By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
PINEVILLE – The teasing by his fellow classmates cut deeply into the spirit of the 8-year-old diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. The more they hurled insults at Kenneth Moore for how he walked and talked, the more his resentment toward God grew.
“If Jesus healed the blind, deaf and lame, why would a compassionate God not do the same with him?” he would ask himself.
Life seemed unfair, Moore recounted to the Baptist Message.
But, during a message he heard while attending a Sunday worship service at Melville Baptist Church in Ponchatoula, he said, God softened his heart of stone and removed the hatred he had been harboring, and, gave him peace.
“Although the teasing and laughing by some classmates continued, I embraced the fact that God loved me enough to send Jesus to die for me,” said Moore, now pastor of Carmel Baptist Church in Pineville, in a blog. “I still did not understand many things about God, but I began to learn that trusting Him is the pathway to peace; peace between Him and you, as well as within yourself.”
With God’s help Kenneth Moore overcame a rough childhood and his struggles with Cerebral Palsy to become the pastor of Carmel Baptist Church. Doug Collier photo
Moore’s encounter with the Holy Spirit on April 23, 1982, marked the beginning of a spiritual journey that continues to enrich his relationship with Jesus today, he said.
During a youth camp, Moore was asked to share with his classmates how God helped him overcome his past for His glory, he recalled. It was there the sophomore at Ponchatoula High School knew God’s plan for him exceeded his dream of being the coach of a state champion football team.
Moore said at that point be began to long for something that reaped more eternal rewards.
For the next year he continued to share his testimony with area youth groups and churches, and as the requests increased Moore sensed God calling him to preach as his vocation, he remembered. So, after much prayer, Moore surrendered to Christian ministry in 1989 – a calling he has been faithful to follow to this day.
Moore said he continues to be awed by how God uses his physical imperfection to effect His perfect will.
“Shortly after I was born, some doctors claimed that I would not function in school much less society,” he said. “Their suggestion was for me to be institutionalized.
“As a broken-hearted mother sobbed over their evaluation, God had another plan,” he continued. “A reason that life is so valuable to me is that we cannot predict and should not think that God is limited to what He can do.”
