Baptist Press Stories for May. 18 2012 --------------------------------------- Prisoner sees harvest of souls http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37857 Abstinence program gains HHS approval http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37858 Strife in Sudan stretches into several regions http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37859 FLOURISH: Pastors' wives, we get you http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37860 FLOURISH: A wife's church planting journey http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37861 Tenn. Baptists approve sale of property http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37867 NBA playoffs prompt 'I believe' campaign http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37862 CULTURE DIGEST: Unborn children counted for White House tours http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37863 FIRST-PERSON: A double standard for Calif. teens http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37864 FIRST-PERSON: A prayer of surrender http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37865 FIRST-PERSON: Fotografías en Cristo http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37866 --------------------------------------- Prisoner sees harvest of souls By Ava Thomas May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37857 CENTRAL ASIA (BP) -- "Dad, I think we're being followed." Yasemin* drummed her fingers nervously on the car door. Her father kept on driving the familiar route to drop her off at English class, singing a praise song to Jesus as he drove. Yasemin turned around and looked back. "Dad, we're being followed." He sang louder. "Would you take it seriously?" Not missing a beat, he changed songs mid-verse and belted out lyrics of his own: "I'm going to prison today!" James* knew the signs. He'd already been in prison once for his faith in Jesus. That day made it a second. In the region where James and his family live in Central Asia, people bend over backward to show hospitality. Go to a neighbor's home, and they spread out a feast and heap a visitor's plate high with food. Leave your wallet somewhere, and people will guard it until you return. "In lieu of an armored car, I've seen cars left unattended with the trunk open and piles of cash inside," a friend of James said. "No one would dare bother it." In his country, they take care of each other. But share Christ openly, and they may torture you. "James has been blindfolded, handcuffed and held in solitary confinement," his friend said. During the day, he has faced confinement in a room where three compressor units were blowing hot air on him, and he was not given any water or food. Officials interrogated him, asking why he left his former religion. "I am on this way because of Jesus and what He has done for me," James said. At the beginning of his imprisonment, he was put in a small jail cell at night, his hands released just long enough for him to eat a small piece of bread and drink one liter of water. But James hardly slept -- he stayed awake praying and singing praises, just as he did in the hot room during the daytime. James has lost nearly 50 pounds since being imprisoned, his friend said. But he has seen a lot of people found -- many of them from places where he could never get access to go and share his faith. One of them had heard part of the Gospel message nine years earlier, and when he met James in prison, he heard the whole message and believed on the spot. "This man had been waiting for nine years to hear the rest of the Gospel, just wanting to meet someone who could tell him," James' friend said. "He knew immediately it was God's plan to send him to prison. He danced for joy." The guards came and began to beat the new believer. "He cried out for Jesus to rescue him, and he stood firm," James' friend said. "He's still standing firm with James in prison today." James is seeing more people come to faith in Jesus Christ during his months-long imprisonment than in the rest of his 20 years as a believer, his friend said. "He is enduring all things, and all the time more people are coming to faith," his friend said. "He is torn between two things -- his release and the work God is doing there through him. His family is very anxious for him to be out of prison, but he is telling them to be patient, because God is doing great things." When James' wife Ashti* and Yasemin got to visit him in prison, tears ran down their faces. "He put his hands on our heads and said, 'Why are you sad? God has a purpose for me here and He is not finished with it yet,'" Ashti recounted. He prayed for comfort for them then told them he had a job for them to do. "He said a man had come to believe in Jesus and wanted his wife to know," Ashti said. "He asked James to get us to go and share with his wife." With nerves on edge, Ashti and Yasemin loaded up the car and went straight to her house from the prison. "I didn't know what we were going to do, how we were going to tell her or how we would be received," Ashti said. "But when we got there, she said, 'I want very much to hear what you have come to tell me -- there is light all around you, and I want to know why.'" Ashti knows the difference that the Light -- Jesus -- can make. She herself came to faith when she encountered Light during childbirth, seven years after James first believed in Christ. He was a devout Muslim -- even to the point of planning terrorism -- before someone gave him a copy of the Gospel of John. In the middle of the night he felt someone call his name, shake him and tell him go to read. He lit a lamp, got the book from the shelf and started reading while his family slept. The words jumped off the page at him. By the following year, he was a wholehearted follower of Jesus. "I had been so angry with him for becoming a believer," Ashti said. "I tried and tried to get him to return to Islam. I got my mat out and prayed with the kids in front of him on purpose." He didn't change his mind, or his heart. "Finally after years of trying to get him to come back to Islam, I was at the lowest point in my life. I decided to divorce him, even if it meant I had to leave the kids," Ashti said. Then she learned she was pregnant. She headed straight to a clinic to have an abortion, not wanting to have the baby of an infidel. "But the doctor said I was too far along to abort, so I decided I would have the baby, but that was it," Ashti said. She packed her bags and left to live with family until she had the baby. James didn't see her again until he got a call while she was in labor. It wasn't to let him know she'd have the baby -- it was to let him know she'd decided to come home. During labor, she met Jesus. "All I could see was light," she said. And now all her children have met Jesus, which has helped greatly with understanding why their father is in prison. But they still struggle with his absence. "As the trial with James has continued, remaining upbeat has grown increasingly harder," James' friend said. "His family struggled greatly with sadness and frustration. That being said, however, the Father has been working powerfully to strengthen their faith through it all." And the Father has made such an impact on James' fellow prisoners that many of them, after their release, have traveled great distances to let James' family know he's safe, his friend said. "His wife and kids are encouraged by the reports from the former inmates, but they are also dearly missing their dad and spouse." But they know that God put him in jail with those men so that their families could also know the truth, his friend said. "Keep James lifted up so that the spirit of love pours from him into their lives and his light burns ever brighter every day." --30-- *Names have been changed. Ava Thomas is a writer/editor for the International Mission Board based in Europe. -- End of story -- Abstinence