Sunday, January 18

My nearly-93-year old mother said the other morning in our daily phone call, “You know, I really think Obama is going to do well, don’t you?” I assured her I’m praying that he will.”

Fun to see her so engaged in this. And thrilling to see millions of Americans so caught up in this inauguration.

The Parade magazine this Sunday morning says Obama just finished reading Jonathan Alter’s book on FDR’s first one hundred days — The Defining Moment — a book we have alluded to in this blog. I finally finished it last night, and am pleased he has read it. It covers two things in great detail, first, the transition from the old Hoover presidency to the incoming presidency of Roosevelt. The lessons in that are massive. Hoover kept urging the incoming president to take action to prevent the further decline of the economy. FDR kept reminding him that “you are the president; do it yourself.” In his memoirs, we’re told, Hoover blames FDR for the sad state of the country’s financial mess at the time of the transition. Seems to me like a leader who refused to lead, then blames others for his own failures.

Secondly, Alter covers the first few months of FDR’s administration. To my surprise, it turns out the new team had no grand scheme for how they were going to turn things around in this country. They just pulled leaders together and brainstormed and tried various things. Some worked and some didn’t.

I spoke Friday night to a large meeting of pastors and deacons and their spouses in Jackson County, Mississippi, meeting at the FBC of Moss Point. They asked me to speak on “giving it away,” which is another way of saying, “share your faith in Christ.” I was glad to do so.

From the time the invitation came my way, I did what I always do and began praying the Father would lead me about what to tell them. Usually, the answer arrives in time for me not to be anxious, but in this case, it was Friday before I knew.


I drove to Spanish Fort, Alabama, that morning to call on my wonderful professor and mentor, the retired Dr. George Harrison and his lovely Jean. Afterwards, I drove back to Moss Point and share with the folks there. I set up my easel and drew maybe 25 people, mostly couples, on the large tear-off poster paper, and then after supper we adjourned into the church auditorium for the service.

“Sense and Nonsense about Witnessing” was the title of my message. It was a new thought–I told you it came to me that day–so it’s not all worked out yet, but that may be book number four. There is so much foolishness around on the subject of sharing one’s faith. On the other hand, I’m the worst person in the world to expound on this subject. However, being a preacher, that has never slowed me down in the past….

Well-meaning preachers, teachers, and “experts” have put such a guilt trip on Christians about witnessing and soulwinning, that I fear they have scared most of God’s people away from even trying to share their faith. Mention witnessing or soulwinning in the average SBC church and people freeze up at the thought.

It helps me to remember that there is a big difference in the two activities. Witnessing is simply sharing what you know, letting your light shine, speaking up and acting out your faith. We are all witnesses, according to Luke 24. Witnessing is both natural (in the sense that it’s not learned, it’s just something a believer does in the normal course of his comings and goings) and supernatural (Jesus said in Acts 1:8 that the Holy Spirit powers our witness).

Soulwinning is to serve as a midwife and help to birth a new believer into the Kingdom. This in almost all cases is a learned skill. I can’t find anywhere in the Bible that teaches we are all soulwinners or even that all were meant to be. But we are all witnesses.

Sunday morning, Faith Baptist Church enters their new sanctuary located on South Claiborne Street at Fern. This will be their first building, after drifting for the six years or so of their existence. Seminary prof Tim Searcy has been their longtime interim and does a super job.

Carl Hubbert is leaving the FBC of Harahan for FBC of Bellevue, Nebraska. Next Sunday, January 25, will be his final day here. He and Pam are so special to us and we will miss them something awful. Readers who know someone in the Omaha area would do well to encourage them to drop in on Bellevue and give the Hubberts a grand reception.

Little funny here. When Carl first moved to Kenner, just after his graduation from Auburn, he was a salesman for Russell Stover Candy. I visited him in his apartment the week after he worshiped with us. “Got any samples?” I said, trying to be cute. He opened a door to an unused bedroom and it was filled to the ceiling with boxes of candy he had removed from sales points because the Valentine season had ended. “Take all you want,” he laughed. I did.

Later, Carl would bring boxes of candy to our school to give away. This was one popular guy. God called him to preach, he met Pam Gore in our church and married her, and they went to seminary. They’ve pastored in Areton, Alabama, and returned to NOBTS to work on his doctorate.

Oh, when I first became the director of missions, the first church I called on was FBC Harahan. Carl knew I was coming. I walked in and he handed me a box of Russell Stover chocolates. We laughed about that, and I wrote it up on my blog (late Spring of 2004 in the archives), and made some spiritual point about chocolate (I forget what).

This morning, on my way to Faith Church, I’m running by Harahan church to give Carl and Pam a box of Russell Stover chocolates.

Some traditions need to be kept up.

God bless you, Barack Obama. And God bless America.

4 thoughts on “Sunday, January 18

  1. The only Soul winner is the Holy Spirit. We are all witnesses, and the easiest way is to simply tell others what God has done for us.

  2. Brother Joe: I love Dr. Harrison and his dear wife Jean. So glad to hear that they are doing well. Jimmy Dukes taught the book of Exodus at FBC Brandon, Mississippi last week. We commented that none of us can ever stand to teach without remembering what Dr. Harrison taught us about the beloved Old Testament…what a blessing he has been to so many people. +B+B+

  3. It is my prayer that Barrack H. Obama comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is also my prayer that he does not succeed in implementing the same failed FDR policies that were made in trying to restore our economy in the 1930’s. I know FDR inherited a Great Depression when he took office in 1933 the unemployment rate at 25% and his government policies that he implemented resulted in a temporary reduction of the unemployment rate to 14% in 1937. However, by the end of the decade the unemployment rate was up to 19%% which led FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgethau to say, “we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. After 8 years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started, and an enormous debt to boot”. So far that is BHO’s plan, spend more of our money, and give checks to those that don’t pay taxes. If irresponsible government spending would have helped our economy, wouldn’t it have helped by now? President Bush already tried that. Mr. President, please! Let’s try something different-if this is the ‘change we can believe in’ it’s been tried before and failed.

  4. Some time back, when a dear friend and I had known each other for about a year, he looked over me at one point and remarked that I had never once tried to evangelize and he so appreciated this.

    I considered this curious, as we talked about religion about once a week.

    Some time later, he again said how he had nothing but contempt for those trying to spread their religion. This time I pushed back a little. “Ummm, we talk about religion all the time?”

    “That’s different” he says. “You talk about things that are important to you. And of course your faith is important to you, so of course you talk about that. That’s what friends do.”

    Sometimes I think we make this so much harder than it is. We consider this model or that model, and discuss the strategy of “pre-evangelistic conversations.” Really, what we need to do is live our lives, and talk about what is important to us. Now, religion and church life is far from the ONLY thing that’s important to me, but it’s a biggie so of course it’s going to come up in conversation on a regular basis. After all, that’s what friends do.

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