God is Near

"So many of us feel compelled to try and make ourselves better. We feel like we need to obedient in order for God to love us more."

15 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” What Defiles a Person 10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” It can be heard at most any church around America. It can be heard most anywhere in America at any place of work, residence, business, etc. “This is how we haver always done it. This is how we do it here. That’s not how we usually do it.” Every place of work, every business, every church has their operating procedure. However for churches, there is a standard by which their operating procedure will and should be judged. Just because it has always be done certain way, doesn’t mean that it is biblical or how things should be done. In Matthew 15, Jesus is addressing this exact problem. The Pharisees have come from Jerusalem to question Jesus about why his followers do not follow the tradition of the elders. What they are referring to is the oral law which would eventually become the Mishnah. It isn’t actually the law, it is the man made code that was developed in order to “interpret” the law for the people. In the same way that modern churches hold fast to their traditions, so too did the Pharisees, while ignoring what was actually important: the true law of God. This time of social distancing and dealing with a pandemic is revealing a lot about what is truly in our hearts. The majority of us cared about taking care of other people, but a month in the internet is full of conspiracy theories and some people are basically saying “oh well, old people die let’s go back to work and make some money and get back to normal.” The Pharisees were concerned with what was going from the outside in, but Jesus explains to us that it is what comes from the heart that defiles a person. It is in the most trying times that we display what truly lives in our heart. When we face calamity. When we face hardship. When we face immense pain. In these times, we understand the need to work and provide for our families and that everything is not ok. It's also imperative that we check ourselves. Is our heart pouring out love and compassion for others? Is our heart leading us to care for the least of these, for those who can’t care for themselves? Is our heart pouring out love and joy and kindness. If our heart reaction is not of these things, then we need to examine deeply our relationship with Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that those in Christ are a new creation. While we will still struggle with sin until the Kingdom is fully established, the trajectory of a believer is towards a life that looks more Christlike. What comes from our heart should more and more everyday look more like how Christ would respond to these same events. In these times, I believe that our many personal idols are being revealed. The way we worship. The way that we live. Our daily routines. In our pursuit of this American dream, we have built dozens of golden calves. Let us pray that God would search our heart and that he would melt the idols that we have constructed in our lives. That our hearts would be purified from the inside out so that what comes out of our heart would be a life reflective of the glory of Jesus Christ within us.

2 Peter 3: 8 - 13 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Well, the time has come. The social distancing measures have been in place for a good bit and people have started to lose their minds. There are more and more posts everyday: conspiracies about there being something larger at work, business owners deciding that the loss of life isn’t significant enough that they should have had to shut down their business, young people continuing to act like they are invincible (theyaren’t). I understand the frustrations of many. It feels like we have been trapped in our houses for forever. We haven’t. In relative terms it hasn’t even been that long. My family personally was doing it two weeks before most people started, and it still hasn’t been that long. One day this week we were on our way back from dropping off some ABS documents to the front porch of our Directors house. We spoke to our friends through their closed window for a time and despite the 90 degree temperature I fought the internal urge to say we needed to leave, because seeing our friends even through a window felt significant. As we made our way back we came upon what appeared to be an accident. As we continued closer we suddenly realized it was a vehicle upside down on the edge of the bar ditch. As we came even closer we heard some of the people who had already stopped screaming for help. We stopped and as I approached the vehicle the men and women started screaming about chains and to hurry. I loped as quickly as my flip flops would let me and was not prepared for what greeted me. The driver was indeed trapped but not inside of his vehicle. As I reached the top of the ditch I saw that the young man was pinned underneath, with the car pressing down on his chest and abdomen. A woman was cradling his head and talking to him, which is when I realized the ditch was full of water from the recent rain. She was cradling his head to keep him from drowning in the ditch. As men raced around me looking for chains or tie downs or anything they could you to try and pull the jeep enough to free the man, I stood basically paralyzed. In proper clothes I would have been little help at best. In flip flops I was essentially worthless. As the men worked several of us looked around wondering where in the world the ambulance could be. This man’s life was in danger and there was no sign of help save for those of us lay people who had happened upon the accident. Finally the ambulance and police began to arrive. The man had been freed from the wreckage and pulled into the yard. As I made my way back to my car his heart was still beating but I thought for sure it had taken the medical professionals too long and he wouldn’t make it. We decided to clear out to make sure we were not impacting traffic so the experts could do their jobs and went just down the way to grab some dinner. I had actually placed a call to the resturant when we happened upon the accident which had to have just occurred, so I had a relative time stamp of 6:55 pm . As we waited in our car just down the road, an ambulance drove by. No lights, no siren. "I guess he didn’t make it" was my thought as the ambulance passed. That was when I heard more sirens. I walked out to the road and was met by an ambulance running hot heading towards College Station. We recognized it as the first on the scene. We checked our clock again. 7:04 pm . As we often do, the recipients of Peter’s letters were paralyzed by fear that they had been wrong. Jesus had not returned yet. God had not fully established His kingdom. What was taking so long? For us, everything is moving on and we think for sure that the wait has been long enough. The time must be now. But Peter reassures us that God does not operate according to our sense of time. 1 day is like a thousand for him and thousands are like 1. Isaiah tells us God dwells in eternity and indeed though he operates with us according to our sense of time, He is not bound by it. Peter encourages us to remember that God is not slow to act but rather is allowing time to linger in order that people would repent and turn to him. As we stood on that roadside, we thought for sure that the emergency people were taking too long. That it was going to be too late. From time of report to the victim being en route to the hospital. 9 minutes. All of us are waiting all too impatiently for a variety of things. The end of the stay at home orders. The return to normalcy. The return of Christ. But God is not surprised by these things, nor is He slow to act. He has seen all of these things and He holds them together by the Word of His immovable power. His desire is that we would turn to Him. As we wait, I pray that we would do so with hearts turned to God. The things of this earth are momentary, the things of the new kingdom are eternal. Let us pursue righteousness. Let us pursue kindness. Let us wait as a people of hope.

