A reason to worship this morning!

I am currently reading through Titus and this morning my reading fell upon the following verses. These verses penetrated my heart and reminded me of what God — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit — have done for me, for you and for everyone whom He has saved and redeemed. Let these verses remind you of where you came from and where He has brought you. If you have been saved by grace through Jesus Christ, these verses will give you reason to celebrate, shout for joy and worship at the feet of our great and glorious God. May God, through this part of His Word, bless you as it has blessed me today.

Titus 3:3-8 (ESV)
"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works."

"...but not forgotten."

To those of you who follow this blog, my apologies for failing to be diligent in updating it with "thought-provoking" words. Since I became engaged in September and have been working at The Alabama Baptist, certain things in my life have been neglected but not forgotten. However, I want to share some Web links with you of the writings I have been doing in the meantime. Come January, I will once again be jobless so I'm sure I will be writing more on this blog. I know that excites a few of you. ;)

Woman's Missionary Union (WMU) — myMissionFulfilled

• "The Wise Shopper: How You Are Spending Your Money Does Matter." (12/08/09) http://www.mymissionfulfilled.com/article.asp?id=1801
  
• "Praying for friends of other faith backgrounds." (09/29/09) http://www.mymissionfulfilled.com/article.asp?id=1652
• Book review - Faces in the Crowd: Reaching Your International Neighbor for Christ http://www.mymissionfulfilled.com/article.asp?id=1570
• Book review - City Signals: Principles and Practices for Ministering in Today's Global Communities http://www.mymissionfulfilled.com/article.asp?id=1571
• Book review - John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace http://www.mymissionfulfilled.com/article.asp?id=1572

The Alabama Baptist newspaper

• "Alabama Campers set records with projects." (10/8/09) http://www.thealabamabaptist.org//print-edition-article-detail.php?id_art=13031
  
• "Green Valley Church's RAs, GAs take fall festival to families in recovery program." (10/29) http://www.thealabamabaptist.org//print-edition-article-detail.php?id_art=13263
• "State Baptist churches use variety of fall events to reach community." (11/12) http://www.thealabamabaptist.org//print-edition-article-detail.php?id_art=13328
• "Grove Hill goes wet in first of several wet/dry elections." (11/12) http://www.thealabamabaptist.org//print-edition-article-detail.php?id_art=1338

The listings for The Alabama Baptist are just a few of the more recent articles I have done. You can go to www.thealabamabaptist.org and search "Kristen Lindsey" to see more.

I also want to encourage you to check out The Manhattan Declaration at www.manhattandeclaration.org. This is a declaration that all Christians, no matter the denomination, need to together stand — stand for life, marriage and liberty. Please read the declaration and sign your name and be a part of a 21st century Christian movement in America.

May you experience God's blessings in giving to others this Christmas season,

Kristen

Praise and Thanks

Thank you for your prayers last week. I could definitely tell that I was being prayed for as I was working with youth-aged pastor kids last week. God is continually faithful, and I give all my praise to Him for the good work He did last week at Pastors School.

I would encourage all pastors to take part in some type of school for pastors like Beeson Divinity School offers. It was such a joy to see pastors and their families come for a week of teaching, encouragement, studying, growth and relaxing. Stories are told of pastors coming to Pastors School ready to quit the ministry, but by the week's end they were encouraged to continue in the work of the Lord. I encourage you, if you are a member of a church, to check and see if the church provides a week of learning and studying for your pastor each year. Your church will reap the benefits of a pastor who has been given a week to be taught, encouraged and challenged by other pastors and renown biblical scholars. Every other profession sets aside time for continued learning. Why not pastors?

In regards to the articles mentioned in my last post, you can read them by going to www.thealabamabaptist.org and by clicking on "Alabama News" in the sidebar on the left-side of the page.

Thank you for reading this blog and for your encouragement, even if I have never met you. I read all your comments. My prayer is that we would continue working together for the kingdom of God and His glory.

Until next time.....

Gloria a Dios!

Prayer requests

Good Sunday morning friends! I hope you will be worshipping the Lord somewhere in a local body of believers this morning! Great is the Lord and worthy of praise!

This blog is intended to be a place for me to offer up reflections on Scripture passages. However, I am making an exception today. Today, I write asking for a little prayer. 

First, this coming week I will be directing Beeson Divinity School's Pastors School youth. Beeson has an annual "school" for pastors, basically it is a week where pastors can take classes from some great scholars so that for once someone can be teaching them the Scripture; they have times of worship; they get encouraged; they learn how to handle situations in their church; etc. Many pastors bring their wives and their children. There is a separate track for their wives, their young children, and their children who are youth age. I have the youth age children from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. I have been planning for a long time, but I have never done this before. Please pray for the youth who will come, for me and others as we teach in the mornings and in the evenings, and that God will do a good work. 

