About
This website is the result of a message I was asked to deliver by my Senior Pastor, Wendell Bishop, to the First Baptist Church of Sanford on April 26, 2009. At that time, I was interested in making a website I could use for practice so I could learn some of the skills I would need to help out on the Church's new website. It seemed right to stay with what I was already concentrating on, so this site is about putting into practice some of the Biblical concepts discussed that evening. When the editing is done, that message will be available here.
The meaning of the website's name, "deadright" is not obvious. The common use of that phrase is to praise someone for being precisely correct. Its like an archer or a marksman hitting the center of a target, or the "bullseye". In this case, it is not about the website, its content or its author, but about those who put into their daily practice the Bible's teaching about dying to sin and letting Christ live through them.
Here's how it applies. The Greek word most often translated "sin" in the New Testament is usually understood to mean "missing the mark", ie, missing the bullseye. Since everyone is by nature enslaved to sin, no one can be "dead right," except perhaps briefly by rare accident. But the teaching of the New Testament is that a person who has taken up their cross, thus dying to sin, can experience the life of Jesus living through them by His Spirit. So, to the degree that we are "dead to sin," we can be "right to God." So, only the "dead" can be "right." This website is for those whose love for Jesus has created the desire to be "deadright"!
The site's author is Richard Wagoner, M-Div 1986, SWBTS. He is currently the Associate Pastor for Worship at the First Baptist Church of Sanford, Florida. He has been married to Karen for 31 years, and has three sons that he loves to talk about. He can be reached through the guestbook, or through the church's website, www.firstsanford.org.