September 4, 2014October 14, 2014 Peter Witkowski Parenting

Teach Jesus. Use Football?

College football is amazing. The sport has fanatical bands, big hits, and unfettered enthusiasm. Quite simply the sport is the perfect blend of World Cup craziness and rugged manliness. As we watch the college season unfold, we will being watched by our kids. Good or bad, our interactions with our favorite teams have a spiritual element. Let’s seize the day and use football as a tool to teach our kids about Jesus.

Don’t Be A Loser

When our team wins only two games (like my Air force Falcons did in 2013,) is our Fall ruined? Or if our team captures the National Championship like Florida State did, is our year made? If the status of our team is our spiritual identity, the answer will be a yes. Now I do not think expressing happiness or sadness about the outcome of your team’s last game is wrong. I was pretty excited to watch Texas win the national title in 2008! But living by the outcome of your team’s score is a problem. As Pastor Tim Keller rightfully warns,

sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things (168).

How do we know if the sport has become an ultimate thing in our life? College football is the ultimate thing if it determines our emotions and actions. For example if we are short with our kids all week or extremely generous with our money because of how our quarterback played, we are teaching our kids that joy is found in a leather ball. Our football identity is melting off our t-shirts and into our hearts. This is a huge problem. As Pastor Tim Keller explains, “Identity apart from God is inherently unstable. Without God, our sense of worth may seem solid on the surface, but it never is – it can destroy you in a moment” (170-71). Every team (even SEC teams) will lose eventually. And scandals hit even little schools like the Air Force Academy at some point. If we live for college football, we will be fragile, miserable people with really strong and yet very indefensible prejudices. And we will encourage our kids to create equally fragile lives founded upon stadiums, swag, and whatever other trinkets that promise happiness but deliver despair. If this is you, repent and make Jesus your identity!

Everybody has to live for something. Whatever that something is becomes “Lord of your life,” whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally (p179).

Make Jesus Your Soul’s Captain

But if we flip the field, college football will be a great teaching tool. In a very real way, we can use football to show the sufficiency and power of Christ. When our team gets blown out (…Air Force…), we can still have a great Saturday because Jesus is king. And when our team collects the umpteenth championship, we can be humble and happy, because we base our identity on Christ’s free gift of salvation. As we flip between games on Saturday afternoon, let’s show our kids that every Saturday is a good day because we get to worship on Sunday. By teaching our kids that games are just that – games, we can point them to things above where Christ is!

Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Jer 9:24b

Get Back Up

If you are like me, you probably have had at least one sin fueled identity crisis during the college football season. A little ways back, I dug my way under a friend’s skin by chanting, “Cry, Tebow Cry” after the former quarterback got slammed hard to the turf. A few seconds later, I heard my Gator buddy say, “You need to leave my apartment, NOW!” Ultimately our issue was not a battle between the SEC and the Big 12. Our issue was a sin issue. I had missed the whole “love your neighbor as yourself and let you speech always be with grace (Matt. 22:36-40; Col 4:6)” We need to be gracious and loving even during sports. Eventually, I had to repent of being rude and unkind with my words. When we sin during college football, let’s be quick to repent and return to our Jesus identity.

Its Ok Leave The Team

Lastly, we can’t forget that sin is always displeasing to God. Boasting about Notre Dame until it’s our identity is never excusable in God’s eyes. And if we can’t watch football without sinning against God and hurting our friends, let’s embrace the Frozen mantra and “Let it go!” It’s better to cut out an eye and miss a little football than for us and our kids to suffer from the deadly effects of sin (Matt 5:29).

Closing Thoughts

I truly think college football is fantastically entertaining! And I have me some swag: t-shirts, mini football helmets, and banners. But it is just a sport, nothing more. Jesus is so much better. Will we embrace the Jesus identity this football season? Our kids are watching. More importantly God is watching!

Works Cited

Keller, T. (2008). The Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. New York : Penguin .

August 28, 2014September 2, 2014 Peter Witkowski Apologetics

We Are Not In The BIble Belt Anymore

Friends, we are not in the Bible Belt anymore. Though elements of cultural Christianity drift about the South like the objects from Dorothy’s farmhouse (God Bless the United State, anyone?), we have been transported into a new world. The road to fulfillment no longer guides people to churches singing, “I Walk Through the Garden.” The yellow brick road of the twenty-first century points its guests to a technological wonderland with shiny towers dedicated to humanism, naturalism, and paganism.

