Your Voice

Take time to seek God and meditate on His word

By Susan Lafferty
Missionary, Alabama native, Samford graduate

My mother tells a funny story. Her dad was going blind, so every morning she or her sister would stop by and read the Bible to him.

One particular day, Mom was in a hurry. She rushed in with no time to spare. “So, Daddy, which chapter do you want me to read today?”

In his slow southern drawl, Granddaddy said: “How about Psalm 119?”

We’ve laughed about that story and my grandfather’s sense of humor when his daughter had places to go and people to see.

The truth is, we often live life that way — in a rush, not making room for the Word of God, much less the longest chapter in the Bible.

We live forgetful of its priority, reluctant to take the time when we’ve got so much else to do. We miss its strategic importance and find that we need that long prayerful read in the Word more than ever.

To be honest, when I was younger I found it odd that the psalmist in Psalm 119 waxed eloquent about laws. And ordinances. And statutes.

But it wasn’t odd once I began following the psalmist’s example. He asks. He pleads. He pursues and seeks after God, spending time in prayer and meditation on His Word.

The more I truly seek God — in prayer, asking the hard questions, listening, reading and dwelling on His Word — the more I desire Him. The more I hunger and thirst for His truth. [His plan] is woven throughout the law and prophets and poetry and leads to the power of the gospel and the beginnings of the Church.

It culminates in the future vision of that glorious Day, when those from every nation, tribe, people and language will gather around the throne, knowing and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ.

Travel through the stanzas of Psalm 119. Listen and learn. The psalmist proclaims His Word is better than gold or silver and sweeter than honey. It is perfection without limit, a vast treasure.

His truth helps us see as a lamp to our feet, a light on the path, full of insight and wisdom. His Word gives life and hope, comfort and joy. It is our delight, our counselor.

The psalmist declares the entirety of His Word is truth. It is altogether trustworthy and righteous forever.

Take the time for a slow, meditative walk through Psalm 119. Ask Him to make you hungry for His Word. For Himself. He will do it.

(Susan blogs at susanlafferty.com; reprinted with permission from BP)

Beyond the Divisions

For all the complexities and sharp disagreements among Christians on matters that shape our citizenship, a certain foundation of shared faith can guide all of us who believe we have a constructive, even transformative, role to play in society.

Consider these principles of 20/20 vision for 2020 Christians:

• We anchor ourselves in the Triune God rather than one political party or another. Remember, Jesus prayed that we would be in the world but not of it (John 17:13–19).
• We cultivate our inward lives as ones vivified by the Spirit.
• We discipline our relational lives as imitators of Christ.
• We shape our public lives with a missional mindset.
• We deepen our congregational lives as diverse members of the one body of Christ.

When the first four principles get translated into congregational life, new possibilities are born for understanding God, one another and the world. New possibilities for personal and collective action arise as well.

It becomes safe — and increasingly fruitful — to come out of hiding and talk about difficult, important things that matter to our time and place, acting in concert when we can, disagreeing agreeably when we can’t and loving each other unconditionally, always.

These principles of 20/20 vision for Christian citizenship take us beyond the divisions of our day into deeper considerations of our presence in culture as the people of God.

They enhance the likelihood that we actually will be what God calls us to be: the salt and light of the world.

Greg Hunt
Central Baptist Theological Seminary
Shawnee, Kansas

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Letters to the Editor

Supporting the police

I read your Letters to the Editor section in the June 25 issue, and I couldn’t agree more with the two letters on police.

We need the police.

Most of them are good Christians and veterans. They are so disgusted with these city mayors not backing them up that they are retiring or resigning in record numbers.

Since the George Floyd incident, [I have read that] 20 cops have been murdered and 800 more injured. Many more have contracted COVID-19.

It is time for Baptists to take a stand for the police and denounce burning, looting and bottle and brick-throwing protesters.

I am a volunteer fire fighter, but I would never want to be a cop. It is the most thankless job in America today.

May God help our land.

John T. McGraw
Eldridge, Ala.

EDITOR’S NOTE — TAB has not been able to verify the number of police officers injured in the U.S. since Memorial Day weekend (when Floyd died while in custody of police officers). As far as deaths, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (nleomf.org) reports 68 officers died between Jan. 1 and July 10. The Officer Down Memorial Page (odmp.org) reports 30 active-duty U.S. officers have died since May 26 of various causes.

