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Area Relief Efforts

Sep3

The following churches and Christian groups are working here in southeast Houston to help evacuees from Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states:

Camp Good News (6205 Delany Rd. Hitchcock, TX 77563 Phone: 409-316-0501 Fax: 409-986-4219) is open as a shelter for hurricane victims. My church will be serving meals a couple of nights this week at the camp. I don’t know how many people are being housed there. A member of our church writes:

I just came from Camp Good News and what they desperately need are phone cards and small denomination Wal Mart Cards ($5 & $10). The people there are needing unique items like denture cream that they don’t want to have a lot of. It is easier just to give them a small gift card to get what they need. Also, the phone cards are for getting in touch with relatives. Several people have been able to leave after they were able to get in touch with relatives which is the goal.

Clear Lake Church of the Nazarene has opened a shelter in their building. They had about 30 people living there as of this afternoon, and the lady I spoke with said that they could house up to 50 people. The church is not a Red Cross certified shelter (would take too much time), so they’re doing this ministry on their own with a little help from Nazarene Compassionate Ministries.

The people who are staying at the Nazarene church are going to the church next door for lunch and for supper each day, and this church, Bay Area Christian Church, is also feeding storm victims who come in from the motels and other shelters. They told two of my teenagers who went over to help today that they are spending about $1500 per day so far and will continue to do so as long as there is a need and as long as funds hold out.

University Baptist Church in Clear Lake is supporting the Red Cross shelter at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church by preparing and taking meals to the shelter. There are already 300 people living in the shelter at Gloria Dei, and according to UBC it costs the church about $1000 per meal to feed these people. So far members of UBC have contributed enough to cover the cost of some of the meals the church will be providing. Another member of UBC is working with the Salvation Army to provide pastoral care and counseling to some of the New Orleans residents who have taken refuge in the Astrodome. Here’s an idea that churches all over the country could use:

The UBC Wednesday Night dinner on 9/7 is red beans and rice with cornbread. We are asking you to pay full price for this meal and the proceeds will go to the UBC Hurricane Katrina Fund to help feed refugees. At the dinner, you may also donate money to the UBC Hurricane Katrina Fund.

Texas Baptist Men, an organization of men that are members of Baptist churches in Texas, “is providing assistance to disaster victims in Louisiana and Texas shelters. Currently we have 20 units and approximately 220 volunteers responding. Texas Baptist Men has been asked to provide assistance to those affected over the next four months.” They ask that we help in the following ways:

Pray:
– Pray for those that were affected by Katrina.
– Pray for those responding and providing assistance in Christ’s name.
– Pray about how you can be personally be involved in assistance.
Give:
– Please mark checks for Hurricane Katrina and send to Texas Baptist Men, Disaster Relief, 333 N. Washington, Dallas, Texas 75246. To give by credit card please call (800) 558-8263. 100% of your gifts go directly to disaster relief.
Go:
– Volunteers are needed in providing assistance. If you are available to help, please call (214) 381-2800.

Eddie Butler, a blogger from Kansas City, Missouri, asked in this post “Where Is the Church?” Well, here’s the answer, and there’s much more.

To be continued.
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Facing East

Jun14

Facing East: A Pilgrim’s Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy by Frederica Mathewes-Green is an account of a year, a very liturgical year, in the life of a convert from Episcopalian high church to Eastern Orthodoxy. I remember Mrs. Mathewes-Green from way back. I believe I used to read and enjoy her writing in Christianity Today before she converted to Orthodoxy, a conversion that took place over ten years ago in 1993. She’s a good, engaging writer.

Mrs. Mathewes-Green begins the book with a preface/disclaimer. First of all, she says, she’s no expert on Orthodoxy, not a “church historian, theologian, or liturgical whiz.” Next, she asks forgiveness if in relating her experience in a small Orthodox mission church pastored by her husband, Gary, she has made the Orthodox church as a whole seem less than majestic and dignified and holy. In other words, she wants the book to be read as a sort of memoir, a firsthand account of one woman’s journey into the Orthodox faith, not as an authoritative guide to all you ever wanted to know about the theology and practice of the Eastern Orthodox church. As such a personal account of the world of Orthodoxy, the book is quite successful.

