Friday Is For Football

Non-conference play is behind most teams now so let’s get down to some nitty-gritty.

In the Big XII the Texas A&M Aggies are a 17 point favorite over the Baptists of Baylor. Expect the Baptists to be turning the other cheek most of the afternoon. PREDICTION: Aggies 34, Baptists 17

Iowa State is a 21 point underdog to the Nebraska Cornholers. I’m not sure either one of these teams can play defense, but at least the Cornholers can play some offense. PREDICTION on the northern plains: Cornholers 42, Cyclones 14.

The Texas Longwhorns are a 15 point favorite over the K-State Mildcats. K-State snuck in and bit the bovine last year and if Texas plays like they have the first ten quarters of the season they’ll get beat again. If they play like they have the last six they should make the fans at Daryl Royal stadium happy. PREDICTION: Mildcats 31, Longwhorns 34 and Bevo will need an extra sedative.

Tulsa is a 23 point favorite over UAB. Tulsa has a really good offense to go along with a mediocre defense. But UAB will not be able to hang in there. PREDICTION: Tulsa 42, UAB 17

And in the “Save The Best For Last” category, the OU Sooners are 23 point favorites over the Colorado Buffalo. Colorado has one of the better defenses in the Big XII (which ain’t sayin’ much). OU has won their first four games by an average margin of 49.5 points. That’s the margin of victory fercryinoutloud! The over/under on this game is 56 points (meaning they believe a total of 56 points will be scored between the two teams). Yeah. Right. I’m putting $1000 Monopoly dollars on OU and the 23 and give me the over. PREDICTION: OU 49, Colorado 14.

[And in the “I almost totally forgot” category, OSU plays Rhett Bomar and Sam Houston State. There is no line as Sam Houston State is in a pick-up league of intramural flag-football champions at NAIA schools in Texas. Rhett Bomar will receive a standing ovation because the Oklahoma Aggies are always more concerned about sticking it to OU than they are about winning. OU fans should fill the 15,000 empty seats in Stillwater so that they, too, can give Bomar a standing “O.” After all, had he not pulled his shenanigans Sam Bradford would be signaling in plays from the sidelines for the next two years.

No. The big question in Stillwater this week will not center around the football game, but will be focused on whether or not Mike Gundy will have another post-game melt-down. Gundy has almost 100% support from fans in the state of Oklahoma (including OU fans, by the way) and almost 0% support from everyone outside the state of Oklahoma. An example of what a horrible PR move that was, I saw ESPN cover the story and they didn’t even say what it was he objected to in the newspaper article. They simply showed him spontaneously combusting on live television. Or that’s how it came across.

Meanwhile, while Gundy was flipping out about the press, Mike Leach was using similar language about his own team. Check out this quote: “Defensively,
the entire first half, we got hit in the mouth and acted like someone
took our lunch money, and all we wanted to do is have pouty expressions
on our face until somebody dobbed our little tears off and made us
[expletive] feel better. Then we go out there and try harder once our
mommies told us we were OK. Neither one of those things is acceptable.” YEOUCH!]

From The “It Could Be Worse” Files…

We’ve all heard about the alleged church that splits over the color of the carpet, and in church we all face our own challenges with those who really, really like things the way they’ve always been.  Well, I can assure you this is no Baptist church.  I’d heard that those Anglicans were a little uptight, but I had no idea.  A call to fire the preacher over indoor plumbing!

Please, God, Tell Me This Only Happens In Tennessee

You know that saying, "truth is stranger than fiction?"  Well, it is.  It really, really is.  From the article:

“(S)ome people get sent to Africa, some people get sent to South America and the Lord was like, ‘I
want you to go to nudist resorts.’ And I’m like, ‘Wow, what an assignment.’”

[Warning: beer-swilling, profane talking, nudist Christians lie ahead.]

The Myth of Objectivity

Posting has been a little sparse because I’ve been preoccupied - several funerals in the past two weeks, kids in soccer, cross country and basketball and, of course, the priority of taking in a few OU football games.

Thinking out loud: I believe there is such a thing as "objective" reality - or that there are things as they really are, not just as they are perceived.  I’ve even had friends tell me that they believe I’m one of the most objective people they know (don’t laugh!).  But the moment I say "I know…" doesn’t my knowing become subjective?  After all, I am a subject, not an object.  Thus, my knowing is the knowing of a subject - and thus subjective (by definition, it would seem).  I always have a context and my context will forever be shaped by certain contextual realities - my place of birth, my ethnic origin, my social/economic status, the particular family into which I was born, my educational background and a whole lot more.  My understanding of the world, how it works, who I am, what life is meant to be, are all heavily influenced by that context.