program gains HHS approval By Aaron Earls May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37858 WASHINGTON (BP) -- Heritage Keepers, an abstinence-based sex education curriculum offered by Heritage Community Services in Charleston, S.C., has been approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after a study found it effective in delaying sexual initiation among youth. The study involved 2,215 students in grades 7-9 and demonstrated that those receiving the Heritage Keepers curriculum were significantly less likely to become sexually active at the 12 month follow-up than those in a comparison group. For those in the comparison group, sexual experience increased from 29.2 percent to 43.2 percent, compared to an increase from 29.1 percent to 33.7 percent among those who participated in Heritage Keepers. The HHS has specific metrics with which to determine if a program is "effective," and Heritage Keepers is the only abstinence-based program to this point to gain this HHS status. Yet Heritage Keepers is not the first abstinence education curriculum with positive behavioral results, noted to Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association. "We currently have 26 such studies," Huber said, "but their [HHS] list does not reflect this impact." Heritage Keepers is on the Web at [URL=http://heritageservices.accountsupport.com/abstinence_education.html]http://heritageservices.accountsupport.com/abstinence_education.html[/URL]. The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based policy think tank not affiliated with Heritage Community Services, points to 17 separate studies that indicate significant positive results from abstinence education, such as delayed sexual initiation and reduced levels of early sexual activity. According to Christine Kim, a policy analyst at Heritage Foundation, and Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at Heritage, teenagers who are abstinent in high school are "almost twice as likely to attend and graduate from college when compared with sexually active teens from identical social backgrounds." Kim and Rector also report that abstinence education programs are not simply teaching teenagers to avoid sexual initiation but are "developing character traits that prepare youths for future-oriented goals." Heritage Keepers abstinence education program states that its goal is not only "to reduce the number of teens initiating sexual activity and increase the number of sexually active teens returning to abstinence" but also to encourage students "to develop a strong sense of personal identity and worth, set protective boundaries," resist negative peer pressure, determine and protect personal values and goals and set high standards for themselves. Daniel Heimbach, senior professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina, said biblical sexual morality, including abstinence outside of marriage, "always works for the best mentally, biologically and sociologically, whether people believe in God or not." "Not only is there much less risk to human health in avoiding promiscuity," Heimbach, author of "True Sexual Morality," said, "but scientists have found that the human brain is wired to make much stronger attachments when sex is limited to one partner and that promiscuity makes stable attachments harder and harder to achieve." For Heimbach, however, "the only true and sufficient foundation for moral obligation to keep sex holy is the holiness of God. All men are called to 'be holy as God is holy,' and keeping sex holy requires abstinence outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage." Richard Ross, professor of student ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas, agreed that as important as the practical benefits of abstinence are in encouraging teenagers to make wise decisions, they are outweighed by helping students remain pure out of a response to the lordship of Christ. "Sexual purity is a powerful way to acknowledge the supremacy of Christ," said Ross, cofounder of the True Love Waits movement. "It allows students to move out in Kingdom activity with great passion and power. "Avoiding [sexually transmitted diseases] and not having early babies are good things, but they pale in comparison with a focus on bringing great glory to Christ through a generation who abide in Him in purity. "The most powerful way to impact prom-night decisions is for parents, leaders and peers to more fully awaken teenagers to God's Son, to invite them to make a promise to Him, and to walk beside them in a shared journey toward purity." Heimbach believes the home should be the primary place for teaching God's standard for sex. "Nothing influences the sexual expectations and moral character of children more than the behavior of their parents," he said. Heimbach also encourages parents "to speak, explain and instruct children to help them understand what sexual purity requires and why it is truly best for all in the long run." Ross added that, while the home and the church must work together in a partnership, primary responsibility falls to the parents. "Parents will lead children spiritually, one direction or another. The faith and morality of the children almost always will mirror that of parents," Ross said. This does not require parents to have perfect pasts, Heimbach said. "It is never too late to start modeling sexual purity 'from now on.' But what will never work at all is for parents to expect children to 'do as I say, not as I do.' That approach will assure disastrous results every time," he said. Working with the True Love Waits campaign, Ross is continually reminded of the individual importance of abstinence being encouraged at home, church and school. "Tens of thousands of students who made purity promises and kept those promises are moving into biblical marriages," Ross said. "They are finding deep joy in committed sexual relationships, without flashbacks, emotional scaring or guilt. By waiting on sex, they now are experiencing the greatest delight in sex -- just as God planned." --30-- Aaron Earls is a freelance writer in Wake Forest, N.C. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp). -- End of story -- Strife in Sudan stretches into several regions By Staff/Compass Direct News May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37859 JUBA, South Sudan (BP) -- Security agents in Sudan's South Darfur state have closed the offices of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) and relief group Sudan Aid in the state's capital, Nyala. Agents from the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) arrived at the organizations' compound in Nyala, a city of some 550,000 people, at 8 a.m. on April 22. They ordered SCC staff members to hand over keys to the offices and vehicles and, without explanation, ordered them to leave immediately, an SCC staff worker told Compass Direct News by phone. "They came early in the morning to our office and took all the keys of the offices, chasing us out of the compound with no reason given to us," the SCC staff worker said. Three staff members from Sudan Aid were arrested in the course of the closure and were taken to an undisclosed location, the source said, adding, "Their families are living in agony due to the uncertainty of their fate." NISS agents also closed down a church clinic that was serving the needy in the area. The actions came as Christianity is increasingly regarded as a foreign faith to be excised from Sudan, which has begun transporting ethnic South Sudanese to South Sudan following the latter's secession last year. An estimated 350,000 ethnic South Sudanese, many of them Christian, remain in the Islamic north, with many having never lived anywhere else. The day after the closure of the SCC and Sudan Aid offices, staff members reported to work only to find more than a dozen security personnel, some carrying arms, cordoning off the