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HARRIS: When quoting Scripture becomes a crime: Today Finland, tomorrow America
EASTER: When “empty” is good
By John Kyle, Special to the Message NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LBM) – “Empty” – it’s not one of our favorite terms. It’s not one of our preferred greetings. When someone asks you, “How are you doing?” you probably don’t respond by saying. “Empty, thanks for asking!” Yet emptiness is a common experience in our culture. Many popular songs through the years have focused on the emptiness of life -- “Running on Empty,” “Look at All the Lonely (empty) People,” “Empty Spaces,” and “Empty Garden,” to name a few. Largely, the focus on “empty” in such songs includes themes of loss, longing, and emotional voids. For that matter, most thoughts or images relating to “empty” generally are negative: empty gas tank, empty bank account, and broken relationships that lead to empty homes and hearts, to name a few. Empty, exhausted, spent, broke, lonely - whatever term you choose, “empty” carries pessimistic tones. “Empty” is inconvenient. “Empty” leads to hopelessness. “Empty” offers no alternatives. No one wants to experience “empty.” Yet “empty” is where Easter was born. More than 2,000 years ago, two empty (discouraged) women went early one morning to visit the tomb where they saw their teacher buried. Empty and … [Read more...]
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Governor’s Prayer Breakfast centers on ‘powerful weapon of prayer’
By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) — For more than an hour, clergy and public officials prayed 6or Gov. Jeff Landry and other elected officials, the military, law enforcement and the state, March 26, at the Crowne Plaza Executive Center in Baton Rouge, uniting 1,020 legislators, pastors, businessmen and others as the body of Christ just days after the start of the 2026 state legislative session. “It is an honor and pleasure to come before the Lord with you in prayer for our state this morning,” said Governor’s Prayer Breakfast Chair Brandi Cummins, a member with First Baptist Church, Covington. “What a privilege that we have been given by our Heavenly Father to bring our needs to Him in prayer. “He told us that He wants us to do this,” she continued. “He says, in His Word through the apostle Paul, not to worry about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, to bring our request to Him and His peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ, Jesus. “As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country’s independence, we are thankful to God, who is worthy of all worship and praise, and for the men and women who have made this freedom possible,” she said. … [Read more...]
