Submitted by philip on Fri, 01/09/2015 - 13:04 Dr. Richard Land, President Southern Evangelical Seminary and former head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commision and Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association Director of Missions Lane Moore led a large crowd of participants over the Texas Street Bridge in Shreveport during last year’s Louisiana Life March North. An estimated crowd of 5,280 people attended the inaugural event. Meanwhile at last year’s fourth annual Louisiana Life March South, which took place in Baton Rouge, an estimated crowd of 3,500 attended that event which went through the streets of downtown Baton Rouge and ended on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer Standing up for the lives of the unborn is the unofficial theme of two Louisiana Life Marches scheduled for later this month. Scheduled for Jan. 17 in Shreveport/Bossier City and Jan. 24 in Baton Rouge, the Louisiana Life March is a chance for different denominations, ages and ethnic and racial backgrounds to march together and pray to declare their opposition to the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in 1973. According to the Louisiana Department of Health and … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 01/09/2015 - 13:07 By Brian Blackwell. Message Staff Writer BATON ROUGE – The United States is a nation in crisis. Christians concerned for the direction in which the country is headed plan to gather on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge on Jan. 24 for a day of prayer. Called for by Gov. Bobby Jindal, The Response Louisiana will take place from 10 am to 4 pm at the Pete Maravich Center and will include people of all ages, denominations and ethnic and racial backgrounds whose purpose is the same – fasting and praying for a historic breakthrough in the country. The event is free but participants are encouraged to register for tickets, as seating will be limited, at theresponsela.com. Those wishing to promote or volunteer at the event can also receive more information at the event website. Louisiana Baptist leaders emphasize the importance of this day of prayer in the state. “You will be blessed,” Louisiana Baptist Executive Director David Hankins said on his video invitation that appeared on The Response Facebook page. “God will come down. And we’re praying that the state and the nation will be changed.” In a YouTube video by long-time KTBS reporter Rick Rowe, Fred Lowery, retired pastor … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 01/09/2015 - 13:19 Clovis Sturdivant (left) and Bert Langley (right) By Holly Jo Linzay, Regional reporter Two long-term directors of missions may be retiring from their positions, but both Bert Langley and Clovis Sturdivant said they will not be retiring from ministry. CLOVIS STURDIVANT WINNFIELD – Sturdivant, who recently retired from the position of director of missions for the North Central and Shady Grove Baptist Associations, first accepted the position in July 1996. “It was as much of a call of God as that of any church I have accepted,” Sturdivant said about his role as director of missions for the last 18 years. A retirement celebration for Sturdivant is planned for Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. in the Family Life Center of First Baptist Church of Jonesboro. Although he is retiring from a position, Sturdivant said he is by no means retiring from the “calling of God” to spread the Gospel. “You can definitely retire from a position, but never a calling. A calling has a beginning, and that is when God, and He only, leads you to enter His ministry as a lifelong pursuit. The end comes when you are called home to heaven,” Sturdivant noted. With this milestone in his life, Sturdivant is in the … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Message Editor Just days after I trusted Christ for salvation and committed my life to His lordship, I was introduced to George Muller by way of one of his biographies. Muller, who lived in England during almost all of the 1800s, was a fascinating man of prayer and faith. During his life time, he recorded over 50,000 specific answers to prayer with over 30,000 of them were answered within 24 hours. Through prayer and faith alone – without ever sharing any need with any person other than the Lord – Muller trusted God to respond to meet his needs of his ministry According to Muller’s records, God provided the equivalent of millions of dollars to underwrite the ministry of the orphanages in Bristol England. Muller had a strict rule for his staff and that no one was ever to ask anyone for money. What was the key to Mr. Muller’s faith and the amazing answers to prayer?  He had a process for how to ascertain the will of God. In the biography that I read, just days after trusting the Lord, there was an appendix that that contained a simple explanation of the process by which Muller sought discern the Lord’s will. It was titled, “How to ascertain the will of God.” Following are the six steps Muller employed in … [Read more...]

By Barrett Duke, Vice-President of Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission On Jan. 22, our nation reaches the 42nd anniversary of the horrific Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion-on-demand. For more than four decades, our nation has sanctioned the killing of more than 1 million unborn children every year, resulting in more than 60 million abortions, with no end in sight. This is a tragic milestone that should cause us to repent and weep. These unborn children are the most vulnerable human beings among us, yet they are afforded no protection by society. They are deemed the property of their mothers, with no rights except what their mothers choose for them. At the moment of conception, a human being comes into existence. This is a person created in the image of God, possessing a soul and deeply loved by God. We are well beyond the days when anyone can claim ignorance of the individual personhood of the unborn. Unborn babies have their own circulatory systems, oftentimes with a blood type different from their mother’s. Within months of their conception, they are even making personal decisions. Unborn children move in the womb to get more comfortable and in response to pain. Given the opportunity, these unborn people … [Read more...]