A NOT SO GOOD OZ

The new Technicolor America surrounded by the Munchkins of secular diversity is, as one pastor said, a world of “hedonistic and unrestrained sexuality and selfishness” (p. 59). Our high school teachers are sleeping with students, our web designers are responsible for 89% of all pornographic web content, our scientists are silencing their critics via lawsuits, and our youth commit violent crimes against both the young and the elderly. The new American culture no longer seeks for the truth behind the curtain. Americans are their own final authority and their own god on all matters from sexuality to immigration. And things are not going particularly well in the new Oz.

Moreover, America is increasingly finding evangelicals to be scarier than winged monkeys. Today, researchers estimate that only 7% of the American population sees the world through the black and white lens of evangelicalism (Dickerson, 2013, p. 32). If trends hold true, less than 4% of America will be evangelical in the years ahead. Evangelicals are feared and decreasing in number.

Even things that might be considered good news are followed by bad. For example, the Bible is currently the most searched for book on google. Unfortunately it is followed by Fifty Shades of Grey, and The Fault in Our Stars. Christianity is losing the popularity battle to unrestrained sexuality and self-expression. Off to the modern Oz, we go.

OUR HOPE IS NOT GONE

I say all this not to dampen your day. God is still king. And His kingdom is moving forward (Mark 1:15). When He returns, we will really see in color as we enter a world of loving perfection. And as we wait, we can be confident that the Church will never disappear. And the gospel is moving powerfully in China, the Philippians, and South Korea. And there is every reason to hope that God will bring revival to our own nation. Jesus will rule the world one day (Rev. 7:9-10)!

WE CAN’T TRUST OZ

I mention the above statistics to remind us parents of our responsibility to teach our children. No one else will help our kids grasp that there is more to the world than sex, money, and college degrees. The new American culture settling in on our screens will not teach our kids biblical morals. The internet will not make our kids wise. Hollywood will not inspire our kids to abandon violence. And, schools will not direct our children to spiritual truth and hope. If anything, they all point to a dark world swarming with disappointment.

If we want our kids to know Jesus and to understand the beauty of the gospel as it relates to work, school, sports, and music, we will have to teach our children. And while church is important, the task of teaching is primarily our responsibility (See Deut. 6). We watch our kids when they wake up, slap a sister, refuse to eat green beans, and score a touchdown. We have the wonderful ability to bring the gospel to bear in every aspect of their life. Let’s commit to following God’s plan and protect our kids from the coming tornado of American culture. Moreover, let’s commit to seeing our kids become brothers and sisters in the kingdom of Christ.

Works Cited

Dickerson, J. S. (2013). The Great Evangelical Recession. Grand Rapids: Baker .

April 17, 2014July 8, 2014 Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Playing With Water

A Shhh..splash flowed by a showering of water radically interrupted the pastor’s orderly explanation of baptism. As he tried to recover, ripples of laughter echoed through the congregation who just saw the latest baptism candidate show off his cannonball skills in the baptistery. Although I did not see the faces of the boy’s parents, I can imagine they probably had a few streaks of embracement on them. And quite frankly, most parents would be embarrassed to see their child turn baptism into a juvenile joke for quick amusement. As parents, we have a responsibility to both encourage our children to publicly display their faith and to help them understand the spiritual significance of baptism. How do we do guard against cannon balls? Well first and foremost, we must explain the gospel to our children. Our three foot tall man and our four foot tall woman cannot truly believe or rightly interact with the baptism pool without an understanding of salvation. With a right view of God in place, we then have to help them understand exactly what baptism is, means, and does. Put on your goggles and let’s dive into the: who, what when, where, and why of baptism!

Who

Admittedly, a host of opinions about baptism have circled around the church for ages. And I have been both sprinkled as an infant and submerged as an adult. Today, I do not intend to set the world aright with this short blog post. While infant baptism is practiced in many Bible believing churches in an effort to establish a child’s spiritual heritage, I believe baptism is more than a baby dedication tool.

