So long, Wake Forest

I am sitting in a coffee house sipping on a good cup of coffee and looking at the seminary across the street.  Although this is a seemingly familiar scene in my life, three things are vastly different.  1) I am not at the Wake Forest Coffee Co. but at the Broad River Coffee Co.;  2) Obviously, the small town I am in is not WF but Boiling Springs; and finally, 3) the seminary that I am looking at is definitely not SEBTS, but Gardner-Webb.  The times have changed indeed.

As one door of our life closes while another opens, Keri and I can’t stop thinking about all of our wonderful friends back in Wake Forest.  We will truly miss you!  The time we spent learning, growing, laughing, loving, and ministering to one another will never be forgotten.  You will always be in our prayers, and we greatly look forward to the time when we can soon see each of you again.  Keep fighting the good fight!

Love In Christ,

Patrick and Keri

Jesus as Prophet, Priest, and King

When we think of Jesus, we usually only see Him as Jesus, ‘the Son of God’, period.  But being just Who He is means that Jesus is not only God’s Son, but also our Great High Priest, The Prophet that is to come, and The True King, who rules over every aspect of our lives.  Mark Driscoll sums it up well:

Jesus came to reveal to us this tri-perspectival understanding of who He is and what He has done.  As a prophet, Jesus confronts us and calls us to repentance of sin.  As a priest, Jesus comforts us and comes to us to save us from sin and enable new life.  As king, Jesus commands us to relinquish authority of our life so that every facet of our life is under constant sanctifying transformation.(1)

Is Jesus fulfilling each of these roles in your own life?

(1) Mark Driscoll. Vintage Jesus. (Wheaton, Il: Crossway Books, 2007). 79.

Christian Radio

I’ve been wanting to blog about this for a long time.  Glad somebody beat me to it, and in a much more hilarious manner than i could have written:  Click HERE.

Just one of the many reasons I will always love the South

When does a church need to quit using the name ‘church’?

Came across this quote today in Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches by Dr. John S. Hammett (p.73): “The Gospel is prior to the church and the church exists because of it. Therefore, if the church ever loses the Gospel, it ceases to be a church.” This couldn’t be more true, and sadly, this couldn’t be a more real phenomenon that is happening in our American society today. And there are hundreds, if not thousands of these societies deemed as churches across our country.

For example, when I was in D.C. a few years ago with Clemson’s FCA, my group visited one of these ‘churches’ near downtown Washington. The speaker spent 45 minutes telling the congregation why we needed to elect a Democrat and why the Bible mandated such. Needless to say, there was no Gospel in that message, and I would assume that the Gospel of Jesus had not been there in quite sometime, for most of the members present stated to me afterwards that the message that we had just heard was the best that had been presented there in years!

Friends, let us not forget, ” if (a church) loses the Gospel message, a group of people is no longer a true church. It may be a religious society or a club, but it is not a church, for God’s called-out people are called out by the Gospel and come in response to the Gospel. The power of the Gospel is what reconciles them to God, unites them to Christ, and allows them to be indwelt by the Spirit. There can be no people of God, body of Christ, or temple of the Spirit without the Gospel (Hammett, 63-64).” If a church negates this distinguishing mark, it would do well to quit fooling itself and those around it, and change its name to ‘such and such’ club, org, society, group, association, etc…

How to see God

“The invisibility of God is a great problem.  It was already a problem to God’s people in the Old Testament days.  Their pagan neighbors would taunt them, saying, ‘Where is now your God?’Their gods were visible and tangible, but Israel’s God was neither.  Today in our scientific culture young people are taught not to believe in anything which is not open to empirical investigation.  How then has God solved the problem of His own invisibility?  The first answer is of course ‘in Christ.’  Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  John 1:18: ‘No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son has made Him known.’  ‘That’s wonderful,’ people say, ‘but it was 2,000 years ago.  Is there no way by which the invisible God makes himself visible today?’  There is.  We return to 1 John 4:12: ‘No one has ever seen God.’  It is precisely the same introductory statement.  But instead of continuing with reference to the Son of God, it continues: ‘If we love one another, God dwells in us.’  In other words, the invisible God, who once made himself visible in Christ, now makes himself visible in Christians, if we love one another.  It is a breathtaking claim.  The local church cannot evangelize, proclaiming the gospel of love, if it is not itself a community of love.” (1)

(1) John Stott, “Why Don’t They Listen?” Christianity Today (September 2003): 52.

One of The Creator’s many trump cards!

As i am becoming more and more engaged in discussion regarding creation vs. evolution, i cannot but help realize the numerous amounts of plain and simple evidence that the Lord has clearly left in His favor.  One such specimen is the Bombadier Beetle.  Enjoy:

Baltimore: Take 1

This past Tuesday, i visited the city of Baltimore, MD for the first time.  To say the least…it was incredible!  I spent my first half of the day working with a church that overlooks the beautiful Baltimore harbor.  Having been previously served by the great E.Y. Mullins in the late 1800′s, the Church on Warren Avenue stands as a long-running testament to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in a city where He is the last thing that most people are concerned with.

Why did I go?  Because I am going to take my youth group back to Baltimore in just over a week for our summer mission project, and I was finalizing our trip.  In the mornings, we will be helping the Church on Warren Ave. to further reach out to the beautiful community that surrounds them.  In the evenings, we will be working with the Middle River Salvation Army by leading a Bible school and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His propitiation for our sins, and His Lordship over the heavens and the earth!  

Please pray for us as we go.  Pray that the Lord will make the most use of our time there for His kingdom.  Pray that we will unapologetically share His gospel with all whom we encounter.  Pray that He gives me, my team, my students, and our church a greater heart for missions through this trip.  Pray that Christ will save His sheep who are wandering around this great city even as you read this.  And finally, pray for Keri and I.  For I really can’t tell you why we are going to minister in Baltimore.  We have no family there, no current ties there, and people who live there don’t talk like we do (they don’t say ‘yall’!).  But for some reason, over the past few months, the Lord has given me a great love for this city, and a desire to take the Gospel there.  During my day there, I began to understand what Mark Driscoll meant when he says that you really have to love the city you are ministering in.  I can’t explain it at all, except that maybe…just maybe….it is an answer to our prayers (1 Cor. 16:9).  Enjoy the view…

Baltimore Harbor from Federal Hill

Andy on Tour

Andy, one of my good friends at school has just recently taken off on a lap-o-America motorcycle ride.  He will be continually keeping track of his journey on his blog, which you can access from the right side of this page.  Go get ‘em Andy!!  Have fun bud!

Truth on trial

As i was scanning a couple of blogs the other day, i came across one that had a particular flair to it.  The post was a list and explination of several different alleged New Testament ‘contradictions.’  As you can imagine, i was eager to see just what parts of the New Testament were ‘contradictory’, so i began to read.  Yet, after reading the post, i noticed that none of these alleged contradictions were anywhere close to contradictory.  They were simply different parts of the same story that the Holy Spirit had included using various biblical authors, and this was my main point.  The death of Judas was one example brought up. 

Anyway, the author and I are in the process of discussing these items plus a few more.  I invite you to read along, and join in if you so desire.  His blog post can be found here, and if you scroll down the page, you can see his and my responses.  Thanks for reading…