by Hannah Hanzel | May 22, 2018
May 22, 2003 – 15 years ago today I was saved. At the young age of 7, this scrawny, little missionary kid sat on the side of her parents’ Motel 8 bed and came to know the Lord. I recited the Romans Road, a series of verses in Romans about salvation, from memory, thanks to my mom’s teaching. It clicked that all those verses worked together, and they all meant something. As far as my young mind could tell, I was a sinner, or a disobedient human as my dad explained.
I sat between my parents and prayed a simple, short prayer, asking God to forgive me and accept me. He did just that! Since that night, my life has been equivalent to a toddler learning to walk on new spiritual feet.
This blog is a reflection of all the times I messed up, and God’s redemption shone through, despite those weaknesses. I’d like to say my walk with the Lord has been a pious, flat march with every piece of spiritual armor on and a spring in my step. I, however, cannot say that, in all honesty. There are three primary things that I believe I will always struggle with as a believer in Christ:
First, I am convinced I will always struggle with starting a Gospel conversation. The moment I muster up the courage to obey the Spirit’s prompting, eloquent words vanish from my mind. I am left with awkward openers and fumbled words. Just about two weeks ago, one of my good friends and I were in a restaurant getting tea. The waiter was visibly perturbed by something. His service was poor, and his attitude was starting to bother me. The Spirit spoke clearly to me that I was to share the Gospel with him.
As he came to our table I spouted off the first thing that came to my head. “Hi, um, so, um, my friend and I are talking Bible things… and um, I was wondering… um, is there any way we could be praying for you… at all? Like, while we pray for our tea?” There it was – the worst Gospel conversation initiation ever in human history.
I thought to myself, “This kid is never stepping into a church completely due to this opening.” I maintained a smile, though my insides were cringing. To God’s glory and my relief, the boy broke down about many things happening in his life for which he desperately needed prayer.
The second thing I think I’ll always struggle with in my Christian walk is patience. Here’s another story – unfortunately a true one. I was in Mexico for a mission trip with several families. We would stay in Texas and drive across the border into Mexico and put on a festival for a local neighborhood. It took a lot of manual labor and a lot of teamwork to pull it off well.
There were many children on our team who did such a great job at jumping in and helping wherever needed. There was one girl in particular that was a spunky little firecracker. We didn’t exactly see eye to eye, but that was because she was a 9-year-old who knew everything, and I was a 16-year-old who knew everything. We just didn’t exactly see everything the same way.
It was the end of the day of the festival, and we were starting to clean up. We were all exhausted. I stood by the water table with one of my good friends who had been pouring and serving water cups all day long. He and I were chatting when the little girl skipped up to the table and demanded rather rudely to be given a cup of water immediately. My friend obliged.
Suddenly a feeling of anger rose up in me, and my impatience got the better of me. Before the girl could skip away I reached out and smacked the cup of water out of her hand, leaving her and my friend wide-eyed and staring at me. Her big eyes filled with tears, and she held her wet shirt in her limp hands as she ran off to her mom.
I was astounded that day at how quickly my patience is lost and how quickly I can respond without wisdom. My name is Hannah, and I am an impatience addict.
Lastly, something I see myself struggling with for the rest of my life as a believer is pride. One final story as I explain myself:
I sat on the youth group floor with about 15 other teens as we listened to our youth minister, Brad, explain the next improv game for our drama team. I was about 14 at the time while my crush was 18 and sitting a few feet away from me. I only heard a couple words coming from Brad’s mouth as I daydreamed. He said something about a blind date scene… blah, blah, blah.
All of a sudden he called my name and my crushes name. “Now you two act out that scene,” Brad said. My heart sank.
My crush pranced confidently up to our little stage as I awkwardly bounded up behind him. What a smart and humble person would do is ask Brad to repeat the scenario since I wasn’t paying attention, but I evidently was neither smart nor humble. Brad yelled action and our mimery began. Here’s how the scene went down:
Hannah knocks on fake door to meet her blind date. Crush opens door and looks excited. Hannah doesn’t notice his social cues and pulls him in by his shirt collar for a big ole stage kiss. Aaaaaaand cut.
