Thoughts from Rev. Bubba Hood

The Mixture of Poltics and Faith

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:46:00 +0000

I thought all of you would find this article interesting...

Godspeed...

MSNBC.com

Evangelical movement shows deep rifts
Love affair with Bush has largely ended, sharpening latent internal divisions
By David D. Kirkpatrick
The New York Times
Updated: 3:55 a.m. ET Oct 28, 2007

The hundred-foot white cross atop the Immanuel Baptist Church in downtown Wichita, Kan., casts a shadow over a neighborhood of payday lenders, pawnbrokers and pornographic video stores. To its parishioners, this has long been the front line of the culture war. Immanuel has stood for Southern Baptist traditionalism for more than half a century. Until recently, its pastor, Terry Fox, was the Jerry Falwell of the Sunflower State — the public face of the conservative Christian political movement in a place where that made him a very big deal.

With flushed red cheeks and a pudgy, dimpled chin, Fox roared down from Immanuel’s pulpit about the wickedness of abortion, evolution and homosexuality. He mobilized hundreds of Kansas pastors to push through a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, helping to unseat a handful of legislators in the process. His Sunday-morning services reached tens of thousands of listeners on regional cable television, and on Sunday nights he was a host of a talk-radio program, “Answering the Call.” Major national conservative Christian groups like Focus on the Family lauded his work, and the Southern Baptist Convention named him chairman of its North American Mission Board.

For years, Fox flaunted his allegiance to the Republican Party, urging fellow pastors to make the same “confession” and calling them “sissies” if they didn’t. “We are the religious right,” he liked to say. “One, we are religious. Two, we are right.”

His congregation, for the most part, applauded. Immanuel and Wichita’s other big churches were seedbeds of the conservative Christian activism that burst forth three decades ago. In the 1980s, when theological conservatives pushed the moderates out of the Southern Baptist Convention, Immanuel and Fox were both at the forefront. In 1991, when Operation Rescue brought its “Summer of Mercy” abortion protests to Wichita, Immanuel’s parishioners leapt to the barricades, helping to establish the city as the informal capital of the anti-abortion movement. And Fox’s confrontational style packed ever more like-minded believers into the pews. He more than doubled Immanuel’s official membership to more than 6,000 and planted the giant cross on its roof.

So when Fox announced to his flock one Sunday in August last year that it was his final appearance in the pulpit, the news startled evangelical activists from Atlanta to Grand Rapids. Fox told the congregation that he was quitting so he could work full time on “cultural issues.” Within days, The Wichita Eagle reported that Fox left under pressure. The board of deacons had told him that his activism was getting in the way of the Gospel. “It just wasn’t pertinent,” Associate Pastor Gayle Tenbrook later told me.

Fox, who is 47, said he saw some impatient shuffling in the pews, but he was stunned that the church’s lay leaders had turned on him. “They said they were tired of hearing about abortion 52 weeks a year, hearing about all this political stuff!” he told me on a recent Sunday afternoon. “And these were deacons of the church!”

These days, Fox has taken his fire and brimstone in search of a new pulpit. He rented space at the Johnny Western Theater at the Wild West World amusement park until it folded. Now he preaches at a Best Western hotel. “I don’t mind telling you that I paid a price for the political stands I took,” Fox said. “The pendulum in the Christian world has swung back to the moderate point of view. The real battle now is among evangelicals.”

Fox is not the only conservative Christian to feel the heat of those battles, even in — of all places — Wichita. Within three months of his departure, the two other most influential conservative Christian pastors in the city had left their pulpits as well. And in the silence left by their voices, a new generation of pastors distinctly suspicious of the Republican Party — some as likely to lean left as right — is beginning to speak up.

Just three years ago, the leaders of the conservative Christian political movement could almost see the Promised Land. White evangelical Protestants looked like perhaps the most potent voting bloc in America. They turned out for President George W. Bush in record numbers, supporting him for re-election by a ratio of four to one. Republican strategists predicted that religious traditionalists would help bring about an era of dominance for their party. Spokesmen for the Christian conservative movement warned of the wrath of “values voters.” James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, was poised to play kingmaker in 2008, at least in the Republican primary. And thanks to President Bush, the Supreme Court appeared just one vote away from answering the prayers of evangelical activists by overturning Roe v. Wade.

Today the movement shows signs of coming apart beneath its leaders. It is not merely that none of the 2008 Republican front-runners come close to measuring up to President Bush in the eyes of the evangelical faithful, although it would be hard to find a cast of characters more ill fit for those shoes: a lapsed-Catholic big-city mayor; a Massachusetts Mormon; a church-skipping Hollywood character actor; and a political renegade known for crossing swords with the Rev. Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Nor is the problem simply that the Democratic presidential front-runners — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards — sound like a bunch of tent-revival Bible thumpers compared with the Republicans.

The 2008 election is just the latest stress on a system of fault lines that go much deeper. The phenomenon of theologically conservative Christians plunging into political activism on the right is, historically speaking, something of an anomaly. Most evangelicals shrugged off abortion as a Catholic issue until after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. But in the wake of the ban on public-school prayer, the sexual revolution and the exodus to the suburbs that filled the new megachurches, protecting the unborn became the rallying cry of a new movement to uphold the traditional family. Now another confluence of factors is threatening to tear the movement apart. The extraordinary evangelical love affair with Bush has ended, for many, in heartbreak over the Iraq war and what they see as his meager domestic accomplishments. That disappointment, in turn, has sharpened latent divisions within the evangelical world — over the evangelical alliance with the Republican Party, among approaches to ministry and theology, and between the generations.

The founding generation of leaders like Falwell and Dobson, who first guided evangelicals into Republican politics 30 years ago, is passing from the scene. Falwell died in the spring. Paul Weyrich, 65, the indefatigable organizer who helped build Falwell’s Moral Majority and much of the rest of the movement, is confined to a wheelchair after losing his legs because of complications from a fall. Dobson, who is 71 and still vigorous, is already planning for a succession at Focus on the Family; it is expected to tack toward the less political family advice that is its bread and butter.

The engineers of the momentous 1980s takeover that expunged political and theological moderates from the Southern Baptist Convention are retiring or dying off, too. And in September, when I called a spokesman for the ailing Presbyterian televangelist D. James Kennedy, another pillar of the Christian conservative movement, I learned that Kennedy had “gone home to the Lord” at 2 a.m. that morning.

Meanwhile, a younger generation of evangelical pastors — including the widely emulated preachers Rick Warren and Bill Hybels — are pushing the movement and its theology in new directions. There are many related ways to characterize the split: a push to better this world as well as save eternal souls; a focus on the spiritual growth that follows conversion rather than the yes-or-no moment of salvation; a renewed attention to Jesus’ teachings about social justice as well as about personal or sexual morality. However conceived, though, the result is a new interest in public policies that address problems of peace, health and poverty — problems, unlike abortion and same-sex marriage, where left and right compete to present the best answers.

The backlash on the right against Bush and the war has emboldened some previously circumspect evangelical leaders to criticize the leadership of the Christian conservative political movement. “The quickness to arms, the quickness to invade, I think that caused a kind of desertion of what has been known as the Christian right,” Hybels, whose Willow Creek Association now includes 12,000 churches, told me over the summer. “People who might be called progressive evangelicals or centrist evangelicals are one stirring away from a real awakening.”

The generational and theological shifts in the evangelical world are turning the next election into a credibility test for the conservative Christian establishment. The current Republican front-runner in national polls, Rudolph W. Giuliani, could hardly be less like their kind of guy: twice divorced, thrice married, estranged from his children and church and a supporter of legalized abortion and gay rights. Alarmed at the continued strength of his candidacy, Dobson and a group of about 50 evangelical Christians leaders agreed last month to back a third party if Giuliani becomes the Republican nominee. But polls show that Giuliani is the most popular candidate among white evangelical voters. He has the support, so far, of a plurality if not a majority of conservative Christians. If Giuliani captures the nomination despite the threat of an evangelical revolt, it will be a long time before Republican strategists pay attention to the demands of conservative Christian leaders again. And if the Democrats capitalize on the current demoralization to capture a larger share of evangelical votes, the credibility damage could be just as severe.

“There was a time when evangelical churches were becoming largely and almost exclusively the Republican Party at prayer,” said Marvin Olasky, the editor of the evangelical magazine World and an informal adviser to George W. Bush when he was governor. “To some extent — we have to see how much — the Republicans have blown it. That opportunity to lock up that constituency has vanished. The ball now really is in the Democrats’ court.”

I covered the Christian conservative movement for The New York Times during the 2004 election, at the moment of its greatest triumph. To the bewilderment of many even in the upper reaches of his own party, Karl Rove bet President Bush’s re-election on boosting the conservative Christian turnout, contending that Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 because four million of those voters stayed home. President Bush missed few opportunities to remind evangelicals that he was one of them — and they got the message.

