DownshoreDrift

We just finished up an AMAZING conference that I will write about quite a bit this week, but I want to take an aside to point you to an article on MSNBC about the 3 kids who were killed after her mother was found dead with her stomach sliced open and her fetus removed. I've seen this story's headlines but refused to read it because I hate to read about kids being killed or abused. But, I finally read it. It is one of the saddest things I've ever seen or heard of. I just kept staring at the picture of the children. Why did they have to go through this? Why such violence, hatred, murder? Why such evil? I am horrified, overwhelmed, and broken hearted. They were just starting out in life. They're mother was maimed. All of this was done at the hands of a lady who was a friend. Demonic Insanity.

I normally try to write about where I see God at work, but when I see evil on this level, I am reminded of why Jesus came. He came to forgive us of our sins and destroy the Devil's work (1 John 3:5,8). How grieved was God over what happened? How does this break His heart? We know that Jesus came to set right all that has gone wrong and restore the marred image of our Creator. He came to save us from this. Come quickly Lord Jesus. Put an end to all of this horror and devastation. May we weep tears over the death of innocents, both here and around the world. May our hearts never grow so calloused that we fail to feel sorrow when evil is inflicted upon the helpless. May we never fail to share and live out the gospel so that hearts will be changed, lives will be saved, and God will receive glory. May God help us.

Yesterday was a strong day, once again. Thom and I met with an investment company that is looking into creating a non-profit foundation to help fund ministries that are engaging in Isaiah 58 type work among the poor, widowed, orphaned, and oppressed. Thom recommended that they broaden their tent to take their influence overseas to India and China. It was a fruitful meeting and it is awesome to see believers using their positions of influence to impact the nations.

The conference started with worship lead by the worship team from Family Life Bible Fellowship. They absolutely rocked the house! They are a predominately African American congregation, and their worship of the Lord was full of so much joy and passion. It was an incredible blessing.  We had a really good crowd with people from several other churches. We heard from speakers from the Air Force, the arts, media, and business communities. Thom spoke about how the 21st century is the sister century to the 1st century and how God is moving from impacting the world with the ordained to raising up and using the ordinary. He then shared from the story of the loaves and fishes and how God uses whatever is in our hand to bring Him glory.

It was an incredible time of worship, learning, and fellowship. I love it when people from multiple churches across denominations and races can come together to grow and worship Christ. We are all in this together and we seek to give Him praise. It seemed that people really began to grasp the concept of our work being worship and witness. The kids had a really good experience as well, as we had a really large crowd of children. All in all, God really seemed to move.

We start again this morning at 8:30am and go to noon, and then, we have our roundtable discussion in the evening. I'm believing God for great things!

To quote a David Crowder song that I love, "What a glorious day." Thom and I met around noon yesterday, and we went to visit two friends of mine (and church members), John and Greg. John is the chief legal counsel for our state's Department of Public Health, and Greg is assistant counsel. We have talked about the possibility of forming a team of professionals from their department who are believers to partner with a city or state in India and do a public health conference with counterparts from over there, possibly among the lower castes. It would be a very different type of trip and the possibilities for activating the gifts and talents of professionals here and partnering them with need over there, while at the same time engaging the Hindu worldview from a Christian perspective, would be astounding. As we met with Thom, he detailed a great number of possibilities and suggested the state we could partner with in the north as well as two universities in India that could sponsor such an endeavor. We will put together a proposal and are looking at a trip next year. This could be really exciting!

Andrew Hicks and I picked up Thom Wolf from the airport tonight in Birmingham and were treated to an incredible blessing. He had just flown over 24 hours from New Delhi, India and was pretty tired. But, we got him talking, and before long, he was teaching us from the Word. As we drove through the cool Alabama night south along I-65, we asked questions about how The Church on Brady was so successful at raising up and sending people out to the ends of the earth (at one point in the late 80's, early 90's, The Church on Brady in East L.A., now Mosaic led by Erwin McManus, was sending more missionaries to the IMB than any over SBC church - around 500 people and over 50 missionaries on the field, I believe).  Thom began to tell us that they followed God's prescription to raise up people who followed Micah 6:8, He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  This parallels what Jesus summed up as being important in Matthew 23:23, But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.

