an abstract sense, some foggy concept of a future kingdom here on earth where He will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

And yet according to Philippians 2, God has already rewarded His obedience with a name that is above every name. Romans 8:9-10 states that we must believe in the “Lord Jesus Christ” in order to be saved. He is Lord and King right now. We cannot divorce His identity as Savior from His identity as King.

There are some who want Him to be the Lord over certain parts of their lives. They want His lordship to reign over their illnesses, their needs, their weaknesses and their negative circumstances, but they are not willing to submit their strengths, their abundances and their good times to Him.

The wise men came to Jesus on His terms as God had called them. They worshipped Him as He was, for Who He was. Whether or not they understood the full reason for His coming is unclear, but one thing is for sure, these men knew royalty when they saw it, and in the Christ child, they saw their King.

I hope that each of us will celebrate Him as Savior during this season but may that celebration continue throughout the whole year as we live our lives in submission to the commands of our King.

Christmas is in the air!

Most of us have many traditions that we observe during this time. Some are old, some a little newer. For the enjoyment of all and the sake of getting better acquainted with one another, would you mind sharing with us some of your traditions? Perhaps an old and a new?

 Our family has always opened one gift on Christmas Eve. (That was an old one.)

On a newer note, for the last three years we have begun using an Advent wreath. It has led to some very meaningful times of family worship.

How about you?

I’m serious. I’m a patriotic, law-abiding, tax-paying, voting citizen of the good ol’ US of A. I have ancestors who have fought in every war in our nations illustrious history. My forefathers were among the earliest colonists. I still get chills when I hear the “Star-Spangled Banner”. I am an American.

Which is why I was shocked and humiliated on my recent trip to Washington, D.C. to find myself being pulled aside and searched in a very personal manner.

As most of my readers will know, my brother, his family and mine got together at his home in Virginia a couple of weeks ago. We had a great visit and saw some incredible fall foliage. While we were there, we had planned to tour our nation’s capital together. One of the sites on the itinerary was the U.S. Capitol building.

I took great pains in preparing for the day to deliberately eliminate items from my attire that might arouse suspicion. I left my pocket knife in the hotel room. I chose not to wear my shotgun shell studded belt since it has a lot of extra metal on it, opting instead for a plain black leather job.

I had already passed through a number of metal detectors without incident. We went through the very thorough security checkpoint to enter the capitol building without a hitch. Just innocent tourists seeing the sights and pointing them out to our kids.

Having obtained some passes to the Senate gallery from our tour guide, we decided to drop in and see our tax dollars at work. We dropped off those items, such as cameras, etc., that were prohibited at the check room and proceeded to yet another security point.

The rest of our group went through with no problem and I assumed that I was okay as well. As I approached the gate, I noticed a box of disposable rubber gloves on top. It seemed as if a few were missing. The forefinger of one stuck ominously out of the slot in the box. It seemed to fold over and point itself at me as I handed my keys to the guard.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said, “You can’t take these into the Senate.”

“Are you serious?” I asked. “These are keys.”

At my use of the word “serious”, his left eyebrow arched slightly as if to say, “I never joke.”

“This is a battery-operated, electronic device,” he replied, pointing to the remote keyless entry thing-a-ma-bob that opens the door to my Jeep. “You can’t take battery operated, electronic devices into the Senate. Please take it back down to the check-room.”

Feeling a bit foolish (although, I don’t know why) I made my back down the corridor to the check room. The attendant grinned when he saw me.

“Back so soon?”

Wordlessly, I handed him my key ring.

“Ah,” he said knowingly, “Happens all the time.”

Feeling a little less confident I once again approached the security point. The two guards, one male and one female, were eyeing me suspiciously. The rubber finger sticking out of the box of gloves seemed to be getting longer. I took a deep breath and walked through the gate.

Sure enough, it lit up like a Christmas tree and emitted a loud tone that caused several heads in the corridor to turn and look at me as if I should be on the next boat to Guantanamo.

“Sir, please step over to the side and raise your hands,” the female guard instructed with all the sternness of a fifth grade English teacher reprimanding a little boy for saying “Ain’t”.

Right there, in front of my family and the world, I stood with my hands in the air as she swept me from head to toe with a battery-operated electronic device that for some reason made me think of these guys.

As the device passed over my right pants pocket, it gave a loud “Beep”. I flinched, expecting to be vaporized at any second. The guard’s eyes went to the box of rubber gloves.

It was at that moment that I had an epiphany and discovered what James meant by “effectual, fervent prayer.” Thankfully, God intervened and the gloves remained in the box.

“Sir, what do you have in your pocket?” She asked coldy.

Before I could stammer out that I had a pocketful of change, she suddenly decided to FRISK me and began grabbing handfuls of my leg.

YIKES!!!!

“It’s change, it’s nothing but money,” I was finally able to gasp.

She finally became convinced that I was telling the truth and let me pass, but my humiliation was complete.

Can you believe that? It was money, legal tender that had been validated and minted under the authority of the very people I was going to see working (?).

Then, after all of that, we entered the Senate and saw a grand total of five Senators on the job. I have a hunch the other ninety-five were hard at work coming up with a bi-partisan plan to further humiliate their constituents.

Now, I realize that security is important. One of the most basic rights guaranteed to American citizens is the government’s protection of the innocent’s right-to-life from those who would threaten them.

That makes me wonder, how strictly do they search the Senators before they release them upon the general public?

I hope to get caught up on posting about what has been going on in my life the last couple of weeks after the holiday.

Until then, have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the time with friends and family. Indulge in the traditional feast and collapse on the sofa in a turkey-induced coma and sleep through the football game of your choice. Wake up and enjoy a second piece of pumpkin pie.

Most of all, take the time to be thankful for all of the many blessings that our gracious Father pours out upon us daily. He is so much better to us than we are to Him.

 God bless.

Things have been slow here at Heavenly Heartburn for the last few days and are about to get a little slower.

I’m going on vacation.

Yeehaw!

Going to see my Aunt Sarah and Uncle Randy in Walterboro, SC, then on up to Farmville, VA to visit my brother and his family for a few days. We hope to see a little of Washington, DC, while we are in the neighborhood.

After that, we will be returning to Augusta, GA, to attend the Georgia Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. (Just typing it makes me tired!)

I will try to give you a full report when I return. In the meantime, if you think about it, say a prayer for us.