I bowed my head in a good number of swing-state churches in 2004. I saw the passion Bush aroused among theologically orthodox Protestants. And I got to know many of the most influential conservative Christian leaders, most of whom threw themselves into urging their constituents to the polls.

Now, as the 2008 campaign heated up in the months before the first primaries, I wondered how the world was looking from the pulpits and pews. And so I went to Wichita, as close as any place to the heart of conservative Christian America. Wichita has a long history of religious crusades. A hundred years ago, Carrie Nation made her name smashing up Wichita’s bars. More recently, the presence of Dr. George Tiller, a specialist in late-term abortions, has kept anti-abortion passions high, attracting Operation Rescue to Wichita for the Summer of Mercy protests in 1991. Two years later, a lone activist shot and wounded Dr. Tiller. Evolution, the flash point that split mainline and evangelical Protestants in the early 20th century, is still hotly debated in Wichita. The Kansas school board has reversed itself on the subject again and again in recent years.

At the same time, Wichita is also a decent proxy for plenty of other blue-collar but socially conservative places like Allentown, Pa., and Columbus, Ohio — the swing districts of the swing states that decide elections. A center of aerospace manufacturing, Wichita was a union town and a Democratic stronghold for much of the last century. But all that changed when the conservative Christian movement took root in its suburban megachurches three decades ago, turning theological traditionalists into Republican activists. That story was the centerpiece of the liberal writer Thomas Frank’s 2004 book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” He might have called it “What’s the Matter With Wichita?”

I arrived just in time for the annual Fourth of July Patriotic Celebration at the 7,000-member Central Christian Church, where Independence Day is second only to Christmas. Thousands of people drove back to the church Sunday evening for a pageant of prayers, songs, a flag ceremony and an American history quiz pitting kids against their parents. “In God We Still Trust” was the theme of the event. “You place your hand on this Bible when you swear to tell the truth,” two men sang in the opening anthem.

“There’s no separation; we’re one nation under Him.”

“There are those among us who want to push Him out And erase

His name from everything this country’s all about.

From the schoolhouse to the courthouse, they are silencing

His word Now it’s time for all believers to make our voices heard.”

Later, as a choir in stars-and-stripes neckties and scarves belted out “Stars and Stripes Forever,” a cluster of men in olive military fatigues took the stage carrying a flag. They lifted the pole to a 45-degree angle and froze in place around it: a re-enactment of the famous photograph of the American triumph at Iwo Jima. The narrator of a preceding video montage had already set the stage by comparing the Iwo Jima flag raising to another long-ago turning point in a “fierce battle for the hearts of men” — the day 2,000 years ago when “a heavy cross was lifted up on top of the mount called Golgotha.”

A battle flag as the crucifixion: the church rose to a standing ovation.

There was one conspicuous omission from the Patriotic Celebration: any mention of President Bush or the Iraq war. The only reference to the president was a single image in a video montage. Bush was standing with Donald Rumsfeld, head bowed at a grave in Arlington National Cemetery.

Every time I visited an evangelical church in 2004, it seemed that a member’s brother or cousin had just returned from Iraq with reports that much greater progress was being made than the news media let on. The admiration for President Bush as a man of faith was nearly universal, and some talked of his contest with John Kerry as a spiritual battle. It would have been hard to overstate the Christian conservative leadership’s sense of the presidential race’s historical significance. In the days before the election, Dobson told me he believed the culture war was “rapidly approaching the climax, with everything that we are about on the line” and the election might be “the pivot point.”

The morning after the Republican triumph, a White House operative called Dobson to thank him personally for his support, as Dobson told me in conversation later that day. He bluntly told the operative that the Bush campaign owed his victory in large part to concerned Christian voters. He warned that God had given the nation only “a short reprieve” from its impending “self-destruction.” If the administration slighted its conservative Christian supporters, most importantly in filling Supreme Court vacancies, Dobson continued, Republicans would “pay a price in four years.”

On that front, at least, Bush has not disappointed. President Bush’s two appointees, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., have given Dobson and his allies much to be thankful for. Nor has Bush flinched from any politically feasible Christian conservative goal, even when it has been unpopular. He has blocked federal financing for embryonic stem-cell research and intervened to help keep Terri Schiavo on life support. But of course there were moments when the White House seemed to care more about Social Security reform, and in the end the culture did not change.

Today the president’s support among evangelicals, still among his most loyal constituents, has crumbled. Once close to 90 percent, the president’s approval rating among white evangelicals has fallen to a recent low below 45 percent, according to polls by the Pew Research Center. White evangelicals under 30 — the future of the church — were once Bush’s biggest fans; now they are less supportive than their elders. And the dissatisfaction extends beyond Bush. For the first time in many years, white evangelical identification with the Republican Party has dipped below 50 percent, with the sharpest falloff again among the young, according to John C. Green, a senior fellow at Pew and an expert on religion and politics. (The defectors by and large say they’ve become independents, not Democrats, according to the polls.)

Some claim the falloff in support for Bush reflects the unrealistic expectations pumped up by conservative Christian leaders. But no one denies the war is a factor. Christianity Today, the evangelical journal, has even posed the question of whether evangelicals should “repent” for their swift support of invading Iraq.

“Even in evangelical circles, we are tired of the war, tired of the body bags,” the Rev. David Welsh, who took over late last year as senior pastor of Wichita’s large Central Christian Church, told me. “I think it is to the point where they are saying: ‘O.K., we have done as much good as we can. Now let’s just get out of there.’ ”

Welsh, who favors pressed khaki pants and buttoned-up polo shirts, is a staunch conservative, a committed Republican and, personally, a politics junkie. But he told me he was wary of talking too much about politics or public affairs around the church because his congregation was so divided over the war in Iraq.

Welsh said he considered himself among those who still support the president. “I think he is a good man,” Welsh said, slowly. “He has a heart, a spiritual heart.”

But like most of the people I met at Wichita’s evangelical churches, his support for Bush sounded more than a little agonized — closer to sympathy than admiration. “Bush may not have the best people around him,” he added, delicately. “He may not have made the best decisions. He is in a quagmire right now and maybe doesn’t know how to get out. Because to pull out now would say, ‘I was wrong from the very beginning.’ ”

Some were less ambivalent. “We know we want to get rid of Bush,” Linda J. Hogle, a product demonstrator at Sam’s Club, told me when I asked her about the 2008 election at her evangelical church’s Fourth of July picnic.

“I am glad he can’t run again,” agreed her friend, Floyd Willson. Hogle and Willson both voted for President Bush in 2004. Both are furious at the war and are looking to vote for a Democrat next year. “Upwards of a thousand boys that have been needlessly killed, it is all just politics,” Willson said.

The 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention — the core of the evangelical movement — may be rethinking its relationship with the Republican Party, too. Three years ago, I attended its annual meeting in Indianapolis and tagged along as the denomination’s former president and several of its leaders invited the assembled pastors across a walkway to an adjacent hotel for a Bush-Cheney campaign “pastors’ reception.”

Over soft drinks, Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition director then working for the Bush campaign, told the pastors just how far they could go for the campaign without jeopardizing their churches’ tax-exempt status. Among the suggestions: “host a citizenship Sunday for voter registration,” “identify someone who will help in voter registration and outreach” or organize a “ ‘party for the president’ with other pastors.”

Republicans should not expect that kind of treatment from Southern Baptists again any time soon. In June of last year, in one of the few upsets since conservatives consolidated their hold on the denomination 20 years ago, the establishment’s hand-picked candidates — well-known national figures in the convention — lost the internal election for the convention’s presidency. The winner, Frank Page of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., campaigned on a promise to loosen up the conservatives’ tight control. He told convention delegates that Southern Baptists had become known too much for what they were against (abortion, evolution, homosexuality) instead of what they stand for (the Gospel). “I believe in the word of God,” he said after his election, “I am just not mad about it.” (It’s a formulation that comes up a lot in evangelical circles these days.)

I asked Page about the Bush-Cheney reception at the 2004 convention. He sounded appalled. “That will not be happening with me,” he said, repeating it for emphasis. “I have cautioned our denomination to be very careful not to be seen as in lock step with any political party.”

Southern Baptists called their denomination’s turn to the right the “conservative resurgence,” meaning both a crackdown on unorthodox doctrine and a corresponding expulsion of political moderates. Page said he considered his election “a clear sign” that rank-and-file Southern Baptists felt the “conservative ascendancy has gone far enough.”

Page is meeting personally with all the leading presidential candidates in both parties — Republican and Democrat. (His home state of South Carolina is holding an early primary.) But unlike some of his predecessors, he won’t endorse any of them, he said.

“Most of us Southern Baptists are right-wing Republicans,” he added. “But we also recognize that times change.” For example, Page said Christians should be wary of Republican ties to “big business.”

