Troy Gramling, lead pastor of Flamingo Road Church in Cooper City, Fla., will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference during its June meeting in Orlando, John Cross, pastor of South Biscayne Church in North Port, Fla., announced March 18. Cross told the Florida Baptist Witness he will nominate Gramling because he embodies the Great Commission Resurgence “we’re praying and believing God for … in our churches and convention.” “Who better to help lead this movement than Troy Gramling, who by God’s grace, has been used of God to lead such a movement in the church he […]

There is a most curious incident recorded in the seventh chapter of Mark’s gospel. Jesus, we are told, “left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Him to place His hand on the man” (7:31-32, NIV). Mark then records that “with a deep sigh” Jesus healed the man’s affliction and “commanded them not to tell anyone” (vs. 33-36a). Not heeding Jesus’ command, we discover that the more Jesus […]

We live in a materialistic, consumption-oriented society that operates on the two assumptions that more is always better, and happiness is based on the acquisition of possessions.  The danger of buying into this philosophy is that it is totally contradictory to the life that we are called to live as Christians.  The fact of the matter is that Christians are called in Hebrews 13:5 to “keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”  Let’s take a look at […]

As a child cries from hunger, desperate parents painfully search for food to save their children from death. If caught stealing a chicken to feed their family, parents in developing countries such as Haiti will be imprisoned, without first appearing before a judge or receiving a prison sentence. Sometimes by the time they are tried, they have spent years longer in jail than their prison sentence requires. Food For The Poor will help release approximately 73 nonviolent offenders in developing countries in time to spend Holy Week with their families. The prisoners were incarcerated due to their inability to pay […]

In the Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, we get to follow the adult trials and the childhood experiences of George.  Each time he faced a difficult situation he asked himself the same question: “What would Dad do?”  Somehow George picked up lessons from his dad that helped him navigate life and become a community hero. What about our children?  What are they learning from us? Times are different right now and different times require a different approach to life.  But different, even difficult times, offer parents an incredible training opportunity. Everyone will go through their own difficulties in life.  […]

When you turned on the kitchen faucet today, you didn’t wonder whether the water would flow out. When you went to bed remembering what you had to do in the morning, you were planning for tomorrow. We all exercise faith every day in the little things we do. It is a belief system of sorts, a kind of faith that we call on without realizing it. But what do we do when we need a supernatural kind of faith? The week before Christmas, my son’s home caught fire. An electrical short in the wiring sparked into flames about 4 a.m. […]

Compared to prior recessions, something is definitely different this time. If you’ve lost your job, it is harder than ever to replace it. The New York Times reports that 6.3 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or longer, more than double the next-worst recessive period of the early 1980s. Tighter credit, outsourcing, globalization, and productivity-enhancing technologies have played a role–and each is here to stay. As a result, many older employees are delaying retirement, making it increasingly difficult for recent graduates to enter the workforce. Voices across the political spectrum agree that America desperately needs private sector job […]

There is a message that needs to be broadcast for all to hear, and one organization is taking charge of getting that message to as many people as possible. Answers in Genesis (AIG), an apologetics Life dedicated to supporting Christians who defend their faith, has begun a new outreach Life, one of many, known as the “I Am Not Ashamed” campaign. The campaign was brought to life by the inspirational words that are found in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for […]

After the death of his mother in childbirth and apparent abandonment by his father, he is driven from his home by circumstances beyond his control. He soon falls in with a gang of kids who teach him the essentials of survival on the street. Betrayal, petty theft, desperate loneliness, and the internal growl of his constant hunger mark his days. Even more crippling perhaps is his poverty of spirit, his lack of hope, his emotional deprivation. All Oliver wants is to find a place to belong and maybe, just maybe, a family to call his own. Oliver! The Musical is […]

A group of Muslim scholars says it supports airline safety, but it is “deeply concerned” about the use of airport scanners that show nude images of the human body. “The Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) emphasizes that a general and public use of such scanners is against the teachings of Islam, natural law and all religions and cultures that stand for decency and modesty,” the group said in a Feb. 10 statement posted at Islam Online. “It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” the FCNA explained. […]