By Waylon Bailey Prayer is at the heart of our Christian faith. In Scripture, we find many examples of prayer including and culminating with Jesus’ model prayer (the Lord’s Prayer). We also find exhortations to pray, and we find different aspects of prayer. One of the great passages about prayer is Paul’s writing to the Ephesians. In this passage, Paul described prayer as essential to our living faithfully. As we pray urgently, fervently, and constantly, we equip ourselves for the onslaught that we receive from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Paul wrote these powerful words as encouragement for God’s people to pray. “Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to  proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:18-20). Here are some takeaways about prayer from this passage of Scripture. First, prayer should be more “all” and less “some.” Notice that Paul uses “all” four times in Ephesians 6:18. We pray at all times with all prayer with all … [Read more...]

By Joe McKeever "Comfort one another." (I Thessalonians 4:18) A lady who read our blog commented that when she was widowed, her church did not minister to her.  And no, she said, “I did not seek counsel from my pastor.  I sought help from the Bible and the Lord alone.” I’m thinking she was saying that somewhat pridefully. I may be reading it wrong. I replied, “God never intended you and me to handle life’s burdens ‘from the Bible and the Lord alone.’ That’s why He put us in a church when He saved us.” We have to give the pastors and leaders a chance to help us. We should let them know we are in crisis. Then, it’s their responsibility to respond appropriately. But if they do not know, they will do nothing and you will suffer needlessly. I repeat: The Lord intends us to help each other handle these critical passages in life. He does not intend us to life our lives in isolation, just reading our Bible and trying to get sustenance from the Lord. He gives help through His people as well as by the Holy Spirit. And often, it’s through His people that the Holy Spirit ministers best. “Love one another.” “Comfort one another.” “Encourage one another.” Have you read that in Scripture? It’s all through the New … [Read more...]

By John Hebert, Louisiana Baptist Missions and Ministry Team Leader ALEXANDRIA (LBM) – Acts 28 describes the Apostle Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome as a sort of home confinement with a live-in guard and that for “two whole years” he was “able to welcome all who came to see him.” One of the “all” who was with him during much of that time was Timothy, who already was a recognized evangelist and overseer among the churches in Europe and Asia Minor, but he still was growing in spiritual maturity under the tutelage of Paul. They first met on Paul’s second missionary journey and throughout the following 14 years, or so, Timothy progressed in leadership and was sent by Paul to be his representative to Corinth and later to Thessalonica. Finally, Paul sent Timothy to Philippi and told the church there, “I have no one else like him” (Philippians 2:20), acknowledging his extensive personal investment in developing Timothy to serve as a leader. Indeed, Timothy’s path of leadership growth is a prime example of how leaders are developed over time through the passing along of wisdom from leader to follower combined with situational opportunities that allow a follower to test and develop his or her own skills. This time-honored … [Read more...]

By David Jeremiah EL CAJON, Calif. (BP) -- Dotting the landscape of the rural communities north of Charlotte, N.C., are dozens of the most high-tech companies in the automotive industry. First, there are the home facilities of NASCAR's elite racing teams. Then there are the shops of smaller companies that support those teams by making and servicing the vast inventory of parts and tools needed to build and race a modern stock car. The NASCAR team shops are tens of thousands of square feet of space kept in eat-off-the-floor states of cleanliness. There are rooms and racks full of parts and tools. But NASCAR races are held all over the country. So how do the teams get the cars -- and the vast inventory of parts and tools needed to service them -- to the racetracks several dozen times each racing season? Answer: the hauler. A NASCAR hauler is an 18-wheel behemoth that serves as a traveling shop for the NASCAR teams. The cab has room for two drivers who swap five-hour shifts as the trucks roll non-stop to the tracks. And the trailers are as spotless and well-organized as the shops which send them out every week. Open the back doors of a hauler and you see two levels. In the upper level are two race cars -- the primary car … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn Near the end of the Old Testament, we read the prophecies of Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah. Read together, these three Old Testament Prophets challenge us to think about our national enemies as we once again commemorate the tragedy of 2001 that will forever be called “9-11.” Amos, like all other prophets, prophesied of the coming judgment against Israel and Judah.  Amos’ message of judgment starts against the enemies of Israel and gets increasingly tighter until the message “zeroes” in on Israel. The significance of this progression is that judgment is certain. The opportunity for repentance has passed.  However, there is the hint that Israel could have avoided judgment if they would have heeded God’s seriousness toward sin. Likewise, the message for America today is “We must learn from the mistakes of our enemies.” Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament. We know very little about Obadiah or the exact perspective from which he wrote. We do understand that his prophecy targeted Edom—an enemy of Israel. Obadiah’s preaching was likely a message to encourage Israel during the days of exile or immediately following exile. His preaching would have pointed to God’s judgment against Israel’s enemies. As we … [Read more...]

By Kelvin J. Cochran ATLANTA (BP) - Many Christian Americans in today's culture are faced with a choice whether to live out their faith or keep their jobs. We are living in a season where one week we are receiving accolades for what God is doing through us in our careers, and the next week we are facing termination for expressing what we believe about the Bible. This same bipolar culture existed when Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Lystra (Acts 14:8-20). As a man who had been lame from birth was listening to the Gospel message, Paul perceived that he had faith to be healed. So he called out to the man and said, "Stand up!" The man leaped to his feet and started walking. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they concluded that he and Barnabas were gods and wanted to worship them. Paul and Barnabas were vehemently agitated, telling the crowd, "We are human beings just like yourselves." Shortly thereafter, some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the exact same crowds into a murderous mob. They stoned Paul, dragged him out of the city and left him for dead. Here's the disturbing part. Verse 20 says believers were in the crowd. They were apparently afraid to speak out on Paul's behalf for fear that … [Read more...]

By John Hebert, Team Leader, Louisiana Baptist Missions and Ministry ALEXANDRIA (LBM) – The Book of Esther is the account of God’s remarkable rescue of the Jewish people from annihilation in a foreign land: A story of intrigue played out by larger-than-life characters. ­The cast includes a beautiful woman, an evil villain and a godly man; and the plot, a man’s quest for power, takes place on the world stage within a power struggle among nations. ­There are a number of spiritual lessons embedded within the larger context, but there is a study on “creating ownership” nestled within them that when teased out provides some important insights on leadership. A little historical context helps highlight the key points: -- Assyria had conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. taking captive the 10 tribes of Israel living there. -- ­ Then Babylon defeated Assyria in 612 B.C. and completed the destruction of Israel by invading Judah three times, ultimately plundering and tearing down the temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and deporting the tribe of Judah and the Levites. -- In 539 B.C. Persia overthrew Babylon, and later when Darius was king, Persia’s world conquest was halted by defeat at the hands of the … [Read more...]

By Paul Chitwood, President, International Mission Board My first international mission trip took place on a farm in central Kentucky. As a new pastor in the community, I often found myself interacting with migrant workers from Central and South America. I soon realized that most were spiritually lost. From conversations with farmers, I learned many of them were as concerned as I was about the eternal state of the souls of these (mostly) men who were so far away from their homes and families. As we began to pull together churches in our association and piece together a plan to begin a migrant ministry, we found an organization ready and eager to help us: our Baptist state convention. With the assistance of our state convention staff, we were soon seeing people from all over Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua come to Christ -- though we never left Kentucky. Ministries in our 41 Southern Baptist state conventions vary from state to state, but their mission is the same: help churches reach their state and our world for Christ. As we enter the fall of the year, most of our state conventions are promoting their annual state mission offering to support these vital ministries. My family will be giving to … [Read more...]