The Plowman

It was after church last night at Arby’s when my pastor tossed the papers across the table at me. “You’ll find this interesting reading.” he said. With a wry grin he continued: “The first page is a letter sent to me last week, and behind that is the response I fired back the very next day.” The front sheet was a photocopy of a form letter sent to Dear Board of Directors Member, and was from the Arbuckle Baptist Association. What took my breath away was the signature at the bottom: Terry Mott, DOM. Thirty-two years ago he was best man at my wedding. The whole thing suddenly became strangely surreal by the fact that my pastor was not aware of our relationship, and that the letter had been sent to him by mistake, as he had rotated off the board just last year. “No mistake.” He said, “Providence.” What else could a Calvinist say?

The Arbuckle Baptist Association is a sleepy little band of thirty-one SBC churches located in two rural counties in south-central Oklahoma. The counties of Garvin and Murray contain about 40,000 souls between them, and the largest towns in them have populations of about 6,500 and 5,000 respectively. This last month, in their associational meeting, those present and voting at the ABA decided to draft a motion, and send it on to the upcoming (this week) BGCO state convention. The intention of that motion was to “take a public stand against reformed theology.”

As I was gleaning information, Brother Google made it plain to me that there was the beginnings of a feeding frenzy in Bloggsylvania. To be sure, it looks like a juicy story, on the surface. The quick facts I dug up, as you can see, however, clearly show that this isn’t some metro-mega association. And I can assure you Brother Mott does not have horns, one eye in the middle of his head, or even pointed ears. It saddens me to see people imply that someone is not a Christian because he does not hold to the doctrines of Grace, and yet nothing more is known about him, save what is contained in a brief bit of associational business.

I know the man, however. We came to Christ in the same church, in the same way: by means of an altar call. God saves those who are his. It doesn’t really matter whether or not they realize the correct order that regeneration took place in their lives. Although I have not seen or spoken Terry in over two decades, I can confidently say that today he is trusting in the same Blood and Righteousness as I. Never forget that God can draw a straight line in the dirt with a mighty crooked stick.

Shortly after my marriage, Terry and I took very different paths. Terry finished his bachelor’s at Oklahoma Baptist University, and became a cog in the SBC machine. My wife and I, frustrated with the shallow SBC-church life in a state-college town, joined a small, rural, independent, reformed-baptist church, some fifty miles away. For the next quarter-century we quietly raised a family, and grew in grace. The children are all grown and married now, and we have found ourselves, strangely for the last seven years, back in a SBC church. Don’t ask. It’s a long story.

The previous paragraph was so that I could say that I have been to both sides now. My pendulum has done busted out both sides of the clock, so to speak. Right now I am somewhere in the middle. I don’t care how many points you hold to. I just want to know if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you yearn to live like it makes a difference. Yes, the SBC drives me nuts; makes me want to bite nails and spit. Grandchildren and their parents struggling to find God-honoring, Christ-centered churches will make you that way. But I have found enough “Calvinists” who are more interested in expositing the petals of a TULIP than leading men to Christ, that I can partially understand why some men might want to draft an anti-Calvinism motion and send it on up the line.

Let me ask you brothers of the Reformation, when do you cross over and become so much a Calvinist that you cease to be Christian? Though you be a strident five pointer, and have not love, what have ye? Brother Mott is certainly mistaken in his intent, but he is still a brother in Christ. Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to blog about these things. Maybe we should be much quicker to pray to God seeking grace and charity, and strive to find real ways to build bridges, instead of going to another of our party’s confabs with snappy titles like “Building Bridges.” Someone took the time to build a real one to me.

So what about the letter stapled to this mis-sent letter? What did Pastor say? I didn’t get permission to tell. I can tell you that after my pastor made his position plain, he concluded with, not a clenched fist, but an open hand extended out.

ht: Tom Ascoll, Tony Kummer

In my readings the past couple of weeks I have come across several posts dealing with the subject of blogging. These kinds of posts usually take on one or more of these three flavors:

• “Most bloggers shouldn’t be blogging, because they don’t have anything worthwhile to say, or they say it badly, and it is my duty to run off all of you wanna-be’s.”
• “I’m sick of blogging, and I want you to be sick of blogging too.”
• “Blogging is tough. You need a thick skin. Good luck, and blessings.”