It should seem obvious that a white, middle-class, college educated, 21st Century American, son of a Baptist deacon and loving parents would think differently about the world and how it works than a poor, black, uneducated African, son of an abusive shaman father.  I think it is safe to say that even if the parents were Christian - say a middle-class Chinese laborer who’s mother works in a sweat shop making toys for Mattel.  Would we view the teachings of Scripture differently because of our context?  What makes the American context superior to all others when it comes to understanding something like Scripture?  Or am I wrong that we view it that way?  Because it sure seems to me, especially for Baptists in the south (and I’m broadly including Oklahoma here because of the strong Southern Baptist presence) that we view it that way.

These thoughts generated by a post from David Phillips.

Friday Is For Football (And A Photo)

Well, here we are in week four of the college football season.  At this point in the season I’m not sure which gives me more joy: how good the Sooners have looked, how utterly ridiculous Notre Dame and Michigan have looked, how disoriented the OSU Cowboys have looked or how anemic the Texas Longhorns have looked.  OK.  I take that back.  I really do know which brings me more joy and it is obviously point number one.  This is actually a week of uninspiring match-ups for the most part.  But here are my predictions, heavily slanted toward the Big XII:

First we have the Miami Hurricane favored by two points against Texas A&M.  [I made a prediction before the game was played that was so embarrassingly wrong that I’ll just move on to the next game.]

Alabama and Georgia have an interesting matchup.  Alabama is actually picked by 3 1/2.  I just don’t see it.  Except for an Arkansas coaching snafu they would have already suffered their first loss.  Georgia will win this one.  PREDICTION: Alabama 24, Georgia 31

Texas will face Rice and will have three previously paroled suspended players returning.  I think they’ve had something like 11 players arrested in the last year.  Hopefully they will have enough who have been released under their own recognizance or who have made bail to field a full squad.  Nevertheless, they probably won’t need that to beat the Owls.  They are picked by 39.  No offense, but I don’t think Texas could beat anyone by 39 points this year.  PREDICTION: Texas 35, Rice 28

Now on to the state schools.  OSU looks in disarray.  Texas Tech has no defense, but then neither do the Cowboys.  On the other hand, Texas Tech does have an offense.  OSU has been claiming to have one, though it has yet to reveal itself.  Tech is picked by 6 1/2.  PREDICTION:  Texas Tech 56, OSU 24

Now for the marquee match-up.  The OU Sooners visit a Tulsa squad that hung 55 points on a BYU defense that ranked in the top 10 last season.  Of course, after last week they definitely do not rank in the top 10 this year.  Nevertheless, 55 points against BYU is impressive, I don’t care who you are.  The Golden Hurricane also gave up nearly 700 yards to BYU along with 47 points.  OU will be a bigger challenge than BYU, no doubt.  The Sooners are favored by 22.  PREDICTION: OU 56, Tulsa 17.  [If OU scores fewer points than that it will only be because they are having a lot of success on the ground and just grind out the clock.]

The following photo was taken at a local park on an early Saturday morning as our boys were getting ready to run in a cross country meet.

I Wanted To Worship God

James Galyon posts about a conversation with a friend which led to his reading Robert Webber’s Evangelicals On The Canterbury Trail.  Galyon writes of Webber that, "while he was writing this work, Webber interviewed a large number of
evangelicals who also chose to become Episcopalian and asked them their
primary reason for doing so. Without exception, the reply was, ‘I wanted to worship God.’"

Galyon then gives this quote from the book:

First, I am impressed with the fact that worship in the Book of Common Prayer is directed toward God. . . . I have been put off by the narcissism of much contemporary worship. In
this setting the orientation of worship appears to center around me, my
feelings, and my experience, rather than around God, His person, and
His work in Jesus Christ. I am reminded of a prayer written by Hippolytus, a bishop in Rome at the beginning of the third century. In
the prayer he says, ‘Having in memory, therefore, His death and
resurrection, we offer to Thee the bread and the cup, yielding Thee
thanks, because Thou hast counted us worthy to stand before Thee and to
minister to Thee.’ The idea that worship is a ministry to
God, that He loves to be worshiped, and that He made us to worship Him
dominates the worship of the ancient church. It is early Christian conviction drawn from Revelation 4 and 5. . . . Second, I am impressed with the Christ-centered nature of worship in the Book of Common Prayer. The
central thrust of worship in the Episcopal tradition, just as it was in
the ancient tradition, is to celebrate Jesus Christ as the central
cosmic figure of the universe.

Good stuff.

Picture This

Normally, with that heading, you’d expect to find a photo here.  I actually have a few that I think will turn out to be pretty good ones, but they’re still in the camera right now.  Instead today I am thinking of word pictures.  On Sunday nights I’m preaching from the book of Jeremiah.  His ability to paint a mental picture with words is powerful and he does it with poetry.