Humility would have done me well that day and shown me that the scene we were meant to play out was two friends discussing a blind date that had already occurred. My pride got me to a state of unbelievable embarrassment and got my crush a ripped shirt. I avoided improv games for months.
There you have it! Fifteen years, three major weaknesses (to name a few of my many) and a little more than you’d probably like to know about me. What a journey though! I praise God for my weaknesses!
2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Stop worrying about creating the perfect walk, my friend. Focus, rather, on each individual step. Before you know it, you’ll look back on 15, 30, 50, maybe even 80 years of God’s faithfulness to train your baby steps into a run. Praise Him for it!
If He can use an awkward Gospel conservationist, an impatient water-cup-smacking teen, and a prideful stage kisser, He can use anyone!
by Angela Sanders | May 15, 2018
“I want to go deeper.”
Chances are, if you’ve ever been in a position of responsibility for the spiritual health and growth of others, you’ve heard these words. A plea, really, for your help in an active pursuit, this statement is loaded.
What, exactly, does “deeper” mean? Do they really want to be challenged, or do they simply want to know more?
For many, “deeper” simply means “harder to understand.” Once they know something well enough to correctly categorize its application, pass it along to others, and offer a passable explanation to those who might question them about it, they consider the concept mastered and want to move on to new or more abstract information.
There’s nothing at all wrong with this, of course.
We should always strive to build on what we know, for our sake and others’, but we must be careful not to confuse knowledge with wisdom or basic retention with mastery.
Until a person applies the biblical knowledge they’ve acquired, experiences the consequences, good or bad, of that application, and makes necessary changes in heart, mind, and behavior with the Holy Spirit’s help, they’ve not actually mastered that knowledge. It’s not really theirs.
They’ve not matured. They’ve not gone “deeper” in that they’ve neither identified with Christ in the struggle to love God through submission and obedience in that particular—and the suffering that often follows—nor experienced the kind of intimacy with God that comes from making the right choice.
Craving that intimacy—and rightly so—but misunderstanding the process that fosters it, they move on to the next truth, the next concept, mistaking academic struggle for spiritual growth, ever and always looking and asking for more when what they are looking for—what they need—is close at hand, just on the other side of a choice to apply what they already know.
Those of us who mentor—we all do whether we realize it or not—do well when we encourage anyone wanting to absorb new biblical truth to do so, but we err when we fail to challenge them in the practical. We must urge them to consider how the knowledge they’ve acquired has changed their heart, mind, and behavior and to identify what they’ve learned about the Father through that change.
“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (1 Cor. 8:1),” and love is obedience to God’s commands (1 John 5:2-3).
Want to grow spiritually? Want to go deeper?
Keep learning new things. Hard things.
DO apply your mind to the truth found in God’s Word, but DON’T forget to put feet to what you learn, for only by living out practically the truth we accept theoretically will we ever fully understand and find satisfaction in what’s ours through faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
by Angela Sanders | Apr 26, 2018
“If you can’t say anything nice, come sit by me.”
Not funny.
We’ve all been hurt by the careless words of others, yet we continue to throw our own into the ring like stray dogs trained to fight.
Why? Because it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and they’ll get us if we don’t get them first? That’s not an acceptable reason to wound. Rather, it’s a compelling reason to become an agent of change so those who come after us don’t have to suffer as we have.
Those of us who claim to belong to God have an even more compelling reason to wage war on careless speech. God is rescuing sinners from the consequences of sin through the Gospel message that’s been entrusted to us. If they’re too wounded to hear it, our mission is compromised. If we are the ones doing the wounding, then we’ve lost our credibility as messengers of love and hope and are finished before we even start.
So how do we kill this weed that threatens the harvest, this cancer that weakens the Body?
First, we define it. Its name is gossip.
