Blast from the Past

Last night I was watching my normal evening line-up on Fox News when the phone rang. I answered it and a guy asked if this was the Scott Baker from Salem, Virginia. When I confirmed to him it was he said, "This may be a blast from the past, but do you remember Darryl A." I knew who he was immediately. We sat by each other in home room at Salem High School. He had played tackle on the offensive line that I was the center.

He is now living in Oklahoma and tracked down my number through a mutual friend that I have on facebook. This friend we have in common told Darryl where I lived and he tracked me down. I know some people do not like facebook, but this is a reason that the social network is amazing and can be life changing.

Darryl called me because he has two sons in the military. One of them is in Iraq and the other is headed to Afghanistan. He called me to see if I would pray for them. We prayed on the phone together and then we talked for a little while. Darryl proceeded to tell me about his life after high school. He told me he had made some bad choices in his life. It turned out to almost be a confessional. I was able to talk to him about Jesus, how much Jesus loves him and grace.

It has been 26 years since he has talked to me. We really weren't the closes friends when we were in school. We knew each other but never really hung out. He tracked me down he said because he always knew I was a man of God (I know some would beg to differ). What a compliment. You never know who is paying attention as you try to walk with God.

I would like for everyone who reads this to pray for Darryl and his two sons: Preston and Mark. Pray that the boys will be protected and that Darryl will be healed spiritually and physically. Then pray for some Darryl's from your past.

Conversation with a Hindu (4)

Last night I had a conversation with my Hindu friend. He has invited me to go to a meditation class he leads next week. This led into a discussion on prayer. I told him if I were to go, I would take that time to focus on God. I would take the time to pray and listen to God.

He explained to me the idea of meditation. That the goal was to remove your thoughts from the conscious (10% of the brain we use) and move to the subconscious part of our mind. He said the deeper we get into our subconscious the closer we get to becoming one with god (meaning we become god).

Here is the thing though, I learned something about prayer. Many times we pray intellectually. What I mean by that is we pray within the 10% of our brain we use to reason. There is something to be said of clearing our minds of our thoughts and focusing on God. Paul tells us to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions" (Ephesians 6:18). I am not saying we need to go into a subconscious state of mind(there is a danger in relying on our subconsciousness to lead us), but we do need to clear our minds of fleshly things so we can engage in a authentic conversation with God rather than a surface conversation.

The second thing we talked about was Jesus. The enlightened master my friend is a disciple of speaks of Jesus as an enlightened master. My friend would consider Jesus as an enlightened master as well. My Hindu friend said that his perception of Christianity is that it is anti-christ.

Why would he say such a thing? He has studied the teachings and life of Jesus. As a matter of fact he knows the Bible pretty well for not being a follower. So he looks at the life of Jesus and compares it to the lives of those who profess to be Christians and sees two different lifestyles.

We can be angry that he would say such a thing and react in one of two ways. 1) We could blow off his statement and not believe it, continuing to live our life the way we always have. 2) We could listen to what he says, look at the life of Jesus and examine ourselves to see if we really are following Jesus. The Bible tells us, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5)

I believe we all need to examine ourselves to see how we are doing when it comes to following Jesus. The problem is we will most likely need to make some life adjustments. We may need to take some unpopular stances within our church. We may be seen as a radical or revolutionary. If this is the case chances are you are on your way to following Jesus.

Preparing for Zimbabwe

I am preparing to go to Zimbabwe this fall. I will be traveling with Pinedale Christian Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina. A good friend of mine from college, Danny Spainhour will be leading the trip. I am going to be doing some leadership training and preaching in a new village they are going to plant a church. We have already purchased transportation (a bike) and the preacher (Solomom) is ready to go.

I am trying to raise $1500 for the trip. Anything I raise over that will go to help purchase nutritional drink for children and malaria tablets. If you can help send a check made out to Northwest Ave Church of Christ. You can send it to:

Northwest Church, c/o Scott Baker, 737 Northwest Ave., Tallmadge, Ohio 44278.

I have attached a video I just received that shows some of the nutritional drink Northwest purchased from it's Christmas offering. If you have any questions about the trip feel free to ask.

I'm Back

I am back in the office after a long but moving week. I spoke at Velocity, the church plant we have partnered with other churches to start. What an experience. The church is 15 weeks old and already has about 160 people coming regularly. The worship was fantastic. The people who serve are amazing. They have already had close to if not more than 15 baptisms. What a fabulous Sunday morning experience.

Then I had the privilege to be a part of a Bill Bondurant's funeral. There are two people through my life that I would say have walked with God. Bill was one of them. He is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. His children all spoke at the funeral which really allowed people to see the kind of man Bill was. I know where he is right now, but it will be difficult not having this servant around, he was a very special man.

Finally, I just got back from Basketball camp at Round Lake (our Christian Camp). It was one of the best weeks of camp I have been a part of. The students were awesome. They really took the theme to heart--"Pay the Price." Coop and Palmer did another fantastic job putting the week together.

Next, I prepare to go to Zimbabwe in Oct. Please pray for our trip and the new church we will be starting while we are there.