Part of the charm of the book is the author’s honesty and transparency. Mrs. Mathewes-Green admits that it was her husband who was fascinated by Orthodoxy after becoming disillusioned with the increasing apostasy he saw in the Episcopal church. She remembers thinking during an Orthodox service about her feet which were hurting and wondering “why they had pews if you had to stand up all the time.” (It turns out that many Orthodox churches don’t have pews) Everything about Orthodoxy that was appealing to her husband felt strange and difficult to Mrs. Mathewes-Green. The rest of the book is about how she got “past the bare truth part, the aching feet part, to discover the rich, mystical beauty of Orthodoxy.”

I come from a lot farther away than Episcopalianism to discover what beauty and truth there might be in Orthodoxy. I’m Southern Baptist through and through. So there were some obstacles for me in reading about this journey that were mere bumps in the path for the Mathewes-Green family. I still don’t get the icon thing even though the suthor explains what an icon is and why icons are so important to Orthodox Christians about as well as it could be explained to a layperson outside the Orthodox tradition. I also doubt that the divide between “cradle O’s” as the author calls them and recent converts is as easy to bridge as it seems in this book, but again this story is just the experience of one small congregation, not meant to be indicative of all Orthodox churches everywhere. Fianlly, I don’t really see the distinction between venerating or honoring the saints and icons and worshipping the Triune God nor why the former practice is necessary or beneficial. I know it’s very Protestant, but I remain something of an iconoclast. (But I still think some of the icons themselves are quite beautiful and highly artistic.)

In the final analysis, the story is what makes the book absolutely fascinating. The personal details that Mrs. Mathewes-Green includes, such as her college daughter’s flirtation with a nose ring and the author’s grumpiness turned into joy on Pascha (Easter) Sunday, are what makes this book such fun to read. I felt as if I were discovering a wonderful and rich Christian tradition that holds many lessons and truths for all of us, though I would find it difficult to participate in many of the rituals that define Orthodoxy. I especially thought I could learn from the disciplines of fasting and feasting that the Orthodox observe, and I am drawn, as is Eldest Daughter, to the celebration of a liturgy and a liturgical year that places Christ at the center of our days and of our holidays.

The author begins and ends the book by inviting the reader to visit an Orthodox church, participate in the ancient liturgy, “come and learn firsthand what Orthodoxy is.” I feel as if I already have made such a visit and come away with much to think about and process and with new ideas about worship and about the holiness and majesty of our God. If you are at all interested in exploring the strengths of other Christian traditions, I highly recommend Facing East as at least a primer on modern Orthodox faith and practice.

You Might Be Authentic Mid-Twentieth Century Southern Baptist If …

Jun12

Jollyblogger started this post with his Presbyterian beards and covenant children. He suggested thta someone talk about Baptists, and I feel qualified since I grew up in a real Southern Baptist church, not one of these metropolitan SBC churches that are afraid to call themselves Baptist. Jollyblogger wrote the first one in my Baptist list which was so good (so true?) that I had to include it. So here goes. You might be a an Authentic Mid-Twentieth Century Southern Baptist Relic If ……..

You are very sure that the so-called “wine” in the Bible was unfermented grape juice. (It was unfermented, wasn’t it?)

You call dancing “creative movement” or call a dance a “function.”

You think those Northern Baptists (American Baptists) are a bunch of liberals.

Your parents or your grandparents used to be Methodist.

You have to stand behind a wooden lectern to teach a class, any class.

You’ve ever made a pilgrimage to Glorieta or Ridgecrest–or you at least know where those places are.

Your pastor attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at some time in his academic career.

Your pastor doesn’t wear a robe, but the choir does wear robes and people who are getting baptized wear white robes.

Someone in your church says “amen” a couple of times during the sermon when the preacher makes a good point, but no one ever shouts.

You don’t raise your hands to praise God during the music, but you tolerate those who do.

You call any kind of Bible study on Sunday night “Training Union” or (older still) “BYPU.”

You call the pastor and the music director “Brother,” as in Brother Dunn or Brother Bob; you call the youth minister by his first name only, as in Joe or Steve, and you don’t call anyone “Sister.”

You attend an adult Sunday School class.

You’ve ever been involved in a discussion about what color carpet to buy for the church auditorium, and you call it an auditorium, not a sanctuary.

The deacons think they run the church, but the WMU (Women’s MIssionary Union) really decides all the important stuff, such as what color the carpet in the suditorium will be.

You have at least one specialty dessert recipe that you can make and transport to church socials and be sure of getting at least five requests for the recipe.

You received an assortment of casserole dishes as wedding presents.

