There’s news today that a Texas Planned Parenthood director quit after seeing an ultrasound. One of the efforts Oklahoma Baptists have made is to make sure all our crisis pregnancy centers are equipped with ultrasound capabilities so that young women (and young fathers) can see that there is indeed life within. Satan is a deceiver at his core, and so long as he can convince the world that an embryo or fetus is not a living human, he has the battle won. When we shine the light of truth by showing young women that they have life within their wombs, nearly 90% choose life. When the fathers will look at the ultrasound, it’s 99%. Thankfully, when they can see clearly, people make the right choice, and I am thrilled that we also help provide a means for the young moms to have healthy, happy babies, while gaining an education and having the security of a home. We Baptists do some things wrong; this is not one of them. Carry on, my brothers and sisters.

This from the Oklahoma Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission:

ERLC Alert! Pro-Life Bills HB 1595 and HB 1114 are on the Governor’s Desk

Call the Governor or email him and ask him to sign both bills into law!

House Bill 1595 prohibits a person from performing an abortion solely because of the sex of the child and creates the Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act, which requires physicians who perform abortions to report certain information to the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH). This legislation passed the Senate with a 35-9 vote; passed the House with 88-6. This was also our priority during Rose Day.

House Bill 1114 prohibits human cloning in Oklahoma and makes it a misdemeanor to perform or attempt to perform human cloning. This piece of pro-life legislation passed the Senate unanimously; passed House with 83-0 and 18 excused absences.

Each bill received overwhelming bipartisan support from both chambers and now needs Gov. Henry’s support!

Contact the Governor or email him and ask him to sign both bills into law!

Call him at: (405) 521-2342

Leave a message on his website at: http://www.gov.ok.gov/message.php

As previously noted, I was honored with an invitation to speak at this year’s pastors’ conference at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma annual meeting. The pastors’ conference audio, including sermons by Ted Kersh, Todd Fisher, Danny Akin, Ruffin Snow, Al Mohler, and myself, plus testimonies by Bob Hammon, Bob Woods, and Jerry Fielder, is now online here.

It’s taken me a while, but I finally have been able to sit down and make a few comments regarding the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, held at Moore First Baptist Church, Nov. 12-13, 2007.

The first session of the meeting was held Monday night, the rest of the day having been devoted to the annual Pastors’ Conference. This year’s Pastors’ Conference was different in that I was asked to bring a message. When asked to do so, I agreed. Only later did I learn that I was to be on the program with such individuals as Drs. Ted Kersh, Todd Fisher, Ruffin Snow, Danny Akin, and Al Mohler. That’s pretty tall cotton for little ole me to be walking in. I just prayed that God would give me His message then preach it through me. I’ll let others be the judge of whether He did or not. I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed each of these other men’s messages. I have been told that audio of the Pastors’ Conference messages is soon to be posted online, and I will update this post when that happens.

The rest of the meeting was a series of reports from the various departments and entities, praise, worship, and some fine sermons.

There is much good news. Oklahoma Baptists continue to give generously to our Cooperative Program. Falls Creek is making great strides, and BGCO President, Alton Fannin, has developed a simple, beautiful called “The Blessing,” wherein individuals who have been blessed by Falls Creek are simply asked to make a one-time $100 contribution to help eliminate the remaining debt from the new tabernacle project. Un-pledged outstanding debt is $5.5 Million (from a project that was over $30 Million). If just 55,000 persons will give “The Blessing” the Falls Creek debt will be retired. With the number of Oklahoma Baptists, 55,000 is well within reason, plus it gets everyone involved in the Falls Creek project rather than the less than 8,000 who have contributed so far.

Other good news is that Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief continues to meet the needs of victims of tragedy all over the country. Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children continue to provide hope and homes to children who desperately need them, in addition to expanding our crisis pregnancy services. Baptist Village Retirement Communities continue to meet our obligations to seniors who need a caring environment in which to spend their latter years.

There was also some bad news. Baptisms (thus salvations) were again down. Dr. Jordan encouraged us to be in deep prayer for God to move in our state, acknowledging that we need to sow down the state before we expect another great harvest. His message was much-needed and well-received. Sermons from the annual meeting, not including the Pastors’ Conference, are available here. I encourage you to listen to Dr. Jordan’s message.

We are also sad that we will be saying goodbye to Bill Green as Associate Executive Director of the BGCO. Bill has served for 17 years, and I don’t know a finer, more genuine man of God. His last big task with the convention was overseeing the Falls Creek project, which he did excellently. He will remain with the Singing Churchmen and Churchwomen until at least 2009. I, for one, am glad we’ll still have him around. We officially said goodbye with a presentation and reception Monday night. I was afraid we might not get to sing “Saved! Saved!” under his leadership one last time. When we arrived for the second day of meetings and I saw the tympani on the stage, my fears were assuaged, and he forevermore led us. It was a beautiful moment, and I detected more than a few tears around the room.

The business items were fairly standard and should appear in the Baptist Messenger next week. One item of new business was presented. Dr. Bruce Mason, Director of Missions for the Craig-Mayes Baptist Association (my association), noted that since the Mothers’ Day offering, which used to wholly benefit the Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children, was divided equally between the children’s homes and Baptist Village Retirement Communities, the total amount of the offering has decreased significantly. He then moved that the Mothers’ Day offering be applied only to the Children’s homes. After one speaker for and one against the motion, it was referred to the Executive Committee for further investigation.

I share Dr. Mason’s concern about the offering. I also believe we have an obligation to both widows (and widowers, i.e., seniors) and orphans (children). Therefore, I sent a letter this week to Alton Fannin and the Executive Committee urging them to investigate the possibility of restoring the Mothers’ Day Offering to the children’s homes and instituting a new, Fathers’ Day Offering for the retirement communities. We have separate missions offerings (Annie Armstrng for North America and Lottie Moon for International), and I think it makes sense to give both the children’s homes and retirement villages their own pies rather than expecting them to share one pie, which has shrunk significantly. I look forward to hearing back about the progress on this motion.

The business and sermons all make for a great, though long, day, indicated to me when my wife leaned over and said, “All this Baptist stuff is wearing me out!” right before the supper break.

The final session of the meeting this year included no “official” business. Instead, we focused on the business of prayer for spiritual awakening. Dr. Greg Frizzell, spiritual awakening specialist for the BGCO, led us as we prayed together in thanksgiving, repentence, desire for God to work in and through us and our churches. It was a blessed time.

One last thing I want to mention about this year’s meeting. It was a great time in which Jeane and I got to get closer to some of the other pastors in our assocation. Nov. 14th marked my 3rd anniversay at Strang First Baptist Church, my first pastorate. I have yet to have grown close to any of my fellow pastors in the association, and God really blessed the time we had together in Moore. I appreciate the great acquaintances we developed with Kevin Lancaster, Tom Landsaw, Ryan Goodrich, Larry Jackson, Ralph Heiney, Jess Dinsmore, and Bruce Mason (and many of their wives). I look forward to growing the relationships.