You may have heard that gossip is anything that isn’t true, kind, and/or necessary, but I’ve found those criteria too easy to skirt when I really, really want to say something to someone. It’s very possible to say a true thing in a kind way because you think it’s necessary and still do a lot of damage because you weren’t the right person to speak, spoke to the wrong person, or did it all with impure motives, hiding behind a checked-off list of criteria rather than listening to the still, small voice inside that told you to keep your mouth shut.
Let me offer a new definition:
Gossip is any discussion of others and/or circumstances that fails to move everyone involved or impacted forward into God’s best.
The more you understand God’s will for our lives (Christ-likeness) and ultimate purpose (His glory), the more hesitant you’ll be to speak when operating by this definition. In my case, it’s the very muzzle that’s needed.
The second step in killing the cancer-weed that is gossip? Find it.
Like other weeds, gossip can be found in and among the beautiful and beneficial, disguised by flowery words and soft smiles and couched in muddied motives. Pleasing to the ear, it takes root, then takes over, choking the beautiful and beneficial until people who used to be good for each other find themselves in a ruinous pattern of speech from which they can’t break free.
Trust is eroded.
Dissention is stirred.
Suspicion hijacks perspective, and love is suppressed by a perceived need to survive.
We bring it on ourselves, you know, this paranoia. If we didn’t gossip, we wouldn’t suspect others of it. We wouldn’t waste time wondering, and we wouldn’t spend so much energy preventing, protecting, and perpetuating.
The third step in eradicating this cancer-weed? Cut it out.
The Bible says if we confess our sins (things that don’t line up with God’s will and character) and turn away from them, God will forgive and forget (1 John 1:9, Isaiah 43:25). Of course, doing so will probably cost you externally—friends, position, power—but it will ease the burden gossip has laid on your heart and mind, make it easier for you to communicate with your Heavenly Father (Psalm 66:18-19), and free you up to be the people-loving, God-honoring, Gospel-proving Jesus-follower He designed you to be.
Others may or may not follow your lead, but that’s not your concern. You neither answer to nor for them. Regardless of their response, continue to love God by obeying Him (1 John 5:3) and to represent Him well by resisting the temptation to lapse into old patterns of behavior.
Change the topic.
Say positive, complimentary, and encouraging things.
Walk away if you have to, but don’t play games with God’s reputation. There’s too much at stake.
Gossip isn’t just harmful; it’s murderous.
by Brian Hobbs | Apr 24, 2018
If you have been anywhere near Instagram or Facebook in the last week, you’d know that many schools just had their proms. The school where my older children attend has a dance-like function this month, as well.
Seeing all this dancing, I am reminded that one of the biggest reasons I am Baptist is that people never expect you to dance anywhere or anytime. But seriously, though, I was never, nor could I ever, be a good dancer. I’m could not, for example, become a Fred Astaire, and I would not (thankfully) be a Kevin Bacon in “Footloose.” To put it bluntly, I am more of a “loose-foot.”
That being said, there seems to be joy to be found in appropriate dancing and “a time to dance” (Ecc. 3:4), even this Baptist can admit. The best kind of dancing, of course, is done unto the LORD as worship (2 Sam. 6:14; Psalm 149:3). It is also a special joy to see when children, even the youngest, enjoy moving to music in Sunday School class and other settings (Even fundamentalist Christians who oppose dancing entirely seem to be okay with young children dancing).
Other kinds of dancing that inspire include ballet and other classical expressions. Other forms, like waltzing or square dancing, many Christians would argue, can be harmless fun and lead toward innocent happiness.
On the other side of the equation, we know about dancing that is base and low, appealing to all that is worst in men and women. I don’t need to go into detail about dirty dancing and other forms of dancing that no Christian should abide.