Your church has a fellowship (fellowship=food) hall where the church socials are held.

You’ve ever sung all five verses of Just As I Am ten times through during the invitation.

You expect to go to prayer meeting on Wednesday night and spend five minutes in prayer preceded by at least thirty minutes of prayer requests, which are really a discussion of all the ailments and medical conditions of all the people in the church.

You attended at least one Vacation Bible School in which the children lined up outside at the beginning and marched in behind the US flag, the Christian flag, and the big Holy Bible.

You know the words to the pledge to the Christian flag and the pledge to the Bible.

You’ve ever participated in Bible drill or a Sword Drill.

You know all the words to Love Lifted Me and There’s Within My Heart a Melody and At Calvary. among other hymns.

You associate foreign missions with Christmas and missions in the USA with Easter, and you know that January is the month for January Bible Study.

You’re fairly sure that Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong have a more secure place in heaven than any of those Catholic saints.

You think Presbyterians are way too intellectual, Charismatics are too emotional, and Catholics trust in ritual. But the Baptist “porridge” is Just Right.

I can say all this stuff because even though I attend an Evangelical Free church now, I’m really just a Southern Baptist Relic at heart.

Kenneth Taylor, b. May 8, 1917, d. June 10, 2005

Jun11

Kenneth Taylor, author of The Living Bible, died yesterday. Here’s an account of his passing by his son-in-law, Tim Bayly and a brief tribute at Brandywine Books.

The Living Bible has been criticized for its inaccuracy as a paraphrase rather than a translation, but my green padded Living Bible was precious to me. I wrote in it, actually read it, and memorized from it. If there are mistakes in translation, as I’m sure there are, the Holy Spirit was nevertheless able to apply the Scriptures to my life as a teenager as I studied Kenneth Taylor’s readable, accessible paraphrase of the Word of God.

An obituary by Mark Taylor, Kenneth Taylor’s son. Kenneth Taylor had 10 children, 28 grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren. What a legacy!

God bless him and his family.

King James Bible Published

May2

King James I of England established a committee of scholars to produce a new translation of the Bible in English. The Authorized or King James version of the Bible was published on May 2, 1611. The poetry of the KJV has yet to be equalled in any other English translation, IMHO. The Psalms especially are a masterpiece of poetic translation.

1 The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof;
the world, and they that dwell therein.
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the floods.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD,
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 This is the generation of them that seek him,
that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
he is the King of glory.

Wht ringing phrases! I read the NIV most of the time, but there is a a sound and a comfort and an earthiness to the KJV that isn’t in the more prosaic modern translations.

Cafes, Cathedrals and Communities

Apr4

Cafes and cathedrals are both very good things and have their places within communities. But somehow I think that “cathedral thinking” in this century requires us to consider a vision that is both bigger than a simple cafe and smaller than a city-of-God-type cathedral. We need to be building communities. My problem is that I don’t really know how to go about doing such a thing. I do have several models and threads of ideas from various sources:

1. The mega-churches aren’t all bad, after all. Build a place that becomes a community center, a place for people to come and exercise, study, have lunch, do crafts, and worship. The problem with these mega-church buildings is that the (relatively) rich people who build them sometimes feel such a sense of ownership that the “riff-raff” are discouraged from attending the church or using the building or becoming part of the community. So we need a central space/building that is dedicated to God by the entire community.

2. The Highlands Study Center isn’t a mega-church with a huge multi-purpose building, but they are a group of Presbyterians who are building a community similar to what I have in mind.

The Highlands Study Center exists to help Christians live more simple, separate, and deliberate lives to the glory of God and for the building of His kingdom. And that’s a big job, one done not simply, but deliberately. As a ministry of Saint Peter Presbyterian Church, we stand with the Westminster Standards. Our hope is to help Reformed believers apply those principles to the way we live our lives. To that end we have a number of different ministries.

I doubt if I’m reformed enough or theologically erudite enough for them, but the idea of a community of mostly homeschooling families gathered around a church and study center is appealing. Somehow I still want to add in the outreach and evangelism component of Catez’s Open Late Cafe.