compound. The security agents told the employees the offices were closed and to go home. The agents took the keys of five cars and drove them away, according to an SCC press statement. Three motorbikes also were taken. "We do not know the whereabouts of the cars," the SCC officials say in the statement. On April 24, Sudan's federal Humanitarian Aid Commission froze the bank accounts of the SCC in Nyala. The security agents also took four cars and five motorbikes from Sudan Aid, sources said. Five staff members initially were arrested, two of whom were later released. Sources told Compass the incident left churches in South Darfur, one of five states that makes up the Darfur region, deeply disturbed and frightened. NUBA CRISIS At the same time, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, sought by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur, has vowed to rid the Nuba Mountains of Christians and those he claims are agents of the West. On April 20 Bashir ordered the Sudanese military to rid South Kordofan state's Nuba Mountains of everyone who opposes his Islamic rule, and the past several weeks he has repeatedly declared jihad against the ethnic Nuba peoples, which include many Christians. The government has declared jihad against Christians not only in the Nuba Mountains but also in the Blue Nile state and in South Sudan. State-owned TV and radio play songs urging Muslims to "fight the infidels" and "cleanse the land" of their presence, increasing the fears of ethnic South Sudanese Christians trapped in the hostile north. Humanitarian agencies consider the Islamic government's targeting of civilians in the Nuba Mountains an "ethnic cleansing" against non-Arab peoples in the multi-ethnic state, with the added incentive of ridding the area of Christians. Additionally, as military conflict escalated between Sudan and South Sudan this spring, Bashir vowed to liberate South Sudan from what he described as "insects." Bashir said he does not want "to see these insects making our pure land unclean," prompting cheers in Port Sudan on April 20. The hostile speeches by Bashir and other Sudanese officials are aimed at mobilizing Muslims abroad to fund military operations in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, sources said. Muslim religious leaders in Sudan, said to have ties with hard-line Muslim Salafists, have asserted that there should no longer be room for churches and Christians following South Sudan's secession on July 9, 2011. Sudanese aerial forces bombed a Sudanese Church of Christ building on March 28 in the al-Buram area of South Kordofan, eyewitnesses from the area told Compass by phone. The sources added that life is becoming more difficult for Christians in South Kordofan as the Sudan government mobilizes Arab tribes, arming them with guns to kill the ethnic Nuba people. --30-- Reported by Compass Direct News (www.compassdirect.org), a news service based in Santa Ana, Calif., focusing on Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Used by permission. -- End of story -- FLOURISH: Pastors' wives, we get you By Kathy Litton May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37860 EDITOR'S NOTE: The North American Mission Board has introduced an online equipping community for ministers' wives named www.Flourish.me. Kathy Ferguson Litton, as a national consultant for NAMB's ministry to pastors' wives, leads Flourish with a team of ministry wives from across North America who understand the unique role in which these women serve. [IMGONLY=32631@left@180]ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Recently, I had to take a taxi to catch an early morning flight. At the ridiculous hour of 4:15 a.m. the driver was unfortunately quite chatty. After discovering I lead a ministry to pastors' wives he asked me, with a fair amount of curiosity and skepticism, "Why do pastors' wives need ministry?" He had little contact with church culture so I found myself awkwardly grappling for an appropriate reply. It was sort of painful. Finally, he helped me out. "I get cabbies," he said. Thank you, driver, you summed it up for me. Ministry wives need someone who understands them, somebody who "gets it." Ministry life is not a burdened life with which we are dismally saddled. Yet we operate in a unique culture -- one you almost have to live in to really understand. Last summer under the leadership of Kevin Ezell, the North American Mission Board's president, NAMB launched a ministry to pastors' wives. Flourish is an online equipping community created for ministry wives. It has been developed and led by a team of ministry wives who live and understand the unique role of this calling. We get it. We understand when asked in the most basic social exchange, "What does your husband do?" our response may just kill that conversation. The killer "day of rest" Sundays with multiple services or chairs we must set up then stack ourselves, we get it. We are personally inextricably woven into our husband's job like few others. We understand that a mystical template for "the perfect pastor's wife" is floating out there, and we are pretty sure we are not her. Flourish is a word carefully chosen to represent what we hope is a passion in wives' hearts. A passion to desire to "grow well, to thrive." Additionally it means for us to "reach the height of development or influence." The Flourish team wants ministry wives to flourish spiritually, emotionally and physically. We all can flourish wherever we are on the journey. The roads that we took to become ministry wives are as diverse as our hair colors. God chose flawed and thoroughly human women with no superpowers. God will use our unique stories for the sake of the Gospel, whether we are new believers, from a strong faith heritage, or marked by a broken, painful past, or if the church culture is strange and unfamiliar. Despite what you may think, few of us have four-year degrees from Pastor's Wife University. This industry we are called to beside our husbands is a sacred, eternal industry. We are partners in advancing the Gospel. We have tremendous influence on our husband's effectiveness in his role, whether we love that thought or not. Our need to flourish is not for him nor is it for us. We need to flourish for the sake of the Gospel. Here is an important fact we cannot lose sight of: Like Paul our lives are "separated to the Gospel of God" (Romans 1:1). It's about advancing the Gospel. Ministry wives need a place to connect with other ministry wives for support, encouragement and resources. They can now engage with women who walk the same path at [URL=www.flourish.me]www.flourish.me[/URL]. --30-- Kathy Litton is the national consultant for the North American Mission Board's ministry to pastors' wives. Visit the online Flourish community at www.flourish.me. -- End of story -- FLOURISH: A wife's church planting journey By Shauna Pilgreen May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37861 EDITOR'S NOTE: The North American Mission Board has introduced an online equipping community for ministers' wives named [URL=www.Flourish.me]www.Flourish.me[/URL]. In this article, Shauna Pilgreen, wife of NAMB church planter missionary Ben Pilgreen, shares how God prepared her and her family to move to San Francisco to plant a new church. SAN FRANCISCO (BP) -- I could sense that something was stirring in my husband's heart a few years ago. It was evident in his preaching. I could hear it in his voice. The pieces came together when Ben asked me to pray about church planting. With a deep breath and a wavering trust, I answered him, "I'll do that. I'll pray. Give me a few days." I began to think about how good we had it. We had a nice home in a safe neighborhood. Ben was in a good situation at the church where we served. The senior pastor was a mentor who poured daily into Ben. We loved our church. Our friends. Our sons were in a great