God wants us to bring justice to those who are are oppressed. This is the attitude that we should take toward the lost and those who, all their life, have known that things are wrong in the world, but they have no idea how to make them right. We are to bring justice by bringing the Kingdom of God. We are to show mercy to those in need by doing good deeds for the physically and spiritually poor. We are to love people just because God loves them, not wanting to get anything out of it ourselves. And, we are to live lives of faithfulness before the Lord. Faithfulness is the outflowing of our faith. We are faithful to God because our faith is IN God. Thom said that they looked for people who were living out this ethos and they sent those people out to the far reaches of the world.

Beyond what he said, was how he said it. He spoke with compassion about the man in prison who committed murder because of what the victim had done to his little sister. The murderer knew that what he did was wrong, but he had to take care of the man who abused his little sister. The man was crying for justice and did not know what to do. He was led to Christ and found that God knew what to do. He found forgiveness in the arms of His Savior.

Thom travels all over the world, but we have him with us this week. I praise God. I have always learned so much from him, and God has always used him to ignite my soul with a passion for His Word and the lost. When we prayed before we left him to sleep, I thanked God that He was going to download something into us that He had prepared for us this week since before the beginning of time. It's awesome to think about our daily lives that way. I learned to think that way from Thom Wolf.

For several years, I have been exploring the concept of how believers in the marketplace are uniquely positioned to be salt and light exaclty where they are so that they may bring God glory and spread His salvation to the ends of the earth. As we move to a post-Christian era in the West, we find that the influence of the church, and especially those in the full time ministry, is declining. God is raising up a new force to carry His gospel into the 21st Century. Each of us are called, anointed, and equipped by God to worship and witness through our work. Martin Luther, during the Refromation, helped us understandt the ideas of the priesthood of the believers, calling, and vocation. We are all called to give glory to God through everything we do and to be a witness to His saving grace.  We do this through our work, gifts, talents, and abilities.  Whether you are in the fields of healthcare, media, education, government, sports, business, the military, science & technology, the arts, the home, or the church, we are called to disciple the nations. Nations are the ethnos, or people groups. 

I've been out of pocket the last few days with a lot of pretty incredible things going on. We baptized two on Sunday, and one of them was my 7 year old daughter! She received Christ about two years ago, but we wanted to wait for her to really understand what was going on. She has shown an incedible amount of growth, spiritual awareness, and maturity and is bearing a great deal of fruit. She is a sweet girl who LOVES Jesus, and I am so excited to see God working in her life.  My wife and I are very blessed!

On Monday, I travelled north to participate in a pastor's prayer summit with over 20 pastors from the Montgomery & Selma areas. It was an amazing time. For over two days, we prayed, spent time with God alone, worshipped, and fellowshipped. There is no agenda and no speaker - it is just a time of prayer. God's presence moved mightily, ministered refreshment to us, and bonded us together. The awesome thing is that of the 25 or so, there were 12 denominations represented and it was evenly split between black and white. We took communion together Monday night and it was so amazing. I felt as if I was in the upper room.  God was present. What an incredible experience!  We were able to come together because Jesus was our focus. We gathered around the cross and sought after our Father in Heaven. I honestly felt more connected to these brothers who are so hungry for the Lord, even though we come from different backgrounds, than I sometimes do with people in my own denomination who supposedly agree with me doctrinally. Doctrine is wonderful, but if it doesn't transform the heart, then it is useless. But, I digress.

This weekend is our Ordained to Ordinary Conference with Dr. Thom Wolf. I hope to get another post up about that today . . .

Well, this is the week of the game we've all been waiting for. #3 Auburn hosts #6 LSU, in what could be the game of the year in the SEC. The winner of this game has won the SEC West 5 of the last 6 years. Almost everyone is picking Auburn to win, primarily because they're at home, but LSU has not lost on the road since 2004 (7 straight wins), and they've won their last 6 SEC road games. They are the only team in the country that has not given up a touchdown and JaMarcus Russell is the 3rd rated QB in the NCAA. They are notoriously slow starters, but have come out this year on fire, so I actually feel pretty good about this game. I am taking my son who turns 5 next week, and we'll be decked out in our purple and gold! Because I've seen LSU play in person 7 times, and they are 7-0, I don't see how they can lose! My pick:  LSU 31  Auburn 13.  Shocked?  I have a feeling that everyone will be. I'm seeing a repeat of 2003 brewing when LSU just jumped all over Auburn. It's just a gut feeling. We'll see!

