By Joe McKeever “‘…your ways are not my ways,’ saith the Lord.”  (Isaiah 55:8) Keep an eye on how the Lord works in your life. You might learn something useful for the next time He wants to use you. This little couplet seems to sum up 90 percent of what Scripture and life teach us concerning the operation of God in this world…. When God gets ready to do a thing, He loves to start small Using ordinary people With whatever methods He chooses, And take HIs own good time about it. Only people of faith will still be standing there at the end To see what He has done And to behold His glory. That’s how He does things.  You can see it all through Scripture and by looking back over your lifetime. But here is the problem.  His ways are not our ways.  His thoughts are different from ours.  He is in fact light years above and beyond us and our techniques. (He said that very thing in Isaiah 55:8-9.) For instance, using the formula (above) as our guide….. God loves to start small; However we don’t like little things.  (Matthew 13:31-32) We keep asking God to do big things, and think we’re complimenting Him by such prayers.  “Do a God-sized thing,” I prayed for years. We complain if our numbers … [Read more...]

By John Hebert ALEXANDRIA (LBM)--Adrian Rogers, deceased pastor of the historic Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis and a past president of the Southern Baptist Convention who helped lead a grassroots movement to return the denomination back to its conservative biblical roots, told a story about the importance of financial integrity that I still reference in sermons today. “I heard about a man who was an executive in a company,” Rogers said (now archived on lwf.org). “They were going to move him up and make him one of the chief executives. The board of directors had talked it over, and it was a done deal. It was a monumental advancement. But in the company cafeteria one day, the owner of this company just happened to be behind this man in the cafeteria line. Unbeknownst to him, the CEO saw him take a pat of butter costing about 3 cents, then put a slice of bread over the butter so the cashier couldn’t see it. The CEO went back to the board and told them they had the wrong man—he didn’t have integrity. And for 3 cents, the man lost a monumental promotion and multiple thousands of dollars!” MORAL OF THE STORY I don’t accept that the man was simply a few pennies short of what he needed at check-out. Neither do I believe he … [Read more...]

By Tim Patrick DERIDDER, La. – Many of you know we lost our oldest son in October. David was an IMB (Southern Baptist) missionary. His death gives me an inside view that many of you do not possess. This year, that view carries greater weight than ever. I share this view with you so that (hopefully) you will consider your responsibility in supporting SBC mission causes. According to records, only about 50 percent of SBC churches give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. That is tragic! If we worked together, think how much we could accomplish in reaching our world for Christ. This year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal is $175 million. According to records there are 14,525,579 members in Southern Baptist churches. If only 25 percent of our members would give $100, our income for the offering would be $400 million. When David died in October, I saw the caliber of missionaries we support. There were between 30 and 40 missionary units (families) who drove and flew from around the country to pay their respects and support David’s family. These missionaries share a strong camaraderie in their passion to see the Gospel touch every corner of our globe. Seeing the caliber of our missionaries reminds me, Lottie Moon is a … [Read more...]

By Stewart Holloway PINEVILLE, La. - If you have kids, you know that God often teaches you through them. Recently our oldest son Zach was holding his little brother Evan and said, “I prayed for a brother, and God gave me the best.” Any older brother may say that about his little brother, but this statement stood out to me because Evan is so unlike everyone else’s little brothers. Zach’s friends have brothers of the same age as Evan with whom they can talk and play. They can run around in the yard together, play video games together, and do all the other things elementary age siblings enjoy doing together. But, because of his disabilities, at seven years old, Evan is stalled out at around a year old. He can’t do anything like what the other brothers do, but that hasn’t stopped Zach from loving his brother, finding ways to play with his brother, and even talking to his brother. To hear Zach talk sometimes, you might think his brother was like everyone else’s. But it was Zach’s statement about God’s provision and answered prayer that caught my attention: “I prayed for a brother, and God gave me the best.” It was an honest, clear statement. Zach didn’t add something like “even though Evan has special needs;” no, he made the … [Read more...]

By Clark Palmer TIOGA, La. - Information matters. Numbers matter. I want my doctor to get and record the right numbers on my blood pressure, temperature, cholesterol and more. I want my banker to get and record accurate numbers on my deposits and withdrawals. I want the right number in my checkbook or money management app. I want the scoreboard to be accurate so that I can know how my team is doing. You get the idea. Numbers aren’t everything but they do matter.  Leaders on the associational and state level are helped by those numbers. Do we need to plant a new church in our community? Accurate numbers will help us see the real picture. Are there struggling churches who need to make some decisions about their future? Real numbers can help us move toward a wise path forward. Can we afford to start new programs and hire new leaders? And in what areas are they most needed?  What about fair representation? The number of messengers to national and state conventions are based on reported numbers.   As the new moderator for our association looking for a sense of where we are, I discovered that I’m not sure where we are because a lot of the information seems to be missing. I’ve since discovered that one-third of our churches … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBC) - This year has brought about more challenges and cancellations than any of us care to recount. For those meetings and events that were scheduled, more times than not, they happened virtually rather than in person. This has been true for us as Louisiana Baptists. Therefore, I am excited to meet in person for the annual meeting of Louisiana Baptists. We have made significant changes to the format to streamline our business while complying with COVID considerations, but our plans are to gather in person for this important, once-a-year event. So please join us on Tuesday, November 10, in Guinn Auditorium on the campus of Louisiana College in Pineville. Registration will open at 11 a.m. and the meeting will begin at 12:45 with worship led by Ricky Draper, worship pastor at First Baptist in New Orleans. We will conduct business, hear reports and celebrate God’s faithfulness amidst the great challenges of 2020. The meeting will conclude about 5 p.m. following a message from Steve McAlister, pastor of Westside Baptist, in Natchitoches. Resilient will be our theme – certainly appropriate for this year. We realize it may require resiliency to make it to this year’s annual meeting, but we do … [Read more...]

By Waylon Bailey COVINGTON, La. – “What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!” I learned to sing the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” as a child and teenager in church. I have never forgotten the words, especially these words, “What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.” It is a privilege to pray–both to take our personal needs to God and to pray for others. As I write this, I have just had the privilege to join with one of the men of our church in praying for his wife. Prayer for others is a great privilege. It is also a Christian obligation. While we certainly pray for ourselves and for those close to us, we also have a responsibility to pray for the church and its mission around the world. Paul told the church to pray for all the saints, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). Paul asked the church at Colossae to pray for him and his work. “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn Lord, we are weary! Especially your people in Louisiana. First, it was COVID-19. We spent weeks leading the nation in cases per capita. We went home. The economic impact of that is still being felt. When people went home, gas prices plummeted. So many of our people who make their living in the oil and gas industry suffered. Some were retired before they planned to retire. Others were not so fortunate. They are just unemployed. We are weary. Then hurricane season arrived. Six times we have been in the “cone of uncertainty.” The “cone of uncertainty” became the “certainty of catastrophe” with Hurricane Laura. We. Are. Weary. We are weary of blue tarps, if there is even something left to tarp. We are weary of FEMA. We are weary of the hum of the generator. And yes, we are tired of our new guest Jim Cantore. We are weary from all that has been lost. We are weary of the debris that is piled up at the road waiting to be removed. Like Elijah of old, some days we want to find a tree to sit under to pray, “Lord, I’ve had enough.” But Lord, and I’m laughing to keep from crying, the tree was blown down by Hurricane Laura. And now, comes Delta. Dear Lord, we’ve run out of names this year and have turned to the … [Read more...]