I’m Baptist born and Baptist bred and when I die I’ll be Baptist dead.
Regardless of your denomination, you have probably heard a preacher or pastor use that line to spice up a sermon. Newspapermen use it to spice up their columns just before Easter.
We have four new pastors in this community who were not here for Holy Week in Clarksdale last year and there are people in this town that need good preaching.
I encourage non-Baptist pastors to use this phrase and just insert their denomination instead of Baptist as they preach this Sunday.
Let’s get serious
I’m going to church Sunday. I need to. I hope you realize you have that need, also.
I’ll go back to the church where I was baptized and where I married Sara. I will sit between my mother and my wife. I’ll see high school buddies and older men and women who shaped my life through that church.
I’ve said before in this space that I started going to church nine-months before I was born. Yes, there was a rebellious stage in my early 20s, but “raise up a child in the way he should go” . . . Well, you know the rest.
This is the South and religion plays a major role in our culture. It is the foundation of most of our lives.
I’m one of the lucky ones raised in church. My children were carried to churches in three states.
You hear me tout prayer, the church and hope in this space on a regular basis.
You also see me point to the problems of murder, vice and corruption in this community.
One of the first verses I learned in the Bible was “God is love.” 1 John 4:8b. As I have gotten older I have also learned we serve a God of justice and I will be judged one day.
I will be the first to say I don’t have this balance all worked out. I do know I am human, a sinner saved by grace with a healthy and humble fear of the LORD.
I hope you will go to church Sunday, too. I hope you get to sit by your mother and your wife. I hope your children are doing well. I hope your life has a foundation built on love and justice.
Season of Hope
I say no other holiday promotes the concept of hope like Easter.
Jesus came into this world, not to condemn it but to save it. But that salvation came because a price had to be paid for my injustice. In a day and age when so much is out of sync, I’m thankful for that atonement that focuses my life correctly.
You may read this and call it foolishness. That is your God-given right.
But if that is your view, please read one book in the Bible, the Gospel of John, this Easter Sunday and consider the claims of the Bible and Christ before you decide for all eternity.
It’s called the gospel. It is the truth. It’s called The Good News!
Floyd Ingram is Editor of your Clarksdale Press Register. He is a Baptist, optimist and aggravated at the state of his world and community. Call him at 662-627-2201 if you want to talk about The Good News.
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