Elders like Dobson say the movement has been through doldrums before. Think of the face-off between the Republican Bob Dole and President Bill Clinton in the 1996 election. Dobson later said he had cast his ballot for a third party rather than vote for a moderate like Dole. But then, it was defeat that sapped morale; today, it is victory. Some younger evangelical conservatives say they are fighting just to keep their movement together. (Dobson told me he was too busy to comment for this article.)

The Rev. Rick Scarborough — founder of the advocacy organization Vision America, author of a book called “Liberalism Kills Kids” and at 57 an aspiring successor to Falwell or Dobson — has been barnstorming the country on what he calls a “Seventy Weeks to Save America Tour.”

“We are somewhat in disarray right now,” he told me, beginning a familiar story. “As a 26-year-old man, I heard there was a born-again Christian from Georgia running for president.” Millions of evangelicals turned out for the first time in 1976 to vote for Jimmy Carter. But then, the story goes, his support for feminism and abortion rights sent them running the other way.

“The first time I voted was for Carter,” Scarborough recalled. “The second time was for ‘anybody but Carter,’ because he had betrayed everything I hold dear.

“Unfortunately,” Scarborough concluded, “there is the same feeling in our community right now with George Bush. He appeared so right and so good. He talked a good game about family values around election time. But there has been a failure to follow through.”

For the conservative Christian leadership, what is most worrisome about the evangelical disappointment with President Bush is that it coincides with a widening philosophical rift. Ever since they broke with the mainline Protestant churches nearly 100 years ago, the hallmark of evangelicals theology has been a vision of modern society as a sinking ship, sliding toward depravity and sin. For evangelicals, the altar call was the only life raft — a chance to accept Jesus Christ, rebirth and salvation. Falwell, Dobson and their generation saw their political activism as essentially defensive, fighting to keep traditional moral codes in place so their children could have a chance at the raft.

But many younger evangelicals — and some old-timers — take a less fatalistic view. For them, the born-again experience of accepting Jesus is just the beginning. What follows is a long-term process of “spiritual formation” that involves applying his teachings in the here and now. They do not see society as a moribund vessel. They talk more about a biblical imperative to fix up the ship by contributing to the betterment of their communities and the world. They support traditional charities but also public policies that address health care, race, poverty and the environment.

Older evangelical traditionalists like Prof. David Wells of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary near Boston argue that the newer approaches represent a “capitulation” to the broader culture — similar to the capitulation that in his view led the mainline churches into decline. Proponents of the new evangelicalism, on the other hand, say their broader agenda reflects a frustration with the scarce victories in the culture war and revulsion at the moral entanglements of partisan alliances (Abu Ghraib, Jack Abramoff). Scot McKnight, an evangelical theologian at North Park University in Chicago, said, “It is the biggest change in the evangelical movement at the end of the 20th century, a new kind of Christian social conscience.”

Secular sociologists say evangelicals’ changing view of society reflects their changing place in it. Once trailing in education and income, evangelicals have caught up over the last 40 years. “The social-issues arguments are the first manifestation of a rural outlook transposed into a more urban or suburban setting,” John Green, of the Pew Research Center, told me. “Now having been there for a while, that kind of hard-edged politics no longer appeals to them. They still care about abortion and gay marriage, but they are also interested in other, more middle-class arguments.”

Some rebellious evangelical pastors and theologians of the new school refer to themselves as the emergent church. Others who are less openly rebellious but share a similar approach point to the examples of Rick Warren and Bill Hybels. “What Warren and Hybels are doing is reshaping the perception of what it means to be a Christian in our country and our world,” McKnight says.

Warren and Hybels are also highly entrepreneurial. Each has built a network of thousands of mostly evangelical churches that rely on their ministries for sermon ideas, worship plans or audio-video materials to enliven services. As a result, their influence may rival that of any denominational leader in the country.

Warren, pastor of the Saddleback church in Lake Forest, Calif., is the author of the best seller “The Purpose Driven Life.” His church has sold materials to thousands of other churches for “campaigns” called 40 Days of Purpose and, more recently, 40 Days of Community. If more Christians worked to alleviate needs in their local communities, he suggests in the church’s promotional materials, “the church would become known more for the love it shows than for what it is against” a thinly veiled dig at the conservative Christian “culture war.”

Warren is clearly a theological and cultural conservative. Before the 2004 election, he wrote a letter to other pastors emphasizing the need to combat abortion rights and same-sex marriage. But these days Warren talks much more often about fighting AIDS and poverty. He raised hackles among conservatives last year by having Barack Obama give a speech at his church. And he also came under fire last year when he traveled to Damascus, Syria, where he implicitly criticized the Bush administration for refusing to talk with unfriendly nations.

“Isolation and silence has never solved conflict,” he said in a press release defending his trip.

Hybels, founder of the Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, is very possibly the single-most-influential pastor in America; in the last 15 years, his Willow Creek Association has grown to include more than 12,000 churches. Many invite their staff members and lay leaders to participate by telecast in Willow Creek’s annual leadership conferences, creating a virtual gathering of tens of thousands. Dozens of churches in Wichita, including Central Christian and other past bastions of conservative activism, are part of the association.

As his stature has grown, Hybels has seemed more willing to irk Christian conservative political leaders — and even some in his own congregation. He set off a furor a few years ago when he invited former President Bill Clinton to speak at one of his conferences. And the Iraq war has brought into sharp relief Hybels’s differences with conservatives like Dobson.

Most conservative Christian leaders have resolutely supported Bush’s foreign policy. Dobson and others have even talked about defending Western civilization from radical Islam as a precondition for protecting family values. But on the eve of the Iraq invasion, Hybels preached a sermon called “Why War?” Laying out three approaches to war — realism, just-war theory and pacifism — he implored members of his congregation to re-examine their own thinking and then try to square it with the Bible. In the process, he left little doubt about where he personally stood. He called himself a pacifist.

Hybels traced the “J curve” of mounting deaths from war through the centuries. “In case you are wondering about this, wonder how God feels about all this,” he said. “It breaks the heart of God.”

At his annual leadership conference this summer, Hybels interviewed former President Jimmy Carter. To some Christian conservatives, it was quite a provocation. Carter, after all, was their first great disappointment, a Southern Baptist who denounced the conservative takeover and an early critic of the Bush administration. Some pastors canceled plans to attend.

“I think that a superpower ought to be the exemplification of a commitment to peace,” Carter told Hybels, who nodded along. “I would like for anyone in the world that’s threatened with conflict to say to themselves immediately: ‘Why don’t we go to Washington? They believe in peace and they will help us get peace.’ ” Carter added: “This is just a simple but important extrapolation from what a human being ought to do, and what a human being ought to do is what Jesus Christ did, who was a champion of peace.”

In a conversation I had with him, Hybels told me he considered politics a path to “heartache and disappointment” for a Christian leader. But he also described the message of his Willow Creek Association to its member churches in terms that would warm a liberal’s heart.

“We have just pounded the drum again and again that, for churches to reach their full redemptive potential, they have to do more than hold services — they have to try to transform their communities,” he said. “If there is racial injustice in your community, you have to speak to that. If there is educational injustice, you have to do something there. If the poor are being neglected by the government or being oppressed in some way, then you have to stand up for the poor.”

In the past, Hybels has scrupulously avoided criticizing conservative Christian political figures like Falwell or Dobson. But in my talk with him, he argued that the leaders of the conservative Christian political movement had lost touch with their base. “The Indians are saying to the chiefs, ‘We are interested in more than your two or three issues,’ ” Hybels said. “We are interested in the poor, in racial reconciliation, in global poverty and AIDS, in the plight of women in the developing world.”

He brought up the Rev. Jim Wallis, the lonely voice of the tiny evangelical left. Wallis has long argued that secular progressives could make common cause with theologically conservative Christians. “What Jim has been talking about is coming to fruition,” Hybels said.

Conservative Christian leaders in Washington acknowledge a “leftward drift” among evangelicals, said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and the movement’s chief advocate in Washington. He told me he believed that Hybels and many of his admirers had, in effect, fallen away from orthodox evangelical theology. Perkins compared the phenomenon to the century-old division in American Protestantism between the liberal mainline and the orthodox evangelical churches. “It is almost like another split coming within the evangelicals,” he said.

Wondering how those theological and political debates were unfolding in conservative Wichita, I sought out the Rev. Gene Carlson, another prominent conservative Christian pastor who left his church last year. He spent four decades as the senior pastor of the Westlink Christian Church, expanding it to 7,000 members. He was one of the most important local leaders of the Summer of Mercy abortion protests. He tapped Westlink’s collection plate to help finance its operations and even led a battalion of about 40 clergy members and hundreds of lay people to jail in an act of civil disobedience.

