Dense Fog

Monday December 17, 2007

Joy

One year for Christmas, as a child, I asked Santa for a remote control dune buggy. This wasn?t just any remote control dune buggy though, it was a four-wheel-drive beast of a machine that I was convinced would be the single most powerful force ever developed by man. I had visions of driving it straight to the top of giant hills, soaring through the air, running through creeks and mud and any kind of small or large animal that dared get in the way of its awesome power!

Well good ol? Saint Nick managed to get the message, and sure enough, under my tree on Christmas morning was the exact dune buggy I had asked for. I couldn'?t wait to get it into action!
I pulled it from the box, plugged the super charged 9 volt battery pack into it, put the batteries into the controller and slammed on the gas, eyes squinted so the sparks and burning rubber wouldn?'t get in my eyes.

Only one problem...you have to charge those batteries. So I did. For what seemed like 189 hours.

Finally, it was time! Battery pack charged, check! Controller on, check! And away we go... except the thing really didn'?t go all that fast... and pretty soon I jumped it off the front porch, and instead of landing on four wheels, it landed on its head and broke the spoiler off the back. Turns out that wasn'?t a big deal, since it certainly didn?'t move fast enough to merit a spoiler.

In my mind, I had given that dune buggy power that it never had, and in the end my imagination outpaced reality by quite a few car lengths.

We do that in our Christian lives as well. We give others the power to take our joy. That is a power that they don?t really have, but somehow, in our minds, we give it to them anyway.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."

These words of Jesus in John assure us that our joy is complete. It is made complete, not by getting our way, not by everything working out perfectly for us, but by God?s love. We know nobody can steal that, which means nobody has power over your joy! Its yours and Gods, so cherish it, live in it, and don'?t let anybody or anything talk you out of it!

Sunday December 09, 2007

Hold On Tight!

The Teflon Slope

I just finished reading with interest Norman Jameson's article on the slow creep of Calvinism into Baptist life. I have been predicting this for several years now, and sadly it appears my "itching suspicion" has become a full blown five alarm crisis-to-be.

You see, our conventions, both state and national, seem to be populated with men spoiling for the fight. They got rid of all those "crazy" moderates, shaping the convention into a nice, tidy group that they were assured would now interpret God's Word the same way. The problem is - and we crazy moderates have been saying this all along - that no matter how smart, how well read, and how inspired a person is, there is always an element of interpretation involved when reading scripture. And it is that element that brings about differences in interpretation, which is exactly what it seems the current leadership wants to avoid.

Now that the moderate Baptist voices have been removed, and of course those few Baptists who dare admit they pray in a private prayer language have been tucked tidily away into some dark closet, those people who simply can't fathom interpretive differences will now turn against one another in the centuries old Free Will versus Election Battle Royale.

Hold on tight, the slope of lock-step interpretive orthodoxy is about to get slicker.

Until later, Yours because I'm HIS, jason <><

Thursday December 06, 2007

Not just for Hippies anymore!

Peace

I want you to do something. Go and look up “peace” in the dictionary. Go ahead, I’ll wait….
Can you believe that! Not sure about yours, but my dictionary (dictionary.com) has thirteen definitions for that one little word. Five letters, one word, thirteen definitions.
Let’s be honest, “peace” is one of those words that we sorta think we have pinned down, but on further examination not only eludes defining, but certainly sometimes eludes our grasp.
Is peace merely the absence of war? Is peace merely an inward feeling? We must admit to ourselves right off the bat that peace is a multi-faceted jewel, a diamond that shines brilliantly and differently depending on how the light hits it.
If Christ’s appearance was truly meant to bring “peace on earth and goodwill to men” then why are so many people still shooting at each other? Why are so many people still aching inside. Why are so many people hurting, lost, and cold? Where is our peace?
Near the end of His life, Jesus, as recorded in John’s Gospel told his disciples “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives.”
(italics mine)
So what does it mean that we have received Jesus’ peace? Was His life easy? Did he wake up every day to sunshine and lollipops, and die an old rich man with a huge family? No.
Christ’s peace came through his relationship with His Father. And so does ours. The peace we are promised from Christ is not permanent happiness, nor is it an end to all strife—no the peace we receive in Christ, “which passes all understanding,” is a peace that comes in knowing that the God of the Universe, the Maker of all of this, the Lord over all, desires and has established fellowship with us.
Us. Little humans. He. Big God. He’s on our side, He loves us, He has redeemed us through that little Child whom we celebrate. So while the temporary things of this earth may not always be perfect for us, there remains for us a perfect peace. A peace that comes in knowing that we’ve seen the last page of this book, and our Dad not only wins, but gives us the prize!

Tuesday December 04, 2007

The First Pancake

Hi all.

There. My first words in this shiny new blog on the official home of North Carolina Baptists... well... some North Carolina Baptists. I do mean those words by the way. My hope is that this will be a meeting place for ALL types of Baptists. More on that later.

My name is Jason and I am pastor of a small church just outside a small town. I am under no illusions that I am politically or even literarily powerful, nor do I think that by reading or ruminating on the few words I post here that people will suddenly "see the light" about any particular issues. This is just my attempt to have my point of view added to the great sea of debate within our Baptist life.

Oh, you're wondering about the name of the blog? Well, to me "dense fog" is one of those famous oxymoron, like "jumbo shrimp" or "all Baptists."

You see, I am a proud Baptist, by choice not heritage, and I believe strongly in the foundational ideals that make Baptists Baptist. The idea of "all Baptists" is an oxymoron because if we truly believe, as our founders did, that we are free individuals worshiping freely in free churches then to think that two churches, or even two Christians will look, act, and think exactly alike on every issue is beyond the scope of the even most imaginative minds.

I have been fortunate in my life to be a part of truly "moderate" Baptist churches. Churches where "liberal" college professors and "conservative" farmers could worship corporately side-by-side, yet still hold their own very individual identities. To me, that is the essence of a Baptist church, and I hope that can be the essence of this little corner of the blogosphere.

My reason for being here in this space is that I fear the time of "agreeing to disagree" has come to a crashing halt in North Carolina Baptist life. My hope is that it isn't too late to regroup, relearn, and relaunch ourselves with a new Baptist identity. Time will tell.

Until later, Yours because I'm HIS, jason <><