Hartsville South Carolina (SC)

Siler City North Carolina (NC)

Santa Ana California (CA)

Kapolei Hawaii (HI)

What The Bible Says Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

What The Bible Says Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

What The Bible Says Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

What The Bible Says Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Borrowed from the Crusaders Law Enforcement Outreach group on Facebook

Persistent caste discrimination holds believers from India's most vulnerable community back. Prem Chand has led a church for Dalit and non-Dalit Christians in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh for years. But despite his title and experience, he’s learned one painful lesson over and over.“A Dalit always stays a Dalit, an outcast, even if he is educated or has a good economic status,” he said. “Both believers and nonbelievers do not respect a Dalit pastor as they would a high-caste Hindu convert pastor.”Despite making up a significant number of the Christian population—both Catholic and Protestant—Dalit Christians have historically been shut out from church leadership. As Chand knows firsthand, many Christian Dalits face persistent caste discrimination in their congregations. Outside the church, the government denies them affirmative action benefits available to Hindu Dalits, keeping millions of believers stymied in poverty and shut out from formal education.To this day, Christians from different castes worship in different locations and bury their dead in separate graveyards in some Southern Indian congregations. Dalit believers face less overt discrimination in the northern and central parts of the country, if only because many Christians in these regions are from the Dalit or Tribal background themselves. Yet a discriminatory line remains, even though some parts of community life are shared.“For generations people have been living following the set rules of caste, and it does not leave an individual even after they start to follow Christ,” said Chand. “Even after many years of faith and associating superficially with Dalits, when it comes to marrying their children, high-caste Christians will search for brides and grooms who belong to ...Continue reading...

If you're like me, some days reading the Bible feels like running five miles on a treadmill after two hours' sleep with 10 urgent things on your mind. It feels like a drag you don't really have time for. It's one more box to check off your list of “Things Good Christians Do.” Maybe you speed read while checking your phone. Five minutes after you snap that Bible shut, you don't remember a thing anyway. So what's the point? Or perhaps you feel guilty because you never get around to it, and who needs that?Bible reading can be an empowering, life-transforming habit, but maybe we make it too difficult. We think we have to carve out a half hour each day for serious Bible study. We think we have to plow through the entire Bible in one year for it to really count. Then we get discouraged when we can't follow through. All or nothing thinking can leave us feeling defeated before we even start.In reality, reading the Bible doesn't have to be hard. God loves any small effort we make to draw near to Him through reading His Word.Here are nine simple ways to make Bible reading easier.

Rescue efforts are underway across St. Louis after hours of record-breaking rainfall. Interstate 70 has been shut down after it

Unborn babies’ lives are being saved all across Tennessee as the abortion industry goes out of business. One abortion facility in Bristol already closed and a second in Knoxville will shut down at the end of this week,

Tis' the season of turning tassels. If your family is like ours, your calendar is full of graduation ceremonies and parties to attend. Since we all have a call to impact the next generation with God's Truth (Titus 2:1-5), this time of year presents an exciting and unique opportunity. The graduates in our spheres of influence are at a crossroads, eager to find purpose and identity. Instead of simply offering platitudes and “Atta Boys/Girls” we can seize this moment and hold high the banner of Truth.Here are some ideas for how to bless the graduate in your world by giving gifts that matter.Most graduates might initially disagree, but it's been long enough since my own graduations for me to realize that there are many gifts more important than money. Instead of stuffing some cash in the card you just took so much time to write, consider these gift ideas designed to help you do more than celebrate graduation, but to pass the baton of faith to the next generation. Your graduate needs more than adorable dorm decor; they need resources to keep them rooted and grounded in God's Word. Through years of student and college ministry, these have become some of my favorites.Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/bieshutterb