Receiving God's Word with Joy!

Friends, watch this video and see the joy as the Kimyal people group of Papua, Indonesia welcome the arrival of the New Testament in their language.

This is so powerful!!!

Dr. Mohler (vs) Peter Lumpkins: Do the Clothes make the Man?

Dave over at SBC-Voices appears to have gotten a little squeamish over me and others raising the issue of Peter Lumpkins (P-Lump's) appearance and dress at the SBC convention last week. So I will post it on my blog where I have no issue with such a discussion taking place.

I have always been told that how a man dresses says a lot about the man, and that both men and women dress to communicate a message to those who see them.

Watch the following video and tell me what your response is to the dress, appearance, and demeanor of both men.

YouTube - Al Mohler Responds To Peter Lumpkins

Would you like a little cheese with that “Grape Juice?”

I must admit that sometimes I get a little irritated by these guys who insist that Jesus never turned the water of John chapter 2 into wine, but actually turned the water into grape juice.

Here is a short reply I posted over on SBC-Voices a little while ago addressing this issue. I share it here only because, until someone (anyone) addresses the issue I raise here concerning the trustworthiness of our Bible Translators then I really am not at all interested in discussing this issue with them.

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David,

Please look up the word “Wine” in any/every English Dictionary… What does it/they say?

Now look it up in any/every English Translation of the Bible… What does it/they say?

If you are correct then every English Bible Translator that has ever lived has gotten it massively wrong… and we need a new Bible.

For me, I think I will trust that all those English Bible Translators are not wrong… Just saying!

Grace for the Journey,

"Great Commission Giving" Affirmed By SBC

Mark Kelly at Baptist Press reports that seven recommendations from the SBC Executive Committee were approved by messengers during the opening session of the SBC annual meeting in Phoenix on June 14, 2011. Of the seven recommendation approved at this year’s convention, four were related to the "Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Report" that was adopted at the 2010 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. I only want to mention just one; “Great Commission Giving”.

Here is the recommendation that was approved by the messengers to the convention:

-- Adding a new Annual Church Profile reporting category called "Great Commission Giving" to highlight each church's financial commitment to Southern Baptist mission enterprises. The recommendation also reaffirmed the Cooperative Program as "the most effective means" of missions outreach and asked churches to increase their Cooperative Program contributions by 2.5 percent of undesignated receipts by the end of the 2013 calendar year.

If you listened to the “Doomsday Bloggers” here, here, and here... you would come away thinking that affirming "Great Commission Giving" in the SBC would be the death of the Cooperative Program. It is quite refreshing to see that the vast majority in the SBC do not agree, and that the vast majority of Southern Baptist believe that we should celebrate "All" that our churches are doing to fulfill the Great Commission.

Today is a very good day in the SBC!!!

Grace for the Journey,

Help Feed The Children of Belize

I need your help. You can feed a child without giving a dime!

We made our International Servants FaceBook page last night. For every LIKE we get within the next 2 weeks, a donor has pledged to donate $1 to our Feed-A-Child program in Belize. $1 will feed 2 children that day!

Go to: http://www.Facebook.com/InternationalServants then click the LIKE button. Please also click the SHARE button, it will enable you to post a link to our page to your Facebook wall.

Grace for the Journey,

Motion to be made to form GCR study committee | The Pathway

It is being reported on "The Pathway" web site that a motion will be made at the SBC Convention this coming week to "study the GCR Task Force Report"...

I would be very interested in knowing who will be speaking to this motion, and who will be speaking at the meeting prior to the convention at the Hyatt Hotel in Phoenix to discuss their strategy... That information will tell me all I need to know about this motion...

I don't have the facts yet, but I would be highly surprised if this is not an attempt by the ANTI-Great-Commission-Resurgence folks (yes they are still out there) to kill or hinder the work of the GCR in the SBC. Regardless of the vote in Orlando last year these folks just can't get over the fact that they lost this issue and move on.

