By Angelia Carpenter I have: --the best husband --beautiful home --job I enjoy --faith --family that loves me --fun friends AND my fingernails have finally recovered from months and months of chemotherapy. OH....and two cats! You would think that at my age I would know that life isn't always smooth and easy. Even though there is a long list of good there have been traumatic experiences, bumps, low points, and depression! God, family and friends have been there through good and bad. This week I was diagnosed with lymphangio sarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer. Only about 5% of cancer survivors will have this cancer and it’s attributed to radiation therapy. If misdiagnosed or untreated the prognosis isn't good! The above was posted on my blog May 29, 2016.  Today is March 13, 2017.  Ten months and 14 days later. On March 9th I had a biopsy (nine months to the day from my mastectomy) because the week earlier I had found two spots around my mastectomy scar. A month earlier I had seen my surgeon and everything “looks good”. Today, March 13, the surgeon called and asked if my husband and I could come to his office that afternoon. He has never asked us to do that before. The lymphangio sarcoma has returned. The next two … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn By Steve Horn The story of Noah ends in Genesis 9 with a promise. This is the end of Noah’s story, but not our story. God keeps his promises. You say well that’s just one story. No, it’s the ongoing story. To Abraham, “I’ll make you the father of many nations. To Moses, “I AM will be with you.” To Mary and Joseph, To Zacharias and Elizabeth… Then perhaps best of all Jesus prophesying His own death. But better than that, His prophesy of resurrection in three days. See, it’s a pattern. And He has promised His return. What has he promised to you personally? His Presence His Power To answer our prayer Salvation Heaven Return The list is infinite. And He will keep them all. Steve Horn is pastor of First Baptist Church in Lafayette and a past president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. This blog was originally published at stevehorn.org. … [Read more...]

By Rebecca Holloway We were almost asleep the other night when Zach appeared in our room. He was crying uncontrollably. Stewart tried to find out the source of the sobbing. Zach sniffled, "I'm afraid of robbers!" We asked if he had watched or read something about that, but he just wasn't sure. My guess is that he had gone to sleep and had a nightmare that woke him up. He wound up coming into our room another time, still scared and wailing. Stewart finally had to distract him with a book to get him to go to sleep. For the rest of the night - which happened to be a Saturday night in which the preacher and his wife needed to sleep - we both kept thinking we heard Zach coming. If we didn't think we heard him, we were wondering if he was asleep or if he was still crying. One thing I have learned about fear in my life is that fear begats more fear. That is the enemy's favorite tactic against us who believe in Christ. He sends us down roads in our minds that we have no business being on. One fear leads to another fear, which leads to actions we would never take in normal circumstances. Reactions that are totally unlike us. And the next thing we know, we are swallowed up in things that are completely untrue as we know it at that … [Read more...]

By Ron F. Hale After the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, Christianity grew rapidly as inspired evangels left Jerusalem “gossiping the gospel” along the paved highways and trodden trails of the Roman world. Conversely, the spread of Islam was wildfire fast after the death of Muhammad in 632 A.D. Contrasting these two Abrahamic faiths will reveal that one grew by the spiritual conversion of individuals (especially within its first 300 years) while the other grew by the conquest of peoples and the confiscation of properties and possessions. By Conversion … Of Christianity, Bruce L. Shelley and R. L. Hatchett share in Church History In Plain Language (4th ed.) that it, “… began as a tiny offshoot of Judaism. Three centuries later it became the favored and eventually the official religion of the Roman Empire. Despite widespread and determined efforts to eliminate the new faith, it survived and grew. By the reign of Constantine (312-337), the first Christian emperor, there were churches in every large town in the empire and in places as distant from each other as Britain, Carthage, and Persia.” The New Testament declares that when the fullness of the time had come, Jesus came into a ripe and ready world. The Jewish … [Read more...]