A couple of weeks ago we read from chapter four.  Jeremiah is describing the spiritual condition of his day. Hear him:

23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
25 I looked, and behold, there was no man,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

Did you catch that?  It’s the anti-creation story.  In the place of the Genesis account where things move from chaos to order now things are moving from order back to chaos.  It’s as if the world is falling apart.  It’s as if creation is being undone.

He does something similar in chapter eight.  Nature behaves according to the ways God has created it to. 

7  Even the stork in the heavens knows her times,
    and the turtledove, swallow, and crane
        keep the time of their coming,
    but my people know not the rules of the Lord.

In other words, the birds of nature know when to fly south and when to fly back north.  But the people of God don’t know how to naturally be the people of God.  We would expect them to practice steadfast love, justice and righteousness, just like their Father.  But they don’t (9:23-24).

These poetic images have a way of cutting to the heart that simple prose does not.  The ability to paint these pictures and tell these stories lie at the heart of our ability to effectively communicate God’s message to us.

Kennedy On Death

Most of you will know by now that Dr. D. James Kennedy died last week.  Kennedy made a huge impact on the church in North America.  I often thought he focused too much on warring with the culture in his latter years, but there’s no doubt that he was a strong voice of faith in this country.  I liked listening to him because he seemed so learned in such a broad range of subjects, and he told great stories.  Here’s what he had to say about his own death:

“Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will
say is the end of this life. They will probably put me in a box and
roll me right down here in front of the church, and some people will
gather around, and a few people will cry. But I have told them not to
do that because I don’t want them to cry. I want them to begin the
service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah chorus, because I
am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead. I will be more
alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down upon
you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet
joined me in the land of the living. And I will be alive forevermore,
in greater health and vitality and joy than ever, ever, I or anyone has
known before.”

We do not grieve like those who have no hope.

[HT: Ed Stetzer]

Left Behind

Today is supposed to be Spiritual Discipline Tuesday and I’m supposed to be writing about Solitude.  However, my mother-in-law is in the hospital and my wife is with her there while I remain at home to make sure the kids get to school, don’t blow up the house and brush their teeth.  My tank is empty right now, so I leave you with this and ask you to pray for my mother-in-law and her family.

This is…you’ve just got to watch this…….

[HT: Tom Cottar]

The Vile Wickedness of Schisms

I try to stay away from Baptist issues as much as I can on this blog. I hope that what I have to say today is not seen simply as a Baptist issue, but as a Christian issue, a church issue, and a ministerial issue.

Bart Barber pastors FBC Farmersville, TX. He and I went back-and-forth a little on a previous post here and we’ve gone back-and-forth on a related post on his blog.

Bart is at pains to show how I and others are inconsistent because we, as Baptists, separate from other denominations that baptize infants, yet refuse to call those who baptize infants “unrepentant sinners.” I and others are inconsistent, according to Bart, because we do not call infant baptism sin yet we still separate based on baptismal beliefs. It is a greater sin, in Bart’s mind, to separate over something that is a theological conviction, but which is not sin. It is a violation of Christian unity.

Now, don’t go thinking Bart is some ecumenist holding out his hands to his Presbyterian brothers and sisters. In fact, he casts doubt on the fact of those Presbyterians being brothers and sisters at all (my apologies to all of you who may not practice believer’s baptism. May God have mercy on your souls). That being said, however, Bart seems to have no trouble with a Baptist inviting a Gentile, tax collecting, unrepentant Presbyterian preaching in his Baptist church. He wouldn’t want to “accuse” that Baptist of anything. He’s only interested in accusing infant baptizers and those who refuse to call them unrepentant sinners. Are you following along, here?

Bart was pressed to be consistent himself. Let’s hang millstones around the necks of these infant baptizers in obedience to Christ. To this Bart could only reply that he does not believe in sinless perfection in this life. He must think that the apostle John did.

But to turn all of this completely on its head, Bart would have no objection to FBC Farmersville calling an unrepentant glutton or gossip to serve as the pastor or on staff at their church, though he believes they should meet Biblical qualifications. Of course, Titus tells us that two of the qualifications for church leadership are self-control and discipline. How one can be self-controlled and disciplined and also be an habitual glutton or an habitual gossip is apparently a matter for some new theory of Biblical interpretation. Actually, if you cannot with logic and a reasonable use of the English language figure it out then you are a legalist.

Now, all of this is to illustrate the dangers of being schismatic. It is no wonder that throughout much of church history schismatics were viewed in a very negative light. Schismatics would narrow the church down to themselves and all who believe as they do (excepting a few friends they do not want to “accuse” of anything, of course). I predict that schismatics will end up splitting the Southern Baptist Convention within my lifetime, unless something changes. These are some of the men teaching in our Baptist seminaries and leading in positions in our denomination. They should be opposed at ever turn. For the sake of the gospel. For the sake of unity in Christ. They wonder why movements like Emergent pop up and gather steam. Well, my brothers and sisters, wonder no more.

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