A "picture" of the now-retired Southwest Baptist University administrator in the process of deliberately and falsely claiming that Marie's injuries were "only" the result of a "lab accident."Marie had been praying, she explained to friends, one of two general prayers which she and her home church regularly use in praying for the leadership and membership of Southwest Baptist University, First Baptist Church of Bolivar, and the Missouri Baptist Convention: The prayer that they "might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding."
This prayer is taken from Paul's prayer for the Colossians, which is part of a longer passage in the first chapter of Colossians 9-10:
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,One friend pressed for further details, asking if this prayer is what had allowed Marie to "foresee the future."
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God ....
Marie explained:
No, I believe, in this case, there was no "prophetic" or "psychic" intent, because the Spirit didn't impress upon me what was about to happen [that is, the April 29 lab accident].Another friend interrupted, "But if that's true, why isn't this used by the leadership at SBU, MBC [Missouri Baptist Convention] and First Baptist [Church of Bolivar]? Why can't they discern the Spirit in the same way?"
I was "told" only that, given the unwise and deceitful way in which the SBU administration and staff had dealt with my own chemical accident, I was to pray for their growth in honesty, wisdom and maturity in such matters in the future.
If anything, this might be considered as a simple "word of knowledge" -- one of the Spiritual Gifts entrusted to believers by the Spirit when believers pray for wisdom in administering the Will of God. (Although, this term is used diversely in different denominations.)
At first, Marie was hesitant to answer, but, when prodded, she eventually replied, "This is why we have two primary prayers that we pray for them: the first, as I have said, is for wisdom; the second, is for repentance and salvation."
A startled friend responded, "You mean, you pray for their conversion?! Are you saying that they [Southwest Baptist University, the Missouri Baptist Convention, First Baptist Church of Bolivar] ... are not Christians?"
Though Marie was reluctant to discuss this in further depth, she relented and finally replied:
First, I must preface my answer with some explanation of what I believe it means to be a Christian.
As I said, in our prayers, we distinguish two categories of wisdom: first, the Wisdom given freely to all humankind and second, that Spiritual Wisdom granted to the Christian believer.
The Scripture instructs us to seek Wisdom for ourselves, our companions and kin, our neighbors, our rulers (even though they be corrupt) ... and even our enemies.
In Proverbs 1:21-22, Wisdom is depicted as crying out in the street: "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets ... in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates ... in the city. ... proclaiming herself to "the simple ones."
Clearly, the riches of Wisdom's counsel is a grace open to all -- obtainable from the Spirit by any willing person, both the skilled and unskilled, the schooled and unschooled in the things of the Spirit, people of all classes, cultures, or religious beliefs.
But, there is another Spiritual Wisdom, an Understanding which supersedes even the grace of that Wisdom that cries in the streets.
This is the Spiritual Wisdom that cries in the Christian's heart -- the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
When an individual is reborn, the Holy Spirit indwells that person, seeking to conform the believer into the Likeness of Christ Jesus, fitted for life and labor in the Body of Christ, possessing the Mind and Mission of Christ.
When, through this process, the Spirit administers the transforming Anointing of Christ, the reborn individual must, of necessity, gain access to Spiritual Wisdom beyond that ordinarily granted to all humankind, for the reborn believer has become a "new creature":
As 2 Cor 5:17 proclaims: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
How else can the believer hope to the attain to such a High Calling, if it were not for this transformation, this miraculous gift of Special Grace and Wisdom?
By Spiritual Wisdom, I am not referring to "gnostic" or occult knowledge; instead, this is the "Family Wisdom," an instinctual "species" knowledge -- the wisdom of privileges and responsibilities granted to the reborn believer.
The believer is now so transfigured as to belong to a different class of beings!
Therefore, though some may call themselves Christians, how is it that their lives so seldom show evidence of this spectacular transformation?Fastidius, the Bishop of London, as a father of the early church, dealt with this same troubling contradiction:
Let us not flatter ourselves in the mere fact that we are called Christians; rather, let us believe that we deserve to be judged if we assume a name to which we have no claim.Additional information will follow in NEWS ANNOUNCEMENTS this coming week.
Or, if anyone is so unbelieving, so unfaithful, so persistent, so obstinate, so bold, that he does not fear the imminent anger and indignation of God the judge, let him at least feel abashed before human judgments.
Let him realize how dull, how foolish, and how senseless he is considered even by other people, since his vanity and madness are so great that he takes upon himself a name to which he is not entitled.
For, who is so conceited and so pitiable that he would dare to establish himself as a lawyer if he is uneducated? Who is so mad and bereft of reason that he would proclaim himself a soldier if he does not know how to use arms?
One does not choose such a name without reason. To be called a cobbler, one must repair shoes; to be looked upon as an artisan or workman, one must produce proof of his art; to be recognized as a trader, one exhibits costly objects originally purchased at a smaller price.
From examples of this sort we realize that there is no name without the corresponding act and, furthermore, that every name is derived from the antecedent act.
Now, then, are you called a Christian when you perform no distinctively Christian acts?
The name Christian connotes justice, goodness, integrity, patience, chastity, prudence, humility, kindliness, innocence, and piety; how do you defend your assumption of that name when your conduct manifests so few out of so many virtues?
He is truly a Christian who is one not in name only but also in deed; who imitates and follows Christ in all respects; who is holy, innocent, undefiled, chaste; in whose heart evil finds no room, since this heart is dominated by piety and by a goodness which, knowing only how to bring help to all, knows not how to harm or injure anybody.
He is a Christian who, according to the example of Christ, is accustomed to do good to those who oppose him and to pray for his persecutors and his enemies rather than to hate them.
Whoever is quick to hurt or harm another person lies when he calls himself a Christian; he is truly a Christian who can say in all honesty: ‘I have harmed nobody; I have lived in justice with all men.’*
*Text taken from Migne’s Patrologia Latina Vol. 50 Trans. Sister Mary Sarah Muldowney, R.S.M., Ph.D.
The Fathers of the Church (vol. 16), Catholic University of America Press (1952)
With gratitude for the posting of this translations at: http://churchlatin.wordpress.com.
So, since you have asked for a direct answer, I will give you one.
Yes, we, as a house church, do pray for their repentance and conversion, because we believe that this is the best way to address the heart of the matter.
And, no, we do not believe that many of these individuals, whatever they may call themselves in public, are true Christians.
However, this is not meant as an insult or a provocation; rather, this is merely the open acknowledgement of the evidence of their lives, which are apparent to all -- both Christian and non-Christian alike.
Even Baptist pastors, leaders, and statisticians cite studies (for example, see here) which highlight the problem of "unregenerate" church members, who do not demonstrate a transformed life, so my perspective is not unique.
An article in the Baptist Press describes a SBU student, Lena Bystrova, from the former Soviet Union, who, previous to coming to Bolivar, Missouri, had been taught by Soviet propaganda that Baptists were a "cult that sacrificed babies and treated women poorly."
If I were to reference my own experiences, the Soviet propaganda may be a fair assessment.
When my life so much as touched one of theirs, even in passing, how often have I suffered injury and harm?
Rarely have my family, my friends or I escaped such encounters without suffering grief, hardship, slander, assault, thievery or abuse.
How is one to believe that these are the actions of people whose hearts and minds have been transformed by the Love of Christ?
Therefore, we will continue to pray for their regeneration and salvation, that they might be transformed, regenerated ... and made whole.