For the most part, the examples below concentrate on the third type of post:

On June 15 Tony Reinke, of The Shepherd’s Scrapbook posted TSS Bday and Tips for Christian Bloggers. in which he gives a brief state-of-the-blog address, followed by a list of 12 tips for, as the title implies, Christian bloggers. The tips portion of this post is a helpful, semi-serious bit of advice to blogging and bloggers.

Then there is this from Ben Cole back on June 25th: Rules For Blogging…, most of which is funny, though some of the rules hit a bit too close to home. You have to understand Cole’s sense of humor - I’m not sure many do - in order to appreciate this post.

Most recently, June 29th, from Frank Turk, blogging from the Founders’ 25th anniversary conference, here’s a Founders Conference, Addendum, in which Frank comments on a forum on blogging led by Pastor Tom Ascol. Anyone who has read the Centuri0n knows that he too can tell it like it is to the abrasion of some. I found this post, however, to be mildly subdued and quite reflective. There was a ton of bloggers at this event, and I was hoping for more of them to comment on this little forum. As of yet, no dice. Stay posted.

If you blog or you think you would like to, you should read these three posts. They are all three funny and informative.

By the by, I haven’t comment on the 25th anniversary Founders Conference. I’m still pouting. Only thirty miles away and I wasn’t able to go. I have to work for a living. Pastor Rod didn’t get to go either. I know he wanted to be there, but he was busy helping out with VBS (Vacation Bible School).

Well, I have not really been gone, but you know what I mean. I have been posting by way of the sermon podcasts that I have been putting up on the internet, but I have not been actually posting anything else. No views of what is going on in SBC news, no insights into faith or life in general, nothing. Hopefully, with this post, that is changing. I am sure I am not going to burn up the internet with my august wisdom - I never did - but I plan to put my oar in from time to time, just because I can.

Well, my wife and I are set to go to San Antonio next week. This will be our second convention. It may be our last. I plan to comment on that in the next few days leading up to our departure. There was a lot that disturbed me last year. I didn’t find what I expected. I saw a fight that I thought was worth fighting, but on reflection I am not so sure. It is not that I have come to see the positions of those anti-reformers of the Conservative Resurgence, because I haven’t. I have come to believe that, one, the problem runs deeper than one side is right and one side is wrong, and two, reform begins at home.

This second issue is the reason why I have been silent, so to speak, on the internet lately. I have been busy helping to take care of the issues that I see in my own home church. That is where I hope to concentrate the few future comments that I do make online.

That’s all for now. Now you can wonder for a while what bee is in my bonnet.

“The Pharaoh behind the Pharaoh” is a phrase that has captivated my mind for the past week. I heard it used by Dr. Russell Moore in a chapel service at Southern seminary in which he spoke a week ago Thursday (February 1st), in which he was alluding the fact that Pharaoh, the mightiest man in that whole region at that time, nonetheless had a Pharaoh ruling over him. I don’t remember ever hearing Satan referred to in this fashion. When Dr. Moore first used this phrase in the message he quickly moved to the account of Satan entering Judas just prior to his betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver (Luke 22:3, Matthew 26:15). Later in the week I was thinking of Jesus’ declaration to the Pharisees that their father was the devil by virtue of the fact that they obeyed him rather than God (John 8:44).

We should remind ourselves often that we are not our own. Whether we be a pauper or a Pharaoh, we still have a Pharaoh over us. The question then that begs to be answered is “Who is your Pharaoh?” Is it the one who would require us to make bricks without straw, or is it the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who bids us come unto Him whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light (Matthew 11:29,30)? Based on who we listen to and follow, whose sheep are we (John 10:27)?

On a different note, another little feature in Dr. Moore’s message caught my attention as well. Just as Alfred Hitchcock made a habit of appearing in a cameo role in all of the movies he made, it appears that Dr. Moore recently has begun leaving a “signature” reference in his sermons and other academic addresses. I have heard similar references in the last couple of addresses I have heard him give. Here is an example from Dr. Moore’s February 2nd 1st chapel message:

“The problem here is that Egypt doesn’t know the difference between a blessing and a curse, but the real issue here is that neither does Israel. When Israel is brought into the wilderness, they start grumbling, they start griping, they start blogging about it.”

Let’s see if this continues, and if it does, in what ways it manifests itself. It should be fun. It’s nice to be noticed, if not individually, at least corporately. I’m sure a whole lot of cyber-complaining goes on, even among Christians, but if you would like to see what else bloggers do go here, here, and here.