I have received many testimonies of God’s grace and provision through these last weeks of fasting, prayer, and giving.
Teresa Bovia lost her son, U.S. Marine Sergeant Joseph Bovia, on the battlefield in Afghanistan August 29. She writes:
The phrase "walking with Jesus" has a new meaning during this time in our life. However, I will also tell you that without Jesus I wouldn't be standing much less walking. As I look back over the events of the last days I see God's hand woven through each and every part of our loss. I would not begin to tell you we are through with our grief or that the tragedy is over, but what God is doing is drawing us each closer to him as we move through the grieving process.
Billy Benson writes the story of God’s grace in his marriage:
This certain young lady would later on pray for me as I went on a six week trip to the Middle East, and even adjust her schedule to be awake at the times I was awake. When I got back from the trip with a huge picture of God's love for all nations, God began to bring us together and we courted and were engaged for four months before getting married.
Cimbrey Brannan tells a part of their story:
When Mark and I began considering adoption, it was very evident to both of us that if God was leading us to begin the process, He would have to come through for us financially. Inter-country adoption is between $25,000 and $50,000, and that figure seemed impossible for two young married adults. Moreover, we were convinced that if God was calling us to adopt, He wanted us to do so in a fiscally responsible way.
Cimbrey recounts God’s provision through unanticipated pay raises, bonuses, and awards.
I was amazed that God was clearly providing for the adoption payments we would have to make this year. All the while, Mark and I have been able to give our monthly tithe to First Baptist New Orleans. God has given over and beyond what we could imagine.
We have only one Sunday left in our praying, fasting, and giving emphasis. Our offerings have been amazing, but we still have a ways to go. Let’s all participate to some degree, and we will see God’s provision for all our ministry needs.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Loving Muslims
Religious liberty is falling on hard times around the world. This includes many countries dominated by Islamic majorities. True religious freedom includes freedom of assembly, speech, and the press and a guarantee of equal respect and treatment under the law. This is the only peaceful way forward in a world as small as ours.
The model for such religious liberty is right here in these United States where our Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (First Amendment, U.S. Constitution). This is a guarantee that all religions will be treated equally before the law.
I include the content and meaning of the First Amendment when I speak to Muslims at home and abroad. The Bible teaches that true faith in God cannot be coerced, that God seeks a free response of love from those he freely loves, that all individuals on the planet are made in God’s image. This is the religious seedbed out of which the First Amendment emerged.
The first Baptist pastor in America, Roger Williams, founded Rhode Island and invited Muslims to settle there without fear of reprisal. He also guaranteed all residents of Rhode Island that there would be no religious test for holding public office.
Building a mosque near the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks may be foolish and ill-advised, but the demands of religious liberty require that our government officials step aside.
Government cannot block the building of this mosque without communicating to the world that we believe Islam was the true source of the terrorist attacks and that it is out of favor in these United States. Such a message sent by our government violates our First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion and negates its positive impact around the world. It polarizes Islam and Christianity on the world stage and reinforces the idea that our governments are involved in a “holy war.”
Some Christians believe that Christianity and Islam are squared off in the Middle East, Africa, and here at home. As a follower of Jesus I find no basis for taking up the sword against another religion. Nor do I believe that faithfulness to Christ requires fighting for world domination.
I find no grounds in the teachings of Jesus for the mobilization of military troops on behalf of the gospel. Quite the opposite, I hear Jesus calling me to pour out my life for the sake of the gospel.
If called upon I would fight and die to preserve this freedom which is ours as Americans, including freedom of religion. Since Christ must be followed from the heart I am not prepared to force anyone to deny their conscience or force them to espouse Christianity.
America is having a conversation about Islam and Muslims in our midst. What is the Christian point of view? We are to love Muslims as our neighbors. We are to care for them in their needs. We are to make room for those who are strangers among us.
Love prompts us to look for the good and the best in others. I believe that Christians can find much common ground with their Muslim neighbors. Since we are commanded to live in peace with all men these areas of common interest could be the focus of our discussion with Muslims rather than troubling texts or groups who express their faith with violence.
We are called to love our God completely and our neighbor as ourselves. Our commitment is to love Muslims—to work for their good, both here and around the world.
A billion Muslims are listening to this American dialogue about Islam. Many of them live in oppression and poverty. They can scarcely envision such a place as free and just as America given what they see and experience from their rulers and competing brands of their religion. They are wondering if the American dream is really true, if America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave.
