I have been studying Elijah for a few weeks now. In the story, Elijah prays that there would be no rain for three and a half years. He then has a showdown with the prophets of baal. He humiliates them and makes much of God. But then there has been a point of the text that I never really understood. Jezebel gets mad and threatens his life. The text then says he fears and runs. How can a man who just did what he did fear? It doesn’t flow with the text. Here is what I have found out. Barclay points out that the word fear could also mean, he saw. His eyes were opened. THis changes things for me. It means that Elijah saw what God was doing, and then his eyes were really opened.

Let’s not get too quick to judge him. I do this too, and I would lay odds that you do too. I see what God is doing, and then I run ahead of him. Think about it, Elijah has been showing God as big for four years! He sees what God is doing. God must be showing himself big and then making Carmel his showdown at the OK coral. Then when God is proven to be the real God, Israel will repent and it will go back to the days of David and the United Kingdom. But then a twist in the story. The king goes back to the queen and the queen calls the shots. She decides to kill the prophet of God. Elijah’s eyes were open to see that Israel’s king would not repent, and that Israel likewise would not follow God. We get upset when our Disciple Now t-shirts don’t turn out well. Elijah “saw” that God did not act as He should.

What was God response? He fed Elijah and let him rest. Then he carried him to a mountain. He did not come in the fire or in the wind, he came in a whisper. God does not move like we think he should, and we should praise him for it. He moves with divine love and knowledge. It tells me that I need to, minute by minute, approach God with what he wants. Not to see the trajectory and run ahead, but no matter how much he grows me, that I should approach him with every move.

God, please don’t stop crushing me with divine love and persistence.

I went home and we began to talk about why he made decisions like that. We established the fact that he knew it was sin, and his parents would not allow him to behave in such a way. I then asked him, “What makes you do things such as kick your teacher and beat up kids on the playground.” His answer allowed me to have a very good parenting moment with my sometimes hardheaded middle child. He answered my question this way, the conversation went like this.

Cade: “It is because my bones are bad.”

Me: “What do you mean your bones are bad, what does that mean?”

Cade: “It moves my skin and makes me do those things.”

I wanted to laugh because of his explanation of his sin, but then I saw an opportunity to share the gospel. I corrected him only a little. I said, “well your bones are bad, but only because your heart is bad.” We had a good talk about how Jesus gives new hearts. We talked about how his day could have been different if he had listened to Jesus.

It was one of those pastoring moments where Jesus was speaking to my heart as I was pastoring my sons heart. I pray he understands and walks with Jesus throughout his lifetime. I pray the same for myself as well.

One night I had a wondrous dream,

One set of footprints there was seen,

The footprints of my precious Lord,

But mine were not along the shore.

But then some stranger prints appeared,

And I asked the Lord, “What have we here?”

Those prints are large and round and neat,

“But Lord, they are too big for feet.”

“My child,” He said in somber tones,

“For miles I carried you alone.

I challenged you to walk in faith,

But you refused and made me wait.”

“You disobeyed, you would not grow,

The walk of faith, you would not know,

So I got tired, I got fed up,

And there I dropped you on your butt.”

“Because in life, there comes a time,

When one must fight, and one must climb,

When one must rise and take a stand,

Or leave their butt prints in the sand.”

~ author unknown 

I am going to pick one theme here and continue this story. I do this because I have other papers to write and I could be here all semester speaking of the mess I heard last night. If we are going to take the position in life that God can reactively rehabilitate bad decisions, then we are going to spend our life playing the “what if” game. My mother used to tell us time and time again, that we don’t play the “what if” game, because it does us no good. It is the whole, “Saddest words in speech or pen” concepts. If we are saying that God can rehabilitate bad decisions, then what we must do is measure all of Carey’s decisions. Maybe Carey made a bad decision when he went to India, but maybe he made a bad decision when he married his wife. Maybe it was not his decision at all, maybe it was his wife that made a bad decision when she married him. Maybe it was a bad decision not to trust God in India. Who knows, and may I add, who cares? Does it matter what happened in the past? Or may I offer another idea?

Maybe God is in control of the whole thing. Maybe he is active and not reactive. Maybe God, can use what we intend for evil as good. Maybe a king chooses his steps, but God directs his paths. I say this tongue and cheek, because God is in control. Someone told me along time ago, obey what you know to obey, enjoy what you can enjoy, and trust God with the rest of it. My plan is to obey what God tells me. Enjoy the ride. And when life throws a monkey wrench in it, trust God that he knows what he is doing. DOn’t look back too long, look to Jesus.

For some reason, people just don’t like us. We have been in situations like that a lot, so much so that we don’t even notice it anymore. We didn’t even notice this until my friend brought it up later. It was visibly troubling to him. It has always been like this, and I don’t even know what it is. When people eventually get to know us, they love us. I don’t get it.

This blog will probably get me another phone call, who knew.

The first question we have to ask is, what does baptism effectually accomplish? Many catholics would explain it is a means of justification by entering into the church. As long as someone does not die in mortal sin, he is somewhat okay. Protestants believe that it plays no part in salvation, but it is important. Among most coherent denominations, it breaks down into two beliefs. First, some believe that baptism is the first step a believe must take in salvation. This separates it as a saving work and makes it a fruit of salvation. I am not sure that we can scripturally make the statement that this is to be a fruit of salvation. The fruit that God is working in you is sanctification itself.