The story of Noah ends in Genesis 9 with a promise. This is the end of Noah’s story, but not our story. God keeps his promises. You say well that’s just one story. No, it’s the ongoing story. To Abraham, “I’ll make you the father of many nations. To Moses, “I AM will be with you.” To Mary and Joseph, To Zacharias and Elizabeth… Then perhaps best of all Jesus prophesying His own death. But better than that, His prophesy of resurrection in three days. See, it’s a pattern. And He has promised His return. What has he promised to you personally? His Presence His Power To answer our prayer Salvation Heaven Return The list is infinite. And He will keep them all. This year on Wednesday nights, I am leading a Bible Study on the book of Genesis. You can join us at 6:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of First Baptist Church, Lafayette. We have a dinner ($6) beginning at 4:45 p.m. This week (March 8) we will take a look at Genesis 10-11. Come walk with us this year through this book of beginnings. (This post is based on the message from Genesis Chapter 9, which you can listen to at fbclaf.org/genesis) … [Read more...]

By Jack Graham Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. —Psalm 139:16 The birth of a baby is a special and wonderful moment when a new life enters the world. Every baby is truly a tiny miracle, because the Bible says God creates each baby and knits it together in its mother’s womb. The human body is so complex and intricate that it’s mind-boggling to realize how every part works together. We could spend the rest of this day discussing how teeth develop, how bones grow, and how the human body just knows what to do and when to do it. The wonder of Psalm 139 is that God’s creative work in our lives begins at the very moment of conception. Even in our embryonic stage, God is at work shaping us to be the person He wants us to be. And it’s just as incredible to realize that after we are born, God continues to form our bodies. When we stop to think about what an astounding work of creation the human body is, it’s no wonder that God said it was good when He created us. Our bodies are far more complex than any computer or other manmade invention. And by the way, our bodies are constantly growing and maturing, … [Read more...]

By Tony Perkins   President Obama may be gone, but his ghost continues to haunt the thousands of rules still governing how the agencies do business. A few days after the Trump White House shipped the school bathroom debate back to states, another transgender holdover from the 44th president cropped up -- this time at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In another parting gift to his far-Left friends, Obama made sure to tack on another guidance that's just as dangerous as his Education mandate -- maybe more so. Under the agency's "Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity" policy, the department just opened the doors to gender-free shelters. Much to the delight of Obama's camp, the rule became final this month, giving LGBT activists something to cheer in an otherwise depressing week for their agenda. As part of the guidance, the government is ordering all of its properties to comply with "shared sleeping quarters or shared bathing facilities" -- giving predators an even bigger foothold to exploit. And as usual, faith-based groups that partner with the federal government will have to comply -- no matter what their moral objections may be. Although the … [Read more...]

By Ron Hale Mark A. Gabriel became a marked man after converting to Christianity from Islam. His harrowing escape from Egypt still haunts him! Memorizing the Quran by age 12, earning a PhD at the famous Al-Azhar University in Cairo and teaching there, and serving as the imam of a mosque, provides Gabriel a unique perspective in teaching Westerners about Islam. His most famous (or infamous) professor was the blind sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman. He became the mastermind of the first bomb attack of the World Trade Center in 1993, and sat in a U.S. high-security prison until his recent death on Feb. 18, 2017. Gabriel started questioning his faith while a professor at Al-Azhar University. Islam’s violent side in the Quran and in Islamic history lay heavy on his heart.  After a few questioning statements, he was arrested and tortured by the Egyptian secret police. He eventually fled his country and found it necessary to change his name after being stabbed, shot at, and repeated death threats on his life. However, he does not see Muslims as his enemy. Muslims are the very ones who suffer the most from Islamic radicals or jihadists according to Gabriel. In reading his revised and updated edition of ‘Islam and Terrorism’ … [Read more...]

By Rebecca Holloway When God's people pray, And take the pains of earth to the doors of heaven. When God's people pray, There is hope reborn, there is sin forgiven. And miracles you can't explain away, When God's people pray. (Wayne Watson, "When God's People Pray." If you'd like to hear this song, click here.) Forgive me for going to the "way back files," but I could not get this song out of my head for the past several days. From the moment we walked in the doors of Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, I knew things were going to be different. But I had no idea how God would massively blow my mind with how He answered my definite requests that I had posted earlier this week. Honestly, I had all but lost hope over our situation with Evan. It had just become so bleak. So dark. I just couldn't see a way that he could ever get better. And yet God had so much more that He wanted to do. He had told me that. Even though I had written about the "exceedingly abundantly" more that He wanted to do, I don't think I even believed it. Now I do. Here's why: when I started the "Prayers for Evan" page, I did it so that our church family and friends could keep up with us as we headed to TCH. I thought we may get as many … [Read more...]