We must send the message of liberty for all. We must fly the flag of true religious freedom. We must not reinforce the perception that Christians oppose Muslims and are seeking to overthrow them. Rather, consistent with the call of Christ, we must sound the trumpets of love and liberty. These notes, more powerful than guns and bombs, will be heard around the world by the oppressed and the downcast and will plant the seeds of the fruit we truly seek—peace among and within the peoples of this tiny planet.
The model for such religious liberty is right here in these United States where our Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (First Amendment, U.S. Constitution). This is a guarantee that all religions will be treated equally before the law.
I include the content and meaning of the First Amendment when I speak to Muslims at home and abroad. The Bible teaches that true faith in God cannot be coerced, that God seeks a free response of love from those he freely loves, that all individuals on the planet are made in God’s image. This is the religious seedbed out of which the First Amendment emerged.
The first Baptist pastor in America, Roger Williams, founded Rhode Island and invited Muslims to settle there without fear of reprisal. He also guaranteed all residents of Rhode Island that there would be no religious test for holding public office.
Building a mosque near the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks may be foolish and ill-advised, but the demands of religious liberty require that our government officials step aside.
Government cannot block the building of this mosque without communicating to the world that we believe Islam was the true source of the terrorist attacks and that it is out of favor in these United States. Such a message sent by our government violates our First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion and negates its positive impact around the world. It polarizes Islam and Christianity on the world stage and reinforces the idea that our governments are involved in a “holy war.”
Some Christians believe that Christianity and Islam are squared off in the Middle East, Africa, and here at home. As a follower of Jesus I find no basis for taking up the sword against another religion. Nor do I believe that faithfulness to Christ requires fighting for world domination.
I find no grounds in the teachings of Jesus for the mobilization of military troops on behalf of the gospel. Quite the opposite, I hear Jesus calling me to pour out my life for the sake of the gospel.
If called upon I would fight and die to preserve this freedom which is ours as Americans, including freedom of religion. Since Christ must be followed from the heart I am not prepared to force anyone to deny their conscience or force them to espouse Christianity.
America is having a conversation about Islam and Muslims in our midst. What is the Christian point of view? We are to love Muslims as our neighbors. We are to care for them in their needs. We are to make room for those who are strangers among us.
Love prompts us to look for the good and the best in others. I believe that Christians can find much common ground with their Muslim neighbors. Since we are commanded to live in peace with all men these areas of common interest could be the focus of our discussion with Muslims rather than troubling texts or groups who express their faith with violence.
We are called to love our God completely and our neighbor as ourselves. Our commitment is to love Muslims—to work for their good, both here and around the world.
A billion Muslims are listening to this American dialogue about Islam. Many of them live in oppression and poverty. They can scarcely envision such a place as free and just as America given what they see and experience from their rulers and competing brands of their religion. They are wondering if the American dream is really true, if America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave.
We must send the message of liberty for all. We must fly the flag of true religious freedom. We must not reinforce the perception that Christians oppose Muslims and are seeking to overthrow them. Rather, consistent with the call of Christ, we must sound the trumpets of love and liberty. These notes, more powerful than guns and bombs, will be heard around the world by the oppressed and the downcast and will plant the seeds of the fruit we truly seek—peace among and within the peoples of this tiny planet.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Protect and Serve
Herbert Bovia was wearing the blue uniform of the New Orleans Police Department when he arrived at his home in Kenner to receive the death message about his oldest son, Joseph, a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps felled by sniper fire Tuesday, August 31, in Afghanistan.
Teresa, Herbie’s wife, was home alone when three uniformed Marines knocked on her door: a chaplain, a captain, and a sergeant. They delivered the message every parent of soldiers in combat fears to hear and stayed with her until her husband and friends arrived to weep and console.
Herbie, a 30-year veteran of the NOPD, was a towering presence in the room. His hands trembled as he read a line from Joey’s handwritten letter that arrived the Monday before he died. In it Joey was wondering why he had volunteered for a third tour in Afghanistan. “Nonetheless,” he wrote, “I am at peace.” He spoke of the new recruits he was training for their dangerous mission and observed that they were “getting it”—the urgency and nobility of their work.
All his life this outstanding marine, 24 years old, had watched his father proudly don the police uniform and depart his home to put himself in harm’s way on behalf of others. Joey learned well the meaning of “serve and protect.”
Joey volunteered to help disarm roadside bombs in Afghanistan. When the unit he led and trained hit the field, he insisted on taking point. They were waiting on the bomb squad when Taliban fighters ambushed them.