My other picks for Saturday:

• Florida 24  Tennessee 13.  The Volunteers came back down to earth last week after sqeaking one out against Air Force. They have a tough defense, but the Gators are looking sharp.
• Arkansas 17 Vanderbilt 14.  Vandy keeps it close but can't finish. Arkansas is breaking in a true freshman QB, but Mustain will get the job done. It could be an upset, though.
• Georgia 21  UAB  10.  The Blazers proved their mettle against Oklahoma, and Georgia's Stafford is also a true freshman. The offense won't click perfectly, but it will be enough.
• Kentucky 24  Ole Miss 17.  Ole Miss is terrible.
• Mississippi State 24  Tulane 10.  The Bulldogs FINALLY score and their defense is just too much for the Green Wave. Sly gets his first win of '06.
• South Carolina 27 Wofford 13.  Spurrier's offense gets healthy over a one dimensional, rushing Wofford team.
• Alabama 31  UL Monroe 3.  Alabama is actually charging $29.95 to watch this dog of a game on pay per view. Some people will pay it. Ugh.
• Michigan 27 Notre Dame 21.  I think this will be a great game, but Notre Dame will be exposed. I'm looking for the slight upset.
• Florida State 20 Clemson 10. Daddy Bowden gets some revenge as the Seminoles rebound from an embarassing performance against Troy last week.
• Oklahoma 27  Oregon 17.  This is for the Burleson Clan. I'm picking Oklahoma because I just think the Pac 10 is incredibly weak this year, except for USC. The Sooners beat them in the Holiday Bowl, and they'll beat them again.
• USC 35 Nebraska 31. This game will be closer than people think. USC wins at home in a shootout.

Well, I'm 11-3 straight up on the season. I don't do point spread and don't really care. Let's see how things shake out on one of the biggest Saturday's of the college football season! Geaux Tigers!

I performed my first wedding this weekend and I was really nervous. I can preach in front of a thousand people and it never phase me, but weddings and funerals freak me out. They are pretty formal affairs, and it doesn't seem too appropriate to ad lib. You pretty much better know what you're going to say and stick to it. I stink at that. When I preach, it is a living thing and I tell a bunch of stories as I interact with the text. It is dynamic and I'm able to be myself and speak from my heart. Weddings seem much harder and the bride and her mother are probably not going to be too forgiving if you screw it up. So, I was feeling the pressure.

But, it all seemed to work out rather well. God showed up in answer to a great deal of prayer, and people seemed to be really blessed. Oh, and the couple got married too (I really shouldn't make this all about me, but it is my blog, so I guess I can write what I want!). Seriously, they are an awesome couple, and I pray that God richly bless them in every way.

There was a great reception afterwards. It wasn't one of those Baptist receptions where the wedding is in the sanctuary and everyone slides over to the fellowship hall for a rowdy throw-down of punch, cheese straws, cashews, and cake. Nope, this was one of those full blown affairs with food and everything! We even had a DJ and a dance floor! Now, I can cut a mean rug, but I have to say that it was great fun to party with the church folk. Seriously, we all danced with our wives (gasp!) and the kids were twirling about as well. We laughed and shared life together. We didn't want to leave. It reminded me of a wedding that Jesus went to in Cana, but without the wine (we are still baptist, for crying out loud! We had sweet tea!).

It's time for my college football picks for this week! I feel like it is the first real week of the seasonl, as there are several big games. I finally get to see LSU on TV against Arizona and I got my tickets today for the LSU-Auburn game next week! Geaux Tigers! I'll pick SEC games and a few other notable contests each week. I went 2-1 last week, since Tennessee really surprised me by pounding Cal. They look tougher than I thought. Here are my picks for this week:

