The Pastor's Perspective

  King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Bolevn  "I beg to know expressly your intention touching the love between us. Necessity compels me to obtain this answer, having been more than a year wounded by the dart of love, and not yet sure whether I shall fail or find a place in your affections" .      Those words, penned by a king to his soon-to-be bride, might lead you to believe they were written from a heart full of deep affection and admiration. However, history reveals a far harsher truth . The author of those romantic words was none other than King Henry VIII, and the recipient was Anne Boleyn . For those who fell asleep in history class this was not a love struck power couple. You see y ears later, when Queen Anne Boleyn failed to give him a male heir, he accused her of adultery, incest, and treason, which led to her eventual execution . Looks like King Henry VIII got over his "dart of love"  This tragic story is a stark reminder of a painful reality: some pe...

       As believers in Christ, we are called to a unique and profound kind of love. You see while we are to show kindness and compassion to all people, there is a specific love that is reserved for our brothers and sisters in Christ—the family of God. This isn't a love that excludes others, but one that is deeper and richer, much like the way you love your own family.  Fellowship Service at Ashmore Baptist Church with Impact Ministries Church     Last Sunday our church and Impact Ministries ( a local Haitian Church) came together to worship and fellowship together. It was a beautiful thing to hear us all singing to the Lord. Worshiping and praising God together. It really was a taste of what Heaven will be like. We laid aside our differences and the things that divides us and focus on the one thing that unities us together. Though our language is different our cultures are different, yet we were able to come together all because of our faith in Jesus C...

  "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  -   Micah 6:8     I believe w e live in a world that seems to be saturated with discussions about justice, fairness, and truth. It seems to be something that we hear a lot about these days. It seems there is always someone championing for change for one thing or another. There seems to be more and more people willing to speak out and call out injustices that they see going on in this world. This is not a bad thing necessary and it certainly beats the alternative of silence in the face of iniquity and inequality.      As followers of Jesus, our hearts resonate deeply with these concepts or at least I believe they should. We read the powerful pronouncements of the prophets, the compassionate acts of Jesus, and the calls for righteous living throughout the Scriptures. Verses about caring for the w...

          Do you ever find yourself questioning the authenticity of someone's words? We've all been there, wondering if the promises made to us hold any real weight. This age-old phrase, "Actions speak louder than words," reminds us that true intentions are best revealed through what we do rather than what we say.      A remarkable story from 1994 perfectly illustrates this idea. Russel Herman, a man who passed away at the age of 67, left behind a will with grand declarations. He pledged $2 billion to the city of East St. Louis, another half-billion for the national forest system, and a staggering $6 trillion to the federal government to help pay off the national debt. But there was a catch – when Russel passed away, his only asset was a 1983 Oldsmobile.      While we might assume Russel had noble intentions, his lack of tangible assets meant his promises were empty. This story serves as a powerful lesson: nice words mean l...

           In this one town there was these two hair dressers and like every business they wanted to get as many clients as possible. So as you might imagine there was some pretty good competition between these two hair dressers.      Each one tried to out do the other all so they might get a few more clients. If one of them dropped their price, then it was not long before the other hair dresser got wind of it and did the same. If one of them have a deal on shampoo, no matter if it hurt them to do it or not, the other one would try to give a better deal. This went on for months on end.      Well one day, one of the hair dressers became extremely busy with customers, a lot more than normal. Of course this hair dresser had her regulars but she started to notice that she was getting some clients that she knew went to her competitors shop.      Well this was not normal so she decided to do a bit of investigation of h...