All of this talk of dancing, though, makes me wonder, will there be dancing in heaven? I am not alone in this. MercyMe’s Bart Millard, in his mega-hit song, “I Can Only Imagine,” says:
“Surrounded by You glory
What will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah
Will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine”
Until we all get to heaven, we will just have to imagine. For now, I am content being a “loose-foot” Baptist that will never be asked to dance. In the here and now, I and my two left feet will simply applaud from the sidelines those who are dancing well and unto the Lord.
by Caleb Moore | Apr 12, 2018
I am planning to do several posts on how we as Christians address the rising acceptance and popularity of the non-traditional view of marriage and sexuality. We Christians know that we are in a culture war with the world when it comes to these subjects, but it’s not just outside the church walls these debates are happening anymore. A growing number of Christians feel as though they can be faithful to what Scripture teaches while acknowledging homosexuality as a God-glorifying lifestyle.
Some people make the claim that as long as a couple is in a committed marital relationship the church should not view their same-sex relationship as sinful. Though we tend to assume their only argument, of which I disagree, is merely a cultural one, attempts have been made to justify this position using Scripture. This is done by trying to argue that the word “homosexuality” has been poorly translated.
Critics of the historical Christian view have several verses that cause a fair amount of trouble when it comes to making their case. After all, Paul condemns such a lifestyle in a very direct and clear way in 1 Corinthians 6 when he states, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God” (NET Version).
The objection comes by questioning if the word that gets translated actually means homosexual or if it had another meaning. This is important because it would mean that we have misunderstood and mistranslated the word Paul uses for homosexuality.
The word in question is the Greek word “arsenokoitai,” and it does appear that Paul may have coined this word. We do not find any prior use of this word before he used it. It wasn’t until 1946 that translators used the word “homosexual” to express the meaning of this word, before that words like “sodomites” were used. So the question must be asked what does that word really mean and from where did Paul get it?
I would suggest that it’s not really as confusing of a word as critics would like to claim. There is a very clear and obvious connection to the Old Testament and it makes a strong case for why Paul would use this new word for the first time. First we need to realize that Paul, like Jesus, likely read the Septuagint. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Many Jews could not read Hebrew, but they could read and speak Greek. When Jesus quoted the Old Testament, 90 percent of the time He quoted from the Greek instead of the Hebrew.
Why is this so important? When we read Leviticus in the Greek we notice something very important. Leviticus 18 and 20 both state that a man must not bed with another man in the way that he would lay with his wife. If you were to read it in Greek, there are two words right next to each other. The first word is “arsen”which means man, and the word“koitas”or “koite” which means bed or to lay. This is the Old Testament way of telling us that same-sex relationships are against God’s design.
This shows us that“arsenkoitai is a new word, but it’s obviously a compound of the two words from the Old Testament that referred to homosexuality. Paul spoke and wrote in Greek, so it makes sense that he would combine these two Greek words into one.
We use similar compound words all the time with words like “database” or “matchbox.” We take two words and combine them to simplify matters. There is no other interpretation that is as consistent or obvious as the one I just presented, although many other alternatives have been offered.
Some say that the word was about temple prostitutes, but there are other words that address that offense more accurately. Paul knew that, by using this combination of words, his readers would have their minds taken back to the verses in Leviticus.
It’s easy to understand why some Christians have a difficult time with this. After all, we are called to be loving and compassionate, and that can seem to run contrary to the idea that not all sexual orientations glorify God.
Scripture has been used many times to defend things like slavery and war, but if we examine it closely, we can see that these people had to twist Scripture to justify their ideas rather than letting scripture be their foundation.
by Chris Doyle | Apr 6, 2018
Greetings!
I participated in a recent study of the church in Antioch in the book of Acts. It was awesome! So much so that I wanted to take a break from commenting on current social stuff and blog on six takeaways from studying “one of the great theological centers of the early church.”
- First called Christians
This is the most well-known aspect of the Antioch church: “The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch” (Acts 11:26b).
In the context of Scripture, this church was formed in Antioch as a result of persecution that started after the stoning of Stephen (Acts 11:19). This was an amazing work of the Lord as a large number of people joined the Antioch fellowship (Acts 11:21).
Word got back to the Jerusalem church about this thriving body of believers, so they sent Barnabas, the greatly-admired “encourager,” who “saw the grace of God” when he arrived (Acts 11:23). It makes me wonder what exactly Barnabas saw that would be described in such magnificence.