The Bovias left with military escorts to receive the body of their son in Dover, Delaware. Joey was dressed in Dover and brought home for burial. More than 2,000 persons filed by to greet family members and to pay their respects to this fallen American hero. The solemn procession from First Baptist New Orleans to Garden of Memories cemetery traveled the streets escorted by officers of the NOPD and other law enforcement agencies who blocked all traffic even on the interstate.
Joey’s body was laid to rest with the calm assurance and confident faith that Joey himself was with the Lord Jesus in the Father’s House, just as Jesus promised. Joey trusted Christ at an early age and was a man of faith and prayer, courage and determination.
We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Bovia family both as a community and a country. Herbie has given his adult life to protect and serve our city, and now he and Teresa have given their oldest son in service to his country.
Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That is what U.S. Marine Sergeant Joseph Anthony Bovia did on August 31, 2010, on a battlefield in Afghanistan. He laid down his life for his friends.
Teresa, Herbie’s wife, was home alone when three uniformed Marines knocked on her door: a chaplain, a captain, and a sergeant. They delivered the message every parent of soldiers in combat fears to hear and stayed with her until her husband and friends arrived to weep and console.
Herbie, a 30-year veteran of the NOPD, was a towering presence in the room. His hands trembled as he read a line from Joey’s handwritten letter that arrived the Monday before he died. In it Joey was wondering why he had volunteered for a third tour in Afghanistan. “Nonetheless,” he wrote, “I am at peace.” He spoke of the new recruits he was training for their dangerous mission and observed that they were “getting it”—the urgency and nobility of their work.
All his life this outstanding marine, 24 years old, had watched his father proudly don the police uniform and depart his home to put himself in harm’s way on behalf of others. Joey learned well the meaning of “serve and protect.”
Joey volunteered to help disarm roadside bombs in Afghanistan. When the unit he led and trained hit the field, he insisted on taking point. They were waiting on the bomb squad when Taliban fighters ambushed them.
The Bovias left with military escorts to receive the body of their son in Dover, Delaware. Joey was dressed in Dover and brought home for burial. More than 2,000 persons filed by to greet family members and to pay their respects to this fallen American hero. The solemn procession from First Baptist New Orleans to Garden of Memories cemetery traveled the streets escorted by officers of the NOPD and other law enforcement agencies who blocked all traffic even on the interstate.
Joey’s body was laid to rest with the calm assurance and confident faith that Joey himself was with the Lord Jesus in the Father’s House, just as Jesus promised. Joey trusted Christ at an early age and was a man of faith and prayer, courage and determination.
We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Bovia family both as a community and a country. Herbie has given his adult life to protect and serve our city, and now he and Teresa have given their oldest son in service to his country.
Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That is what U.S. Marine Sergeant Joseph Anthony Bovia did on August 31, 2010, on a battlefield in Afghanistan. He laid down his life for his friends.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
New Orleans' Snaggletooth Smile
Five years after Hurricane Katrina socked us and soaked us, we are tired, but we still sport that snaggletooth smile. We have hope and faith and dark circles under our eyes.
Our smile reflects a true hospitality and a determined hope for our future. Nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen. But how could they? They come to see our parades and ballgames, not our soup kitchens and crime scenes.
The past five years are a blur. We worked liked Trojans, lived one day at a time, and crammed eternity into the blink of an eye. Who knew five years was over—or would ever pass? We slogged through a Katrina time warp when all the clocks drowned. Like the kid in the backseat, I am perpetually wondering, “Are we there yet?”
Truthfully, we have not emerged from our submerged world no matter how much we long to be rid of it. Those sickening brine lines—marking the height of the flood and the depth of our misery—are still tattooed on fences, pillars, buildings, and on our souls. What simply could not happen did, slicing a horizontal reminder through everything we know. My vision may be better or worse, but the world looks different from here.
I have passed from feeling condemned to feeling confused to feeling useful to feeling hopeful. But I am ever one step away from the murk of disturbing memories. Honestly, my mind resists going back to Hurricane Katrina and the immediate aftermath. As time goes by the details fade but the overall impression of the great flood is sobering and painful.
Today hundreds of construction cranes cast their shadows on our half-recovered landscape, and they are towers of hope. Going east, those Twin Spans across Lake Pontchartrain are an engineering marvel, almost completed. New ramps and fly-overs are taking shape at the interchange of Interstate 10 and Causeway Boulevard. The Huey P. Long Bridge is bulging with giant new biceps for wider lanes.
