By: Waylon Bailey, Pastor, First Baptist Covington I like to call it the hoopla of Christmas. You know what I mean by that. It’s all the things we do that really don’t have much to do with Christmas. Actually, I like the hoopla of Christmas. I like parties, presents, excitement, and the joy of having some special family time. But that’s not what Christmas really means. In fact, if you talk about the real meaning of Christmas, it’s even deeper than you think. What is the real meaning of Christmas? First, Christmas means that God has involved Himself in our world. That’s the meaning of “The word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The God of the universe “pitched his tent” in the neighborhood of the Jews – – the Word became flesh. Today, it would be like saying that God moved into our subdivision. There is nothing better than knowing that we are not alone but that God is with us and that He involved Himself in our world. Second, Christmas really means that our lives can be different. God’s coming into the world made it possible for us to be new creatures, living with God’s character in our lives. Paul stated that “If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). I am comforted … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn, Pastor, First Baptist Lafayette What if God sent Christmas cards? He did send Christmas messages. By that I mean the messages of the angels are God’s messages. For example, in Luke 1:33 we read, “His Kingdom will have no end!” What a message! What a message for our time! It is easy to forget how revolutionary these words were when the angel spoke them. Remember this—These words, in addition to being spoken by an angel, were spoken to an unwed teenage girl, completely without warning, in an obscure village in a remote part of the world about an unborn baby. God’s message to Mary through the angels is a reminder to me of at least two truths. First, God keeps His promises. From Malachi to Jesus, four hundred years had passed. Many a generation had come and gone without seeing the prophecy realized. Maybe some had come to believe that Messiah would not come. But He did. As Paul said in Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.” At the right time, Jesus came. Sometimes it might not look like God is a keeper of His Word, but when I look at the manger, I am reminded that God always keeps His promises. Second, God’s message is a reminder to me … [Read more...]

By David Crosby, Pastor, First Baptist Church New Orleans The birth of Jesus was truly an international event. The Wise Men came from the East. They were not Jews, but they knew about the birth of the king. Herod realized that this child could rise up to compete for his throne one day, so he initiated a search. And the Holy Family fled to Egypt, finding refuge there until the death of Herod. The Coptic Christians in Egypt claim to be the oldest Christian group on earth. They trace their faith back to the visit of the Christ child and his family in this flight from Herod. They can take you to the house where tradition says Jesus lived. They have their own legends about the child Jesus. The only reference in the Bible to the flight to Egypt by the Holy Family is the one that we have read in Matthew. But there are a lot of "false writings" or apocryphal accounts of this journey and stay. Palm trees bow down to the child Jesus. Beasts of the field pay him homage. Two men enter his life who will later be the thieves on the cross. Many such notions are contained in these writings. There is a field of toppled and broken statues and idols in Egypt, I have read. At least some Coptic Christians believe that the child Jesus came … [Read more...]

By Waylon Bailey, Pastor, First Baptist Church Covington We live in a day in which many people question the Bible. Actually, we live in a day in which people question everything. I well remember Neil Armstrong’s famous words when he stepped foot on the moon: “one small step for man; one huge step for mankind.” Many people who saw that on television still refuse to believe that Neil Armstrong ever traveled to the moon. We shouldn’t be surprised that people ask questions about the reality of Christmas. I believe in the message of Christmas. Here’s why: First, I believe in the message of Christmas because it has the “ring of truth.” I first encountered that phrase when I read A book by J. B. Phillips. He said that the New Testament contains the “ring of truth.” It really does. It’s a book in a real setting in both geography and history. The events of the Bible reflect the times in which they occurred. These are not stories which sound like fairy tales, they sound like real people. Joseph acted exactly the way a real man would react. At first, he believed the worst about the woman to whom he was betrothed in marriage. Only God’s intervention convinced him to take Mary as his wife. We know that Herod the … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn, Pastor, First Baptist Church Lafayette Do you still enjoy getting Christmas cards? With the use of e-mail and social media, I suspect there is an overall decline in sending and receiving traditional Christmas cards. People, of course, do Christmas cards in different ways. Some cards have rather generic messages related to Christmas. Others take the Christmas season to send family updates of the past year. We get a lot of picture cards which are also nice, especially when those cards are of people that we do not see often. This December, I have titled my sermon series “Christmas Cards from God.” We are going to explore some passages which give to us messages from angels, which are messages from God. Therefore, just as Christmas cards send messages, angels send messages from God. The first message is “Do Not Be Afraid.” That seems to be a message that we need to hear for a lot of different reasons. It is one of the messages of Christmas. That was the message to Zechariah, Joseph, Mary, and the shepherds. (Matthew 1:18-21, Luke 1:5-17, Luke 1:26-30, and Luke 2:8-11) Now, in order to be faithful to the Scriptures, let’s be clear about the matter. The message “Do not be afraid,” from the angels to each one … [Read more...]