3. In her book The Severed Wasp, Madeleine L’Engle creates a Christian community that revolves around life at a fictional New York Episcopal Cathedral. The setting is based on Ms. L’Engle’s real-life experiences as volunteer librarian and writer-in-residence at the Epsicopal Cathedral of St. John Divine in New York City. Norma at Collecting My Thoughts wrote last year about her Lutheran church and its many ministries, including a Visual Arts Ministry which showcases various artists including, but not limited to, church members. Our churches and cathedrals and communities should be places for artists and poets and writers-in-residence and architects and musicians to work and worship and follow God’s calling in their lives.

4. L’abri Fellowship in its various forms and locations is another model for what I’m trying to articulate.

L’Abri is a French word that means shelter. The first L’Abri community was founded in Switzerland in 1955 by Dr. Francis Schaeffer and his wife, Edith. Dr. Schaeffer was a Christian theologian and philosopher who also authored a number of books on theology, philosophy, general culture and the arts.
The L’Abri communities are study centers in Europe, Asia and America where individuals have the opportunity to seek answers to honest questions about God and the significance of human life. L’Abri believes that Christianity speaks to all aspects of life.

5. Another model is the Celtic monastery that I wrote about here.

6. Our homeschool co-op, called REACH, is yet another example of intentional Christian community that reaches across denominational lines. We have about 100 families participating in a co-op in which mostly moms teach children from babies to high schoolers on Firday mornings. All the moms teach or help in some way; we use the facilities at a large Baptist church. We are not a church, but we have learned to care for one another in a way similar to the way a church cares for its members. And we call on the gifts of each co-op member in a way that parallels the way the great cathedrals were built. To teach our children we need mathematicians and scientists and crafters and artists and nurturers and organizers and bloggers and readers. We all work together to build and maintain an organization that we hope will help educate the children and bring glory to God.

Study and evangelism and the arts and worship and families and churches and libraries and other institutions with actual buildings—I think we should be building all of these things to the glory of God. I would like to see these things built together as a Living Cathedral that forms a vibrant Christian community. I don’t know how you organize such a vision and bring it to fruition without the huge institutional support from the Catholic Church that was in place already during the Middle Ages. I guess what I’m seeing are many scattered communities-in-the-making and ministries and churches with a bit of vision for this or that piece of the Living Cathedral I’m envisioning, but nothing to bring it all together in any one place and make something that would glorify God and draw men to Him for generations to come.
Maybe you start small and trust the Holy Spirit to bring things together into a unified whole in His own time.

The Ministry of Keith Green

Feb12

When I was a young adult and I listened to CCM, it was mostly Amy Grant and Keith Green. And Keith Green was the best. He was also, as far as I could tell, real. Christian musicians are almost required to say that they sing in order to minister to other Christians and to the lost. Keith Green said:

The only music minister to whom the Lord will say, “Well done, thy good and faithful servant,” is the one whose life proves what their lyrics are saying, and to whom music is the least important part of their life. Glorifying the only worthy One has to be a minister’s most important goal!

The difference is that he seemed to mean it. He and his wife Melody opened their home to the homeless and to those who were spiritual seekers. After his recordings became popular, he tried out a controversial experiment of giving his albums away in return for whatever one could or would give. (I remember ordering the album So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt and praying over what payment I should send in return.) Keith Green and two of his four small children died in a plane crash on July 28, 1982 (my birthday), not long after I had seen him in concert in Abilene where I was going to school. I believe these lyrics were his prayer, and his music is still influencing Christians and others today.

Make my life a prayer to You,
I want to do what you want me to,
No empty words and no white lies,
No token prayers, no compromise,

I want to shine the light you gave,
Through Your Son, you sent to save us,
From ourselves and our despair,
It comforts me to know you’re really there.

Oh, I want to thank you now, for being patient with me,
Oh, it’s so hard to see, when my eyes are on me,
I guess I’ll have to trust and just believe what you say,
Oh, you’re coming again, coming to take me away,
I want to die, and let you give,
Your life to me, so I might live,
And share the hope you gave to me,
The love that set me free,

I want to tell the world out there,
You’re not some fable or fairy tail,
That I made up inside my head,
You’re God, The Son, you’ve risen from the dead.
Oh, I want to thank you now,
For being patient with me,
Oh, it’s so hard to see,
When my eyes are on me,
I guess I’ll have to trust,
and just believe what you say,
Oh, you’re coming again,
Coming to take me away.