Our most interesting bridge, the Danziger, once the largest vertical-lift bridge in the world, has become a symbol for police brutality and corruption. We are horrified and heartbroken by these revelations. Rampant lawlessness in our streets is certainly related to any disregard for the law among our police, in our courts, and in our culture.
The drive from the Industrial Canal east to Interstate 510 remains a disturbing and depressing journey. We cannot get comfortable with our current reality in the footprint of the flood.
People are generally optimistic, I find, but also frustrated at the slow progress in some areas. Unattended infrastructure problems detract from the work we have accomplished in our homes and neighborhoods. The astonishing levels of murder and mayhem cause widespread anxiety and confusion about the safety and stability of our city.
The faith community is vibrant and deeply involved and invested in the city’s restoration. We leapt up after the storm, addressed the immediate needs, and helped clean up the mess. Collectively, we deployed a million volunteers. We continue the work of rebuilding our city. The flood washed us out of our pews and into our streets. Thousands of congregations here and elsewhere have found renewed purpose and joy in the hard work of serving people in need. This may prove to be a permanent course correction for many households of faith.
Vast resources have been expended through our churches and affiliated nonprofits, as with all sectors of our community. We are delighted to see progress in housing, education, health care, and flood protection and eager to enjoy and highlight these permanent improvements to life in New Orleans.
We remember those who perished in the great flood. We acknowledge the historical significance of Katrina in our personal and collective lives. We embrace and assimilate the lessons we learned in our time of trouble. And we renew our resolve to fashion a more peaceful and prosperous future for the city that we love.
Our smile reflects a true hospitality and a determined hope for our future. Nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen. But how could they? They come to see our parades and ballgames, not our soup kitchens and crime scenes.
The past five years are a blur. We worked liked Trojans, lived one day at a time, and crammed eternity into the blink of an eye. Who knew five years was over—or would ever pass? We slogged through a Katrina time warp when all the clocks drowned. Like the kid in the backseat, I am perpetually wondering, “Are we there yet?”
Truthfully, we have not emerged from our submerged world no matter how much we long to be rid of it. Those sickening brine lines—marking the height of the flood and the depth of our misery—are still tattooed on fences, pillars, buildings, and on our souls. What simply could not happen did, slicing a horizontal reminder through everything we know. My vision may be better or worse, but the world looks different from here.
I have passed from feeling condemned to feeling confused to feeling useful to feeling hopeful. But I am ever one step away from the murk of disturbing memories. Honestly, my mind resists going back to Hurricane Katrina and the immediate aftermath. As time goes by the details fade but the overall impression of the great flood is sobering and painful.
Today hundreds of construction cranes cast their shadows on our half-recovered landscape, and they are towers of hope. Going east, those Twin Spans across Lake Pontchartrain are an engineering marvel, almost completed. New ramps and fly-overs are taking shape at the interchange of Interstate 10 and Causeway Boulevard. The Huey P. Long Bridge is bulging with giant new biceps for wider lanes.
Our most interesting bridge, the Danziger, once the largest vertical-lift bridge in the world, has become a symbol for police brutality and corruption. We are horrified and heartbroken by these revelations. Rampant lawlessness in our streets is certainly related to any disregard for the law among our police, in our courts, and in our culture.
The drive from the Industrial Canal east to Interstate 510 remains a disturbing and depressing journey. We cannot get comfortable with our current reality in the footprint of the flood.
People are generally optimistic, I find, but also frustrated at the slow progress in some areas. Unattended infrastructure problems detract from the work we have accomplished in our homes and neighborhoods. The astonishing levels of murder and mayhem cause widespread anxiety and confusion about the safety and stability of our city.
The faith community is vibrant and deeply involved and invested in the city’s restoration. We leapt up after the storm, addressed the immediate needs, and helped clean up the mess. Collectively, we deployed a million volunteers. We continue the work of rebuilding our city. The flood washed us out of our pews and into our streets. Thousands of congregations here and elsewhere have found renewed purpose and joy in the hard work of serving people in need. This may prove to be a permanent course correction for many households of faith.
Vast resources have been expended through our churches and affiliated nonprofits, as with all sectors of our community. We are delighted to see progress in housing, education, health care, and flood protection and eager to enjoy and highlight these permanent improvements to life in New Orleans.
We remember those who perished in the great flood. We acknowledge the historical significance of Katrina in our personal and collective lives. We embrace and assimilate the lessons we learned in our time of trouble. And we renew our resolve to fashion a more peaceful and prosperous future for the city that we love.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