Secondly, I ask for prayer about something else that will take place this coming week. I work for a state-wide Baptist newspaper, and I will have several articles come out in next week's issue - the July 23rd issue. The articles, though very truthful and revealing, may cause an outbreak of anger against me or the paper. Please pray that they are received well and that they help people who are affected by this situation. I won't dive into much detail, but the articles are about a self-proclaimed church which has many characteristics of a cult, the church/cult leader, and the non-profit foundation which came out of this church/cult. Please pray that the truth will set people free and for the protection of the paper and myself.  You can see these articles online on Thursday at www.thealabamabaptist.org. 

Lastly, I ask for prayer as I continue to look for a full-time job. God is providing for my needs and is giving me opportunities of ministry, for which I am thankful. I have an article assignment due at the beginning of August for WMU's www.mymissionfulfilled.com. Please pray that I will do God's work with excellence and diligence. 

Thank you for your prayers for me. I believe in the power of prayer. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

A Pleasant Vineyard

I grew up in a family that did not drink any alcohol, including wine. So when I went on my first trip to Napa Valley to tour the wineries this past week, I knew absolutely nothing about wine or how wine is made. Before heading to Napa Valley, I did not think that I would be too impressed with the vineyards. Having grown up in the South where there are lots of gardens, corn fields, and other types of fields, I thought it would take more than a field of grape plants to awe me. However, much to my surprise, the sight of these beautiful vineyards on softly, rolling hills took my breath away. 

A vineyard is a widely used metaphor in the Bible of God's people - Israel in the Old Testament and Christians in the New Testament. In Isaiah 5:1-7, we read about God's first vineyard - Israel. Isaiah tells us that God planted this vineyard on a fertile hill; he cleared it of stones. He planted in it the choicest of vines and built a watchtower in the middle of it. He also hewed a wine vat in it and built up a wall and a hedge of protection around it. (Is. 5:1-2,5) God loved this vineyard and did everything necessary for a fruitful and profitable return. However, at the end of it all, this vineyard yielded wild grapes (Is. 5:2,4). What was wrong with this vineyard? It had faulty vines. Despite all that God did for it, the vines could not produce good fruit. Who are the vines? The vines are the people. 

Because of sin, people have been estranged from God ever since the Garden of Eden. When God called the nation of Israel out from among the nations of the world, He did everything necessary for them to have fellowship with Him and for them to produce good fruit. He gave them the Law; He gave them His presence in the tent of meeting. He gave them the sacrificial system so that atonement could be made for their sin. God gave them righteous men and women to serve as judges, kings, and prophets to guide them in the way of righteousness. He protected them many times from enemies, and fought on their behalf. Yet, after all God did, many of God's people turned to idols, murdered their brothers, practiced corrupt business, divorced their spouses, gave their children up for unholy things, and the list goes on. The vines had produced sour, wild grapes. 

Yet, 22 chapters later, Isaiah is given a vision for the future. A vision of hope. A vision of a pleasant vineyard that will produce the fruit God desires - the good and choicest fruit. 

Isaiah 27:2-6 says:

In that day,

'A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!

I, the LORD, am its keeper;

every moment I water it.

Lest anyone punish it,

I keep it night and day;

I have no wrath.

Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!

I would march against them,

I would burn them up together.

Or let them lay hold of my protection,

let them make peace with me,

let them make peace with me.'

In days to come Jacob shall take root,

Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots

and fill the whole world with fruit.

This passage begins with "in that day." As prophetic literature, "in that day" denotes something in the future. However, many people today will still read this passage as something futuristic that has not happened. Although there is an element of "not yet," the majority of the prophecies in the Old Testament have already been realized in Jesus Christ. We can best understand Is. 27:2-6 by reading John 15:1-6. Nothing changed with how God kept the vineyard in chapter 5 to how he tended it in chapter 27. God is still the keeper of the vineyard. He still takes care of it most ardently. He still protects it so that he challenges even the briers to get in. Yet, something has changed to which now the vineyard in chapter 27 is producing good and sweet fruit instead of wild grapes in chapter 5. The vineyard has gone from being accursed to pleasant. The vineyard has changed because there is a new vine. 

Can you imagine a vineyard with only one vine? Having seen vineyards, the idea is laughable. One vine to produce hundreds and millions of grapes? One vine? Yes, one vine. In John 15 Jesus says, "I am the vine and you are the branches." Look at the image below:

We see in this picture the vine coming forth from the ground and from the vine little branches shooting off in every direction. Because Jesus came to earth as completely human, remaining both 100% God and 100% human in the flesh, Jesus was able to live a life without sin. Being God in human flesh, He was able to be the perfect "vine," which is to say the perfect human. This vine - Jesus - is not diseased by sin, so this vine will always produce good fruit. Therefore, this new and pleasant vineyard has already begun, and it is a vineyard with one vine and millions of branches. God uses this metaphor of the vine and branches to drive home the point that as branches cannot bear fruit apart from the vine so neither can we bear fruit apart from Christ. The branches on a vine that do not bear fruit will be destroyed; likewise, the people who do not have a relationship with Christ will experience the wrath of God.  