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. 12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood a test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. My wife makes the best cupcakes in the world. Many people would call that an opinion but for those who have had them, you know that it’s a fact. When I worked in downtown Dallas, I had the opportunity to try Sprinkles cupcakes, which is probably the most famous cupcakery. My first response after tasting one was “Crystal’s are better.” Now what nobody else sees is the utter catastrophe out of which the world’s best cupcakes are born. We could have our kitchen spotless and perfectly organized, but by the time an order of cupcakes is completed it will look like we don’t know how to wash dishes and have never heard of a cabinet. In James 1, James is writing to the church in the dispersion. Which begs the question, what’s the dispersion? Acts chapter 8 tells us that following the execution of Stephen, Saul continued to carry out persecution against the followers of Jesus and that all of the believers except for the disciples themselves were scattered all throughout the land. This context is important for what we are going to discuss today. James tells us to count it all joy when we meet various trials (persecution). Now we often hear this preached to modern day believers as an encouragement for when they eventually face some kind of trial. I think that allows us to shrug it off as “yea, well that’s easy to say because we aren’t in a trial right now,” but James is saying this to people who are ACTIVELY EXPERIENCING EXTREME PERSECUTION. James isn’t providing an outline to how to respond in the future, he is reminding them “this is how you should respond while this is happening.” And why should they react in this way? Because the testing of their faith produces steadfastness. Endurance. Stamina. No matter the word used in the translation, the point James is making is that God is allowing these things in order to make you better. The word that is translated as testing here is the same word that is used for refining metal. The testing process is the act of heating things up until the impurities float to the top and removing them, over and over again. James says that trials are this process for us. That as we face them, we are made more and more to look like God. That by enduring these things, we are made perfect and complete (more mature in our faith). Now some of us are probably saying “I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to face these things with joy.” We need only keep reading. It is no mistake that the next several verses James speaks on wisdom. It is not a matter of being happy, but rather using the wisdom that comes from God to make wise choices as we go through various trials. When we practice the wisdom which comes from God, then we can have joy that we are being refined. And that wisdom comes from God, and the word of God, does not wither or fade like the flowers of the field. So by now, I figure at least some of those reading or listening are wondering “what does this have to do with cake?” I’m glad you hypothetically asked. As I submitted, Crystal makes the best cupcakes in the world. Their deliciousness is well known and unparalleled in cupcake land. But they are only delicious when they are a finished product. Sure, there are the occasional ingredients that taste good on their own (Oreos will never not be yummy) but for the most part, the individual ingredients of the world’s greatest cupcakes don’t taste all that great on their own. Have you ever tried baking soda or vanilla on their own? YUCK! It is only after being mixed in the proper ratios and cooked at the proper temperature for the proper time that they become the world’s greatest cupcake. What James is telling us is that we are the same way. Yes, going through various trials and persecutions is no fun. It’s downright rough most of the time. But these trials are only one ingredient in what is making you into the image of God. The way that the refiners new that their testing of the metal was complete was that they could see their reflection in the metal. We are the same way. This testing that we endure through trials and persecution is making us into a reflection of our Creator. So let us consider it joy when we face trials, because the end result of this testing process is a life that mirrors the One who created us: God Himself.

