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Published: 25 July 2019

I was privileged to have face to face meetings with the Principal in every school I attended. These meetings were not for commendation and I did not celebrate the opportunity. As you know, the Principal is the headmaster of a school, the person of chief importance. Among other important duties, the Principal is responsible for the discipline of the school and is therefore the last stop, or in some cases, the “last resort.” I now work for THE Principal. I love Him. I find Him to be more brilliant every week. I am glad for the meetings I get to have with Him and thankful for the privilege of serving Him. He’s THE Principal by appointment because He is fully qualified for the role. He intercedes for us. He knows what it is to suffer. In fact, He learned obedience by the things He suffered and is touched by the feeling of our infirmities. He is not aloof, He is present. He is also the Architect, the Builder and the Energy behind all that is good and right, especially the Church. He does care for discipline but never because we are an inconvenience. Rather, He desires that we have life; He therefore wants to remove anything that robs us of life. There have been many good teachers regarding this life over the years; Paul, John, Peter, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin to name a few. They all looked to THE Principal and pointed people to Him. I hope you know THE Principal and have meetings with Him regularly. His office is quite pleasant and His love for you is stronger than you can imagine. No appointment is needed on His end; He has an open door policy. If you are too busy to meet with Him, consider scheduling some time with Him. He actually knows what life is about, and He knows how to live.

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Published: 19 July 2019

Once a month I aim to make this blog a bit more “missions-minded.”  My goal is to remind us that the need for the proclamation of the gospel is still greater than Greenville alone.  That said, the missions paradigm is changing because the world has changed.  We are under the same mandate but the methodology is changing rapidly.  Technology and globalization have not only impacted culture and the economy; it has also made the availability of the gospel more pronounced than ever before.  A recent missionary speaker at CBC even said, “The era of frontier missions is over.”  I was not surprised to hear that but I was surprised to hear it from a missionary!  So, we want to stay involved in global missions, but we want to do that in ways that are commensurate to the present needs and movements of God in the world.  What we never want to do is give the impression that Christianity is about taking over and/or changing governments (colonialism).  We certainly want people to be citizens of another country but not the U.S.A., (unless they want to be).  Primarily, we desire to see people flourish as citizens of Heaven within the culture and under the government in which they live.  This is possible, as we will see on Sunday.  But, our dual citizenship may cause conflicts at times, and in those situations it sure is good to remember that there is a King who reign over all.