Sitting with his wife in a quiet living room with teddy bears on the bookshelves, Carlson, who is 70, told me he is one member of the movement’s founding generation who has had second thoughts. He said he still considers abortion evil. He called the anti-abortion protests “prophetic,” in the sense of the Old Testament prophets who warned of God’s wrath. But Carlson was blunt about the results. “It didn’t really change abortion,” he said.

“I thought in my enthusiasm,” he told me with a smile, “that somehow we could band together and change things politically and everything will be fine.” But the closing of Dr. Tiller’s clinic was fleeting. Electing Christian politicians never seemed to change much. “When you mix politics and religion,” Carlson said, “you get politics.”

In more recent battles, Carlson has hung back. On the Sunday before the referendum on a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, Carlson reminded his congregation that homosexuality was hardly the only form of sex the Bible condemned. Any extramarital sex is a sin, he told his congregation, so they should not point fingers.

“We wouldn’t want to exclude some group because we thought their sin was worse than ours,” Carlson told me with a laugh.

Carlson is a registered Republican, though he now considers himself an independent. He volunteered that he now leans left on some social-welfare issues and the environment. He considers himself among the “green evangelicals” who see a biblical mandate for government action to stop global warming. The Westlink church is another member of Hybels’s Willow Creek Association and a satellite location for telecasts of the annual leadership conference. Carlson said he admired Hybels for “challenging some of the sacred cows that we evangelicals have built.”

“There is this sense that the personal Gospel is what evangelicals believe and the social Gospel is what liberal Christians believe,” Carlson said, “and, you know, there is only one Gospel that has both social and personal dimensions to it.” He once felt lonely among evangelicals for taking that approach, he told me. “Now it is a growing phenomenon,” he said.

“The religious right peaked a long time ago,” he added. “As a historical, sociological phenomenon, it has seen its heyday. Something new is coming.”

These days, Westlink has found less confrontational ways to oppose abortion, mainly by helping to pay for a medical center called Choices. Housed in a cozy-looking white-shingled cottage next to Dr. Tiller’s bunkerlike abortion facility, Choices discourages women from ending pregnancies by offering 3-D ultrasound scans and adoption advice.

Carlson’s protégé and successor, Todd Carter, 42, said: “I don’t believe the problem of abortion will be solved by overturning Roe v. Wade. It won’t. To me, it is a Gospel issue.”

The Rev. Joe Wright, the longtime senior pastor who built Central Christian to 7,000 members, was the third leading pastor in Wichita to step down at the end of last year. He is a tall, heavy man, and he embraced me in a sweaty bear hug the first time we met, at a local chain restaurant.

Wright, who is 64, had been another leader of the Operation Mercy protests. But unlike Carlson, he plunged further into conservative politics, eventually as a host of the radio show “Answering the Call,” with Fox. They spent months together traveling the state and lobbying the Statehouse during the same-sex marriage fight.

Wright retired in good standing with his congregation, but he told me the political battle had taken a toll.

“On Sunday morning when I would mention it, there were people who would hang their heads and say, ‘Oh, here we go again,’ ” he said. “And then, of course, some of them wouldn’t come back.”

Wright said he was worried about theological and political trends among young evangelicals, even in Kansas. “If we had to depend on the young evangelical pastors to get us a marriage amendment here in Kansas it never would have happened,” Wright said.

He went on to say he was dismayed to feel resistance to his political sermons and voter-registration drives from younger associate pastors at his own church, some of whom moved elsewhere. (Some of his parishioners had already told me the same thing, separately.)

“Even in the groups I travel in and grew up in — the preachers who are from the same background I was in, who run in the same circles I ran in, who went to the same schools I did — I don’t find many young evangelical preachers who are willing to stand up and take a stand on the hard issues, because they think they might offend somebody,” he said.

“I think the Gospel is offensive, and I think the cross is offensive,” Wright continued. “I think Jesus loved everybody and I think he loved the Pharisees, but he certainly told them how the cow eats the cabbage.”

Paul Hill is one of the young associate pastors who left Central Christian after philosophical clashes with Wright. He took a band of young members with him when he started his own emergent-style church, the Wheatland Mission. “Even in Wichita, times have changed,” Hill said. “I think people will hear the Gospel better when it is expressed not just verbally but holistically, through acts of hospitality and by bringing people together.

“In the evangelical church in general there is kind of a push back against the Republican party and a feeling of being used by the Republican political machine,” he continued. “There are going to be a lot of evangelicals willing to vote for a Democrat because there are 40 million people without health insurance and a Democrat is going to do something about that.”

With Wright, Carlson and Fox out of the spotlight, new religious leaders are stepping to the fore. When legalized gambling was proposed in the Wichita area this year, the pastor who took the lead in rallying other clergy members to stop the measure was Michael Gardner of the First United Methodist Church, a mainline liberal who supports abortion rights and jousted with Fox over the same-sex marriage amendment on competing church telecasts.

After decades when evangelical megachurches have exploded at the expense of dwindling mainline congregations, Gardner is poaching the other way. Each Sunday night he convenes an informal emergent church worship group of his own, known as Next Wichita. Several dozen people, mostly 20 to 30 years old, show up to break bread, talk Scripture and plan volunteer projects. “People in that age group are much more attracted to participatory theology, very resistant to being told what to do or what to think,” he said.

Patrick Bergquist, a former associate pastor at a local evangelical church who as a child attended Immanuel Baptist, became a regular. “From a theological standpoint, I am an evangelical,” Bergquist, who is 28, explained to me. “But I don’t mean that anyone who is gay is necessarily going to hell, or that anyone who has an abortion is going to hell.” After a life of voting Republican, he said, he recently made a small contribution to the Democratic presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

“Is the religious right dead?” Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council told me that question was the title of the first chapter of a new book he is writing with Harry Jackson, a socially conservative African-American pastor.

Perkins’s answer is emphatically no — “we are seeing a lot of pastors coming back like never before” — but the 2008 election is the movement’s first big test since the triumph and letdown with President Bush. And so far most Christian conservative leaders do not like what they see. Although all the Republican primary candidates, including Giuliani, spoke at the Family Research Council’s “values voters” meeting last weekend, only the dark horses have consistent conservative records on abortion, gay rights and religion in public life.

Of these, Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister before he became governor of Arkansas, stands out in the polls and in his rhetoric. At last fall’s values-voters meetings, the other candidates focused on establishing their Christian conservative credentials. Huckabee dispensed with that by reminding his audience of his years as a pastor. Then he challenged the crowd to give more money to their churches and talked about education and health care. On the campaign trail, he criticizes chief executives’ pay and says his faith demands environmental regulation. “We shouldn’t allow a child to live under a bridge or in the back seat of a car,” Huckabee said in a recent debate. “We shouldn’t be satisfied that elderly people are being abused or neglected in nursing homes.”

Huckabee told me that he welcomed a broadening of the evangelical political agenda. “You can’t just say ‘respect life’ exclusively in the gestation period,” he said, repeating a campaign theme.

But the leaders of the Christian conservative movement have not rallied to him. Many say he cannot win because he has not raised enough money. Perkins and others have criticized Huckabee for taking too soft an approach to the Middle East. Others worry that his record on taxes will anger allies on the right. And some Christian conservatives take his “gestation period” line as a slight to their movement.

“They finally have the soldier they have been waiting for, and they shouldn’t send me out into the battlefield without supplies,” Huckabee told me in exasperation. He argued that the movement’s leaders would “become irrelevant” if they started putting political viability or low taxes ahead of their principles about abortion and marriage.

“In biblical terms, it is like the salt losing its flavor; it’s sand,” Huckabee said. “Some of them have spent too long in Washington. . . . I think they are going to have a hard time going out into the pews and saying tax policy is what Jesus is about, that he said, ‘Come unto me all you who are overtaxed and I will give you rest.’ ”

Up to this point, though, most conservative Christian leaders are still locked in debate about which front-runner they dislike the least. Dobson’s public statements have traced the arc of their dissatisfaction. Last October, he observed that grass-roots evangelicals would have a hard time voting for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon. In January, he said he could never vote for Senator John McCain. More recently, Dobson panned Fred Thompson, too, for opposing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. “He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent ‘want to,’ ” Dobson wrote in an e-mail message to allies. “Not for me, my brothers. Not for me!”

Finally, at the end of last month, Dobson was the foremost among the roughly 50 Christian conservative organizers who declared they would support a third-party candidate if the nomination went to Giuliani, who is their greatest fear. Some even talk of McCain — once anathema to them — as a better bet.

I could see why they were worried. Among the evangelicals of suburban Wichita, I found that Giuliani was easily the most popular of the Republican candidates, even among churchgoers who knew his views on abortion and same-sex marriage. Some trusted him to fight Islamic radicalism; others praised his cleanup of New York.