Through the metaphor of the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-7, 27:2-6, and John 15:1-5, we have been told the history of God's salvation. I encourage you to look at other places in Scripture where the metaphor of the vineyard is used to make a teaching point. It comes up often in prophetic literature as well as the parables of Jesus. 

I couldn't go to Napa Valley without tasting one of the wines, though probably much to my parents' dismay. However, it was important for me to taste something that was made from cultivating the fruit grown right outside its door. 

What a wonderful thing to be part of this pleasant vineyard that began 2000 years ago with the coming of Jesus Christ and to be producing good fruit for the harvesting of our vinedresser God. 

(*To my Shades Mountain Baptist peeps, I began writing and formulating this blog post earlier this week. It is only, in my estimation, by divine appointment that today's sermon would be on one of the passages used here and thus a similar message being spoken.)

 

I love you with my whole....liver?

I don't know about you but I love to doodle.  I have been in school for 20 years, and I can look back over 20-years worth of class notes and find all around the edges of my paper little stars, smiley faces, trees, and yes, my most adored doodling character, hearts.  For as long as I remember, hearts have signified that one, most sought after word - love.  I will sign a letter with a heart as a substitute for the word love, knowing that it is understood that I mean love.  I even wear a t-shirt, along with most of America, that reads, "I 'heart' N.Y.", with the big red heart standing in the place of the word love.  To us, the heart is a symbol of love, a love that is often times defined as an emotional and sentimental feeling.  

There is nothing wrong with this; however, the danger comes when we read our understanding of heart back into the Bible.  Every Christian, no matter their culture, is in danger of reading their own culture, thoughts, and experiences back into Scripture thereby potentially making a passage say something that it never would have meant in the time and culture in which it was written.  This is called eisegesis.

The Old Testament, like us today, refers to the heart symbolically.  One of the most popularly quoted OT verse is Deuteronomy 6:5 - "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."  Verse 6 follows with "and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart."  If we want to leave eisegesis (reading into the text) and to cleave to exegesis (reading out from the text), we must first ask what did the heart symbolize in the ancient near eastern culture and thus to the Hebrew people?  

The heart, especially in the book of Proverbs, is interchangeably used with the mind.  Since the heart symbolized the seedbed of decision making and since thinking is very much involved with making decisions, the heart and mind almost overlap in their function.  The heart is thus the spiritual side of you that makes decisions.  When David confessed his sin to God after committing adultery with Bathsheba, he asked God to renovate his heart.  When he prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God," (Ps. 51:10) David was asking for a decision-making rehabilitation.  This is why David said a few verses prior, "Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart"(Ps. 51:6).  David desires truth and wisdom in his heart since it is where he makes his decisions.  Understanding then that the heart in the OT is often understood with mind, thinking, and decision-making, we can rightly understand Psalm 119:11 - "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."  If you are going to hide something in your heart, it means you will keep it in memory and let it influence the decisions you make.  

This does not mean that the heart in the OT had nothing to do with love, but a Hebrew hearing the law would not have equated the heart with an emotional feeling of love.  I thought it was quite comical when one of my professors at Beeson Divinity School, Allen P. Ross, to whom I credit this understanding of heart in the Old Testament, told our class that a Hebrew would not likely say, "I love you with my whole heart."  Instead, they would more likely say, "I love you with my whole liver."  The liver to the Hebrew people was a bigger and more important organ.  In fact, it would be easier to change a heart than a liver; therefore, the liver would be a better way to express love - it was bigger, more important, and unchanging.  I don't think "I love you with my whole liver" will catch on anytime soon, but it makes sense nonetheless. 

To love the Lord my God with all my heart does not mean loving him with all my emotional and sentimental love.  It means to love him with my decisions and my thoughts.  It is how I live my life.  I must love God through and with all of me and let my words, thoughts, and deeds reflect that I truly love God.  Peter's thrice confession that he loved Jesus after Jesus' resurrection meant nothing until he fed his sheep, just like Jesus said to do.  I must reassess the condition of my heart.  What do my decisions about what to say, what to wear, what to do, what not to do, how to respond to my enemy, how to treat my neighbor (and the list goes on) reveal about my love for God?  What do they reveal about my character?  It takes one second to doodle a heart, but it takes a lifetime to fashion one's heart, one's seedbed of decision-making, to love God.   

 

How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place

I'm sorry for not having posted since Easter week.  I have been sick and am busy writing some samples for a few Christian publishers.  I appreciate your prayers as I know that I cannot write without the aid of the Holy Spirit.  Today I just want to post Psalm 84 for your own reflection and encouragement.  

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young,

at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

As they go through the Valley of Baca

they make it a place of springs;

the early rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength;

each one appears before God in Zion.

O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;

give ear, O God of Jacob!

Behold our shield, O God;

look on the face of your anointed!

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God 

than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

the LORD bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

O LORD of hosts,

blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Amen.