By Joanne Brechtel Administrative Editor ARCADIA – The RollingHills Ministries grand openingevent took place April 16.Bids have been opened for a new Ruston Thrift Store and construction could begin as early as June. TROUT – Ron Nation,pastor of Ebenezer Baptist, and Lucas LaCour, pastor of Mt. Sinai Baptist, recently completed a mission trip to Malawi, Africa, in May. ALEXANDRIA – Calvary Baptist’s “Missions Out of this World” event took place onMay 5. A Preschoolers Missions Recognition Service took place in April.SHREVEPORT – Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association reports that World Changers is expecting 200 young people in the area the last week of July and churches are being asked to serve in meeting their needs while the World Changers serve in the community. A Women’s Prison Ministry is in the process of starting again in the Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association. The association is sponsoring Churches busy with spring mission projects a special ministries camp at Camp Bethany Friday, May 14 and Saturday, May 15. Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association reports that 40 association churches prayerwalked during the week before Easter. MANY – First Baptist furnished 200 dozen cookies to nursing home … [Read more...]

THE COUNSELING CONNECTION By Michele Louviere, Director of Counseling Celebration Church, Metairie Question: We have just discovered that our child has been sexually abused. We are devastated! What can we do to help our child? Michele Louviere responds: Sexual abuse is an epidemic in our society.By the time that a young woman turns 18, one out of four will have experienced some form of abuse, and one out of seven boys will be abused. Although there are many forms of abuse, as well as length and frequency, even one episode of abuse can lead to lifelong consequences.Because of the seriousness of abuse, parents need to know how to handle this situation. To begin with, it actually is a good thing that the abuse has been discovered while the child is still young. For most survivors, they carry the secret and shame of their abuse alone never telling anyone. So, knowing about the abuse takes away the power of the secret. Secondly, if the child has told you about the abuse, then you are able to begin the process of healing as a child instead of what normally happens – victims usually report abuse after experiencing a life of difficulty. Third, the most important part of helping your child is to make sure that your … [Read more...]

By Ginger Plowman, LifeWay Communications OPELIKA, Ala. (BP) – Do you ever get the feeling that your children aren’t listening to your instructions? You have just offered an ocean of wise counsel but your little sailor seems to be floating in an entirely different sea. You recognize the warning signs: glazed-over eyes, a robotic nod of the head during inappropriate segments of the conversation, an occasional “uh, huh,” and that irritating sigh of impatience that says, “How much longer is this woman going to talk?” Teaching children to listen to advice and accept instruction is of vital importance for their character development. Solomon reiterates the wisdom of heeding instruction in Proverbs 19:20, Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. All parents desire their childrento listen and to heed their instructions,yet many parents are frustrated by their children’s lack of attentiveness. The problem often lies not in the child’s inability to listen but in the parent’s inability effectively to communicate. In order to talk so your child will listen, consider the following guidelines: Understand the art of communicating. As parents, we often think that if we are able to … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Baptist Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – With the substance of changes varying for each respective  component of its February progress report, the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force issued a “draft” final report, posted May 3 at www.pray4gcr.com, containing seven recommendations it plans to present to messengers at the SBC annual meeting in Orlando, June 15-16. Stating that “our churches need a new missional vision,” the task force calls for the Southern BaptistConvention “to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations,” identical to its progress report. Likewise, the GCRTF outlined the same values from before (Christlikeness, truth, unity, relationships, trust, future, local church and kingdom). However, they developed them as a separate component instead of an element of the vision. Both the mission and values are presented as separate recommendations (#1 and #2). The GCRTF final report also calls for “a new level of sacrificial giving” among Southern Baptists” and to “celebrate all giving to our common work” by calling “all monies channeled through the causes of the Southern Baptist Convention, the state conventions, and associations as … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Seven recommendations to the Southern BaptistConvention are specified by the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force in the final report released May 3. The recommendations, for example, include a call for “the adoption of the language and structure of Great Commission Giving as described in this report in order to enhance and celebrate the Cooperative Program and the generous support of Southern Baptists channeled through their churches.” The recommendations as stated in the GCRTF report are: 1That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando, Florida, June 15-16, 2010, adopt the following as the mission statement of the Southern Baptist Convention: As a convention of churches, our missional vision is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations. 2 That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando, Florida, June 15-16, 2010, adopt the following as Core Values for our work together: CHRIST-LIKENESS We depend on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and prayer to make us more like Jesus Christ. TRUTH We stand together in the truth of God’s inerrant Word, celebrating the … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Message Staff Writer PINEVILLE – They bring the food we eat; the clothes we wear, and countless other items we use in our everyday lives. In other words, “if you bought it, a truck probably brought it.” Trucks, and the estimated 3.5 million men and women who drive them, play an invaluable role in keeping the U.S. economy running. In order to do so, many of these men, and women spend long, lonely hours away from home and their loved ones. The trucker’s big rigs, which command the road, offer little in the way of creature comforts. Trucking is a hard, demanding job that offers these men and women very little thanks or notice. [img_assist|nid=6334|title=Libby Lingenfelter, member of Kingsville Baptist Pineville, has made truck drivers into a mission field.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=66]Libby Lingenfelter, a member of Kingsville Baptist Pineville, has made changing these truckers’ plight into her mission field. Kingsville Baptist Church sits next to a sprawling industrial park, where Procter and Gamble towers over the church, while PlastiPak, Dis-Tran, Calvary Industries, Williamette Valley, and Eclectic Products – 10 in all – are just a stone’s throw up the road. There are also … [Read more...]