I was convicted to respond to psychologist Diane Langberg’s simplistic suggestion in the Your Voice section of the June 18 issue of The Alabama Baptist that a (former sex) offender not be allowed in church because children are there.

Scripture provides clear instructions as to how sin is to be handled within the church:

• If any member of the church sins, one other member is to go to that person to confront him or her with the sin, to bring about repentance, i.e., turning from sin, and effecting a change in behavior.
• If the individual persists in the sin, other members are to go to him or her as a small group, and again confront the individual with the sin to bring about repentance.
• If there is still no repentance, the situation is to be told to the church publicly.
• If contumacy persists, the individual is to be put out of the church and its fellowship until repentance is achieved.

Once the public shame has had its effect and the individual repents of the sin, he or she is to be restored to the fellowship of the church.

Reasonable boundaries may be set, individually or corporately, to reduce temptation for repeating the sin in the future. (See Matt. 18:15–17, Gal. 6:1.)

Bob Cosby
Birmingham, Ala.

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Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

Jesus
Matthew 5:9

When we get to heaven, there will not be a white section, a black section, a Latino section, an Asian section and a Native American section. No, there is no homogenization in heaven. There is no separation. What we see is something different: reconciliation. We see a reconciling gospel that does not just reconcile us to God, but it also tears down the dividing wall of hostility between us. It reconciles us to one another.

Pastor Albert Tate
Fellowship Church, Monrovia, Calif.

Jesus is the perfect example of someone who equipped His disciples — He showed by example how to pray, how to love your enemies, how to esteem others, how to be compassionate and how to be faithful in times of great distress. … God’s ways are not our ways, and we should trust Him to put the right people in our line of sight. And when He does, may we all take that responsibility seriously and be diligent in equipping others.

Chip Hutcheson
Interim Managing Editor
Kentucky’s Western Recorder

I can’t think of something that shuts someone down faster than someone who tries to either tell them the quick fix to their problems or who tells them it’s not as bad as they say it is.

One of the things I have said during this pandemic is it feels hard because it is hard. I think the power of validation cannot be overstated in this time. This is a big deal.

Author Aundi Kolber
Castle Rock, Colo.

I want to give a hearty Amen to the opinion expressed by Sethany Hagel of Wetumpka in the July 9 issue of The Alabama Baptist.

Allowing a “forgiven” pedophile to work with children is too big a leap of faith in any setting.

Betty Galey
Huntsville, Ala.

When God created the world, He did not distinguish just some to be made in His image. Every person, all ethnicities, are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27).

Trillia Newbell, “United”

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From the Twitterverse

@richardblackaby

God has ways of raising His voice until society can no longer ignore Him.

@MichaelCatt

I’d rather have a conversation with a new believer who doesn’t know much than a theologian who thinks he knows everything (including taking the mystery and wonder out of faith).

@brocraigc

“Many are sorry they ever spoke, but few ever mourn that they held their tongue.” — Spurgeon

@BillyGraham

“God is in control. He may not take away trials or make detours for us, but He strengthens us through them.” #BillyGraham

@edstetzer

The most dangerous man or woman in your church is the one who forgot he or she is a sinner.

@ConradDMills

In the Old Testament Jesus is predicted, in the Gospels He is revealed, in the Acts He is preached, in the Epistles He is explained and in Revelation He is expected. — Alistair Begg

@MattSmethurst

It’s a bad sermon if people can follow along with their Bibles closed.

@ostrachan

The “me” that is the endless focus of our therapeutic self-esteem culture, the “me” that supposedly deserves unending affirmation and applause and attention is the same “I” that in Christian faith needs to decrease. “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

@CarlMWilliams

Say less of this:

1. How could you?
2. How dare you?
3. When will you?
4. Why didn’t you?
5. I am disappointed in you.

And say more of this:

1. How can I pray for you?
2. How can I help you?
3. When do you need me?
4. Why don’t we?
5. I’m thankful for you.

@KB_HGA

He has more grace to give than you have sins to commit … begin again. #forgiven