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.

What's Missing?

Everyday over the last week I have passed a sign a couple times a day. The sign reads, "Amazing Vacation Church School" and then gives a date. Growing up in the church I am very familiar with what is typically known as "Vacation Bible School." Many of you have been to a VBS, most churches do them some don't.

This sign struck me because something was missing. I had never seen a heard of anything called Vacation Church School. So what do you learn at VCS? Do you learn the history of the church going back to the apostles and early church fathers, working your way through the Reformation until you get to the modern church? Or do you learn how to behave at church? Maybe it is about church etiquette. What do you learn at VCS?

When I try to figure out what Church School is I come to the conclusion I have no idea. I do however know what's missing. The Bible is missing. No this does amaze me, but I don;t think that is what they mean by "Amazing Vacation Church School. This "church" which is putting on VCS happens to be a Unity church. They believe in more than just the Bible. They accept other religion's thoughts and philosophies. Which is fine, they have every right to do so. But it is so confusing when a group tries to be a church without the Bible.

The reason I know this, is because I know of churches that place more emphasis on things out side the Bible than the Bible itself. When this happens, it is hard to see the church as anything other than a club that meets once a week. There are some churches that do Vacation Bible School and the only motivation for the VBS is to see how many kids they can get to come. They might as well call their summer event a Vacation Church School also, because the motivation has little to do in teaching kids the Bible.

Now here is my question. Can a church really call itself a church if the Bible is not at the foundation of it's existence? Let me know what you think.

Loving God

I read a quote yesterday that has stuck with me. I am reading Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" and he said, "When I look at my relationship with God as a chore, a sacrifice, then I am getting the glory--not God."

Those who go into full-time ministry have a tendency to look at what they do as a sacrifice and a chore. While there are sacrifices that take place let's be honest, we need to drop the martyr syndrome here. I am guilty of this. That's why this quote stuck with me over the last day.

Those who are not in full-time ministry this quote applies to you also. I am going to say something that a lot of people will disagree with, even some professors I have had in college. Why do we have to show all this appreciation to volunteers for their service in the church? There was a time appreciation was not shown and there was not a problem with getting volunteers, people just served. Don't get me wrong I think it's good to show appreciation to volunteers, the problem comes when those who serve expect it and get upset when they don't get recognized for their good deed.

When we expect recognition it's a sign of a shallow relationship with God. A relationship that is based on personal incentives. Our attitude should be the same as the apostles who considered it a privaledge to be beaten up for the sake of Christ. Our motivation to serve becomes love not reward or a self pity party.

Maybe this is one of the problems with the church today, it is filled with people who decided when they are willing to make a sacrifice and when they are going to live an independent life from God. Good thing this was not the attitude of Jesus.

Conversaton with a Hindu (3)

I met with my Hindu friend last night. We are going to set up a time to go eat Indian Food together. I want him to show me what to order. There is nothing like sharing a meal together.

Last night we talked about Genesis, particularly Adam, Eve and the fall. When Ram got there he said he wanted to talk about Genesis. I saw this as a moment of God's providence because I too was feeling led to talk about Genesis.

He asked me about the forbidden tree, the tree of "knowledge." He wanted me to define "knowledge." I knew where he was going because in the Hindu way of life, knowledge is important. There is a point in which we reach a level of enlightenment. I believe this is true in Christianity as well. Although our points of enlightenment are different.

I explained to him I have often wondered why God placed a tree in the garden, pointed it out and said "don't eat the fruit from this tree." It is like telling a child not to play with something. The child probably wouldn't have messed with "whatever," if you had not drawn attention to it. I told him that the purpose of the tree was to provide a way for man to "choose" to follow God with "free will."

But there is another part to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We have to understand good and evil in order to truly be enlightened to God's love for people. This enlightenment revolves around grace. Grace is the point of enlightenment for a Christian. It goes beyond just using the word "grace." It's the point in which we realize we do not deserve God's love, we can not buy God's love and we can not earn God's love. God freely gives us grace because of our condition due to sin. It is freeing when we realize we are no longer bound by a law system.

Another thing I am finding out about the Hindu way of life is that they are trying to achieve a point where they become one with God. So are we as Christians aren't we? Now it is a much different way of thinking than Christianity, but the goal is the same. I asked Ram how do you reach the goal of being one with God? He told me this is where meditation becomes important.

I told him Christians desire oneness with God also. Our oneness though is an eternal relationship with God, in His presence. This oneness comes through grace. Our grace comes only through Jesus. We have to believe in Jesus, who did not deserve to die. He chose to die and pay our penalty for sin. He was buired and resurrected. All of which happened so our penalty could be paid in full.

At one point in the conversation he did say he believed in Jesus. I need to talk to him further on that comment. Next time he is going to talk about the importance of meditation for a Hindu and how that brings us into oneness the Brahman. I am going to talk about becoming one with Jesus' death, burial and Resurrection through Christian baptism. Which again tells the story of Grace.

Keep praying God leads this discussion. Less of me, more of God.