• LSU 27  Arizona 13. Jamarcus Russell played a great game last week with razor sharp passes. I look for the running game to pick it up a notch this week, but they might be a little flat looking ahead to Auburn.
• South Carolina 17   Georgia 13.  This is my upset of the week. I get a feeling that S. Carolina will pull it off this time.
• Ole Miss 20 Missouri 17.  No reason for this pick, really, except I always pull for the SEC. Sorry!
• Auburn 48  Mississippi State 6.  I hate to pick against my alma mater this way, but Auburn just has WAY too much firepower. The Bulldogs are going down in a big way.
• Alabama 21  Vanderbilt 10.  Alabama will put the Juwan Simpson debacle behind them and again, play down to their competition, winning a fairly unmemorable game. Why does Bama always do that?
• Florida 31  UCF 14.  The Gators get a tougher game than they expected as Urban Meyer's offense still has trouble getting untracked.
• Kentucky 44  Texas St. 14.  Umm. Who really cares?
• Arkansas 34  Utah St. 10.  The Razorbacks begin to show what they're made of now that they've got USC off the schedule and out of their heads.
• Tennesseee 24  Air Force 3.  Was Tennessee for real last week? I've never seen as tackling as poor as what Cal attempted last week. The Volunteers might come back to earth a bit this week, though.
• Notre Dame 31  Penn State 21.  The Irish begin to click on offense as the season goes on.
• Ohio State 27  Texas 24.  This might be the game of the year, at least until next week at Auburn! I look for Ohio State to exact revenge for last year and to expose Texas' freshman QB, Colt McCoy.

So, what do you think? I can't wait till tomorrow!

This is the final installment in my series on my experiences last year when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. I said there were 10 installments, but I'm combining #9 and #10 into this post. So, this is it!

This day would be my last in Mississippi. It was Tuesday morning and I had some work left to do securing the house before my Dad and I went back home. It was time to get him out of there. He was tired and would not have been able to make it through the ice and the gas lines that were necessary to survive on the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. This area would be a very hard place to live for the forseeable future and I was really glad that he had a place to go. My mother and her husband would be staying in Picayune, waiting for the lights to come back on.  But, before I left, there was a good bit more to do, lest all our work of the day before be wasted.

And thus ends one of the longest, most difficult months of our lives. I haven't written much about Caelan lately, because it has honestly been too hard to think about. I guess I've been in a bit of denial, so I've thought and written about other things, as much for the diversionary benefit as anything else. But, I can gladly report that radiation is finally over! My wife, Erika, is home with us to stay! This has been a grueling ordeal for all of us, and it has affected my other three children quite a bit to not have their mother around. But, God has been faithful to get us through this month, with Erika and Caelan really spending all but the weekends in Birmingham.  I've played the role of Mr. Mom, and I assure you, everyone will be quite excited to get back to our normal routine, especially my other three children! I'm just not the care giver that Mommy is, I'm afraid.

I arose early on Monday morning, September 5, 2005, to meet my friends Amos and Russell as we attempted to tackle the roof, or keep the roof from tackling us. We all showed up at my Dad's house with chain saws, gloves, rakes, and some food. Fortunately, my Dad had several sheets of plywood in the garage and roofing material, such as felt, shingle, tar, roofing nails, etc. This was really amazing. This stuff had just collected over the years for no apparent reason, but now it would be used to save the house. It's almost as if God had allowed my Dad to keep all this stuff at his house for such a time as this. Yet another example of God's Providence.

(Picture on Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's Heritage page of Billy Graham, avowed continualist in that he believes that supernatural gifts such as speaking in tongues have continued to the present day).

I've been doing some pondering in the wake of Chapelgate last week concering Dr. McKissic's address (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read my post HERE, or check out Rob Slagle's collection of pertinent posts and articles HERE). I got in a pretty heavy debate with a fellow over on Wade Burleson's blog last week concerning the validity of a private prayer language (it was in the comments of this post). My purpose was not to convince him that tongues were for him, but rather to give a good defense of my heartfelt position regarding the view that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, including speaking in tongues, were still operative today. I also wanted to show that this view had enough merit to be allowed to exist within the SBC. I didn't get anywhere, even though we had a courteous debate.

This is the 7th in a series of 10 installments chronicling my experiences on the Gulf Coast last year in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and most costly natural disasters in U.S. history.