I think believers’ baptism is a more faithful and accurate fulfilling of Christ’s command to baptize “them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:18-20). The word baptize always means immersion or “to dunk” when used in the Greek. Moreover whether it’s the believers at Pentecost, the Philippian jailer, the Ethiopian Eunuch, or anyone else, baptism as recorded in the Bible is always a direct expression of faith by those who have repented of their sins upon hearing the gospel. As the theologian J.L. Dagg wrote, “the apostles and their fellow-laborers required repentance and faith as qualifications for baptism” (p. 69).So who gets baptized? Those who have repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ should be baptized.

A Quick Caution

In our effort to faithfully practice baptism, we must be careful not to make the church ordinance, “the basis of division among Christians” (Grudem, p. 967). Rather we should seek, as Dr. Bruce Ware’s encourages us, to:

“be gracious with those of different practices…let’s work to understand and follow as best we can what the Bible teaches. Baptism matters, to be sure. But the truth that baptism points to matters even more” (p. 205).

Even though they sprinkle, we can and should still fellowship with Presbyterians, Lutherans and others who affirm the gospel. Let’s be careful not throw the church out with the baptism water.

What

Baptism is a physical sign established by Jesus to picture what happens in our hearts when we believe on the finished work of the cross (Romans 6:3-7). Christians go under water to symbolize that they have died with Christ from sins of this world. Then seconds later, they pop out from the water, revealing that they have been given new life “through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him [Christ] from the dead” (Col 2:12). The ordinance of baptism is a beautiful picture and public declaration of how God redeems the lost.

When

The easy answer is: “As soon as a person repents of sin and confesses Jesus as Savior, he/she should be baptized.” We see both Philip and Paul baptizing new believers shortly after they confess Christ (Acts 8:36; 16:33). And when adults who have counted the cost of following Christ embrace Jesus as their Savior, they should be baptized quickly.

But we also want to protect the waters of baptism from religious cannon ballers who pursue the sacrament either hoping to please parents or to appease the Christian culture. Before the onset of the middle ages, the church responded to this dilemma by requiring baptism candidates to attend a three year training class (catechizing) to ensure that they understood the faith. Today, the church expert, Mark Dever, recommends that children should not be baptized until they reach an age of maturity during the end of their high school years (Dever & Alexander, p. 106).

At FBCE, the staff follows a more Grudem-esk view of baptism believing:

“It is impossible to set a precise age that will apply to every child, but when parents see convincing evidence of genuine spiritual life and also some degree of understanding regarding the meaning and trusting in Christ, then baptism is appropriate” (p. 982).

In short, we will baptize children upon a credible profession of faith. We define a credible confession as the ability to clearly articulate the gospel, the nature of baptism and one’s personal testimony, citing the evidence of good works. We also want to know if the child’s parents have noticed their child displayiing the grace of God in her life. Once a child has met with a pastor, written out her testimony, and demonstrated her love for God in her daily life as observed by her family, the FBCE staff will baptize a child. Admittedly the process is rather elastic, taking weeks and even years to complete. But as Pastor Art Murphey noted, “Children need time to understand and show signs of maturity before they are baptized” (p. 127). Baptism is not a race to see who can get the wettest the fastest.

Where

Being the doorway into the blessings of church membership, baptism should always occur within the context of the local church (I Cor 12:13). The location of the baptism matters little. As long as your local church is present, an ordained church member (pastor, elder, or deacon) performs the baptism (signifying that church affirms the work of Christ within the heart of the person being baptized) and immersion occurs, a baptism is truly a baptism.

Why

We are to pursue baptism as a sign or act of faith. Going under water does not save; nor, is dunking necessary for salvation. As I Peter 3:21 makes clear, “the removal of dirt” does not produce salvation. Moreover, the thief on the cross repented and was never baptized. Yet, he was promised eternity by Jesus (Luke 23:43). Regardless of our or our children’s piety, their baptism will never save them.

Rather, baptism is act of obedience in faith. If you “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” then you will naturally want to follow all of Christ’s commands (Romans 10:9). What is Christ’s first command after repent and believe? It is to be baptized (Acts 2:38). In the New Testament, all who trust Christ eagerly identify with their Lord and Savior via the waters of baptism. Christians go into the waters of baptism proclaiming that God has already regenerated their hearts.