Greetings!
Another short intro. Thanks for reading!
1. Platt and Trump
People are making too big of a deal about David Platt, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board now pastor of McClain Bible Church in northern Va., praying publicly over President Trump when the president made a surprise visit to Platt’s church last Sunday.
This issue is starting to die down, but those who criticize Platt for praying for our nation’s leader or criticize his explanation afterward where he appears to be sympathetic to church members who had problems with the Trump prayer (Platt did not apologize for praying as some incorrectly concluded) are being foolish and look bad.
The best write-up I’ve read was offered by Owen Strachan, titled “Pray for Presidents: On David Platt and Donald Trump.”
“President Trump, however one sees him, is no different than any of us. He needs Christ. He needs the Lord. He needs something more than this world can give. If we view praying for God to work in his life as wrong, and view a pastor leading a church to pray such a prayer as wrong, then we are in danger not only of disobeying a direct apostolic command, but of losing the very essence of the mercy-drenched gospel of Jesus Christ.”
2. Great ending, OU Softball
The University of Oklahoma Softball team ended its season this week, falling to UCLA in the championship round of the Women’s College World Series.
Yes, it’s disappointing the Sooners lost, but I appreciate how they battled back after the Bruins cleaned their clocks in Game One, with Game Two being decided by a walk-off single in the 8th inning.
The best part, though, is hearing how the team leaders praised God during the postgame press conference. Take a listen here:
http://www.soonersports.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?clip=5913929&cid=1&db_oem_id=31000
3. OU softball article revived on Messenger website
By the way, the Baptist Messenger featured an article last year offered by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes about OU softball head coach Patty Gasso’s Christian faith. Check out “OU’s Patty Gasso focuses on winning souls more than games.”
The article made a resurgence this year, as I was told it received around 13,000 hits on BaptistMessenger.com this week.
4. Way to go, Wendy’s!
I read a great story on the Decision Magazine website about fast-food chain Wendy’s making the decision to emphasize adoption instead of abortion.
Check out the article here
4. CR and pro-life development
The Southern Baptist Convention will be having its annual meeting next week in Birmingham, Ala. I’ve been reading a lot of great article that were written in preparation of the SBC meeting, but one of my favorites is a historical piece about the Conservative Resurgence of the SBC and how this movement invigorated Southern Baptists to be radically for the sanctity of life.
Check out “Conservative Resurgence foster pro-life stance in SBC” on the Missouri Pathway website.
5. Mohler on adoption language
As you can tell, I’m being brief on my summaries this week. But I hope you will still check out the content I’m sharing.
This includes Albert Mohler’s “The Briefing” from his Monday edition. He takes on a heavy topic when he offers commentary on an article from the New York Times regarding a women who is grieving without faith.
“It’s hard to read this article as a Christian,” Mohler said. “Imagine how hard—hard is not even the word—how hard reading this article would be for someone who isn’t a theist, who doesn’t believe in God, and certainly one who doesn’t have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. How then would one read this article? How could one stand it?”
6. More Mohler
Once again Mohler gave excellent dialogue this week. I tried to choose which Briefing was best, but all week, he gave challenging, encouraging, educational commentary.
Three of his best were:
1. Abortion language – Wed., June 5.
2. 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre—Tues., June 4
3. Remembering D-Day—Thurs. June 6