I awoke mid-morning on Sunday, September 4, with a renewed sense of energy and purpose. Even though I had the mini-breakdown yesterday, God seemed to use it to release a great deal of pressure and emotional weight. After a good night sleep on the air matress on the floor, I felt ready to face the day. It would be a hard day, as I would be saying goodbye to my Mamaw, quite possibly to never see her again. My Uncle Fred, and my cousin Jarrod, and Jeff, the husband of my cousin Kristin were coming down to get Mamaw and take her back to Little Rock. The morning and early afternoon were spent getting her ready and making peace with goodbye. She had been such a large part of my life for so many years, I was feeling the sorrow of not seeing her when I went home for visits. My Dad came to my Mom's house where we all were to spend a little time with his mother before he said goodbye to her as well. In her health, we knew that her trip to Little Rock would be a one-way journey, and with my Dad being disabled and not able to travel well, it would likely be the last time he would see his mother alive. It was heartbreaking.

I got around 4-5 hours of sleep that night on the floor of a pre-school room at the Christus Victor Lutheran Church. I slept deeply and morning came too early. We all began to stir around 6am and it was time to get moving, yet again. I decided to forego a shower, because I honestly didn't see the point. I was sweaty and filthy, but so was everyone else, and I figured I'd be sweaty again pretty soon. There was a thick heat during the day and it was suffocating with the humidity. So, I grabbed a pop-tart and my bottled water and began the day. We all had jobs to do and we were headed in many different directions.  Residents of the shelter, almost 100 strong began to wake as well, and we were all facing a very busy day. After some preliminary organization, I went with a guy from our church to City Hall to try and secure MRE's for the shelter. He set it up, and we headed back. Throughout yesterday evening and this morning, there had been all kinds of discussion about whether or not I should travel the 60 or so miles to Picayune alone. I felt alright with it, but everyone else felt like someone else should go with me. Chuck and Rob decided to come with me, and, as the day wore on, I would be so glad they did.

Tonight, at 7pm, my 8th ranked LSU Tigers take the field against University of Louisiana-Lafayette at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. Geaux Tigers! It marks the end of a long, bitter, sweltering summer with nothing to watch and no team to root for (I hate baseball). The real sports season has begun! I'll post each week after this one, my predictions for upcoming SEC games and noted national games as well. Although, I will say that I pick Cal over Tennessee and Florida State over Miami this weekend. My alma mater, Mississippi State got shut out against South Carolina on Thursday night 15-0. Sorry, Jamie! 

But, at the end of the day, my hope is in the Bayou Bengals. LSU is a notorious slow starter and always lets lesser teams stay in the game with them, but I'm picking LSU 42-13.  My overall pick for LSU is to go 10-2 and finish second in the SEC West to Auburn. My hope is that they beat the snot out of Auburn in two weeks (my son and I have tickets for that game) and win the SEC, but they have a tough road ahead of them. Anyway, Geaux Tigers!

When the alarm went off around 4:30am, I had only slept between 2-3 hours. I was so keyed up after talking with my parents and getting everything together, I couldn't get to sleep. I'm notorious about this. Every mission trip I've ever taken, I've always started out tired because I can't sleep the night before, my mind racing through possibilities, prepartions, and potential problems (that sounds like sermon aliteration - ugh!). Anyway, I awoke, showered, dressed, packed some final things, secured pre-packed items in the borrowed Dodge Ram truck from my friend, and made it to the church to meet the other guys for 6am. It was a humid morning as the sun was rising, and we were all filled with anticipation. FEMA had not yet arrived en masse on the Gulf Coast. The military had not yet secured New Orleans. Refugees were still waiting at the Superdome and Convention Center for rescue. People in little coastal towns all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast had still not received water or  food, or been provided with a place to sleep. As dawn broke, and we headed out, we would be among the first responders, only 4 days after one of the biggest natural disasters in U.S. history. Others had arrived before us, to be sure, but we would be in that first wave of a citizen army of compassion. The next few days would be some of the most significant of my life.

I awoke on Thursday, September 1, 2005, and took my daughter to school. On the way back, my wife asked me to stop by the neighborhood market to pick up a few things. They're used to seeing me in the morning after I drop off my daughter, picking up a few things like eggs, milk, bread, etc. This morning, while shopping, I called a good friend of mine, Mark, who is a member of First Baptist Church in town and is also the chairman of the board for the largest Christian radio station in Central Alabama, Faith Radio. He answered and I asked him if FBC was doing anything to help out the hurricane victims. At the time, he didn't know of anything, but he asked what the radio station could do. We thought through that for a minute and decided that they could broadcast all day about our trip telling people to bring supplies to our church before this evening. Now, the whole area would know that we were going and how they could help. Praise God!