Anything But This!

I hate to diet. However, it is time to diet again. I do this about once a year, and every time I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Yet, I have no choice. Every piece of clothing I have is beginning to fit tight. The only thing that separates the word diet from the word die is the letter "t".

Over the years, I have done all most every diet you can think of. I have done low-carb diets, low fat diets, no sugar diets, all fruit diets, and low calorie diets. The truth is that every single one of these diets work. I lost weight on all of them. However, after I get tired of them, I begin to gain weight.


I have absolutely no idea how much I weigh. I know I am not the biggest I have ever been. The biggest I have been is 375 pounds. I weighed that in January 2004. It took me a while to find my weight. I went all over the city looking for a scale that went up that high. I was afraid I would have to go to the grain elevator or the junk yard to find a scale that would weigh me. Then it happened, I went to visit a sick person in the hospital and realized that they would have a scale. I asked a nurse if I could weigh myself, and she walked me over to a scale. The scale only went up to 350 pounds. I told her that this one was not large enough. She smiled and said, I quote: "Oh, Well we have a scale in a room down the hall for people like you." Let me tell you something friend, when you have to go to the scale "For people like you", it is time to go on a diet.

I would say that I weigh close to 350 pounds. I do not want to get any larger. The problem I have right now is that I have absolutely no ambition to diet. So this is what I am going to do. I am going to eat three meals a day. I am not going to eat sweets, and I am not going to snack. I do not know if this will work, but I think it is the best I can come up with now. I am not ready to give up bread. I am not ready to give up meat. So this is the new plan. I am going to eat meals.

You never know, maybe I have come up with something. You eat when you are supposed to, and what you are supposed to, and nothing else. It sounds crazy, but maybe it will work. I will call it the Bigrevcoop Diet. Maybe if I lose the weight I can get on Oprah. I know if I cry with Oprah my book will make me a fortune. So here is to healthy eating. Maybe Dunkin can make a doughnut that is good for you.

What I Learned From Liberals?

I was educated by the best liberals that Baptist Cooperative Program money could buy. I went to School at two Baptist institutes of higher learning; Cumberland College and Southern Seminary. Southern has made a turn for the good in recent years. As a matter of fact, Southern began making the turn when I was there. President Mohler and I came to Southern in the same year. It took him a few years to straighten out the mess, but by my third year in seminary; I began to see the difference.

Liberals, I just love them. Both feet planted firmly in the air. They work hard to believe in nothing. They believe in nothing so that they will not have to defend anything. This allows them to say and believe whatever they want in the name of academic liberty.

In Theological terms, the difference between a Conservative and a liberal is how one interprets the Bible. A Conservative believes that the Bible is the true infallible word of God. A liberal believes that the Bible is not. Now this is overly simplified, but it is the basis of the debate. There are some Baptists that fall to the far right end of Conservative thought, and there are some Baptist that go to the far left end of liberal thought.

For the most part, Southern Baptists are conservatives. They are Bible believing. This is why there had to be a change in our denomination. In the late 1970's the national convention was controlled by liberals. The local church decided that the leadership must change. This sparked the Baptist reformation of the 1980's. However, the last bastion of liberalism was and is found in our educational institutions. Many of our state convention colleges are still strongholds of liberalism. However, our seminaries are now firmly in the hands of conservatives.

I went through seven years of Baptist education before I heard that the Bible was the true word of GOd. This is shameful, but nevertheless true. I learned three major concepts from liberals. I want to share with you what I learned through liberal theological training.

First, They taught me that there are absolutely no absolutes. The last thing that a liberal wants to do is believe that something is certain. Once a person believes that something is certain, then they are bound to act upon their beliefs. By not believing in anything, you are not accountable to anything. This makes life and faith so much easier. That is absolutely true.

Second, They taught me that the further you move from orthodoxy the smarter you are. For liberals, the sign of true intelligence is to convince yourself to believe in the most radical things. The further out-there you are, the smarter you are. For an enlightened thinker is represented by an open mind. I remember a liberal opening class with prayer. The young man said, "Our Father and Mother who art in heaven." By saying this, it proved he was smart. I don't know why he didn't include all the other members of the family: Our heavenly Aunt and uncle, brother and sister, 3rd cousin; twice removed. Nevertheless, if you want to be considered smart, you must become a radical. For liberals, the two go hand and hand.

Finally, they taught me to hate the local church. Liberals would never say this, but they know it is true. The local church demands accountability. Accountability is one thing liberals hate. I was never encouraged by a liberal to go to church, but I sure heard over and over again of how bad the church is. This is probably why most liberal churches are dying. They hate themselves.

My senior year of college, I actually started buying into some of this stuff. It didn't last long, but after hearing it again and again and again, I thought that it might be true. I was grounded enough not to let it pull me all the way in, but I watched many other young men fall into liberalism and never get out. This is why I believe it is time to finish the reformation. It is time for the state conventions to straighten out their Baptist colleges. We have wasted enough CP money on professors who hate the word of God.