“There are a few issues we are on different sides of — a lot of it is around abortion — and he is not the most spiritual guy,” said Kent Brummer, a retired Boeing engineer leaving services at Central Christian. “But to me that doesn’t mean that he would not make a good president, if he represents both sides.

“What I liked about George Bush is all of his moral side and all that,” Brummer added. “But somehow he didn’t have the strength to govern the way we hoped he would and that he should have.”

Democrats, meanwhile, sense an opportunity. Now the campaigns of all three Democratic front-runners are actively courting evangelical voters. At a White House event to mark the National Day of Prayer that I attended in the spring, Senator Clinton even walked over to shake hands with Dobson. Visibly surprised, he told her she was in his prayers.

All three Democratic candidates are speaking very personally, in evangelical language, about their own faith. What does Clinton pray about? “It depends upon the time of day,” she said. Edwards says he cannot name his greatest sin: “I sin every single day.” Obama talks about his introduction to “someone named Jesus Christ” and about being “an instrument of God.”

Many evangelicals are not sure what to make of it. “Shouldn’t we like it when someone talks about Christ being the missing ingredient in his life?” David Brody, a commentator for Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, asked approvingly in response to Obama’s statements.

Many conservative Christian leaders say they can count on the specter of a second Clinton presidency to fire up their constituents. But the prospect of an Obama-Giuliani race is another matter. “You would have a bunch of people who traditionally vote Republican going over to Obama,” said the Rev. Donald Wildmon, founder of the Christian conservative American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss., known for its consumer boycotts over obscenity or gay issues.

In the Wichita churches this summer, Obama was the Democrat who drew the most interest. Several mentioned that he had spoken at Warren’s Saddleback church and said they were intrigued. But just as many people ruled out Obama because they suspected that he was not Christian at all but in fact a crypto-Muslim — a rumor that spread around the Internet earlier this year. “There is just that ill feeling, and part of it is his faith,” Welsh said. “Is his faith anti-Christian? Is he a Muslim? And what about the school where he was raised?”

“Obama sounds too much like Osama,” said Kayla Nickel of Westlink. “When he says his name, I am like, ‘I am not voting for a Muslim!’ ”

Fox, meanwhile, is already preparing to do his part to get Wichita’s conservative faithful to the polls next November. Standing before a few hundred worshipers at the Johnny Western Theater last summer, Fox warned his new congregation not to let go of that old-time religion. “Hell is just as hot as it ever was,” he reminded them. “It just has more people in it.”

Fox told me: “I think the religious community is probably reflective of the rest of the nation — it is very divided right now. This election process is going to reveal a lot about where the religious right and the religious community is. It will show unity or the lack of it.”

But liberals, he said, should not start gloating. “Some might compare the religious right to a snake,” he said. “We may be in our hole right now, but we can come out and bite you at any time.”

Copyright © 2007 The New York Times
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21508301/

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The Plow

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:29:00 +0000

Luke 9:62

But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

Have you put your hand to the plow for the cause of Christ? I find it fascinating that Jesus does not say put your hand to the plow and do the best you can. He emphatically proclaims that if you look back to your old life you are not fit or the kingdom of God.

This is a word to all of you whether you have been a Christian for 2 months or 20 years. Do not yearn for the things of the world. Do not look to your neighbors and think "man they seem to be having so much fun." Life begins when you lose your taste and desire for the things that draw your attention away from the plow.

Jesus Christ has chosen you for service to his kingdom...

Don't look back...

Pray daily to keep the plow steady in service to our champion, Christ Jesus...Godspeed!

PS I also thought you would enjoy this great photo of me, Donald, and Warren in Chicago.

Christian Liberty

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:04:00 +0000

I must first ask for your grace. I have done many things over the past few months, but now I am back and you have my attention.

Galatians 5:1

(NASB) Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

(The Message) It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Salvation is a ticket of sorts. It is a ticket to freedom. When Christ bids one to come and die to self, he is declaring to you in a mighty way: "I got it." He is saying stop worrying about the things of this life. I got it. Oftentimes in my Christian walk I do not feel liberated. I feel burdened by my problems. I allow myself to slump under the weight of my sin. I see Christ as more of a burden than a loving companion. If you are like me embrace the freedom of liberation. I have spent the past month of my life in worry and anxiety...It is not worth it. This verse has spoken to me over and over again these past few days. I challenge you to commit it to memory.

There are three main things this verse teaches:

1. It is idiotic and stupid to try and live your life as if you are under the law burdened by ritual and legalism. In Romans 10:13 Paul calls it "seeking to establish your own righteousness." Righteousness cannot come through the law. You must embrace the freedom to enjoy the grace of Christ. Furthermore legalism is a cancer on our churches that steals the very heart of the gospel, and it will steal your heart too if you let it. Never forget the freedom...

2. We are free from the power of sin. This is a word to those who find themselves choked by a reoccurring sin. If you seek to conquer the sin on your own you will always fail. One cannot conquer reoccurring sin unless you trust Christ to give you the power to conquer. Those who seek wisdom and power over sin... Ask God to change your heart today... You are an anathema to the cause of the gospel if you allow sin to fester giving it no attention at all. Don’t look like the world, resemble Christ.

3. You are free to enjoy all the things of creation within God's moral law. Hear the words of protest from Derek Webb "Don’t teach me about moderation and liberty just give me a shot of grape juice." Truly we should enjoy the things of creation and we do not need a "New Law." A word to you cocktail sippin' Christians out there...contrary to everything you have very heard in church...drinking in moderation within the law is an exercise of Christian liberty. We must not use the freedom we are granted to fulfill our selfish carnal desires, because this is abuse not freedom.

Embrace the freedom of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

In closing...

Thanks for taking me back...I love you all very much...Hopefully these will get much better as time continues...Godspeed!

Your Load

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Wed, 09 May 2007 07:51:00 +0000

Matthew 11:29

"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

As I study for my exam tomorrow I must remind myself of the yoke that is Christ Jesus. He wants us to relieve our worries and our sorrows by giving them to him. Give it all to Jesus. I look forward to Thursday when I will cross over the river and rest in the shade of the tree that is summer. I realize though that today like everyday my rest must only come from Jesus. Have you eased your burdens my friend? Godspeed.

A Note of Conviction

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Tue, 08 May 2007 06:06:00 +0000

Romans 16:19

"I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil."

This verse penetrates to my soul. Often I am not innocent as to what is evil. I pray that today you will evaluate your life, and figure out what areas of your lives need to be cleaned out. Maybe you are around evil often, and you think it is not that big of a deal. Well according to this verse we are to be innocent of what is evil. This is my prayer for you today. I am not going to write long, because I want you to really evaluate what you are wise about. May your wisdom be centered on Christ alone...Godspeed!

The Mountain: Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Mon, 07 May 2007 05:58:00 +0000

Matthew 17:7-9

But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead."

The disciples were cowered down scared for their lives, and Jesus came and touched them. There are often times in our lives were we get scared and do not know how things are going to play out. These are the times in which are relationship with him will be tested. These are the times in which we are tested with the question, "Is Jesus all you see?" He must be our guide completely and totally.

It is important to note that Jesus' first actions and words after this amazing display of his glory are ones of tender gentle loving care. He knew his three companions were terrified. He went and touched them. Do you need a touch from Jesus Christ today? The Bible says that after they were touched all they saw was Jesus. This must have been a tremendous relief. If you search for Jesus and Jesus alone there is relief there at the cross friend.

The impressions of these moments were profound in the lives of the disciples present.

The impression on Peter is recounted in 2 Peter 1:16-18

About thirty years later Paul would be able to boldly proclaim "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain."

It must have been very difficult when for the disciples to keep this to themselves, but Jesus said not to tell anyone until he had risen from the dead. Peter obeyed as can be seen in his words above. Christ did not come in divine glory but humble weakness. He refused to be coronated as King here on this Earth, but rather he told the disciples to not tell anyone about what had happened until he rose again. He did not come to conquer the Romans once, but he came to conquer sin for eternity. Friend are you letting him fight for you? Godspeed!

I pray that daily as my pastor in Louisville says

"You will know God as your father, Jesus as your savior, and heaven as your home."

The Mountain: Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Sun, 06 May 2007 19:17:00 +0000

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

Matthew 17:5-6

The word overshadowed is very improtant in this context, because of what it signifies. When somethingis overshadowed it is completely engulfed or overtaken by something. God overtook the men that were with Jesus. It is amazing that besides Jesus' own testimony of his deity, we now have 2 Old Testament Prophets and the testimony of God the father himself.

He came in a cloud. This is important also, because in the wanderings of Israel the Lord manifested Himself through "a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on their way" (Exodus13:21). Here God appears in a cloud to lead once more. He is leading humanity to their savior. He is said on the Mount of Transfiguration, "Hey guys, this is it!" He was reaffirming the deity of his son.