The second approach is that baptism is a symbol of associating with the people of God. Where we publicly show that we are among covenant believers called the church, among where we find the means of salvation. This seems to be Paul’s belief in that he associates baptism with circumcision. Circumcision was the physical mark that God gave to the people of Israel to associate themselves as the covenant people of God. This is a great picture for us in terms of understanding what baptism effectually accomplishes. In baptism, we are entering a relationship with God’s covenant people.

If we are saying that baptism is a statement of association to the people of God, then who is it for? The answer is simple, it is the church, right? The answer may not be so simple. In many baptist churches, we see that the church is only those who profess Christ as their Lord. Children who have not professed Christ as their Lord are not allowed admittance to the church. They say this because children are in, what they call a state of grace. That children are born in a state of grace in that they are innocent until they reach this magical age of accountability. I only have one problem with this; it doesn’t appear in the bible. That isn’t true, I have more than one problem with this. It causes us to see salvation only in terms of a crisis of belief. This does not follow church tradition and is not the only model given to us in scripture. More consistent is that God does work in men in many different ways.

This takes me back to children in the church. Can those who are not in covenant with God be included in the church? Scripture seems to lead us to believe they can. In parables Jesus looks to the covenant people of God and says that God will separate them into two distinct groups, sheep and goats. Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell. The sheep and goats aren’t in question here, it is that Jesus is talking to the covenant people of God, and some of them go to hell.  Paul made the same argument in Romans 9. He states that there are those among the covenant people of God and those actually in covenant with God. He calls them, children of Abraham, and children of the promise. All who were descended from Abraham are Abraham’s children; but there is a group of Abraham’s children that are also children of the promise. In Revelation, the writer writes seven letters to the churches. He starts the letters addressing the churches, then somewhere in each of the letters he changes the audience to “those who overcome”. All were the church, but not all will inherit the reward of heaven.

In this case, if we define the church as those who gather together to study and worship God. Then this model can include both children and lost people. They are associating themselves with the covenant people, of which there are benefits, and salvation may be found. (Not by membership, but by the church being the means of sharing the gospel) We know that all those who profess Christ and are members in our church are not going to heaven. So why not believe that the church is the larger group of people familiar with God of which the bride of Christ is in and amongst her. The church is to be about teaching the gospel to its members so that they may see Christ as wholly sufficient and put their trust in him. THose who walk away from this have no hope, those who persevere have all hope.

When many protestants baptize infants, they are making a public declaration that this child is a member of the covenant people of God, and therefore making a statement to the church that it is responsible for the teaching and training of that child in faith.

I am okay with infant baptism as I am okay with believer’s baptism. I am not sure what this makes me, but I am okay with that too. (Though, I must keep my scholarship)

- We put our application is for Truett at Baylor, thinking it was going to be Spring or next fall. We got excepted within a week.

- We needed to find a job for Amanda and I, Amanda has two offers on the table, and they are basically bidding for her. I have a second interview planned at one place, and a first interview at another.

- Finacial aid needed to go through of which the deadline was last March. (Six Months Ago) It went through in a couple of weeks and I also recieved a scholarship paying for most of it.

- We needed the house in Commerce to be taken care of. It was not selling, so we went to eat one night and talked about the possibility of renting it. We have lived in Commerce for 5 years and have eaten at the resturaunt for all of those five years. The owner never spoke to us until that night. He asked if we were renting our house, and said he had a daughter and son-n-law wanting to rent. She came by that night and loved it, she is showing it to her husband on Saturday.

- We needed housing in Waco. A friend called us to say her friend in Waco is moving out of their rent house and wondered if we were interested. We are going tonight to look at it. The job interview I have tomorrow has a house that comes with it.

This scares us because it is so not our experience for the past five years. All this comes on the heals of God dealing with me about my anger towards him. That anger was based on me not liking where I was and not trusting him. I resided to love Jesus and not what he did for me. My anger diminished and I found contentment. (at least as much as I think possible in this breath of a life) I see God’s hand all in this. I want to continue to love Jesus more than my circumstances. (School may help me in the process) Thank you guys so much for praying for us. Please continue, and know that we are praying for all you guys.

Much love,

Jason

Two years ago, we traveled back from a camp to find out that I lacked the communication skills to attend a popular Dallas Seminary. The fact that I was not going to this school didn’t offend me, but the thought that I had been rejected based on the fact that I had no communication skills really confused me, especially when we never actually communicated. I went into a downward spiral after that. I had very little drive and direction but lots of anger. You all know, if you read my blog, that God has been dealing with the anger, and Friday when we came home to our kids we found that our mailbox had another letter in it. This time it was from another Seminary in Waco Texas. Evidently my communication skills have improved over the past two years because I was accepted in the Master of Divinity program. I have not yet sent all my stuff in, but I have officially been accepted. Amanda has n interview down in Waco for a job and I am going to spend a good portion of the day looking for employment down there.

For those of you who are prayer warriors, please pray that our house sells quickly and that I can get a job. Amanda has multiple marketable skills, whereas, I have only a handful of them. I am excited to be moving a direction, I am working hard not to get my hopes up too soon. Pray that things continue to move that way, God willing.