By Steve Horn ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBC) - Over the last year we’ve been asked to cut back on most everything – time with family, trips to restaurants, retail establishments and public gatherings. During the recent winter storm we’ve been asked to cut back on our power usage, water usage and more due to the demand on the system. While our infrastructures may be limited in their ability to meet currents demands, I’m reminded that God’s resources are not. Take the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6. From nothing, Jesus fed the multitudes! He does that which otherwise seems impossible. Like the other miracles, this miracle confirms who Jesus is, confirms what others say about Him, and what He said about Himself. This miracle appears in all four Gospels so I believe God is trying to communicate something of importance if we’ll take a moment to reflect on this truth. If other miracles communicate “nothing is too big for God” (and this miracle stands in agreement with that) this miracle reveals “nothing is too small for God.” We need to be reminded of that sometimes – maybe even today. Roofs are leaking, pipes are bursting, no electricity, no water—all small problems on the global scale, but still very real, especially … [Read more...]

By Stewart Holloway PINEVILLE, La. - I’ve heard people say, “If that doesn’t light your fire, your wood is wet.” I would say that about yesterday. It’s been a while since I had a 15 1/2 hour Sunday and was so jazzed when I got home that it was hard to come down. But yesterday was that. First, we had baptisms in both services. In the first service, I baptized a father and daughter. That kind of baptism is always extra special, especially when the little girl says, “Yes sir!” with joy and certainty when I ask, “Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?” Second, in our second service, we honored a young man who made a difference in a kid’s life. That moment was moving as our entire congregation stood and clapped, some wiping tears from their eyes. Third, we had our highest worship attendance since the shut down a year ago, falling just twenty-five people short of pre-Covid attendance. It was also good to see even more of our people back for the first time in a year. Every Sunday is like a homecoming now! We had powerful worship services. I got a text from one person watching online that simple read, “Glory!” People left saying, “I felt the Spirit today” and “I feel like I’ve been to heaven.” Fourth, … [Read more...]

By Stewart Holloway Everyone has a story. No one’s story is perfect. We’ve all faced disappointments, made bad decisions, struggled with sin, and more. The difference for Christians is we have welcomed God into our story. We have come to a point in our lives where we repented of our sins and received Jesus Christ as our Savior and surrendered to Him as our Lord. Our stories before we met God can run the gamut from G-rated ones of being raised in church and then finally realizing that just church was not enough to R-rated stories with plenty of sin and bad decisions before coming to faith in Christ. Some of us, even after welcoming God into our story, run astray or drift away from Him for awhile, and then turn back. Others are fortunate to begin their God-story early in life but only later discover a deeper relationship with Him that goes beyond a distant God of Sunday School posters and flannel-graphs. Whatever a person’s story with God, it is powerful and needs to be shared. No one can argue with your God-story. When brought before King Agrippa, in Acts 25-26, Paul shared his story. Having broken no Roman law about which he needed to make a defense, Paul used the audience with the king and the surrounding people to … [Read more...]

By Judy Patrick ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) -- Oct. 14, 2020, will be ingrained in my mind forever. Around 7:00 that morning my daughter-in-law called my husband to tell us that our 41-year-old son had died suddenly from an apparent cardiac arrhythmia. We were in shock! David had no history of heart issues. He was disciplined to watch what he ate and to exercise regularly. He was a very slim and fit young man. Just a week earlier he had passed his annual physical with flying colors. How does a parent wrap her mind around such news!? My first reactions were: “I didn’t get to tell him goodbye. I didn’t get to see him one last time. Did my child suffer? Did he die in pain?” But the thoughts that have carried me through this horrific crisis have been: “God is sovereign. God is faithful. And God is loving.” At first, I simply repeated these three phrases over and over in my head. But after a few weeks, I began to ask myself, “What do you really believe about these three statements? What is it about these three declarations that sustains you?” Truly, the loss of my son was a crisis of belief for me. Before I go any further, I need to share a few details about David’s life in the months prior to his … [Read more...]

By Joe McKeever “‘…your ways are not my ways,’ saith the Lord.”  (Isaiah 55:8) Keep an eye on how the Lord works in your life. You might learn something useful for the next time He wants to use you. This little couplet seems to sum up 90 percent of what Scripture and life teach us concerning the operation of God in this world…. When God gets ready to do a thing, He loves to start small Using ordinary people With whatever methods He chooses, And take HIs own good time about it. Only people of faith will still be standing there at the end To see what He has done And to behold His glory. That’s how He does things.  You can see it all through Scripture and by looking back over your lifetime. But here is the problem.  His ways are not our ways.  His thoughts are different from ours.  He is in fact light years above and beyond us and our techniques. (He said that very thing in Isaiah 55:8-9.) For instance, using the formula (above) as our guide….. God loves to start small; However we don’t like little things.  (Matthew 13:31-32) We keep asking God to do big things, and think we’re complimenting Him by such prayers.  “Do a God-sized thing,” I prayed for years. We complain if our numbers … [Read more...]

By John Hebert ALEXANDRIA (LBM)--Adrian Rogers, deceased pastor of the historic Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis and a past president of the Southern Baptist Convention who helped lead a grassroots movement to return the denomination back to its conservative biblical roots, told a story about the importance of financial integrity that I still reference in sermons today. “I heard about a man who was an executive in a company,” Rogers said (now archived on lwf.org). “They were going to move him up and make him one of the chief executives. The board of directors had talked it over, and it was a done deal. It was a monumental advancement. But in the company cafeteria one day, the owner of this company just happened to be behind this man in the cafeteria line. Unbeknownst to him, the CEO saw him take a pat of butter costing about 3 cents, then put a slice of bread over the butter so the cashier couldn’t see it. The CEO went back to the board and told them they had the wrong man—he didn’t have integrity. And for 3 cents, the man lost a monumental promotion and multiple thousands of dollars!” MORAL OF THE STORY I don’t accept that the man was simply a few pennies short of what he needed at check-out. Neither do I believe he … [Read more...]

By Tim Patrick DERIDDER, La. – Many of you know we lost our oldest son in October. David was an IMB (Southern Baptist) missionary. His death gives me an inside view that many of you do not possess. This year, that view carries greater weight than ever. I share this view with you so that (hopefully) you will consider your responsibility in supporting SBC mission causes. According to records, only about 50 percent of SBC churches give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. That is tragic! If we worked together, think how much we could accomplish in reaching our world for Christ. This year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal is $175 million. According to records there are 14,525,579 members in Southern Baptist churches. If only 25 percent of our members would give $100, our income for the offering would be $400 million. When David died in October, I saw the caliber of missionaries we support. There were between 30 and 40 missionary units (families) who drove and flew from around the country to pay their respects and support David’s family. These missionaries share a strong camaraderie in their passion to see the Gospel touch every corner of our globe. Seeing the caliber of our missionaries reminds me, Lottie Moon is a … [Read more...]