By Paul F. South

NEW ORLEANS - The most important lesson Chuck Kelley has learned in his 14 years as president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is the same that the Apostle Paul preached boldly to believers in Romans 8.

Embrace the cross, and live in the power of God's love.

Kelley called it the "Wow" of walking with God.

"(God) is not our enemy. He's not one who is angry with us; He is not mad at us. He is somebody who is on our side," Kelley said. "What shall we say of these things. If God be for us, who can possibly be against us. He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)"

Across his years as seminary president, the school's endowment has doubled. The seminary survived Hurricane Katrina. And now, new family housing nears completion on campus, all the work of God.

"God has done amazing things," Kelley said. "And I've had a front-row seat."

However, with God's promise comes another assurance, found in Rom. 8:35: Christians will not be shielded from enduring trials and tribulations, led like "sheep to the slaughter." Tough times are a fact of life.

Kelley recalled those sometimes-heartbreaking times from his tenure.

There are the images of Hurricane Katrina - a flooded campus, a fearful seminary family of faculty, staff and students, all wondering what Kelley as president would do.

Kelley summed it up bluntly: "That's life."

However, hardships are not unique to the life of seminary presidents, Kelley said. Nevertheless, they are illustrative of the hardscrabble road God's called will endure in ministry. Moreover, there is no hiding from those trials and tribulations.

"Paul wasn't writing about seminary presidents," Kelley said. "He was writing about believers. Everybody in every church you're going to serve. . . is a sinner. And they will prove it - vividly."

Though seemingly at odds, the triumphs and tragedies promised in Scripture are true, Kelley said. It is one of the mysteries of an eternal God that cannot be understood any mortal man.

Kelley compared the gap between God's knowledge and ours to that of the views of toddlers and college-trained nutritionists on the comparative health benefits of ice cream and broccoli.

"If there can be that kind of gap between the understanding of a three-year-old and an adult, how great is the gap between our understanding and that of God?  . . . There will always be mystery, things you are unable to comprehend."

While Kelley said it is not a moral failure to ask "Why?" in troubled times, the proper question is "What does God do when we are in the midst of the trauma and the difficulty and the pain and the tough times of life?"

The answer, Kelley said, is found at the end of Romans 8. God promises that though His love, we are "more than conquerors."

"The answer is overwhelmingly simple," Kelley said. "He loves us . . .The love of God is enough."

Returning to the illustration of the ice cream-loving, broccoli-bashing toddler, Kelley painted a picture of a wired three-year-old, who bounces from the kitchen table and bolts for the backyard, only to miss a back step and crash wounded and weeping on the ground. From this, there comes a portrait of a loving parent, who doesn't offer a lecture, but love. So it is with God.

"When I would fall down, and was screaming my head off, I did not get a lecture about center of gravity. What my mom or dad would do, after making sure there were no broken bones . . . they would hold me and hug me and tell me ‘It's OK. I love you. It's going to be all right."

"The love of my father would not make the pain go away, it would make the pain less severe than the love of my father," Kelley said. "This is what God does when we are in those hard points of our lives. He does not make the pain go away. He does not make the trouble disappear. What God does is love us, with such a great love, His love is more important than the suffering we are experiencing."

Though God will bring His children through hard times, His strategy is not to make them easier, but to love with a deep love more powerful than circumstances. Kelley pointed to Rom. 8:32, and to Mark 14, when Christ, faced with the prospect of death on the cross, asked the Father to allow him to escape crucifixion. In Kelley's words, "the pause button was hit" on a salvation story started in Genesis.

However, the Father said "No."Thus, the Creator would be crucified by His creation. God issued His edict and the Son obeyed with one thought in mind, Kelley said.

"They thought of me. It was my sin. Looking at my sin and your sin and knowing where that unforgiven sin was going to take me, the Father said to the Son -‘Drink the cup to the full. Has there ever been such love in the history of the world?"

In the light of such love, we can trust God through the toils and snares of life and ministry. Simply enduring will callous the heart. Lashing out leads to rage. Holding it inside will trigger depression, Kelley said. Only through embracing God's love can we overcome, a truth that Paul understood. Kelley said.

"It is through the love of Christ that we overwhelmingly conquer," Kelley said.

Kelley closed with a reference to 2 Timothy 4, when Paul, largely abandoned on earth, took heart because he knew God was with him. As a result, he could face trial before Caesar with confidence.

"You cannot understand the love of God until you understand how much God loves you," Kelley said. "It is through your suffering that you begin to get an idea that Jesus has suffered far more than you can comprehend. He did all that because you put Him on the cross. To embrace the cross is to embrace the love of God."

Kelley's message was the climax of the annual Spring revival on the NOBTS campus. The three-day event marked the first time in his tenure that Kelley delivered the revival messages.

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