What Did I Learn at The Southern Baptist Convention 2006?

I am back from Greensboro, North Carolina, and as I promised in my last blog, I will tell you all that I learned at the Southern Baptist Convention.

First, I learned that Greensboro has a real nice convention center. I was not expecting much. Greensboro is not a large city, and I did not think their convention center would be all that nice. I was wrong. Greensboro should be proud of what they have. Cleveland, Ohio would be lucky to have this type of a facility, and Cleveland is more than twice the size of Greensboro.

Second, I learned that Al Mohler is even a bigger genius than I thought he was. The Mohler and Patterson debate was nothing more than a discussion between two friends. Regardless of your position, it would not have changed in this debate. Both men did a wonderful job defending their believes. However, everyone I spoke with, both Calvinists and non-Calvinists, were impressed with Dr. Mohler. Dr. Mohler had cornea surgery the day before this discussion. He was in a tremendous amount of pain, and he could not read any of the notes he made. Off the top of his head, he out performed the great Paige Patterson. I remind you that Paige Patterson is no slouch. He is a brilliant man as well.

Third, I learned that blogging has a huge impact on the convention. Regardless of your opinion of Wade Burleson, his blog and the blogs of others, played a huge role in this years Convention. Frank Page owes his presidency to the blogosphere. I do not know if people read the blogs themselves, or heard about the controversy from those who did read the blogs. Nevertheless, the blog world has come to stay.

Fourth, I learned a new word. A pastor friend of mine used the term Calviphobe. I about laughed my head off when I heard it. A Calviphobe is someone that doesn't want to talk, think, or read anything about Calvinism. They want to be left in their happy little world. There is a whole lot of Calviphobes out there.

Fifth, I learned that the Southern Baptist Convention can disagree without being disagreeable. There was some strong opinions held at the convention, but I heard nothing spoken that I would consider out of line. Southern Baptists should be proud of the way we conducted our convention, and President Bobby Welch did a fantastic job handling the event.

In closing, I really feel bad about all of those on the left that were wanting blood and guts. It must be terribly disappointing to be so wrong about the Southern Baptist Convention. I have noticed that the Associated Baptist Press is working hard to find something to write about that will please most of their readers. I am sorry fellas; things have been very peaceful since you left.

I Love Being A Southern Baptist

If all you did was read the news and blogs about Southern Baptists over the last few months, you would think that Southern Baptists are terrible people. You would quickly come to the conclusion that Southern Baptists are mean-spirited and out to get people. You would think that Southern Baptists are complainers about anything and everything. This is far from the truth.

The reason bloggers and news agencies are so hard on Southern Baptists is due to the nature of what they are doing. News agencies need news to write about. Thus, they pick apart organizations and find the bad stuff to write about. As for bloggers, it is easy to write about things that bother you. I have to be careful of this as well. It is much easier for me to write a blog about things that bother me, than it is to write about things that make me happy. I believe bloggers go negative because it is easy to do.

So this time, I am going to go completely positive. I want to tell you the three reasons I am happy Southern Baptist.

1. Our Biblical Stances. The Southern Baptist Convention debates and argues about the Bible. The Bible was the reason for our greatest conflict, and the Bible will continue to be our battle cry. Baptists are people of the book. This is going to put us at odds with the world and many organizations that call themselves Christs. I love the fact that we stand for something. This means people may not like us. However, what is popular isn't always right.

2. Our Mission organizations. Southern Baptists are held together by the cooperative program. The cooperative program supports our mission activities throughout the world and North America. As Southern Baptists, we cooperate together to do the greatest amount of good. We give our money to this program, and by working together, we are capable of doing so much more.

3. Our History and Heritage. I love telling people that I am a Southern Baptist Pastor. I live in Northern Ohio, and sometimes when I tell people I am a Southern Baptist Pastor they look at me as if I have a horn. They are surprised that I am able to string together words and thoughts. They often are freaked out by the knowledge. I believe this is a good thing. We need to be different from the world. I want the world to think we are different. We should be different. Saying I am a Southern Baptists has opened many doors for future conversations. Once people realize that you don't hate black people and Jews, they become interested in what you truly believe.

Our history and heritage is great. It is filled with Biblical truth and wonderful men. Certainly we have our black eyes, but if all you can see are the bumps and bruises then you are missing a whole lot.

There are many other reasons I love being a Southern Baptists. I would not be apart of it if I didn't think it was the greatest convention in the world. We do have our ups and downs, but most things do. Overall, I thank God that I am a part of this great Convention. We have a lot more going for us than we have against us.

PS. I will write next Thurday about all that I saw at the Southern Baptist Convention. It should be a lot of fun.