The Southern Baptist Convention

Tomorrow Johnny, Jacob, and I will head down to San Antonio for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. I will not attend all the meetings with Johnny as I will be entertaining Jacob. I can't decide if I will be sad to miss all the fireworks or glad to not be a witness to it. You see, there's some disharmony in the SBC (gasp!) . I've been perusing blogs from a broad spectrum of people in SBC life and I've been rather disappointed in most. It occurred to me as I listened to Johnny's sermon this morning that some So. Bapt. have forgotten whom our real enemy is -- it's not "us" vs. "them" within our convention but it's us vs. the world. Have you heard how people like Rosie talk about Christians? How in the world do we (a general we speaking of SBC people) have the guts to utter one negative breath about people in our own belief system when THE WORLD IS OPPOSED TO US AND TALKING BAD ABOUT US AS CHRISTIANS? How do we do it???? Did you see the news where an actor was fired from a tv show (not one that I watch) for saying a negative comment about a gay person but any bad thing can be said about Christians and it is AOK. (Please don't read anything into that statement about gay people -- I am not saying it was or was not ok for the actor to say a negative comment about gay people, I am just saying some things are tolerated and some are not.) Johnny talked about this morning that when people don't get what they want, when they want it, exactly the way they want it, that's when Satan starts whispering in their ear so they justify their sin. Judas Iscariot was one example...Jesus didn't turn out to be who Judas thought He was so when Judas was tempted by Satan, he gave in and betrayed Jesus. Does everything have to be our way? Can we just tolerate our brothers and sisters for the sake of the Gospel? "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth (or your fingertips, if you are a blogger), but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear." (Eph. 4:29 with my own addition and emphasis)

Whew, with that off my chest, let me just add that Josh & Jess will be off to Centrifuge at Panama City Beach tonight. Johnny and I met while working Centrifuge exactly 20 years ago this summer. I attended Centrifuge as a student, as a chaperone, and as an employee. The summer I went as a chaperone, God got a hold of me and completely altered the course of my life. As an employee, I met Johnny and my life was changed again. I am praying for God to do something awesome in the life of Josh and Jess this week as well.

Serving the King,

Jeanette