The father spoke the almost identical words that he used at Jesus' baptism (Matt. 3:17) and the words he later used before the crucifixion (John 12:28). God declares Jesus to be of identical form and nature as himself when he uses the word "son." he further affirms the actions that Jesus has done when he said "with whom I am well-pleased." He directly addressed the disciples when he said "Listen to him!"

The disciples were scared out of there minds when they realized that they stood before the almighty God. Peter promptly forgot about building any more tabernacles at this point. They knew who God was and what they had done. Sinful people always want to hide from God. We hide from God. Do you know who the savior is this day? Do you have a proper fear of him and sin? Never forget who Jesus is, never...Godspeed!

The Mountain: Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Sat, 05 May 2007 05:41:00 +0000

Matthew 17:3-4
"And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.'"

The second confirmation of Christ's deity came in the form of probably the two most famous of the Old Testament saints.

Moses- The founder of the law. He was chosen to led his people out of bondage, an apparent paralell to what Christ did for us on calvary. He served as prophet, priest, and king. Christ also fills all of these rolls now for us.

Elijah- The great defender of the law. He stood up to those who worshiped other Gods. Christ won the victory once and for all on calvary.

These two men are recorded in Luke 9:31 discussing Jesus' departure with him at this occassion. They knew what was coming, and they were there to encourage Jesus. They were also there to provide extra testimony to who Christ was. After seeing these men with Jesus there should have been no doubt of who Jesus was to all those present.

Then came Peter. Peter completely failed to comprehend the signifigance of this event. He did not realize what Christ's glory meant or Moses and Elijah's testimony. He was obviously bewildered and basically, after seeing Christ in all his glory, he put Christ on the same level as Moses and Elijah. This was his first mistake. Christ can never be on the same level as anyone else. He is God. Never allow acceptance of the words "Oh he was just a great prophet." He is either liar or Lord. The Lord claimed 31 times in the book of John alone to be the Son of God. He can never be on the same level.

The second mistake was that Peter wanted to stay on the mountaintop. As Christians we can never stay on the mountaintop. We are given mountaintop experiences in order to have the strength to go down and minister to those in the valley. We must never make the mountaintop our home.

Third, Peter tried to box Christ in a tabernacle. Christ does not dwell in houses made by men, but in the very hearts of his followers. Let us never forget this. Sunday should be your everyday...

Peter acted just like the rest of us would have acted in the same situation, and we can learn many things from Peter's actions.

First: We must always be ready to proclaim Jesus as Lord, there can be no one or no thing on his level. He is it. He is God.

Second: The mountaintop is not our home, Earth is. Do not get caught up in the subculture of Christianity wnd neglect vital ministry. The mountaintops are important, but they are useful in encouraging you as you descend into the valleys. Without the valleys we would not even know what the mountaintop even feels like or is.

Third: Christ does not dwell in just our churches, but we must make him a vital and integral part of our everyday. Never forget this.

Remember the truths Peter learned the hard way on the Mt. of Transfiguration...Godspeed!

The Mountain: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Fri, 04 May 2007 06:23:00 +0000

"And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light."
-Matthew 17:2

Can you imagine? The Lord standing right in front of you in all of his glory. He was not just standing in front of them, He was basically on fire. He had been on the earth for thirty years at this point, and He was completely changed to a blazing inferno of glory.

The magnificence came from within. This is very important, there were no types of fuel or outside material used to start this display of His glory. The power came from within. This man was all God. From within Him at any moment He could have brought about a full display of all His glory any time He wanted. He was fully God within.

This display of glory made such an impression on Peter, that his later writings are filled with portrayals of the second coming. He knew what it was going to be like, because he had seen it firsthand.

These men saw the very essence of God. There was no doubt in their minds following this event that He was God incarnate, and there should have been no doubt that one day He was going to again come in all His glory.

I cannot wait to see the greatest fireworks show in the history of the world, when Jesus Christ comes in riding on the clouds in all His glory and splendor. Friend, what a day that will be! Behold he comes...Godspeed!

PS 1000 views...check it out...
Keep up the good work guys!

The Mountain: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Thu, 03 May 2007 06:15:00 +0000

Matthew 17: 1-9

The Transfiguration

1And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." 5He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." 6When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." 8And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

I am going to spend the next few days on this rich passage, which I feel has so much meaning in it.

The first thing I want to take a look at from this passage is the Lord's companions by concentrating on verses 1.

1And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

I find it interesting that the Lord took Peter, James, and John to the mountain with him. There seems to be a number of reasons that he brought these three men in particular. The first reason being that they would be reliable witnesses to his manifested glory. We are the continuing witnesses to the transfiguration.

Let us also not forget that these men were known for their closeness to Jesus. They had joined him before when he had sought closer more intimate times with his father (Mark 5:37). These were also the men who seemed most intensely effected later by the crucifixion. They were also the leaders of the group. Peter was the ex-officio spokesman, and would later be the first leader of the church. We must be strong in our faith to have such leadership opportunities for Christ.

It is also interesting that he trusted these men so much not to tell what had happened. If they had gone running down the hill telling everyone what they had seen, then the entire area would have gone crazy. We must follow the Lord's guidance.

Jesus picked this men for a great purpose, and he chooses us for a great purpose. Everyday he is calling to you from the mountaintop to seek him in the morning. He wants you to experience life with him for his glory, so that you might tell the world of your savior. These men were led to the mountain to experience the savior alone. Have you been experiencing him alone? Climb higher...Have you perfected that alone relationship with Jesus Christ? Climb higher...Do you want to see Jesus? Godspeed!

More Sheep?

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Wed, 02 May 2007 07:06:00 +0000

John 10:16

And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

The other sheep were non-Jews. Jesus came to save Gentiles as well as Jews. This is an insight into the world wide mission of Christ-to die for the sins of the world. People tend to restrict Jesus to their own groups, but Jesus is not limited by the fences we build.

So often as Christians we enjoy the fact that our churches are all people just like us. This is perhaps the most dominant sin prevading American churches.

I want to give you a test to see if your church is representative of the body of Christ, the following questions should give you incite:

Does your church have people of different races in it?

Does your church have poor people in it?

Does your church have fat people in it?

Does your church have terribly dressed people in it?

Does your church have former criminals in it?

Does your church have alcoholics in it?

Does your church have old people in it?

Does your church have homeless people in it?

Does your church have immigrants in it?

Does your church have people not like you in it?

These are but a few questions you should ask your self about your church.

If you answered no to any of these questions, then you need to go out and search for those sheep missing from your fold...Godspeed!

The Faith of Our Fathers

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Tue, 01 May 2007 09:30:00 +0000

Joshua 1:1-9

God's Charge to Joshua

1Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying,

2"Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.

3"Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.

4"From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.

5"No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.

6"Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

7"Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.

8"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

9"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

As the baton was passed from Moses to Joshua, God made Joshua realize what a responsibility he had to lead the nation Israel. This day I am concerned that we as a generation coming forward does not take the advice of our forefathers in the faith and is in turn not ready to lead.

There are major detours that can happen when we do not invest in the faith and principles of our forefathers.

Our generation thinks that success come from having power, influential contacts, and a relentless go get em' spirit. Though these things can be important, they are not in any way the most essential tools for success. The strategy that God taught Joshua goes against the previous criteria mentioned.

God said that if Joshua was going to succeed he must:

1) Be strong and courageous, because the task ahead was not going to be easy.
2) Obey God's Word (or law).
-The most important thing a Christian can do, besides your relationship with Christ, is live a righteous life for the sake of the furtherment gospel.
3) Constantly read and study God's Word (or law).

Follow these steps and you will have the ability to live a life worthy of the calling of Christ Jesus our Lord to lead his church.

We must be pious men and women ready to lead...

The baton is being passed to our generation in order for us to rise up and lead the church of the living God. Are you ready or will you drop the baton? Godspeed!

So You Think Reform Begins in Washington?

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:52:00 +0000

We find the ministry of the Apostle Paul bringing forth fruit in the town of Ephesus...

Acts 19:23-32

23About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. 24For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. 25These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, "Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 26And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. 27And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship."

28When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" 29So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. 30But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. 31And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. 32Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

What a testimony to the faith of the Christians in the town of Ephesus. You see in this passage so many people had become Christians in Ephesus that the business of the pagans was being hurt. There was an uprising because they were no longer making money. Christians just were not buying into the evil of the day anymore.

I find this a fascinating passage, because it is a direct parallel to what should be our attitude today when it comes to the affairs of state. So often we want to go out into the streets to rally for the Ten Commandments or School Prayer, but we will not walk across the street to tell our neighbor about Jesus Christ. I want you to pay close attention to what I am fixing to say. Government is not and will never be the solution to our problems. Jesus Christ is the only solution.

