by Linzy Slayden
If you’re like me, you travel on the same roads each day. After a while, we might not see the flowers growing nearby or enjoy the majestic beauty of a sunrise, because we have looked at them so often. It’s like that with our spiritual lives as well as our ministries. We get caught up in circumstances and forget how to recognize our heavenly Father’s hand in our lives. When that happens, we lose our sense of His presence, and our joy and fulfillment disappear as well. We might try substituting things of the world, but nothing can do for us what God can. Nothing helps us like God. Nothing can undergird, encourage, comfort, strengthen, or give peace and contentment the way He does, because His “lovingkindness is better than life” (Psalm 63:3).
This is one of the reasons I like our state and national Fellowship meetings. It is a great time for us to gather together to rehearse the truth we stand for and see what the Lord is doing with our efforts together. It is a time for renewed focus. I like it a lot! Our recent meeting in Austin, TX, accomplished this and more. It was a refreshing time of renewed focus. We are grateful to the Texas pastors of the BBFI who cooperated together for a powerful meeting.
As a Fellowship, we have a remarkable history, a resilient spirit, and a responsible commitment. The tapestry of essential beliefs and personalities makes the BBFI very special. Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and not some proxy sets us apart from many; our belief in the sufficiency of Scripture is another. We baptize regenerated people by immersion under the authority of the local church. Baptists have always recognized and often drawn up “confessions of faith,” and these continue to be guides in understanding, but no confession has creedal power over any individual or church. God’s Word is our final authority. We recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are Trinitarian in our understanding of God. We recognize the autonomy of the local church. We gladly obey the Great Commission as we take the gospel of Jesus Christ across the street and around the world. We fully advocate and support the cause of religious liberty and freedom for all. We encourage the involvement of Christians in all walks of life as “salt and light” as we seek to influence our society.
We embrace our uniqueness and these essentials, but move further in our cooperation together. This is one of our strengths and it can be a wonder to behold. We do what we do together without being a denomination. To cooperate means that we gather together around the essentials and put aside our personal agendas to accomplish the mandate of God in our lives and ministries. As apostasy continues to sweep our land and the world, you will find us standing and declaring, “Thus saith the Lord!” A renewed focus helps us fight the good fight of faith.