I want to die, and let you give,
Your life to me, so I might give,
And share the hope you gave to me,
I want to share the love that set me free.

copyright Sparrow Records

25 Most Influential Evangelicals

Feb2

I was standing in line at the grocery store today, and I noticed the Time magazine cover story: 25 Most Influential Evangelicals. Here’s the Time magazine list with my comments in parentheses:
Howard & Roberta Ahmanson: The Financiers (Maybe so, but I’ve never heard of them. Maybe they’re the stealth financiers, or maybe I’m just not well-versed in the world of finance.)
David Barton: The Lesson Planner
Doug Coe: The Stealth Persuader
Chuck Colson: Reborn and Rehabilitated
Luis Cortes: Bringing Latinos To the Table (I’ve never heard of him either, but it sounds as if he’s doing great work.)
James Dobson: The Culture Warrior
Stuart Epperson: A High-Fidelity Messenger (Name sounds vaguely familiar.)
Michael Gerson : The President’s Spiritual Scribe
Billy & Franklin Graham: Father and Son In the Spirit
Ted Haggard: Opening Up the Umbrella Group (Who? Oh, the NAE guy.)
Bill Hybels: Pioneering Mass Appeal
T.D. Jakes: The Pentecostal Media Mogul (I think he’s got some doctrinal problems, but he seems like a well-meaning guy.)
Diane Knippers: A Think Tank With Firepower (Again the name sounds vaguely familiar.)
Tim & Beverly LaHaye: The Christian Power Couple
Richard Land: God’s Lobbyist
Brian McLaren: Paradigm Shifter (I hear he’s some pomo guy. Is he any good?)
Joyce Meyer: A Feminine Side Of Evangelism ( Can anyone say “prosperity gospel”? I ‘m thankful Time left most of the prosperity gospel people off this list even though some of them are quite influential. Maybe their influence is declining. We can only hope.)
Richard John Neuhaus: Bushism Made Catholic ( A great thinker, but he’s Catholic, not evangelical.)
Mark Noll: The Intellectual Exemplar
J.I. Packer: Theological Traffic Cop
Rick Santorum: The Point Man On Capitol Hill (According to Hugh Hewitt, he’s also Catholic. Great senator. I wish he were mine.)
Jay Sekulow: The Almighty’s Attorney-at-Law
Stephen Strang: Keeper of “The Faith” (Yet another vaguely familiar name.)
Rick Warren: America’s New People’s Pastor
Ralph Winter: A Global Mission (Who?)

First of all, such a list depends on the question you’re asking in the first place. Which evangelicals are influencing politics and the culture at large? Or which evangelicals have great influence among evangelicals and are beginning to influence the culture at large? Here’s my list of “evangelical influencers.” the names I hear among evangelicals every Sunday (and during the week):
1. Rick Warren,. Yes, Saddleback and Willow Creek have been tremendously influential, for better or for worse, and now The Purpose Driven Life is literally everywhere. Unlike some reformed kibbitzers, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The book presents the gospel and preaches to our me-centered culture that “it’s not about you.” So what if it’s not a full course in reformed or even Baptist theology.
2. Jay Sekulow. Yes, he’s helped evangelicals to see that they too can use the court system to win some victories.
3. JI Packer. He’s the “old man” whose wisdom is still influencing evangelicals through his book Knowing God and through his other writing.
4. Mark Noll. Yes, his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind gave a lot of people food for thought and started a push toward evangelical scholarship that is being carried on at schools like Baylor University and Wheaton and Biola, to name a few. I hope.
5. Richard Land. Politically very influential, and he influences other evangelicals’ political opinions.
6. Tim and Beverly LaHaye. Unfortunately, I think LaHaye has been tremendously influential. I don’t agree with his eschatology, and I’m not sure about his theology. But he is influential, no doubt.
7. Bill Hybels. Ditto Rick Warren without the best-selling book.
8. Billy and Franklin Graham. Of course. Franklin is carrying “compassionate conservatism” around the world through Samaritan’s Purse.
9. Michael Gerson. The president’s speech writer. Of course.
10. James Dobson. If these were listed in order of influence, Dobson would probably be number one. I hope he will tone down the “you owe us” rhetoric with President Bush, but as far as his radio program and the information that FoF gives out, I have few problems. And most evangelicals have even fewer than I do.
11. Chuck Colson. Yes, I see him as a man who struggles with power and the pride that is power’s accompanying temptation, but nevertheless has used his influence to do a great deal of good in the prisons, in the world, Sudan in particular, and in calling evangelicals to think about worldview and apologetics.
12. Doug Coe. I don’t know much about him, but I’m willing to go along with Time and say that he probably does have a great deal of influence in Washington evangelical power circles.
13. David Barton. I can’t believe Time came up with this name, but I agree he’s tremendously popular among evangelicals, particularly my particular sub-sub-culture, evangelical homeschoolers.
So, my list overlaps Time magazine by about half of the names. Who would I add to replace the ones I dropped?
14. D. James Kennedy. He’s still around as far as I know, still active in politics and in Evangelism Explosion, argueably the most popular tool for evangelism among evangelical churches.
15. R.C. Sproul. He has been an influence on Chuck Colson and also on many, many evangelicalswho have heard his radio program or read his books.
16. Tony Evans. Dr. Dobson sort of sponsored him several years ago, but now he’s made a name for himself with, again, books and a radio program. He’s a good preacher.
17. Ted Baehr. Editor of Movieguide a guide to popular movies from a Christian point of view.
18. Mike Farris. Former president of Homeschol Legal Defense Association and tremendously influential in that sub-sub culture I mentioned above. He’s controversial even among homeschoolers, but definitely influential. He is now president of Patrick Henry College, a colege that was designed with Christian homeschoolers in mind
19. Tony Campolo. He’s a little on the liberal side, politically speaking, which means he speaks to all those “other” evangelicals who aren’t political conservatives. Actually, there are a lot of those guys, even if the MSM seems to classify all evangelicals into one political party.
20. Marvin Olasky. Editor of World magazine and architect of the idea of “compassionate conservatism.”
21. George Barna. “Barna . . . is to evangelicals what George Gallup is to the larger culture. Pastors frequently cite his statistical findings in sermons, and his many books about church ministry sell consistently.”
22. Rich Stearns. President of World Vision. i don’t know much about the man, but I surely do hear about the organization almost daily on Christian radio, in magazines, etc.
23. Phillip Johnson. Author of Darwin On Trial and spokesman for the Intelligent Design movement.
24. Ravi Zacharius. Christian apologist and leader. He has recently made an attempt to reach out to Mormons.
25. George W. Bush. He’s certainly an influential evangelical.