Below is the full article from "The Pathway" web site:

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PHOENIX – A group of conservatives intend to make a motion Tuesday at the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) annual meeting in Phoenix calling for the creation of a committee to study various aspects of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report.

It is not known who will make the motion, but it is being supported initially by about 100 messengers. Those messengers are scheduled to discuss the motion and other issues before the SBC at a public meeting, 5 p.m., Monday, at the Hyatt Hotel across from the Phoenix Convention Center. Current and past SBC leaders are scheduled to speak as well.

The motion states, “that the Convention create a special committee to be called the Unity Committee, to review, evaluate and make recommendations about perceptions and realities about the impact and implementation of the GCR Task Force Report during the past year by SBC entities, state conventions and related organizations and networks, that the committee bring a report and recommendations to the 2012 SBC annual meeting; and that the Committee be comprised of 21 members to be appointed by the President, fully representational of Southern Baptists and that the minutes, records and proceedings from the Committee’s meetings and work be open to the Southern Baptist public and available to all Southern Baptists no later than 12 months after it has given its report to the SBC.”

BY STAFF Motion to be made to form GCR study committee | The Pathway

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Wade Burleson: Now Is the Summer of Our Discontent: The 21st Century Demise of the SBC

The 2011 Annual Meeting for the Southern Baptist Convention officially begins next Tuesday morning, June 14, 2011. Membership in SBC churches has decreased for five years in a row, dropping 500,000 members since 2005. Attendance at this year's Southern Baptist Convention will be the lowest in nearly five decades, struggling to reach 5,000 in attendance. What has happened to the SBC?

There may be as many postulated reasons for the precipitous decline in the SBC as potential messengers in Phoenix next week. From my own personal experiences with the inner workings with the SBC I offer five reasons why the SBC is perilously close to becoming purely irrelevant. It is possible for changes to occur to prevent the SBC from her imminent and ultimate demise, but it will require immediate and effective leadership, something not yet demonstrated at any level of the SBC. The five reasons for decline are:

(1). The demonization of disagreement.

When we conservative evangelicals spend more time defining why other people are theologically wrong rather than powerfully living out the gospel of Jesus Christ, we construct our own platform for decline. The fanatical attempts to demonize other evangelicals who express a desire to cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention in church planting and missions--a demonization due to perceived disagreements over secondary issues--guarantees the demise of the SBC.

(Continued in the link below)

Wade Burleson: Now Is the Summer of Our Discontent: The 21st Century Demise of the SBC

Screwtape on the Southern Baptist Convention

My dearest Wormwood,

Though it gives me no pleasure to do so, I must tip my hat to you for the wonderful developments you have initiated in regards to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Surely you need no reminder of the perilous situation we were facing in the not-too-distant past. I had nearly come to the conclusion that all hope was lost. But alas, you surprise me, dear nephew! You have done it again. (It is obvious that I have taught you well.) I do hope you will keep up the bad work.

Still, there is much work to be done.

Remember that arrogance and pride is your greatest inroad into the Convention.

(continued in the link below)

Screwtape on the Southern Baptist Convention

Bachmann Voted Against $39 Billion Deal

Michele Bachmann should be our next President!!!

I will not vote for any of the Republicans who "Sold Out" all of us who strongly oppose Abortion... It has come out over the weekend that Planned Parenthood/Murder performs an abortion/murder Every 95 Seconds!!! Every 95 Seconds!!! Every 95 Seconds!!!

The bottom line is that the men who currently make up the Republican leadership are not men of conviction... So I will work hard to replace them with Women of Conviction!!!

Bachmann Voted Against $39 Billion Deal

Reid: 'Everything' resolved in spending fight but Abortion Rider

Reid: 'Everything' resolved in spending fight but abortion rider!!!

Protecting Planed Murder (killing your children is not Parenthood) is apparently the number-1, most important issue, for the Democratic Party.

If you are a Christian there should remain absolutely no doubt that if you vote Democratic you are voting for the murder of children. (Sorry, I will make no apology for speaking the truth!!!)

Grace for the Journey,