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...]
Archives for April 2017
Don’t let others miss out on Jesus Christ!
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...]
‘Amazing Grace’ a message for the Harvest
By Gevan Spinney HAUGHTON - With Easter just a couple weeks away, every Christian church is gearing up to herald the greatest message concerning the greatest event in human history: God Himself stepped out of Heaven, came to this rotten world, died on a Roman cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb and was raised alive to offer all sinful humanity grace rather than judgement. The message of Easter is the message of God’s amazing grace offered to His creation. GOD’S AMAZING SAVING GRACE “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind, but now I see.” John Newton wrote these words in 1772 after receiving that grace. Newton was right – the grace of God is amazing! Do you remember when you received the grace of God for salvation? I do. I was a senior in high school and my life was as good as it could be from my perspective. I was seventeen years old and living for every minute. I was raised in a home where both of my parents were very involved in my life. We were a good, law-abiding, tax-paying family that was respected in our little town. However, it often seemed as though something was missing in my life. Like many of my friends, I filled my … [Read more...]
The Gospel according to Pilate
By David Hankins “Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, ‘Do not write “The King of the Jews,” but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’” – John 19:19-22, NIV Anatole France’s tale “The Procurator of Judea” features an elderly Pontius Pilate reminiscing with an old friend about their time in Judea decades before. When the friend inquires about Jesus who was crucified by Pilate, he murmured, “Jesus – of Nazareth. I cannot call Him to mind.” The author is trying to suggest the unlikely possibility that Jesus’ crucifixion was so incidental that the governor probably wouldn’t remember Him. But, even if Pilate could not recall the tumultuous events accompanying Jesus’ death, the name Pontius Pilate is inextricably woven with the name of Jesus of Nazareth. In history, Pilate is always and only remembered for his connection to Jesus’ crucifixion as is so eloquently stated in the Apostles’ Creed, “and … [Read more...]
After storm, volunteers provide hope amidst hopelessness
By Message Staff BELAH – Within 20 seconds, the landscape of Sarah Clancy’s childhood changed when an EF-2 tornado heavily damaged the home where she spent her early years. Clancy, whose father Clyde Crooks is a member of the Kingdom Builders and was in Colorado when the tornado touched down, said the storm on Sunday, April 2, knocked down trees onto a tractor shed and the roof of the home. Water then dripped through the ceiling, causing damage to carpet and ceiling tiles in four rooms. Upon first glance, Clancy was devastated. But, soon, she found all was not hopeless. For Clancy discovered Christian love in action. “I was walking around the house and through the house making mental lists when volunteers starting showing up,” said Clancy, a member of Pineville Park Baptist Church in Pineville. “They pulled up carpet, moved furniture and helped get the worse of the wet stuff out of the house. I could not have done it without them. They were definitely an answer to prayer.” Crooks, like many other members of Fellowship Baptist Church in Trout whose homes were damaged, have a long road to recovery. But they won’t go at it alone, with other members of the community and even some in other parts of the state lending a … [Read more...]