MARIETTA, Ga. – As a pastor for over 40 years I encountered several people who were suffering from bipolar disorder. My heart went out to them because I could tell that they were in a merciless struggle for survival. They seemed to live at the mercy of their impulses. They were easily agitated and irritable. Their minds catastrophized everything that went slightly awry. I discovered that people who are beleaguered with bipolar have major manic and depressive episodes that are frighteningly alarming, and the whispering voice inside often insists that the only way of escape is suicide.

There’s just something about this place called Pinnacle. From the moment I first stepped foot on these grounds, I recognized that Pinnacle is a hallowed place – a place we regard as holy because of our personal encounters with the Living God on this hallowed ground, a place that belongs to God, and not to us.  We simply steward His gift. It is a place where God consistently meets our needs abundantly beyond all we ask or imagine.

It is the people that we put in office that ultimately are responsible for good or bad legislation. This is why it is important that you should know as much as possible about the candidate’s position on issues before you vote.

In a remote location outside of Richmond, Va., missionaries appointed with the International Mission Board undergo a season of training before embarking on their first term of mission service. Within the next three years, IMB hopes to have increased its missionary force by an additional 500 personnel carrying the gospel to some of the least reached people in the world. Just prior to leaving American soil, these will come through this International Learning Center, and many of these will come from Georgia Baptist churches.

Since my first well remembered awareness as a young child was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, this born and bred Londoner has been  inspired by a monarch who has lived a longer-than-long life that included many trials and tribulations such as the “annus horribilis.” 

The Georgia Baptist Mission Board has a mission. That mission is to support pastors, strengthen churches, and reach the lost with the Gospel. One of the most visible ways in which the board uses contributions to the Cooperative Program to further those goals is the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief program.

In 2 Chronicles 34, we read about the recovery of a hidden treasure. In his eighteenth year as king of Judah, Josiah began repairing the temple in Jerusalem. In the process, a priest found the Book of the Law in the temple.

It was Edmund Burke who once said, “All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” The first responsibility of a person living in a republic is to participate. And nothing characterizes our responsibility to participate more than voting for our elected officials.

Walk through the doors of Beaverdam Baptist Church on Sunday mornings and you’ll feel the love. You can’t escape the smiles, the handshakes, the hugs. Pastor Chuck Cook says that’s why Beaverdam is going great guns right now. Since Cook became pastor less than three years ago, the 200-year-old church in rural Georgia, an hour northeast of Atlanta, has seen a resurgence in attendance, memberships, and baptisms. The sanctuary and parking lot have been filled with an average of about 130 people, forcing Beaverdam’s leadership to start a second Sunday morning service to better accommodate the crowds.

It’s great to see Georgia Baptist churches getting behind the Mission Georgia offering in a big way this year. And why not? The Mission Georgia offering provides churches a means to make a huge gospel impact in our state. With the pandemic subsiding and worship attendance on the rise, churches are poised to potentially top the $1.25 million given last year through the Mission Georgia  offering.