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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Fleming selected for economic development post

By Message Staff Former U.S. Rep. John Fleming has been nominated by the Trump Administration to serve as assistant secretary of commerce for economic development. Fleming, who is a member of First Baptist Church in Minden, has long been a champion of faith-based and conservative values. According to a 2016 Baptist Message article, Fleming submitted or supported bills to: protect health entities that decline to provide, pay for or refer for abortions; defund Planned Parenthood, the largest U.S. abortion provider; prohibit public funds from paying for abortions; and require parental consent as a measure to prevent young girls from being transported across state lines for abortions. “Whether it’s national defense, right-to-life or the protection of First Amendment rights,” Fleming told the Baptist Message, “it’s my personal faith, my belief in Jesus Christ as my Savior and what I think he wants me to do that guides me in my decision-making.” Since 2017, Fleming has worked in President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services. He was Louisiana’s 4th District representative to the U.S. House from 2009 to 2017, and was unsuccessfully in a bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He lost in a runoff to U.S. Sen. John … [Read more...]

Abraham’s altar

By Steve Horn Abraham’s story in Genesis 12 is a model story of what it means to take God at His word and obey. I have always been amazed at Abram’s faith depicted in this account. As I have often summarized about this story, “God said to Abram ‘Get up and go,’ and Abram got up and went.” The part of the story that I want to isolate today is not Abram’s journey to the land of Canaan, but instead what he did when he got there. He built an altar. In fact in Abram’s case, we see a series of altars. In chapter 12, we have two initial altars. • 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. • 8 From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and he called on the name of Yahweh. In chapter 13, we see the indication of additional altars. The first is the return to the altar between Bethel and Ai. • Then Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev—he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him. Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. He went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between … [Read more...]