school. We were within driving distance to family. And we even had season tickets to Silver Dollar City! Was God calling us to give all that up? I began to pray. We are not promised a comfortable life here on earth. But we are promised that God will never leave us and that He goes before us. As a young girl, I had already told God that I'd go anywhere. But Africa was more on the radar than an urban setting in North America. Ben and I began to talk about the "non-negotiables" -- what we could sacrifice and what we wouldn't. We could give up being a two-car family, owning a home, living somewhat close to family. We wouldn't sacrifice our marriage, our children's best interests or their education. This was it. Our journey was starting. As best I can describe it, we held hands, looked at each other and stepped off the cliff into the great unknown of this faith journey into church planting. It became clear God was calling us to plant a church in San Francisco. We knew God had called us to the task and a peace began to fill our hearts. But when we made our initial trip to San Francisco, questions raced through my mind. Where will we live? Where are the playgrounds for our kids? Where will they go to school? What will our church look like? Am I prepared for this? We had made moves to other churches and other ministries, but this was different. This had many more unknowns. I recall telling Ben how overwhelmed I was with the research, information and process. At times my eyes would hurt from looking at all the school data online. I recall praying, "God, in Your presence this morning, I have overwhelmingly been reminded that You are holy, in control, and desire to receive glory through this process." Ben and I wrote a weekly prayer guide and continued to do so up until the move. In addition, I knew I needed a personal prayer base, so I asked 10 women to commit to pray for our family and for me. (I had no idea that three years later, I'd still be emailing them with requests and they'd still be committed to praying for us.) After much preparation, we finally made the move to the West Coast. With our feet on the ground in San Francisco, we had one mission: meet people. We invited people into our apartment. We began to share our story of why we were here. While Ben immersed himself in strategy for church planting in our target area, the boys and I immersed ourselves in the city. Within one month of moving, we held the first launch team meeting in our apartment. Gratitude came over me when the last person left our home that night, so grateful we were doing this as a family. God was gracious to remind me that we aren't out here alone. He had already gone before us. In the church planting culture, I know my story might be similar or drastically different from other church planting wives. Yet, getting from the calling to the launch Sunday has common steps. We must listen to our husband's heart and vision and dream. We must study the culture and city where we are planting. We must seek the God who sends us (Jeremiah 29:7,11-13). We must pray for anything and everything that seems to rest on our souls. And for me those prayers were the assurance that other kids did live in San Francisco, that God was with me crossing the sidewalks with three little boys, that He was protecting my husband's heart and that somebody would show up our first Sunday. If I could look into the eyes of a church planter's wife, I would genuinely say, "It's worth it! It's so hard, but so worth it." Build a prayer support around you. Ask some of your favorite women to pray for you as you keep them posted through emails, texts and phone calls. Insist that your friends and family come visit. Something changes in their hearts when they can see with their eyes and experience what your life as a church planter is really like. Network with others who are ahead of you in the process. Seek out other women in ministry nearby who understand the culture and are working alongside you to see God move. Just recently, I looked back in my journal. Just a few years ago I wrote, "As best as I can describe it, we held hands, looked at each other, and stepped figuratively off the cliff into the great unknown of faith." And it's been one of the best decisions we've ever made. --30-- Shauna Pilgreen is married to Ben Pilgreen, church planter and pastor of Epic Church San Francisco. She is a contributor to Flouish.me, an online community for ministers' wives sponsored by the North American Mission Board. She is co-author of "The Same Page: Living Your Happily Ever After" with Courtney Bullard. -- End of story -- Tenn. Baptists approve sale of property By Lonnie Wilkey/Baptist & Reflector May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37867 BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (BP) -- The Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention voted unanimously to accept a $9 million offer for the convention's office space in Brentwood, Tenn., during a special called meeting Thursday (May 17). The Executive Board has been in its present location since 1969. David Green, president of the Executive Board and pastor of First Baptist Church in Greeneville, said the meeting was historic for Tennessee Baptists. The two buildings which comprise the Baptist Center (the original structure and the conference center added in 1989) along with 5.25 acres will be purchased by Franklin Land Associates LLC. Rich Wallace, an attorney and member of First Baptist Church in Sevierville, brought the recommendation to sell the property from the administrative committee which he chairs. The Executive Board began a feasibility study of selling the property in 1996, Wallace said. In 2005, a committee was formed to deal with inquiries arising from the sale of an adjoining property. Three years later the Executive Board approved the sale of the Baptist Center for $13 million, but the sale did not occur, Wallace told board members. Stewardship was the major reason for selling the property, Wallace said. Since 1989 when the conference center was added, the number of full-time employees has dropped from 135 to 105. Eighty-eight of those positions are assigned to the Brentwood office and about half of them work with churches in the field, board members were told. In addition, Wallace said nearly $1.5 million in capital improvements would have to be made should the board remain in its present location. Wes Turner, an attorney and member of First Baptist Church in Nashville, chaired the subcommittee that handled negotiations for the property sale. The property will be purchased for $9 million. The purchaser will have an inspection period of 90 days after the signing of the contract (May 17), Turner explained. At the end of the inspection period the buyer can terminate the agreement and receive a refund of the $270,000 earnest money that was deposited with an escrow agent. The buyer also has the option of extending the inspection period for up to five additional 30-day periods upon direct payment to the Executive Board of $45,000 for each extension. Those funds are nonrefundable but will be applied to the purchase price, Turner said. Escrow closing will take place within 15 days at the end of the inspection period. Before the closing of the sale, the Executive Board will have up to eight months to vacate the property, Turner said. During the occupancy period, the Executive Board will pay for all utilities and perform routine maintenance but will not be required to perform any capital improvements, Turner said. The Executive Board also will maintain its property casualty and liability insurance, he added. The board will retain the stained glass, furniture, equipment and the "Tennessee Baptist Convention" portion of the rock sign on the corner of the property. If the chapel is torn down in any manner, the Executive Board also has the right to secure the rocks from the chapel, Turner