Barnabas, though, knew what to do, as the church continued to grow in “large numbers of people” (Acts 11:24). He got Paul involved, which kicked off the great apostle’s ministry. Barnabas and Paul spent a year teaching this church, and Acts 11:26 caps off this introduction of Antioch by proclaiming the church members were the first ones to be identified as Christians.
Scholars have said this label may have been originally intended to be a mockery, as the Greek noun Christianos could mean “little Christs.” However, it became an honoring title that has been used for centuries around the world.
Also, the word “Christian” is only used three times in the Bible. Obviously Acts 11:26 is the first mentioning, but Acts 26:28 mentions King Agrippa being “almost persuaded” to becoming a Christian. The final passage that has the term is in 1 Peter 4:16, where Peter says if anyone suffers as a Christian, they should not be ashamed.
- Who were the founders?
One interesting aspect I found of the book of Acts is how there are not many specific names mentioned of this great movement among Christians in the early churches. Of course, we read about Paul and Peter and their companions whom God used. But the actual founders of the church in Antioch are not listed by name. Barnabas and Paul are mentioned, but they didn’t come on the scene until after the church was founded.
The founders were said to have come from Cyprus and Cyrene and went to Antioch, sharing the Gospel of Jesus (Acts 11:20). But we don’t know exactly who they are.
The reason I find this interesting is it’s basically counter opposite from the Old Testament history books. There are names, names and more names listed of who begat whom. Even the early chapters of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospel narratives gives long lists of people who were in lineage of Christ.
I’m open to discussion on this, but I’m guessing Luke, who wrote Acts, kept the majority of the church members anonymous because of the oppression by the Romans. I also think a reason we don’t know the founders is in order to see the work of the Holy Spirit. That is the main emphasis of the book of Acts – showing the work of God through the Holy Spirit.
- The church helped others in need
“Each of the disciples, according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brothers and sisters who lived in Judea” (Acts 11:29).
One of the Antioch church members was named Agabus who made it known by the Holy Spirit that a famine would happen throughout the Roman Empire. So what does this church body do? They planned ahead and were ready to help other churches when the famine hit. You could say this was a demonstration of the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention, helping other churches as they are jointly involved in sharing the Gospel.
- The church was multiracial
The church in Antioch also was founded after God was made it known to Peter (Acts 10-11) the Gospel is available to Gentiles. Depending on translation, Acts 11:20 says the church founders were preaching to Greeks or Gentiles.
There are other church leaders who come from different ethnic backgrounds. Acts 13:1 gives a diverse list of teachers. One came from Africa, and another was described to be a family friend of King Herod. This needs to be stressed today, how the Gospel does not discriminate, regardless of heritage or reputation. It is open to all people.
- Equipping was important
This church demonstrated the many tools of discipleship. They worshiped, fasted and prayed (Acts 13:2-3). They heard great teaching and preaching from Paul, Barnabas and others. They were accepting and supporting others.
I am curious what the regular meeting schedule for the church was like. Acts 14:28 says Paul and Barnabus “spent a considerable time with the disciples.” And these were great Christian thinkers who sought the wisdom of God through studying the Scriptures.
- Reconciling and rejoicing
Just like many other churches, Antioch was not without controversy. Though the church consisted mostly of Gentiles, some men from Judea came down and taught that circumcision was needed for salvation (Acts 15:1). Considering the time, this was a difficult issue to process, especially since Christianity originated from Jewish culture, which had firm belief in keeping the law of Moses.
Church leaders handled this diplomatically and met with the leaders of Jerusalem. A letter was written as a result of the meeting, letting Antioch church members know they were accepted while also advising them what principles they should follow (Acts 15:22-29).
The letter was received happily, and the church rejoiced (Acts 15:31). They understood the life principles that were important and what traditions or customs were unnecessary or non-essential.
I pray many churches today would learn and follow the example of the church in Antioch.