Your Voice

Stories are important

Have you ever told a story that started something like this: When I was your age…? Perhaps it was a little exaggerated for emphasis: When I was your age, I had to walk to school, 7 miles, with no shoes, in the snow, uphill there and back! 

If you haven’t told a story like this, maybe you have heard one. We often tell stories of our personal and family experiences to preserve our family history, pass along information and provide encouragement and support. 

But how often do we preserve and share our faith stories? The Bible calls us to remember and retell the stories of God’s action and faithfulness. The stories of God’s work in our lives and in the lives of our churches are a continuation of His grand story of love and faithfulness. They deserve to be told well and often.  

Through audio and video recordings, by writing them down and by telling them to others, God can use our testimonies — our faith stories — to transform lives, to encourage those who are struggling and to bring joy. 

The Historical Commission would love to help you be a good steward of your faith stories. Let’s take care of the precious stories God has given us. 

—Lonette Berg

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What are you doing to increase your abilities and use them for the good of others?

George Yates
Church health strategist, Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM)

There is a crucial and subtle difference between a faith-oriented approach to teaching Bible (“This is what you should know and this is what you should believe”) and a literacy-based intellectual and academic approach (“This is what you should know about because this is part of your literary inheritance”).

Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin
“We need more biblical literacy in America” (RNS)

When our children fail in the area of technology, we need to welcome them like Jesus. If we tear into them, if we tell them how awful that was, how disgusting that was, how terrible they were for doing it — if we’re harsh, do you think they’re ever coming to us again when they fail? So when our children fail, we welcome them. We teach them the Gospel and we help them to walk in repentance.

Brian Jennings
Middle school pastor, FBC Woodstock, Ga.

This [podcast — “Evangelism with Johnny Hunt”] is another hook in the water of lostness to remind us, inspire us, instruct us and convince us that if the evangelistic spirit is to return, it’s up to us.

Johnny Hunt
Senior vice president of evangelism and leadership, North American Mission Board

If I’ve been given any privilege in whatever situation, I’m going to leverage that not for self but leverage it to lift others up.

J.D. Greear
President, SBC

When you focus on someone else for a few moments, long enough to come up with something nice to do for them, you get outside your own head and refocus your thoughts onto another person’s needs. Bringing them a moment of joy can be contagious. A word of encouragement, a compliment, a cup of coffee, or even a small gift will go a long way to make someone else’s day. After all, you never know how much that person may have needed that small bit of encouragement.

Natalie Cone
www.nataliecone.com

We must do our best every day to help [our children] know God more clearly, to love God more dearly and to serve God more wholeheartedly.

Christian Phan
Author of Basic Theology for Children, available for free download at www.abcwa.org/resources

[New Mexico’s proposed assisted suicide bill] is really sad. This is a very devastating bill to the sanctity of life and the teachings of Scripture.

Jay McCollum
Chairman of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico’s Christian Life Committee

Slavery still exists. All of those girls are in this situation because of something that has happened in their life in the past. No little girl grows up and says, ‘I want to be a prostitute when I grow up.’

Shawn Wood
4Sarah, Inc. volunteer

God has called us to do more and to be more at all ages and stages of life for His Glory.

Larry Hyche
Associate for men’s ministry, SBOM www.alabamamen.org

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From the Twitterverse

Pro-life advocates believe that taking another’s life, no matter how small, is out of the question in every circumstance. In this view there is a morally significant difference (between) taking another’s life and allowing death to happen by refraining from taking that life.

@M_Y_Emerson

Attended Bailey Smith’s memorial service today. Really a celebration service. Thankful for such a mighty preacher and soul winner. “He that winneth souls is wise.”

@jerryvines

I have always claimed I would rather burn out than rust out … only to come to discover that both are equally devastating/destructive. Living a well rounded life that strives for spiritual, mental, physical, emotional and social health is what truly honors the Lord.

@DarylMolyneaux

Prayer for the day: Even my handicaps can be used by You, Lord Jesus. Like the Apostle Paul, let me rise above them for Your glory. #amen

@BGEA

The hardest part of faith is trusting when you don’t see, walking when you don’t know and resting when you don’t feel like it. Faith isn’t a fairy tale wishing on a star, but a steadfast assurance in God’s Word. I may trust a few individuals, but my faith rests only in Christ.

@scottdawson

In 1619, the first Africans were brought ashore as slaves in Jamestown, Virginia. Four hundred years later, in 2019, in Virginia, human beings, though unborn, are still being regarded as property under the guise that they possess no inherent value either from God or to society.

@D_B_Harrison

Note to self: Don’t look back — you’re not going that way.

@Tedashii

“I am my own worst enemy, and though I am the problem, I am not the solution.” –Rick Burgess

@sherribburgess

There are days when being a parent can feel impossible. Redeem some time spent on social media today and spend the next minute praying for the parents in our church. It’s always a good time to pray.

@ValleydaleSBC

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Letters to the Editor

Sometimes you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it. This could be true of our local LifeWay Christian Stores. 

It has been my privilege to be a frequent customer of our local LifeWay stores. Since last fall, I have also had the joy of serving in a part-time job in the Hoover location. 

LifeWay stores are more than a place to get a Christian book or gift; they are places where ministry happens every day. I have seen people who are hurting find a needed resource, a listening ear and a prayer-filled voice. 

Christian bookstores, as well as secular bookstores, have had a hard time surviving against the growth of internet-based resources and online sales. LifeWay has worked hard to stay viable, but the challenge is significant. 

Now is the time for the Christian community and especially our Southern Baptist churches to support LifeWay. If more believers would make it a point to stop by and purchase a needed item, it could make a huge difference.

Pastor Steve Potts
Westwood Baptist Church
Birmingham, Ala.