News from Japan on our American Baptist Missionaries: All Are Safe

VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 3/11/11)—Please keep the people of Japan and other affected areas in your prayers, after the most powerful earthquake to hit Japan in at least 100 years caused a tsunami along the coast. The quake struck at 2:46 pm local time and caused the U.S. National Weather Service to issue tsunami warnings for at least 50 countries and territories.

International Ministries has received word that all of the American Baptist missionaries in Japan are safe.  Despite phone service being unavailable in many areas, word is coming in via Facebook and Twitter. 

"Our hearts go out to the people of Japan as they begin the task of recovering and rebuilding from this disaster," said Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA. "We pray for those who have lost family and friends and their source of income."

Our Japanese partner churches and schools have been affected by the earthquake and resulting tsunami.  One Great Hour of Sharing is accepting contributions for emergency relief and rebuilding efforts.  Please visit the IM website for more information.

American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with 5,500 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world

Looking Back & Ahead

I thought I’d take time out, review where we’ve been at Meriden's First Baptist Church and what we’ll be doing in the near future. 

Where we’ve been:

We’ve just sewed up a sermon series on the Kingdom of God.  In essence, we’ve discovered that the Christian life is not about waiting for the sweet bye and bye in which we play harps on clouds.  The bye and bye will, indeed, be sweet – and I’m sure we can play a harp if we want – but Jesus came so that we can live the life of the future second coming right now.  We explored the nature of the kingdom (God’s reign is already here; it is not yet complete), the power of the kingdom (Christ did miracles to show what the future will be like), and the ways of the kingdom, which are found in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.  We finished up by talking about one of the several parables of the Kingdom in Matthew 13:1-9, the so-called Parable of the Soil, which challenges us with the question: What kind of soil are we?  Can the seed of the kingdom flourish in us?  We discovered that rich soil if we rip our agendas and adopt Christ’s agenda. 

The four be-quicks function as tools in nurturing our soil: Be quick drop our assumptions and priorities and follow Christ; be quick to confess our wrongs and seek reconciliation; be quick to pray; be quick to study and apply the Scriptures, which often run against the culture’s grain.

 

Where we will be:

We’re about to launch a new series on peacemaking.  A little teaser: Peacemaking is far more than avoiding conflict.  In fact, we may need to stir controversy in order to bring true peace.

 

Where we are:

We’ll look at the Gospel According to John in our New Testament Survey series on Sunday morning.

Ash Wednesday & Lent

We’ll be celebrating Ash Wednesday tomorrow, at 7 p.m., so I thought I’d supply a little background.

What is Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, which, traditionally, is a 40-day countdown of fasting and prayer leading to Easter (the Sundays in this period are not considered part of Lent because they’re a “mini-Easter”).   The Roman Catholic Church recently re-adjusted the season to last until Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday), although Lenten practices continue until Easter morning.

Lent need not be morbid.  It is simply a season of fasting, repentance (changing our minds under the power of the Holy Spirit), and, consequently, spiritual growth.   The so-called “Lenten disciplines” can be means by which we quiet ourselves before God.  They involve a process Eastern Christians call theosis, which a great church father, Athanasius, described as “becoming by grace what God is by nature.”

Ash Wednesday begins it all, with many Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches placing ashes on foreheads in the sign of the cross as a mark of repentance.

Some Protestants resist the ashes because it reminds them of Catholicism and rote ceremony.  Our church has no tradition of ashes and we will honor that tomorrow.  However, it’s useful to appreciate the biblical roots of Ash Wednesday and Lent.  Lent’s forty days echo the flood in Noah’s life (Genesis 7:4), Moses’s stay on top of Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18); Israel’s wandering in the desert (Numbers 14:33); Elijah on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8); and Jesus’s 40-days in the desert (see the accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

Ashes are used throughout the Bible, and I’ve listed passages under various categories:

A Biblical sign of mourning, grief, and repentance: Job 42:3-6; Jeremiah 6:26; Ezekiel 27:3; Esther 4:1-3; Job 2:8; Psalm 102:9; Daniel 9:3

A sign of shame and mourning (placed on the head): 2 Samuel 13:19

A sign of punishment for disobeying God: Exodus 9:8-9: God commanded Moses and Aaron to take ashes from a furnace and toss them in the air, which would then become fine dust and spread throughout Egypt, resulting in the plague of boils.

The result of the burnt offering: Leviticus 1:9-17.  Such an offering is a “fine aroma pleasing to the Lord;” Leviticus 4:12; Leviticus 6:10-11

As a cleansing agent: Numbers 19:1-9 [see Hebrews 9:13]

An emblem of our own humility, showing we know what we are before God: Genesis 18:27: Abraham answered, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes;” Job 30:19; Job 13:12; Isaiah 58:5 (the point of this verse is that ceremonial fasting and laying in ashes is pointless without character change); Daniel 9:3.

New Testament:

Matthew 11:21 [Luke 10:13]; Hebrews 9:13: Ashes are a cleansing agent; Peter 2:6

Christians the world over in various denominations remind themselves of biblical teaching and their heritage through this ceremony.  We can appreciate them.

Vitally Vital News for the First Baptist Church of Meriden, a vital scene

An Announcement That Pulsates With Vitality:

The first announcement here is vitally important because it’s vital, so vital that it’s … well, vitally important (?). The other announcements are merely important. They are simple “must reads” as opposed to rock-the-earth reads.

The First Announcement – the one that’s vitally important:

David Bryant

We are compiling signatures for the Iron Sharpens Iron conference, to be held on March 19 at the First Cathedral in Bloomfield. We need to know who is going so we can purchase the tickets at the group rate, which adds up to $39 per individual, by this upcoming Sunday (March 6). We’ve taken measures to assure that all men can come (this is a men’s conference) – whether they have the money or not. Do not allow the price to chase you away.

Voddie Baucham

Iron Sharpens Iron is an annual men’s conference – which I said already – and is held in cities and towns across the land. This year’s gathering features David Bryant, who has played a key role in launching a world-wide prayer movement, and Voddie Baucham, a Christian apologist and pastor. There are plenty of smaller sessions as well.

Please e-mail me and tell me you plan on going: charlesredfern@hotmail.com. It’s vitally important that you do so.

The merely important announcements:


For Sunday:


Deeper learning (otherwise known as Adult Sunday School):

We’ll be talking about the miracles of Jesus in our on-going survey of the New Testament before the 11 a.m. service. We gather at 9:45 a.m. in the room with the comfy chairs (otherwise known as the lounge)

The Service:

Remember that it’s Communion Sunday. We’re slated to sing the following hymns: 69, 92, 284, and 560.

The Sermon:


We’ll sew up our series on the Kingdom of God with a talk on Parable of the Sower, which could just as easily be called the “Parable of the Soils,” in Matthew 13:1-9 (see the parallel accounts in Mark 4:1-9 and Luke 8:4-8).

Into The Future

Spaghetti Night: We’ll be holding a fun night in April for the missions trip, which is slated for late June in Savannah, Georgia; there will be a church-wide retreat October 13-14. Much more will be discussed in future posts concerning this. Suffice it to say that we’re encouraging people to read The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George Hunter, and Organic Community: Creating A Place Where People Naturally Connect, by Joseph R. Myers.