A ministry started by a former Carthage coach five years ago has helped a lot of area youngsters develop into top-notch basketball players while instilling strong Christian values.
Super Bowl Sunday worship will peak when the New England Patriots smite (I’m biased and hopeful here!) the New York Giants. Ever since Tom Brady’s posse took out the Denver Broncos, its quarterback Tim Tebow in prayerful pose will no longer be spotlighted. Yet he’s still drawing heat.
Weekly Religion News with a PBS special called "The Amish" airing later this month, "Daily Gifts of Grace: Devotions for Each Day of Your Year" by Women of Faith and more.
I cry at the Hallmark channel and at the occasional country song, but even I was surprised when my eyes started to well up while checking Facebook the other day. A friend from long ago had posted a video made at her church, and it featured what they called cardboard testimonials.
More than a half-century ago, A. W. Tozer wrote: “It is too bad that anything so obvious should need to be said at this late date, but from all appearances, we Christians have about forgotten the lesson so carefully taught by Paul: God’s servants are not to be competitors, but co-workers.”
I hate Sunday mornings. I should love Sunday mornings. I get to sleep a little later than a weekday and I really enjoy going to church each week. But the time period after waking up and before getting the kids to Sunday school is incredibly stressful for me.
Greg Atkinson is the pastor at the Carthage campus of Forest Park Baptist Church – but he doesn't deliver the sermons every week.
Visions of a country church might bring to mind a quaint little white building, with a seating capacity of 50 to 100 people, nestled in a backwoods surrounding amidst rolling farm hills.
Weekly Religion News with a study on Mormonism and its people, "Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith" by Robert Barron and more.
Valentine’s Day can be more than a holiday. It’s can simply be a day to honor the person you love who just might be a saint for putting up with you at times. The one who greets your extended family with a smile and laughs at your silly jokes that aren’t really funny. The one who thinks you’re hot when you haven’t even combed your hair.
As a person of faith, I realize that my true identity has nothing to do with sports teams or social clubs or denominations or schools attended — it is as a child of God. Yet, God has created all of us to be interconnected with one another and to be in relationship with others.
It started with an article in a women’s magazine – this germ of an idea to speak more positively, to gossip less. I was on my way to attend a difficult funeral in another state, and there, behind the magazine advertisements for lipstick and wrinkle cream, was the tale of a somewhat cranky writer who gave up complaining for a week.
Do you believe in God? And, if so, on what grounds? Believers employ a variety of arguments to support their religious truth claims, including heady philosophical propositions with impressive names like the “teleological” or “cosmological argument for the existence of God.”
It’s not unusual, especially when you are busy, to not notice something even when it’s right in front of you. That’s what happened to me recently.
We all deal with tragedies in our own way. Some use faith to cope, while others rely on their own inner strength.
Epiphany, which means to show, is a season of light, when Jesus is revealed to be the light of the world. During Epiphany, God is made obvious through the flesh and blood presence of His son, Jesus, on earth. The first celebration during Epiphany is the day of Epiphany itself, which Western Christians celebrate on January 6. That day, the festival of light, celebrates the visit of the three Wise Men to the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem.
Weekly Religion News with new findings from a Pew survey on Mormonism, "God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World" by Cullen Murphy and more.
Over the years, most of my journals have started the same way: "This time, I'm really going to write for more than just a day or two." Not surprisingly, they also end the same way - with lots of blank pages. One journal is the exception, though, and that's my prayer journal from 2001. That journal starts with explaining to God that my prayer life has been on life-support and asks for his help in getting closer to him.
The First Baptist Church in Carthage will host the first of what is hoped to be many meetings for the Veterans Support Group at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16.