said. The Executive Board does not have to pay any closing costs or commissions, so it will receive the entire $9 million, Turner said. Discussion was relatively brief as only questions of clarification were asked. One board member asked, "Can we comfortably replace this building with $9 million?" TBC Executive Director Randy Davis responded, "From everything I have seen, we can." Following the unanimous vote to sell the property, Davis characterized the milestone as "a significant, historical, game-changing day in the life of the Tennessee Baptist Convention." For 43 years, "we have called 5001 Maryland Way home," Davis said. "But, motivated for the right reasons, it is time to go in another direction." Davis expressed appreciation to previous Executive Board members and to his predecessor, James Porch, for "beginning to cast a vision of a more efficient and effective way to do missions as an Executive Board." He also expressed appreciation to the subcommittee of Turner, Wallace, Roy Gilleland and Randy Vineyard and for the Executive Board staff. "The months ahead will be months that will require the very best our staff has to offer," Davis said. "They must continue to possess a 'whatever it takes' attitude that's willing to go the extra mile." While stressing that the Executive Board does not know where it is going on a temporary or permanent basis, "We know why we are going," Davis said. "We understand very clearly why we are selling the building. Stewardship and strategy have driven this decision." The decision, Davis said, did not stem from financial difficulties, because Tennessee Baptists are giving faithfully. "We are on solid financial footing thanks to prudent decisions such as the one made by our Executive Board today," he said. If the sale closes, Davis said, the Executive Board "will become a more efficient missions organization." "We will be able to put more Great Commission Cooperative Program dollars into better serving our churches, thus reaching more Tennesseans [with] the Gospel of Jesus Christ," he said. While "we may not know the next physical address of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, we know exactly where the work will be done," the executive director said. "It will be done in the highways and hedges, hand-in-hand with associations, churches and Great Commission partners across this state, across North America and around the world." Davis told Board members that though the action they took was "a brick and mortar decision," it was "eternal to the core." "I commit to you that we will do everything in our power to be wise stewards of this investment for the sake of the Kingdom. This is going to be a productive, exciting and fun road trip," Davis said. --30-- Lonnie Wilkey is editor of the Baptist & Reflector newspaper, online at [URL=www.tnbaptist.org/BRNews.asp]www.tnbaptist.org/BRNews.asp[/URL]. -- End of story -- NBA playoffs prompt 'I believe' campaign By Staff May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37862 OKLAHOMA CITY (BP) -- As the Oklahoma City Thunder's NBA playoffs run continues, Oklahoma Baptists are teaming up to reach people for Christ in connection with the games and activities. Churches from the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, specifically its Union Baptist Association and Capital Baptist Association, are looking for ways to serve the community and share the Gospel. The theme for the Baptists' campaign is "I believe." "Everyone is talking about the Oklahoma City Thunder and the NBA playoffs," said Tim Gentry, the BGCO's evangelism specialist. "Oklahoma is proud of the progress our local NBA team has made, and during the playoffs people will be cheering them on, saying, 'I believe!' But the phrase 'I believe' has two meanings to Christians." During the playoffs, the Capital and Union associations, the BGCO, My316.com and Oklahoma City-area churches will be involved in servant evangelism and witnessing outreach efforts. "Our volunteers will be in Bricktown [Oklahoma City's entertainment district] helping as ambassadors of Christ, sharing their faith with others in words and deeds," Gentry said. "For example, our churches have volunteered to place team T-shirts at the home games on chairs and prayer walk the entire stadium." In addition, Oklahoma Baptists have printed a high gloss, mini-magazine that contains stories and testimonials from recognized Christian athletes including Thunder players Kevin Durant and Derek Fisher, as well as University of Oklahoma football quarterback Landry Jones. "People will use the printed literature to share their faith in person," Gentry said. "Christians will be sharing their faith online through social media on Twitter and Facebook." Gentry said Twitter participants are using the #ibelieve hashtag to join in conversations. "We want people to talk up the Thunder but share other things you believe in, like your faith in Jesus," Gentry said. "It's a good way to share your testimony with a large audience." --30-- Written by the staff of the Baptist Messenger, newsjournal of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. More information about the evangelistic campaign is available at ibelieveokc.com. -- End of story -- CULTURE DIGEST: Unborn children counted for White House tours By Staff May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37863 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Unborn children receive security clearances at the White House, but they have no protection elsewhere in the District of Columbia. The White House Visitors Office sent an email newsletter May 7 to members of Congress and other recipients that outlined the process of registering unborn babies for tours. "We have received a number of calls regarding how to enter security information for a baby that has not yet been born," wrote Ellie Schafer, director of the White House Visitors Office. "Crazy as it may sound, you MUST include the baby in the overall count of guests in the tour. It's an easy process." The email explains the process of entering the unborn child's security information. "Once the baby is born, you should send an email to the [Visitors Office] inbox with the tour request ID number, the baby's given name, their actual birthday and gender," Schafer wrote. Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) called it "ironic that President Obama's staff recognizes the existence of unborn babies for purposes of providing security within the White House -- yet, there is no indication that President Obama has any problem with the fact that throughout the District of Columbia, abortion is now legal for any reason up to the moment of birth. "Notably, the newsletter provides no guidance on what the staff should do if an unborn baby is first registered for security purposes, but then aborted," Johnson wrote. Pro-life advocates in Congress are backing the District of Columbia Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which prohibits abortions at 20 weeks or more into pregnancy based on evidence a baby in the womb experiences pain by that point. "If the President wants to provide for the security of the unborn child immediately outside of the White House gates, as well as inside, he should endorse this bill," wrote Johnson, NRLC's legislative director. MURAL DEBUNKS 2012 MAYAN DOOMSDAY -- An archaeological find contradicts the myth of a 2012 Mayan doomsday belief, National Geographic News has reported. A 1,200-year-old mural found in the Xultun archaeological site suggests dates thousands of years in the future, according to archeologists who found the mural in what is believed to have been the chamber of a scribe or record-keeper. Calculations on the walls, which would have helped scribes track time, extend some 7,000 years in the future, contradicting the doomsday myth. Excavation leader William Saturno and doctoral student assistant Franco Rossi found the