By David Lane WALKER —“20,000 eggs from a helicopter,” said the younger pastor from another church in our association. I questioned, “What?!” in my head. Someone had told me all the younger pastors were Calvinists. I don’t know if he was a Calvinist, but he was crazy! While we’ve been putting our eggs out with a wheel barrow, they’ve been using a helicopter. Maybe that’s why we had a hundred people at our egg hunt last year and they had a thousand! There were about ten churches at the meeting and I committed Judson. “We’re all in!” I said. “Just don’t put me in the helicopter dropping eggs.” I did something “non-mid-fifty years old” in a “warrior dash” last fall and broke my wrist. I have a big scar on my arm to prove it – which makes a great witnessing tool: “Look, I broke my arm, did you know the world is broken?” So I am semi-crazy already, just an older crazy. This would not be the first “crazy” event I had experienced with this younger pastor and some of the other church leaders gathered in the room. Last August, Livingston Parish flooded – all of it. News reports claimed a rainfall of about three times the volume of Lake Pontchartrain. It was a crazy time and these were the same churches who came … [Read more...]

By Carlos Meza SHREVEPORT – During the Louisiana Baptist Convention Evangelism Conference in Ruston, I was challenged and encouraged to step up my pace in spreading the Gospel of Christ, especially by the messages of Gevan Spinney, pastor of First Haughton and also LBC president, and Evangelist Bill Britt, both calling us to be urgent in sharing the Good News. That night I had borrowed a Gideon’s Bible from my room, and I did not realize how this seeming “chance” occurrence would provide a divine opportunity. After the session and arriving at the hotel, the owner and his assistant were in the lobby – as if waiting for someone. They noticed the hotel Bible in my hands, and I explained how I had borrowed it for a meeting, and that piqued their curiosity about where I was from and why I was staying at the hotel. This opened the door to share about my being a pastor and attending an evangelism conference “at the church with the big steeple” (Temple Baptist Church). As we chatted, I sensed in my spirit, inspired by that night’s messages, the need to tell them about Jesus. Seeking some common ground, I talked a little bit about what I knew of “Ghandi,” and used this part of our conversation as a jumping off point … [Read more...]

But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen and said, "The water is ours!" So he named the well Esek because they disputed with him. -- Genesis 26:20 The capacity for knowing God and exemplifying Christlikeness is made possible when we're brought into circumstances that cause us to exercise our faith. God often uses adversity to conform us to the image of His Son. Our walk of faith requires us to emulate Christ in every area of our lives. Yet we often miss the importance of attributes like kindness and gentleness. Nothing quite tries the measure of these attributes as do conflict and quarreling. But God calls us to a higher standard. He calls us to trust Him in the face of opposition. Isaac settled in the Valley of Gerar, the place where the Philistines had previously stopped up the wells during his father, Abraham's time. Isaac's servants began unstopping the wells and discovered water. Not once, but three times. The first two times, they quarreled with the herdsmen of Gerar over the wells, but the third time Isaac moved along. Although the well was rightfully his, rather than insist on his rights, he forfeited the comfort and wellbeing it would have provided him and his family and went on his way. Isaac was … [Read more...]

Yesterday, my wife met me in my office, as is our normal Wednesday routine, to walk to our church Fellowship Hall for our regular mid-week meal, prayer, and Bible study. Churches across the world have similar Wednesday gatherings. She showed me an alert that she had just received that a church bus crash occurred in Texas. This morning, we know that 13 people were killed. This is incomprehensibly awful in every way. Too many questions and not nearly enough answers! I wanted to pray for this pastor. I could not imagine myself in similar circumstances. On average, I preach about 30 funerals a year. He, very likely, is about to preach 13 funerals in a very abbreviated space of time, while at the same time preach to a whole congregation of grieving members. I wanted his name, so I went to the church’s website. His name is Brad by the way. Pray for Pastor Brad every chance you get in the next weeks. But, in my search for his name, I noticed something else on their website that immediately grabbed my attention. Obviously on their website long before the crash yesterday, was a web banner at the top of their homepage promoting their Easter Sunday services. The banner declared, “Death Could Not Hold Him.” And, that is how we as … [Read more...]

By Randy Lee JONESBORO – Real Hope - that is what life is all about. With the inevitability of death for all, the Real Hope in our life is 'eternal security' only available in Jesus. That is the reasoning behind the North Central Baptist Association Crusade next month. That is right, NEXT month! April 30 and May 1 - Jonesboro-Hodge High School gymnasium May 2 and 3 - Winnfield Middle School gym Services will begin 6 p.m., nightly. This world, Louisiana and our twin parishes are full of people who currently possess no 'Real Hope.' We know Real Hope is found only through eternal security from personal faith in Jesus Christ as God's only begotten Son and Savior of the souls of men, women and boys and girls all over the world. This is what we will emphasize throughout the crusade. The messages will be preached by one of the leading evangelists in our nation for this generation, Bill Britt. God has anointed Bro. Bill with the Holy Spirit power to preach to this generation to make a real impact for biblical faith everywhere he goes, and he has gone all over the world. Now, Bro. Bill is coming to Jonesboro to preach the saving grace of God Almighty. These four nights of worship and preaching the … [Read more...]