By Joe McKeever Those of us who love the Christmas season–I plead guilty!–often are in the market for ways to make it more meaningful. I polled some friends and would like to share some of the results. Give more. Give yourself.  Give the unexpected.  Give ten times as much as they expect.  Give more than ever before. Shop less.  Buy fewer.  Spend less.  Stress less. Quit giving to the adults; give only to the children. Give no more than 3 presents per child. Emphasize the personal aspect. Write more notes.  If you send Christmas cards, write personal notes on them.  Don’t be afraid to tell people you love them, even if you need to vary the verb and make it “I treasure you.”  (Or, cherish, adore, appreciate, or thank God for you) Okay. Now, our ten ways to transform your Christmas season…. 1)  Never pass a Salvation Army kettle without dropping in some money. My friend Annie got me started on this.  Recently, I noticed on her Facebook page that she was re-emphasizing this commitment, and told how after finding herself with only big bills on one occasion, she has made it a practice of having a number of ones and fives in the front of her purse, just for this reason. I suggest the Lord’s people do … [Read more...]

By Mike Johnson These days, the assault on religious liberty never takes a holiday—even at Christmastime. For this reason, every conscientious citizen, and all of us who work to defend our most fundamental freedoms, can’t take a break.  In some places, like Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, people of faith will get steamrolled by local officials unless we take a stand. On December 10, my good friends and colleagues at Liberty Institute filed a federal lawsuit against Jefferson Parish on behalf of Vintage Church, after parish officials entered the church, fingerprinted the pastor, and issued a criminal summons against him for the horrific crime of being “too loud.”  Apparently, the noise level of 60 decibels—the equivalent of a running dishwasher or a conversation in a restaurant—is just too much to tolerate from a worship service. While parish ordinances single out churches for strict sound limitations, they impose no such restriction on much louder categories of noise like power tools, lawn mowers, and construction activities. This is not the first time Jefferson Parish has wound up in federal court for trampling upon the First Amendment rights of Christians. Back in 2004, I represented a number of other churches in a similar … [Read more...]

By Waylon Bailey, pastor, First Baptist Covington “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). I had never really thought about what Paul meant as he wrote to young Timothy (based on what we know in Scripture, Timothy would be between 34-39 years old at this point. See William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary, 157). He encouraged Timothy to do three things: exhort, teach, and read Scripture publicly. During one of my sermons Sunday, I noticed the congregation following the public reading  of Scripture with an unusual devotion and attention. They were into what God was saying through Holy Scripture. I made a quick mental note of this (one of my humorous sayings is that you can’t preach and think at the same time!) to consider what had happened. I believe we have made much too little of the “public reading of Scripture.” This says something to the preacher. It’s easy to dismiss the public reading of Scripture as something prefatory to the sermon, but Paul makes exhorting, teaching, and the public reading of Scripture equally important. All three are essential to worship and to the life of the believer. What should we make of this? The … [Read more...]

By Lane Corley, LBC church planting strategist In Louisiana, there are 32 Associations of Southern Baptist Churches. Each Fall, my job as Church Planting Strategist with the Louisiana Baptists allows me to attend 6-8 of their annual meetings. This year, I attended meetings in several different parts of the state. I love Associations & Associational Annual meetings, because I love LOCAL. And it’s in the local that you can get a glimpse of the Southern Baptist Convention at the ground level. For those of you who don’t know, Associations are basically regional networks of Southern Baptist churches that affiliate based on their geography. We have associations with as few as 15 churches and as many as 120 in Louisiana. Each Association has a Director (the DOM), a slate of officers, and ministry teams that have various functions from church revitalization to disaster relief. Each Association has 2-3 Executive Board meetings each year. Executive Boards are made up of pastors and members of local Southern Baptist churches. Each Association has one Annual Meeting, usually in the Fall, where business is conducted and budgets are set for the following year. Churches voluntarily give a set amount or percentage of their budgets to the … [Read more...]