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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Gov. Edwards mandates masks indoors

By Message staff BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – Ten days after Gov. John Bel Edwards strongly advised Louisianans to wear a mask indoors, he has issued an order requiring them in the fight against COVID-19. Edwards, during a news conference on Monday, Aug. 2, cited a continued rise in new cases of the coronavirus and hospitalizations. The new order, which goes into effect Wednesday, Aug. 4 and is set to expire Sept. 1, applies to those five years of age and older and must be worn in all buildings. The full mandate can be found at https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/Proclamations/2021/137JBE2021StateofEmergency.pdf. “It is heartbreaking,” Edwards said. “Those are not just numbers. Those are our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles. Those are fellow Louisianans who are longer with us. And that is heartbreaking. “It has become extremely clear that our current recommendations on their own are not strong enough to deal with Louisiana’s fourth surge of COVID,” he continued. “In fact, nobody should be laboring under the misapprehension that this is just another surge. We’ve already had three of these. This is the worst one we’ve had thus far.” The Louisiana Department of Health reported, August 2, that there … [Read more...]

It is time!

By Craig Beeman WINNSBORO, La. – I was thinking about writing a sermon on "Time" and may, still, get that done. In the meantime, I have been looking into some questions that are often asked about time and why we are here. Importantly, time was made for man. God lives outside of time. He is, has been and forever will be. According to Scientific American Magazine, “Aristotle, taking the no-beginning side, invoked the principle that out of nothing, nothing comes. Theologians took another point of view. Augustine contended that God exists outside of space and time, able to bring these constructs into existence as surely as he could forge other aspects of our world. When asked, ‘What was God doing before he created the world?’ Augustine answered, "Time itself being part of God's creation, there was simply no before!” I’ll never forget asking my grandmother, “When was God born?” She answered, “He has always been.” That is a hard perspective to get on God and time. We are used to humans, plants and animals having a beginning and end. God has neither. He has set us in a period of time in a timeline of time. Each of us has a certain number of years of life on this earth known only to Him. Why does God give us time? My … [Read more...]