room while inspecting a tunnel left at the site by modern-day looters, according to National Geographic News May 10. Despite looting, the interior of the room is said to be nearly perfectly preserved. "We keep looking for endings," Saturno said. "The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It's an entirely different mindset." Because looters nearly cleaned Xultun of all antiquities in the 1970s, many archaeologists reportedly had written off the site. "And yet we've still found things here that we've never seen anyplace else," Saturno said. "And we only started looking three years ago." EMORY UNIV. ACCUSED OF ACADEMIC BULLYING OVER EVOLUTION -- A renowned neurosurgeon who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and who successfully separated twins who were joined at the head was the target of academic bullying recently at Emory University in Atlanta because he does not believe in evolution. About 500 Emory faculty and students signed a letter to the editor of the university newspaper April 25 to call attention to commencement speaker Ben Carson's "dismissal of evolution." "The theory of evolution is as strongly supported as the theory of gravity and the theory that infectious diseases are caused by micro-organisms," the letter said. "Dismissing evolution disregards the importance of science and critical thinking to society." The Discovery Institute launched a petition drive in response, with more than 2,700 signatures gathered within a week in support of Carson, who serves as professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "We call upon Emory University to publicly reaffirm that the university community welcomes and honors invited commencement speaker Dr. Ben Carson," the petition said. David Klinghoffer, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, said in seeking to cast Carson in an embarrassing light, the professors who wrote the letter to the editor "used the familiar tactic of attributing to Dr. Carson beliefs, patently foolish ones, he does not hold." "This shoddy treatment adds to what's often called a 'chilling effect' on other scholars, less well armored by fame than Dr. Carson is," Klinghoffer wrote May 14. "If even a star like him can be subjected to the indignity of this unwelcoming welcome, then think of what a less well-known figure in academia would experience if he publicly voiced similar views." 'INTENSITY GAP' PROMPTS NARAL DEPARTURE -- The "intensity gap" on abortion in the United States helped convince the president of NARAL Pro-choice America to step aside. Nancy Keenan, head of one of the country's leading abortion rights organizations for nearly eight years, will leave her post at the end of the year, The Washington Post reported May 10. In an interview with the newspaper, Keenan, 60, said she is concerned about the pro-choice movement's future and believes younger leaders are needed to offset the rising tide of pro-lifers among Americans under 30 years of age. NARAL's polling has shown 51 percent of pro-life millennials consider abortion a "very important" voting issue, while only 26 percent of abortion rights supporters under 30 think of it in that way, according to The Post. "There is an intensity gap between our side, being pro-choice, and the other side," Keenan told the newspaper. Millennials will constitute 40 percent of the voting public by 2020, according to The Post. "This issue has got to be a voting issue for them," Keenan said. "If we want to continue protecting abortion rights in this country, this is so clearly the case." She said, "There's an opportunity for a new and younger leader. Roe v. Wade is 40 in January. It's time for a new leader to come in and, basically, be the person for the next 40 years of protecting reproductive choice." Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek wrote in response to Keenan's announcement, "[T]he fact is the pro-abortion movement is suffering attrition. It has killed off its future supporters. "Furthermore, it continues to kill off 3,300 more chips off the ole' block every day. So the 'intensity gap' is only going to widen, thanks to the birth gap," said Stanek, whose whistleblowing as a nurse helped bring about passage of a federal law protecting babies who survive abortions. PEPSICO HALTS RESEARCH USING ABORTED TISSUE -- PepsiCo no longer will permit research for its products using tissue from unborn children. The soft drink company announced it was halting the use of the aborted fetal cell line HEK-293 -- a human embryonic kidney colony -- by Senomyx in research to develop flavor enhancements for its beverages. A PepsiCo official revealed the decision in a letter to Children of God for Life, which announced the action April 30. Children of God had led a boycott of the company since last May after it was learned Senomyx, a biotechnology firm, was using the fetal tissue in its research. The fetal cell line was used in testing but not in Pepsi products, according to Children of God. "Senomyx will not use HEK cells or any other tissues or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses for research performed on behalf of PepsiCo," said Paul Boykas, PepsiCo's vice president of global public policy, in a letter to Children of God, according to the pro-life organization. Children of God Executive Director Debi Vinnedge said her organization was "absolutely thrilled" with PepsiCo's decision. "They have listened to their customers and have made both a wise and profound statement of corporate integrity that deserves the utmost respect, admiration and support of the public." The boycott, which was endorsed by more than 30 pro-life organizations, immediately ended with the announcement of PepsiCo's decision. When Senomyx's use of cells from an aborted baby was revealed last year, Campbell Soup Co. quickly ended its relationship with the biotech firm, but PepsiCo refused. MISS DELAWARE STANDS FOR LIFE DESPITE DISCOURAGEMENT -- Maria Cahill has continued to express her pro-life views as the reigning Miss Delaware despite being told not to by some. "I heard a lot of people say that because I was Miss Delaware and represented the Miss America Organization, for that reason, I had no right to talk about anything political," Cahill said, according to an April 25 report by Townhall.com. "In my mind, I thought exactly the opposite." She has spoken out for the pro-life cause since she was crowned last summer, according to Townhall. That included an appearance at the March for Life in January in Washington, D.C., an event she attends yearly. "I was really debating going as Miss Delaware or not. I did not tell my directors I was going," Cahill said. Advocating for unborn children is not new for Cahill. "I was always involved growing up. Ever since I can remember, I was volunteering at pro-life events," she said. KANSAS REPUBLICAN SIDELINES PRO-LIFE PROPOSAL -- The Republican president of the Kansas Senate has put an end this session to an effort to limit abortions by changes in the tax code. Three days after the House of Representatives passed the bill in an 88-31 vote, Senate President Steve Morris sent the measure to a committee just two days before the close of the legislative session, effectively killing the measure. Under the proposal, taxpayers would be unable to deduct money spent on an abortion or for supplemental health insurance to cover the procedure, The Kansas City Star reported. The bill also would prevent employers from taking deductions for contributions to health plans for supplemental coverage of abortion and companies from receiving tax credits for donations to Planned Parenthood, according to the report. In addition, the measure would ban state employees, including medical residents, from performing abortions on state property. Morris was concerned the legislation might affect the accreditation of the University of Kansas Medical Center, according to The Star. "While I will always fight for pro-life values, we must also protect the accreditation of our flagship medical center," Morris said, the newspaper reported. Kansans for Life's Kathy Ostrowski said the medical center's accreditation is not in danger and described Morris' explanation as "a phony excuse." The language in the proposal regarding the medical center is the same that exists in all of this year's budget proposals, including proposals supported by Morris, said Kansans for Life's state legislative director. --30-- Compiled by the Baptist Press staff. