Are You Ready for Good Works?

*This is my article for the March 2012 President's Page in the Sabbath Recorder.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, tobe ready for every good work (Titus 3:1, ESV)

     How do we get ready for EVERY good work? What are the good works we need to be ready to do? They are the “good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). God’s word shows us what these good works are. His revealed word causes us to be “equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Our submission to Him allows us to do them in His name and for His glory. Without submission to God and those authorities that He has placed above us, we sully our good works for Him.

     The American culture at large seems to be having an authority crisis. We like to snipe, criticize, humiliate, and flat out disobey the people who have been placed in authority (whether elected, appointed, or biological). If you don't believe me, start one conversation about your president, or your pastor, or your parents. See how long it takes this conversation to go from “constructive” to “destructive”.

     Being under authority and showing respect is not easy for us because like our forefathers, our sinful nature tells us that we know how to do everything better than everyone else. Nobody likes being to told what to do or how to do it. We start to believe that authority is only granted to those with whom we want to give it.

     Biblically (Romans 13), it seems that all authority has been put in place by God (nationally, locally, ecclesiastically) for our benefit and good, whether you voted for the guy or not. This is a tough teaching of the Bible. This is all being pointed out so that we are aware that we are a people under authority. If we are rebellious in our submission to our parents, will we then curb our rebellious behavior with God?

     I want our churches to be ready for the good works of church revitalization and planting that God has for us in the near future. He has been doing great things among our Seventh Day Baptist leaders and people. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:19a)

     ARE YOU READY to make Jesus not just your Savior but your Lord? ARE YOU READY to follow, serve, submit to, and wait for Him? It is through His authority that our good works are able to advance His Kingdom. AREYOU READY to honor, respect, submit, and obey those He has placed in authority over you?

     This summer during our Conference sessions we will be challenging our churches to get ready for what God will do through them with our Conference theme, ARE YOU READY? We will be studying through the book of 1 Thessalonians in our morning sessions and use the gathered worship times to discuss themes like Repentance, Revitalization, and His Return, among others. Of course, there will be the fantastic fellowship times and other activities that we have grown to love during that week.

     We are placing an emphasis on church planting and revitalization during this year's session as well. If that is an area of ministry that you are being called to explore or discover or have questions about, please contact the Center office, the Missionary Society, or myself so that we can be praying for you and include you in these discussions.

     There is still time to offer any input into our yearly meeting. Please feel free to contact me through email, Twitter, or Facebook.

     On behalf of myself, our denominational executives, our boards and agencies, and our Conference host committee, we want to invite you to join the ARE YOU READY? conversation at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, WV from July 29-August 4, 2012. 

Lenten Devotional 02/22/12

Genesis3:6-29 (The Message)

6 When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate. 7 Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves. 8 When they heard the sound of Godstrolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God. 9 God called to the Man: "Where are you?" 10 He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid." 11 God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?" 12 The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it." God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?" 13 "The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate." 14-15 God told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel." 16 He told the Woman: "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain. You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you." 17-19 He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from, 'Don't eat from this tree,' The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."

     On the Christian liturgical calendar, today is Ash Wednesday. There are Christians of every stripe: Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, Lutheran, and yes, even Baptist who will celebrate this day by remembering solemnly the fact that we are but mere creations of the Almighty God who will one day, through decomposition, have our physical bodies revert to the heap of dirt and ashes that God used to mold us.

     However, the reminder of this day doesn't rest on the practice of placing ashes on your forehead. The reminder lies in the decomposition that creates the ash. The process of decomposition generally creates foul odors. Our sin creates foulness. Ever since this act of volitional disobedience by our forefather Adam, our race has been fouled by sin. And now when we are born we are on a trajectory, not for perfect relationship with God, but rather for decomposition and death.

     While verse 19 provides our reminder (that because of Adam's we too face the consequences of sin, which is death), verse 15 provides us with our hope. Jesus has been victorious over life, sin, and death. In Him there is no imperfection or decomposition. If our faith is place in Him and His finished works, our bodies will still see decay but our souls will see Jesus.