Luke 12: 13 - 34 13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” 22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. As I said last week, we are in very uncertain times. Schools closed, places of work closed, grocery shelves empty. Social media has especially been abuzz around B/CS over the cancellations/postponements/rearrangements of beloved Aggie traditions such as Ring Day, Muster, and graduation. The TAMU Facebook posts especially have been full of angry parents demanding refunds for their students, and some even threatening the university to provide a graduation for the students, no matter what because the students have worked so hard. It is that kind of attitude which the member of the crowd in Luke 12 brings to Jesus when he demands that Jesus order his brother to divide their inheritance. He wasn’t concerned about what Jesus had to say, he just wanted someone to force his brother to give him what he wanted. Jesus responds by giving us a parable about a man who prided himself on his abundance of possessions. He wanted to build a bigger barn just so he could sit on all that he had acquired and congratulate himself on acquiring so much. The Lord then comes and tells the man his time is over and “what good are your goods now?” (I’m paraphrasing). Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to tell his disciples that God will take care of His children. He tells them to seek the kingdom and the things they need will be given to them. He tells them sell your stuff, give to the poor, store up treasures in heaven where the things that destroy possessions here on earth have no power. Most importantly, he tells them that what they treasure shows where their heart lies. I understand that it is upsetting to not have a Ring Day. To not be able to gather together for Muster. To not have a spring football game. But at the end of the day, these things are just things. Important things, memorable things, but just things. The US economy, your job, your classes, your school diploma, your ring, they are all just things. Let us not be so focused on the material things we may miss out on that we miss the eternal things that we should be focused on. May our treasure be found to be in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy. May we focus on seeking the kingdom and its righteousness, knowing that all the things that we truly need will come to us in due time, for it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom, and He who is the author and sustainer knows our every need.

reunion update

The ABS launched a new website this summer. The new web address is http://tamuabs.org The new website comes at the retirement of our previous website that was hosted at Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University Student Activities has forgone hosting and support student organization websites starting September 1, 2016. Thankfully, the university notified student organizations with enough time for ABS to make arrangements. This new launch provides us with much more freedom and flexibility of how things appear on the website than we had before. We also have many more new functionalities with the website such as a place to RSVP for events, like our upcoming ABS reunion, widgets that display our twitter and Facebook feeds, and a news blog to post articles on activities going on at ABS. Check our website out and while you’re online follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Twitter: @tamuabs Facebook: Association of Baptist Students at Texas A&M University

ABS Director, Dr. Kyle Ritter, and ABS Vice-President, Kristin Gerhart, attended Breakaway Ministries annual dinner in August. Breakaway Ministries is a non-denominational, weekly Bible study on the campus of Texas A&M University. The dinner aims to bring together ministers and staff of local college student ministries to discuss the upcoming school year and provides an opportunity for ministers to network with one another. The ministers and staff of Breakaway Ministries consistently acknowledge that Breakaway Ministries cannot provide a one-on-one or small group discipleship to the 10,000 students who attend their weekly worship and Bible study. They empower and encourage local college ministries to serve in this capacity to make and grow these young disciples. Please be in prayer for Breakaway Ministries and how ABS can equip the students coming from this large campus Bible study in a more specific ways. To learn more about Breakaway or listen to the Bible study series go to their website at: http://breakawayministries.org/

​ Aggies in Mission partners with the Association of Baptist Students to coordinate Aggies interested in domestic and international missions. Aggies in Mission is a recognized student organization at Texas A&M University. The purpose of AIM, as they are locally known, is to to spread the love of Christ through actions of service. For more information on AIM, check out their website . ABS offers a variety of ministry outlets for students to serve and be served. Over the years, ABS has sent students on mission trips as far as South Africa to as close to home as Texas A&M’s backyard, Brazos County. To continue that mission mindset, we were thrilled when the opportunity to partner with another student organization whose sole focus is to organize missions events, large and small. In the coming year, our ABS leadership will work with AIM to coordinate and host a variety of mission events. We are excited to see what the Lord has in store through this partnership.