By Craig Beeman “It’s tough.” “It’s not fair.” “It makes me angry.” All of these are feelings and emotions we experience from time to time. At those times when we experience these emotions we really do not want to hear the quote from Chuck Swindoll that states, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” No, at the time we are hurting, we are hurting. The pain we experience in a situation is raw, painful and very real. At the moment of the impact of horrible news what we experience is a sense of helplessness. Each one of us has a built-in desire to be in control of our lives at some level. Each one of us, when faced with an issue we cannot fix or control, experiences a sense of helplessness. Helplessness is defined as being “marked by an inability to act or react.” It is that true feeling and reality that there is nothing we can do to help in a given situation. Loss of the ability to help is truly a horrible feeling to experience. My opinion, if it matters or helps, is that this sense of helplessness is helpful to us. WHAT? I know. I know. None of us like feeling that way. None of us desire to feel as if we are not in control of our own lives. Helplessness is one of those feelings no one likes to have. … [Read more...]

By Angelia Carpenter I have: --the best husband --beautiful home --job I enjoy --faith --family that loves me --fun friends AND my fingernails have finally recovered from months and months of chemotherapy. OH....and two cats! You would think that at my age I would know that life isn't always smooth and easy. Even though there is a long list of good there have been traumatic experiences, bumps, low points, and depression! God, family and friends have been there through good and bad. This week I was diagnosed with lymphangio sarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer. Only about 5% of cancer survivors will have this cancer and it’s attributed to radiation therapy. If misdiagnosed or untreated the prognosis isn't good! The above was posted on my blog May 29, 2016.  Today is March 13, 2017.  Ten months and 14 days later. On March 9th I had a biopsy (nine months to the day from my mastectomy) because the week earlier I had found two spots around my mastectomy scar. A month earlier I had seen my surgeon and everything “looks good”. Today, March 13, the surgeon called and asked if my husband and I could come to his office that afternoon. He has never asked us to do that before. The lymphangio sarcoma has returned. The next two … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn By Steve Horn The story of Noah ends in Genesis 9 with a promise. This is the end of Noah’s story, but not our story. God keeps his promises. You say well that’s just one story. No, it’s the ongoing story. To Abraham, “I’ll make you the father of many nations. To Moses, “I AM will be with you.” To Mary and Joseph, To Zacharias and Elizabeth… Then perhaps best of all Jesus prophesying His own death. But better than that, His prophesy of resurrection in three days. See, it’s a pattern. And He has promised His return. What has he promised to you personally? His Presence His Power To answer our prayer Salvation Heaven Return The list is infinite. And He will keep them all. Steve Horn is pastor of First Baptist Church in Lafayette and a past president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. This blog was originally published at stevehorn.org. … [Read more...]

By Rebecca Holloway We were almost asleep the other night when Zach appeared in our room. He was crying uncontrollably. Stewart tried to find out the source of the sobbing. Zach sniffled, "I'm afraid of robbers!" We asked if he had watched or read something about that, but he just wasn't sure. My guess is that he had gone to sleep and had a nightmare that woke him up. He wound up coming into our room another time, still scared and wailing. Stewart finally had to distract him with a book to get him to go to sleep. For the rest of the night - which happened to be a Saturday night in which the preacher and his wife needed to sleep - we both kept thinking we heard Zach coming. If we didn't think we heard him, we were wondering if he was asleep or if he was still crying. One thing I have learned about fear in my life is that fear begats more fear. That is the enemy's favorite tactic against us who believe in Christ. He sends us down roads in our minds that we have no business being on. One fear leads to another fear, which leads to actions we would never take in normal circumstances. Reactions that are totally unlike us. And the next thing we know, we are swallowed up in things that are completely untrue as we know it at that … [Read more...]

By Ron F. Hale After the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, Christianity grew rapidly as inspired evangels left Jerusalem “gossiping the gospel” along the paved highways and trodden trails of the Roman world. Conversely, the spread of Islam was wildfire fast after the death of Muhammad in 632 A.D. Contrasting these two Abrahamic faiths will reveal that one grew by the spiritual conversion of individuals (especially within its first 300 years) while the other grew by the conquest of peoples and the confiscation of properties and possessions. By Conversion … Of Christianity, Bruce L. Shelley and R. L. Hatchett share in Church History In Plain Language (4th ed.) that it, “… began as a tiny offshoot of Judaism. Three centuries later it became the favored and eventually the official religion of the Roman Empire. Despite widespread and determined efforts to eliminate the new faith, it survived and grew. By the reign of Constantine (312-337), the first Christian emperor, there were churches in every large town in the empire and in places as distant from each other as Britain, Carthage, and Persia.” The New Testament declares that when the fullness of the time had come, Jesus came into a ripe and ready world. The Jewish … [Read more...]