By Jerry Love, Louisiana Baptist Foundation ALEXANDRIA – Continuing on its wave of good news this year, the Louisiana Baptist Foundation Board of Trustees met April 27 for its quarterly meeting. Trustee Wayne Hunt, pastor of Coteau Baptist Church in Houma, opened the meeting with a brief devotional. His text from Colossians 3:2 revealed that, if we are raised with Christ, then we are to set our minds on things above. We should stop dragging around the sin and the old ways of the life we lived prior to knowing Christ as our savior. “Leave those things at the foot of the cross and walk with joy and victory and peace,” Hunt said. “And you’ll see others’ lives changed because of the change they’ve seen in your life.” The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ was followed by good news from the Foundation’s investment consultant. Investment Committee Chairman Brent Cating introduced Lee Morris, managing director of Graystone Consulting, to report on the assets held by the LBF. The return for the equity portfolio was 4.72 percent for the first quarter of 2010, while the fixed income investments earned just less than 3 percent for the period. Morris reviewed current economic data and trends with the board. His … [Read more...]

By Al Quartemont, Special to the Message PINEVILLE – For the 173 graduates of Louisiana College, Saturday’s commencement ceremony, the 148th in LC’s history, carried one clear message: Go out and impact the world for Christ. At a packed Guinn Auditorium, the graduates and their families heard that message from several speakers, including Tony Perkins, president of the Washington D.C.-based Family Research Council, who delivered the commencement address. “There is a world out there that is hoping that you and I as Christians will just pack up and leave,” Perkins said. “It is essential that we as believers make a commitment to Jesus Christ that we’re not going anywhere.” Perkins pointed out that Christ’s first disciples were a small group in number, and yet, as the Book of Acts records, went out and “turned the world upside down.” “That handful of young men literally changed the face of the earth, “Perkins said. “Can you not turn the world upside down, too? Or should we say right side up?” Perkins, who is a former member of the Louisiana Legislature, has been one of the leading voices in Washington on issues pertaining to family and and Christian values. His message seemed especially appropriate on a day where … [Read more...]

By Steve Lemke, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Provost PART ONE From time to time, many Christians struggle with the issue of the assurance of their salvation. Often these doubts arise out of a sense of unworthiness when the believer becomes aware of stubborn sins in their own lives that hinder their fellowship with God. Some other denominations teach that even true believers can lose their salvation. Does the Bible teach that once we are genuinely saved, that we are saved forever? Or can we lose our salvation? [img_assist|nid=6339|title=Steve Lemke, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Provost|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=75|height=100]Southern Baptists have always believed in what is known variously as the security of the believer, the perseverance of the saints, or “once saved, always saved.” Each of these three names brings out a different aspect of the doctrine. Article V of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 words our Baptist belief in assurance of salvation in this way: All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin … [Read more...]

By Archie England, PH.D., NOBTS Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew With such strong emphasis upon Heaven and Hell in the New Testament, where does one find the concept of “Hell” in the Old Testament? From its beginning, the Old Testament focuses upon the heavens (421 times), the earth (2,505 times); the heavens and the earth (15 times); but, not upon Heaven and Hell. [img_assist|nid=6013|title=Archie England PH D NOBTS Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=73|height=100]Only a handful of texts place these concepts together (Psalms 139:8; Isa 7:11; 14:11-15; Amos 9:2) – but none do so in an obvious manner to address the New Testament contrast of Heaven and Hell. Instead, it’s Heaven and Sheol that exist as spatial realities that God alone can span. From the heavens, God can penetrate into the realm of both the living (the earth) and the dead (Sheol). No person or power in realms above the earth, upon the earth, or below the earth can resist God. He is able to claim whatever or whomever He desires – from wherever. When God intervenes even Sheol must return its holdings (Deuteronomy 32:22 and elsewhere in other scripture references). Sheol (65 times) is translated by the Greek word … [Read more...]