Ahh...The Baptist

So what does it take to begin thinking outside the box? Growing up in a independent fundamental Baptist church you never took risks, always stuck to the same proto call and never left your original boundaries. There were times it seemed the only thing we learned from God was how to judge someone.

These days I find myself caught in the middle of where I came from and where God is taking me. The other day me and Brad were discussing church softball and we were trying to figure out how many players we had. So Brad started naming off the players and two or three didn’t go to church. Then I ask Brad "is it fair that we let the guys who don’t go to church play when we have so many who do go to church interested?" We started discussing it and it didn’t take long for me to realize I just wasn’t thinking outside the box. Now I definitely wasn’t on the way to raising cane about this or leaving church or anything. Bitterness was not present. But the fundamentalist in me made an attempt to show his face. It really wouldn’t be a terrible thing if there were more than 2 or 3 non-church goers playing on the team. I’m not going to mention the names of these guys but pray for them. These guys know that we are Christians and they know what we are about. It’s just a matter of God convicting their hearts to show up on Sunday morning.

Another thing that really bugged me and I needed to get off my chest. The other day I heard someone say that we should only pray to God that his will be done. Did God not long for us to come to him with our selfish prayers? Now don’t get me wrong, by selfish prayers I don’t mean ask God for a million dollars, a hot wife or husband and a huge mansion. I’m talking about the "Lord please heal my Mother. Please heal my Grandfather. Lord please let alcohol and drug abuse in my Father cease" kind of prayers. What is wrong with laying these prayers at the feet of God? I don’t think it’s wrong to be selfish in this way as long as AFTER the fact we are satisfied with the way God handled the situation.