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp). -- End of story -- FIRST-PERSON: A double standard for Calif. teens By Kelly Boggs May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37864 ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) -- In California, a teenager can obtain an abortion without parental consent. But if a Golden State Assembly member has his way, teenagers will be unable to receive a therapy designed to help overcome unwanted homosexual attraction. The proposed legislation also would require adults to sign a form indicating the counseling is not only ineffective but dangerous. Sen. Ted Lieu, D.-Torrance, introduced a bill that calls reparative therapy "scientifically ineffective" and responsible for producing "extreme depression and guilt" that can lead to suicide. The bill further asserts that "family rejection" of a child's sexual orientation poses a serious health risk for minors and provides the state with a compelling interest to protect minors from harm. The double standard in California regarding the state's so-called interest in its citizens' physical and mental health is so glaring one needs to don shades when addressing it. A teenage girl experiencing the physical and emotional ramifications of pregnancy can waltz into a California abortion facility and undergo an invasive medical procedure without her parents' knowledge. A procedure, mind you, that can result in serious health complications and has proven to be psychologically problematic for many women. Some of the same "broad-minded" state legislators who allow a teenage girl to have an abortion are considering banning a teenager from obtaining a therapy that could help overcome unwanted sexual attraction. Additionally, the law would communicate to adults seeking the same therapy they are wasting their time. It would seem that Lieu and some of his colleagues in the California State Assembly are more interested in legislating ideology than in the wellbeing of the state's citizens. Reparative therapy, also known as conversion therapy, seeks to assist individuals in changing their sexual attractions from homosexual to heterosexual. Many secular professionals who deal with sexual orientation are adamantly opposed to reparative therapy, or for that matter any attempt to change one's sexual attraction. Among the groups that hold to an inflexible ideology that asserts that there is absolutely nothing wrong with homosexuality are the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. In fact, those groups affirm that homosexuality is natural, normal and healthy. Keep in mind the affirmation comes without any definitive scientific study indicating that homosexuality has any genetic or biological basis -- a fact the American Psychological Association admitted in a recent publication. In a brochure titled, "Answers to Your Question for a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality" (available on the organization's website) the APA states the following: "There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors...." While the APA and others defend homosexual behavior as natural and normal, the position is purely ideological and not scientific. I find it interesting that organizations and individuals dedicated to mental health would seek to ban anyone from accessing a harmless therapy an individual might need. A variety of therapies exist that attempt to help people with psychological issues. If a person is helped by one of them and it does no harm, why seek to ban it? Thousands of individuals can testify to overcoming homosexual attraction. Some have utilized reparative therapy while others have discovered a different means to victory over unwanted sexual attraction. In all, their experiences validate what the Bible teaches. People can be freed from homosexuality (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). The bottom line is if individuals are experiencing thoughts or feelings that are unwanted -- regardless of the nature of those thoughts or feelings -- shouldn't they have a right to pursue relief via therapy? If teenagers wish to seek reparative therapy and their parents or guardians consent, what is the problem? If adults believe reparative therapy might help with unwanted sexual attraction, why should the state seek to dissuade them? We live in a country where a person can obtain a surgical operation that will physically change his or her sexual identity. But we have one state -- California -- that is considering doing everything it can to restrict a person's ability to change his or her sexual attraction. What irony. --30-- Kelly Boggs is a weekly columnist for Baptist Press, director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention's office of public affairs, and editor of the Baptist Message www.baptistmessage.com, newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp). -- End of story -- FIRST-PERSON: A prayer of surrender By David Jeremiah May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37865 EL CAJON, Calif. (BP) -- Christ has called for unconditional surrender, death to the flesh, for all who would follow Him. When we become Christians, we are "crucified with Christ" (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20). Our rebellious sin nature is forever put to death by Christ's sacrifice on the cross; yet in practical terms, "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another" (Galatians 5:17). There are still times, in other words, when we don't feel like surrendering. We'd rather die than give up our independence, our individuality and our indecencies. But Jesus draws a firm line in the sand: "Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27). Jesus offers one term of surrender: The cross you died on positionally must be the cross you live on personally, each and every day. For the saints of God, surrender leads to an entirely new kind of life. In fact, we are born again to a new and living hope (John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:3). But to experience that life we have to surrender not just once but every day. There are numerous examples of saints in Scripture who chose life by surrendering. Think first of Job. Though he was assailed with calamities greater than most of us will ever face, a prayer of surrender was found frequently on his lips: "'The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.' In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong" (Job 1:21-22). The truest test of whether we are surrendered to the Lord is in times of personal defeat. Pride says, "Rise up and fight!" But the Spirit says, "Surrender and live." Job was wise enough to know the difference and lived (Job 42:10-17). Jonah might be the surrendered saint we most readily identify with. In the end, he realized it was better to be closer to God than to himself. He was brought to the surrender ceremony kicking and screaming, with both heels dug into the sand. He wanted nothing to do with God's terms of surrender: "Go to Nineveh and preach a message of judgment to the Ninevites." "Thank you. No," might as well have been Jonah's reply. He did an about face and hopped the first ship headed for Spain. Well-known is the rest of the story. From the belly of a great fish Jonah prayed his prayer of surrender: "I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD" (Jonah 