I’m not saying my list is better than Time’s list. I just know about the influence of the people on my list, whereas I’m just now hearing about some of the people on the Time list. There are also a lot of “second tier” leaders who may become the really influential people in the future, at least within evangelicalism: Beth Moore, Dave Ramsey, Henry Blackaby, Douglas Wilson, Gary Bauer, Nancy Pearcey. Whom do you see influencing the evangelicals and the culture around you?

Feast of the Baptism of Jesus

Jan13

Theophany: [n] a visible (but not necessarily material) manifestation of a deity to a human person

Orthodox Christians call the event of Jesus’ baptism Theophany because God appeared in Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Catholic Christians celebrate the feast to remind themselves of their own baptism and the vows made at that baptism. I thought this was a meaningful prayer for all who have been baptized into Christ, even though I hold to believers’ baptism rather than infant baptism.

Almighty, eternal God, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, you revealed him as your own beloved Son. Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit, faithful to our calling. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

See Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, and John 1:39-34 for accounts of Jesus’ baptism.

Holy Days and Holidays

Jan9

We are not Catholic. We are Southern Baptists who recently joined an Evangelical Free Church. I was raised in a church that did not celebrate any holidays except for Christmas and Easter. However, a long time ago I read two books by Martha Zimmerman, Celebrate the Feasts and Celebrating the Christian Year. These books changed my whole perspective on holidays and celebrations. Jewish holy days were meant to be teaching times, reminders of what God did for the nation Israel and of his continuing mercy, and the Christian liturgical year and the holy days celebrated in connection with that calendar were instituted for the same purpose. I love celebrating and remembering amd learning, and I don’t mind borrowing from the Jewish calendar or from the Catholic or mainline Protestant liturgical calendar to do so. I believe God can use these special days to remind me of his everlasting goodness. So this year I added both Jewish holy days and Christian liturgical feasts and holy days to my iCal calendar And I’ll be sharing some of those with my blog readers–in addition to authors’ birthdays which I see as more occasions for celebration and remembrance. We can celebrate The Great Story, as C.S. Lewis called it, and the many stories that are pale reflections, but nevertheless reflections, of the creative power of the Living God. And it behooves us to learn to celebrate and remember for that is what we are called to do for all eternity as Christians at the Great Banquet of our Lord.