We try to make our government a tool for evangelism, and this will never work. It does not make sense. The way to change our country is to tell people about our Savior. You see there were so many Christians in Ephesus that the peddlers of Artemis were shut down.

What would happen if; instead of protesting the liquor stores, smut peddlers, adult bookstores, strip clubs, and the lottery; we as Christians told so many people about Jesus that we put these establishments out of business?

This is the way to true and lasting reform.

What an incredible tesimony it would be if there were mass protests by people who were put out of business because Christians, new and old, did not buy their trash anymore.

I had a friend ask me the other day, "What happens if the Democrats win the White House? What are we going to do?"
I laughed and said "We are going to trust Jesus!" Christians put to much faith in government. Think about the last person you told about Jesus Christ the next time you discuss politics.

Our hearts must change. We must trust completely in Jesus Christ first and foremost. Reform in our country must begin in your heart.

I pray a revival will be forthcoming because the people of Christ rose up and changed this country by telling their countrymen about their savior. Shall it begin with you and me? Are you ready to fight in the revolution for the souls of our countrymen? Reform begins not in the halls of government, but with telling people about Jesus Christ. Godspeed!

Here comes...Jesus!

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:09:00 +0000

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.”

- Job 19:25

I just got done preaching this morning at Beechmont Baptist Church here in Louisville. This is going to be a very short post, because I am about to take a nap. I stayed up pretty late last night studying and doing sermon preparation.

I think it is appropriate to remind you that every Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In celebrating the resurrection I am also reminded that he is coming back. I want to emphasize to you today that truly in the end Jesus Christ will stand upon the Earth. He is coming back... Perhaps it will be this very next moment. Are you ready to meet your maker?

I pray that the Lord will convict your heart to prepare yourself to meet him, as the greater church is working to prepare the way for his return. Come Lord Jesus...Godspeed!

PS: This verse was written hundreds, if not thousands, of years before Jesus ever stepped foot on the Earth. Hallelujah!

Liberal Theology and Materialistic Blindness

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 06:34:00 +0000

The words of Paul in his first letter to the church at Corinth chapter 2 verses 2-5.

"For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."

I was once again of how lucky we are tonight to live in America. I watched the film Blood Diamond this evening, after this I was inspired read some reports from the BBC and Amnesty International on the horrors taking place as we speak in Africa.

I have learned/been reminded of two very important lessons this evening. I feel lead to discuss both.

The first major lesson I learned, which pertains to the scripture presented, is the utter horror of liberal Christian theology. As I watched and read tonight I was reminded of the only hope that the world has, Jesus Christ. Liberal Christians present to us vivid pictures while crying out for help for these people, but in the same breath they will deny the divinity of Christ. Oprah will build an orphanage and show you the happy children on her TV show, showing everyone how she is helping by throwing money at these problems. The problem with both of these solutions is that they are taking the real solution out of their solution. To take anything away from, or to not preach, the gospel is providing these people with no true hope. There is no hope for these people without Jesus Christ. As Christians we must not stop preaching Christ and him crucified. When liberal theology takes away from the gospel while deferring to the wisdom of men they are effectively denying the people of the only hope that they have. I am horrified at what is taking place in Africa and other places around the world, and I am more horrified that liberal theology is denying them of the one hope that will truly help their states. Never give credence to any theology that takes away the hope of Jesus Christ. The power of God through Jesus Christ is the only hope any of us has.

I pray for the mouths to be shut of those liberal theologians who are taking away the only true hope of this world.

The second thing I learned tonight is just how blind I am to the problems of the world. I prefer to sit at my coffee shop sipping lattes and talking about these problems. Our wealth in this country blinds us to the problems of this world. We are so materialistic. I remember a line from the movie that stated, "I bet women would not want those diamonds on there fingers if they knew it cost someone their hand." How convicting...We hide here in America behind a trillion dollar economy and the average person is ignorant to the problems that are occurring all over the world. Does anyone realize that there are hundreds of thousands of people dying in Darfur? Does anyone realize that people are starving to death in North Korea by the tens of thousands? Does anyone realize that there are people starving to death in the Anacostia region of Washington D.C., the West End of Atlanta, in Harlem, in illegal immigrant farms all along the border? There are drug wars raging in our ghettos. As Christians do we even care? Do not be blinded by your wealth friend realize the plight of people around the world. As a Christian you and your message are the hope of the world...Do you care? Brethren, Wake UP! Wake UP! Wake UP!

Matthew 5:14
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden."

Do not turn away from the pictures on this screen. These are the faces in need of a true savior (not Oprah). Will you go? I pray that God burdens your heart from this message. I heard John Piper in his sermon here at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary say these words, "If you have the means and never go on an international mission trip to share the gospel, then there will be blood on your hands on judgment day."

We must put more resources towards stamping out liberal theology in our churches and materilaism, both of which blind us.

Pray for sight.

Look down at that ring on your finger; perhaps it was mined at the cost of a hand. Do not let our materialistic society clog your vision and your heart. We are so very lucky, but shame on you if you forget those who are not. May we never forget how blessed we truly are and what a great responsibility we truly have. I pray that our eyes will be opened to the problems around our world. Take to the world...they need Jesus. We must not give them our money or our sympathy first, but we must...Give em' Jesus. Give em' Jesus. Give em' Jesus...To the world without end. Godspeed!

The Vessels

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:32:00 +0000

Romans 10:13-14

"WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

____________________________________

As Christians we are the vessels ordained by God to carry his good news.

Are you fulfilling the task?

We must take God's message to others so that they can respond.

How will your loved ones and neighbors hear the Gospel unless you tell them?

Is God dealing with your heart this day to tell someone about the saving grace of Jesus Christ?

I challenge you today to think of one person who needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay you got the person. Next, I want you to think of the best possible step that you could take in order to tell that person about the gospel. Then I want you to figure out the soonest possible time that you can talk to that person. Now you must go and tell that person about the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

We have to have a sense of urgency in terms of our evangelistic efforts. Far too long our congregations have set back attempting to be politically correct and submitting to our sensitivity driven culture. I want you to be bold this day while not just taking refuge in the foreknowledge of God, so that in turn you are free from any obligation.

Jesus Christ is the only hope our world has.

There are billions of people dying and going to hell because of the wrath of sin.

I challenge you again with the words of Paul:

How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?

You are the vessels. God has ordained his people to carry his message.

And again I defer to the words of Paul

And how will they hear without a preacher?

You must go today, for all around you exist people without the message of the Jesus Christ. These people have no hope without hearing the Gospel. May our hearts always be burdened with this reality as we strive daily to be the vessels for the fulfillment of proclaiming our savior Jesus Christ to all nations.

Godspeed!

Expecting a Miracle through Trust in a Savior

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:23:00 +0000

Exodus 14:13-16

But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.

"The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent."

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.

"As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.
___________________________________________
Do you expect a miracle from God? When you pray, do you actually think that God is going to answer your prayers? Do you give him all your troubles?

Often as Christians we pray out of mere formality. We do not think that the Lord is actually going to do something and move in our lives. I encourage you to stop that attitude right now.

When Moses arrived at the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army was chasing after him he did not have time to offer up mere formalities. He had to trust that God was exactly who he said he was. He also had to trust that God was going to do exactly what he said he was going to do. Moses told the people "DO NOT FEAR!" We are so scared of what tomorrow might bring.

I direct this directly to those who are reading this who are dealing with breakups and other future decisions right now. God is still on his throne, just like he was when he saved the nation Israel. God is going to guide you if you let him. You must truly attempt great things for God and expect great thing from God. Most of you are not attempting anything except self-gratification by trying to solve all of your own problems. You cannot fix it. Give it to Jesus. Moses gave God the problem of the sea in front of him and look what happened.

You see Moses was up against the wall of water that was the Red Sea, but he feared not. Moses raised his staff and the nation Israel was saved. I believe you have the ability as a Christian to embrace the power of God through the mediator that is Christ Jesus. That power comes on your knees. You cannot embrace the power of a no fear life style unless you are first on your knees.

The Lord fought for him and he will fight for you if you get down on your knees and let him. Give him control over your life and you too can walk across on dry ground with Jesus. We are not promised an easy journey, but with Christ with us the ground is always going to be dry and navigable.

For the Israelites the Promised Land awaited, and for us as Christians we have an inheritance in a land known as Zion. I look forward to the day when we shall all cross over the river and dance on that day, but until then we must beat on trusting in our great champion and savior Jesus Christ...Have you put your whole faith in him friend? He does not want a piece of your heart; he wants the whole thing. What are you holding back from God? Give it to him and watch the miracle that takes place as He leads. Trust Him friend, He is calling. Embrace the miracle of Jesus Christ...Godspeed!

Reaching Out To The Disenfranchised

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 05:26:00 +0000

Matthew 25:35/45

The Words of Christ

I was a stranger and you invited me into your home...What you have done unto the least of these you have done unto me...