2:9). Jonah learned it was better to surrender sooner than later. He went to Nineveh and God used him mightily. Finally, the stakes were the largest for Jesus Himself. Even as a young boy, He sensed the need to be surrendered to the will of His Heavenly Father (Luke 2:49). And at the outset of Jesus' public ministry, the devil himself offered Christ terms of surrender, which Jesus soundly rejected (Luke 4:1-13). Jesus made it to His last night on earth able to say, "I have finished the work You gave Me to do" (John 17:4). Yet His greatest challenge came just moments after He said those words. When Jesus prayed His prayer of surrender, "Not My will, but Yours be done" (Luke 22:42), He set the pattern for surrender for all who would follow Him into the kingdom of heaven. Ultimately, no one who says to God, "I'd rather be closer to me than to You," enters the kingdom of heaven. No one goes to heaven who says to God, "Not Thy will, but mine be done." The ruler of hell itself earned his position with just such words as those (Isaiah 14:12-14). How do we accept Christ's terms of surrender, living daily on the cross? Begin each day with a prayer of surrender: "Lord, today I surrender my life to You. I choose Your will to be done, not mine. I want to be closer to You, God, than I am to myself. I accept Your terms for my life today and purpose to live personally the crucified life which I received positionally through faith in Christ. I ask You to give me grace today to be a surrendered soldier of the cross. "Amen." --30-- David Jeremiah is the founder and host of Turning Point for God and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif. For more information on Turning Point, visit www.DavidJeremiah.org. -- End of story -- FIRST-PERSON: Fotografías en Cristo By Rudolph D. González May. 18 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37866 NOTA DEL EDITOR: La columna First-Person (De primera mano) es parte de la edición de hoy de BP en español. Para ver historias adicionales, vaya a [URL=http://www.bpnews.net/espanol]http://www.bpnews.net/espanol[/URL] SAN ANTONIO, Texas (BP) -- Cada año durante estos días de primavera miles de familias se preparan para uno de los grandes ritos de pasaje cultural, la graduación de sus hijos. Se espera que cerca de cinco millones de jóvenes serán graduados en los EE.UU. en 2012 (preparatoria, 3, 100,000; colegio/universidad, 1, 781,000). Estamos orgullosos porque nuestro hijo, Rodolfo Urías, será uno de ellos. En hacer preparativos para su fiesta de celebración mi esposa ha estado seleccionando fotografías de Rudy desde su niñez hasta lo más reciente. Esto de escoger fotos para enseñar a los invitados no es nada fácil. Tenemos fotografías desde que era bebito, pero no conozco a ningún joven de dieciocho que le gusta que sus padres lo revelen en pañales a sus amigos y la familia. En serio, una cosa he notado. La mayoría de las fotografías enseñan a nuestro hijo junto con sus padres. Se puede decir que los retratos son tanto de nosotros como también de él. Durante los primeros veinte años de nuestro matrimonio mi esposa y yo disfrutamos mucha libertad pues no teníamos hijos. Llegamos a creer que nunca tendríamos familia y no vivíamos con esa preocupación. Confiábamos que Dios lo tenía todo en su control y Él cuidaría de nosotros. Después del nacimiento de nuestro único hijo, todo cambio. Si, todavía teníamos la misma confianza en Dios, pero también sentimos una grande responsabilidad hacia él. Mientas nosotros confiábamos en Dios, nuestro hijo confiaba en sus padres como las fotografías lo demuestran. Las fotos lo enseñan yendo donde nosotros vamos, comiendo en nuestros restaurantes favoritos, enlazado por completo en los asuntos de sus padres. Pero de vez en cuando nos asentíamos a sus propios intereses y predilectos. Por ejemplo, tenemos fotografías en cines y lugares de juego donde nunca hubiéramos ido como pareja sin hijos. En general, las fotos revelan los gustos de ambos como padres e hijo. Pero hay una fotografía más que merece mención. Este es el retrato de Rudy vestido en su manto de graduación. Esta fotografía es especial porque el enfoque esta sobre él y su alcance escolar. En cierto sentido, nuestra vida en Cristo puede ser comparada a una serie de fotografías. Todos tenemos fotografías -- recuerdos de experiencias personales que tenemos por haber caminado en pos de nuestro Señor. Hay ciertas ocasiones donde la historia no tendría razón aparte del señorío de Dios en nuestra vida, y gracias por ello. Por ejemplo, cuando comencé mi ministerio nada en mi experiencia me indicaba que iría a pastorear una iglesia en Hobbs, Nuevo México, pero así fue. Fui porque él me llevo -- no lo puedo explicar de ninguna otra manera. Esto me recuerda del apóstol Pedro preocupado por Juan. En breves palabras, Cristo le dijo que Juan no era su preocupación, "Sígueme tú" (Juan 21:22). La vida en Cristo es una jornada donde lo tenemos que seguir a diario. Confesar su señorío es asentar a su voluntad venga lo que venga. Pero esto no es ningún fatalismo pues así fue como Dios formó mi trasfondo ministerial, mi manera de exponer su palabra y mucho mas. Por ir con Él, esto me introdujo a hermanos como el reverendo Salvador Rivera, un fiel siervo del Señor, y Faye Klein, pianista de la iglesia que encendió mi pasión por la literatura Cristiana. También recuerdo a los hermanos Morales, fieles y humildes hermanos que demostraron tanto amor y paciencia hacia su neófito pastor. Pero también tengo fotografías -- recuerdos -- donde parece ser que yo soy el que tiene las riendas en mano. A través de los años, Dios me dio un deseo de ascender al profesorado y con el tiempo mi sueño fue realizado. Pero este alcance no cayó en mi regazo como regalo del cielo. Tuve que trabajar de noche y estudiar de día a través de muchos años. Durante esos días my esposa también se sacrificó para hacer posible que yo terminara mis estudios. Sí, yo decidí el enfoque de mis estudios mayores, junto con el tema de mi tesis doctoral. En todo esto, parece que yo era el que estaba en control. Pero recordemos que aunque Dios nunca elimina la iniciativa personal, Él es el que produce tanto el hacer como el querer en nosotros (Filipenses 2:13). Cuando uno llega a cierta madurez, ministros más jóvenes o con menos experiencia buscan su consejo pues lo ven a uno como ya hecho y completo -- quizás como mi hijo de pie con el diploma en la mano. Pero tal autosuficiencia es solo una apariencia. En esta última fotografía el sujeto -- uno mismo -- no puede menos que ver el reflejo de todo el esfuerzo y amor de aquellos que Dios uso para formar la persona en Cristo. Sobre todo debe presentirse la huella invisible de la mano de Dios sosteniendo la inversión de su gracia en nosotros. Si, en veces parece ser que estamos solos ante el mundo, pero debemos verlo como David vio su propia vida y prole: "Y ahora has querido bendecir la casa de tu siervo, para que permanezca perpetuamente delante de ti; porque tú, Jehová, la has bendecido, y será bendita para siempre" (1 Crónicas 17:27; vea también Salmo 90:17). Recuerde que no importa si estamos siendo llevados por fuerzas que parecen estar fuera de nuestro control, o lo tenemos todo bien ordenado, las vida transparenta la única verdad, "porque en Él—en Cristo—vivimos, y nos movemos, y somos" (adición de "en Cristo", mía, Hechos 17:28). --30-- Rudolph D. González es el decano de la Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary William R. Marshall Center for Theological Studies, San Antonio, Texas. Estudios hispanos, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary: [URL=http://www.swbts.edu/hispanicstudies/sp/]http://www.swbts.edu/hispanicstudies/sp/[/URL]. -- End of story -- Copyright (c) 2013 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press 901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203 Tel: 615.244.2355 Fax: 615.782.8736 email: bpress@sbc.net