By Richard Land, President of Southern Evangelical Seminary No single issue facing the American family today has produced more heartache or tragedy than abortion. In the 42 years since the Supreme Court handed down Roe v. Wade, more than 60 million American babies have been legally aborted. Although the justifications given for abortion are many – finances, lifestyle, family size, etc. – the root cause is simple: As a culture, we have chosen to ignore the value God places on each human life. We have strict federal laws in the Endangered Species Act that protect the snail darter fish and the spotted owl. In California it’s a crime to disturb a seagull’s nest because the unhatched eggs represent the potential for life. And yet abortion remains legal and commonplace in this country more than four decades after Roe v. Wade. I still have a jarring and vivid memory of the first time I realized the full humanity of a human fetus. I was a sophomore in high school, and it was the day our biology class projects were due. One of my classmates, a girl whose father was an obstetrician, had prepared a project on the development of the human fetus. She had on display what I now know was a 12-week-old human fetus. From my lab table only a … [Read more...]

By David Roach, Chief Correspondent of Baptist Press NASHVILLE – The claim of some pro-choice groups that Scripture does not address abortion would have surprised both Jews and Christians living in the first century. That’s because they were virtually unanimous that the Bible implicitly – though clearly – prohibited the killing of unborn children. Abortion advocates today tend either to deny this fact or remain gladly ignorant of it. For example, Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, issued a “pastoral letter to patients” last spring stating, “Many people wrongly assume that all religious leaders disapprove of abortion. The truth is that abortion is not even mentioned in the Scriptures – Jewish or Christian – and there are clergy and people of faith from all denominations who support women making this complex decision.” Of course, the Bible does not contain the direct commandment, “Thou shalt not have an abortion.” But based on passages like Psalm 139:14-16, Jeremiah 1:4-5, Amos 1:13 and others, ancient Jews and Christians believed it was clear God cared for the unborn and regarded abortion a sin. Some may be surprised to learn that abortion existed more than 2,000 years ago, with surgical and chemical … [Read more...]

The 2015 Evangelism conference also will feature a servant evangelism project in which everyone is encouraged to bring clean coats on hangers to be used for the poor and at risk in the Shreveport-Bossier City area. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer SHREVEPORT – The countdown is on for the 2015 Louisiana Baptist Evangelism Conference. Hosted by Summer Grove Baptist Church on Jan. 26-27, the theme of the event is RESET: a Revitalization Conference. The conference will feature inspiring messages, high-energy music and a servant evangelism project. Former Southern Baptist Convention First Vice-president and past Florida Baptist Convention President Ted Traylor will preach the first message of the Evangelism Conference. The pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., Traylor has a weekly radio and television ministry, At the Heart of Things, that reaches thousands of homes along the Gulf Coast region. Each week his messages are broadcast worldwide through the internet. Traylor has preached extensively throughout the United States in conferences and revivals. Emanuel University in Oradea, Romania has honored Dr. Traylor by placing his name on the chair of Pastoral Leadership. He travels there frequently to preach … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 01/09/2015 - 13:35 A young boy prays with others over Operation Christmas Child boxes on the big collection day for all churches in November. For the 10th straight year, Louisiana exceeded the number of OCC boxes given by its churches. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer More children around the world will have a very Merry Christmas, thanks in part to a record-breaking Operation Christmas Child collection year. Throughout the year, churches of different sizes and denominations filled shoeboxes for the ministry of Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse organization. And by the end of National Collection Week – when individuals and churches dropped off their shoeboxes at major collection centers in the United States from Nov. 17-24 – more than 135,500 boxes were collected in Louisiana alone. That’s a 6.5 percent increase from 2013, according to Matt McClelland, Texas/Louisiana regional manager for Operation Christmas Child. “Louisiana continues to support Operation Christmas Child in an amazing way, growing in shoebox numbers each year since 2005, and growing from a total of 13,000 shoeboxes in 1999 to over 135,000 in 2015,” McClelland said. “We are thankful to every church, group, … [Read more...]