When was the last time you reached out to someone who was lonely? When was the last time you reached out to a complete stranger in need? When was the last time you treated someone different the way Jesus would?

This is a tough convicting question. I struggle to treat people the way I know Christ would have.

I have posted a painting by Edward Hopper that should remind you of the person that you often see sitting alone and lonely. As Christians we must be known as the first person to go and break the solace of the picture. We must walk over and tap this man on the shoulder in order to ask him if the seat is taken right next to him. What an opportunity to share Christ's love with others. Reaching perfect strangers has to do with opening yourself up to loving perfect strangers.

There are many people dying and going to hell because you do not have the guts to engage them cold turkey. Shame on you!

There are 33 funerals that have taken place over the past week for the victims killed at Virginia Tech. You see the shooter is the guy in Hopper's painting that is just sitting there waiting to be talked to. This young man had so much pain built up inside of him. Accounts from his high school state that he was picked on and made fun of. Oh how things might have been so different if a Christian had had the guts to engage this young man and exhibited him love.

We have a responsibility in this world and we are not meeting it brethren!

So get up sit down at the counter with the man in the painting. This is how Christians can change the world by showing love to one stranger at a time. May you be known for your bold love...Christ is sitting over there alone at the counter...Godspeed!

The River

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 06:56:00 +0000

Romans 5:17
For if by the transgression of the one, death reined through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will rein in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Often times we are burdened down by our guilt of our sins and actions. We spend so much time in guilt that we neglect to live. We think about our evil deeds so much that our distress itself turns into sin. Jesus Christ did not die so that you would have to live like this. He died for you to live. Go to the river...

There truly is a river I know about, and if you promise not to keep it a secret I will tell you about it. It exists at the throne of my king. It is as wide as any river imaginable. It is deeper than the deepest canyons. The waters that flow from this river are swift and will overwhelm you if you let them. There are no floatation devices in this river because no one who has ever dived in has ever wanted out. Many have tried to tell me that this river does not exist. They say that it is the result of illusions and emotion. It is funny that they say this, because I have seen it. I know it exists. Often times I take deep dips into it. It is not effective until it overwhelms you.

I can tell you how to get there if you want.

Do you want me to tell you?

Okay I will. You must take the narrow trip up to the Cross of Jesus Christ. You must ask for his admittance. He will let you in if you believe what you see, and there you will find the river of grace that flows in abundance for his children. The river known as Grace that began to flow right at two thousand years ago...

It is still flowing friend...I promise. I know because I was there earlier this very evening.

If you have been burdened by your sins I invite you to take a running leap into the sweet living waters of redemption where a Savior has promised to wash you white as snow. May you find what your looking no where else except there drowning in the sweetness of the Savior's love...Godspeed!

Longings

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 06:31:00 +0000

Romans 8:18-20
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

I read this and thoroughly was touched by it. I pray that your week wll be one of longing for the living God...Godspeed!

A Puritan Prayer

My Dear Lord,

I can but tell thee that thou knowest
I long for nothing but thyself
nothing but holiness,
nothing but union with thy will.

Thou hast given me these desires,
and thou alone canst give me the thing desired.

My soul longs for communion with thee,
for mortification of indwelling corruption,
especially spiritual pride.

How precious it is
to have a tender sense and clear apprehension
of the mystery of godliness,
of true holiness!

What a blessedness to be like thee
as much as it is possible for a creature
to be like its Creator!

Lord, give me more of thy likeness;
Enlarge my soul to contain fullness of holiness;
Enlarge me to live more like thee.

Help me to be less pleased with my spiritual
experiences,
and when I feel at ease after sweet communings,
teach me it is far too little I know and do.

Blessed Lord,
let me climb up near to thee,
and love, and long, and plead, and wrestle
with thee,
and pant for deliverance from the body of sin,
for my heart is wandering and lifeless,
and my soul mourns to think it should ever
lose sight of its Beloved.

Wrap my life in divine love,
and keep me ever desiring thee,
always humble and resigned to thy will,
more fixed on thyself,
that I may be more fitted for doing
and suffering.

Overcoming the World

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:30:00 +0000

1 John 4:4

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

The events over the past week that have taken place all over the world has been particularly disturbing. The events at Virginia Tech, Bombings in Baghdad, Airplane Crashes, and NASA shootings. These sound like pretty scary stuff no doubt, but we must always remember greater is he who is in us. Our generation has seen unspeakable tragedies happen over and over again. We witnessed September 11, but greater is he who is in us. We have seen the Tsunami in Asia, but greater is he who is in us. We have seen Hurricane Katrina, but greater is he who is in us. Now we are witnesses to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, but truth is still the victor, greater is he who is in us.

There is no doubt in my mind that more tragedies are around the corner, but on this Sabbath I wanted to remind you that no matter what happens greater is he that is in us...Godspeed!

The Nations in our Backyard

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:33:00 +0000

Matthew 28:19

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...

Today was another day of taking our youth to reach out to the community around our church here in Louisville. Only this day entailed a couple of surprises. I was shocked to find three blocks from our church, the nations. Most of you right now are thinking, "Bubba what could you possibly be getting at?" Well this afternoon, three blocks from my church, I met some boys from Kenya, a boy from Zimbabwe, a girl from Croatia, and a young man from Romania. This was three blocks from a lily-white Southern Baptist Church. I was astounded and amazed. What an opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission in our backyard...

They all play soccer every Friday night, and we are going to try to go and engage them in order to further previous discussion about the Gospel.

On my immediate left is the young man from Zimbabwe and the rest are the guys from Kenya.

We must everyday realize that the nations are here amongst us. The communities in which we live are yearning for the Gospel. We will one day stand before an almighty God and answer for our engagement or neglect of the communities around us that are so very accessible. I pray that you will engage them. They truly contain the nations.

As I write I am sitting in Waffle House (late night studying). There are two young Muslims who work here named Bazz and Stezen from the Ivory coast (pictured below). I have been trying to engage them in discussion, in order to share the Gospel with them. Pray for their salvation.

We must not stop until we have successfully engaged the nations immediately all around us. We must speak to nations. We must trample the strongholds of darkness in our backyards...Godspeed!

Vanity of Vanities

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:45:00 +0000

We program our lives with so much stuff besides Jesus Christ...Today I call on you to ponder the question "What are you living for?"

I give you the words of an old Solomon looking back over his life to help you ponder...Godspeed!

Ecclesiastes 1: 1-14

All Is Vanity

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.

All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said,
"See, this is new"?
It has been already
in the ages before us.

There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things[e] yet to be
among those who come after.

I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

A Miracle In Louisville

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 07:34:00 +0000

John 12:32

The words of Christ-

"When I am lifted up from the earth, (I) will draw all people to myself."

As believers we have lost a sense of awe that should accompany the conversion of sinners. I am very disturbed at this alarming fact that I see evidenced in many of our churches, in their denigration of evangelism. The conversion of one lost soul to Christ is a miracle of grace, and it should never be looked at with anything but the utmost awe and respect in our churches.

I decided to not just talk about this problem, but to actually get out and combat it. I am writing to you in the middle of the "I Agree With Bubba Revival" taking place with my youth group at Beechmont Baptist Church here in Louisville, KY. I decided to take my youth group on a 3-day evangelism odyssey. Today was our first day and here are some of the results...

This is the beginning of our night. They are holding in their hands printed "Plan's of Salvation."

These are the kids handing out the tracts if you will (as you can see some are rather zealous)...

The following is the miracle I spoke of:

This is Taresa and Candra (pictured below), both of which I had the opportunity to lead to the Lord this evening. I was amazed at how Jesus Christ opened the door to this encounter, and how these two young ladies responded to the gospel. One kept asking, "You mean he can forgive me of all my sins?" Jesus said "If my name is lifted up, I will draw all men unto me!" Praise the Lord! I saw this come to fruition this evening.

Pray for these two young ladies, and pray that more come to know him in the next two days through our efforts here in Louisville!

I praise the God who opens the door for the redemption of sinners. May your spirit be renewed and encouraged to take the gospel deep into the dark. Are your ready for some miracles?...Godspeed!

The Goal

noreply@blogger.com (Bubba Hood) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 05:15:00 +0000

Philippians 3:13-14

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Maturity is having the courage to look forward. Lives are often destroyed because of failures to plan for tomorrow. As Christians, we too must plan for tomorrow. We must realize that the things of this Earth are fleeting quickly, and prepare for the day when we meet our savior face to face. We must work continuously for that day. As you survey your landscape how many people are you coming in contact with that don’t know Christ? There is work to be done. Stop thinking about what is passing, and concentrate on that day. We are all dying, but what are you living for?

Keep your eyes fixed on the prize...

You will find meaning and purpose in this life, not in the things you can see, but in the things that exist beyond belief...Godspeed!