First Baptist Shreveport

Do you try to hide your scars?  None of us can get through life without them.  Today’s scripture prominently features the disciple Thomas- often known as doubting Thomas.  Thomas is a straightforward person, not prone to metaphor or flowery language.  Thomas wanted to see Jesus’ scars.   Revelation 21:3-5 holds a promise- that the Lord will dwell with us, that He will wipe away tears and abolish d...

My Body and Blood: The Last Supper Weekly Devotional 6.2.2025 “Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God.’” Revelation 19:9 On the night Jesus was betrayed, He instituted the Lord’s Supper. This ordinance is still observed today and is a core part of our corporate worship. The Lord’s...

Over and over in scripture, we are called to remember.  Remembering is essential to living well.    We MUST remember:  Who created us Who saved us Who holds our future Joshua 4:4-7  “…these stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”   Remembering is essential for passing on faith.  We need to tell these stories again and again. How tragic would it be if we failed to tell our sto...

Maranatha: Come, Lord Jesus Weekly Devotional 5.26.2025 “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” Revelation 22:20-21  We all anticipate Jesus’ return, when He will return just as He left to consummate His kingdom and make all things new. Jesus teaches that His return will come at an unexpected...

We all love a good story. Today we have a story within a story as we look at the story of two very different characters:  Jarius and the bleeding woman.   Jarius was an important man who knew the Jewish law and understood the risk of coming to Jesus.  He humbles himself, immediately displaying his faith. The bleeding woman would have been considered unclean and therefore would have been isolated. ...

The Christian Life: United in Christ Weekly Devotional 5.19.2025 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” John 15:4 Our union with Jesus was established from eternity past and guaranteed for eternity future, ensuring our security in all matters of salvation, our hope as we reflect Jesus and become...

What’s your impression of Mary in the Bible?  She has a major role in Jesus’ life for sure but is not mentioned by name in the Gospel of Mark or John, any of Paul’s letters or in the rest of the New Testament after the Book of Acts.   Today, we’re looking at the example of Mary, Jesus’ mother- a mother and a disciple.  She’s a trailblazer for us in following Jesus.   When Gabriel appears to Mary,...

Pentecost: The Gift of the Holy Spirit  Weekly Devotional 5.12.2025 “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” John 14:15-17 Pentecost means “fiftieth,&q...

In our text today, Paul is writing to Timothy, a younger brother in the faith. There are a number of imperative verbs in our passage - these are commands that Paul tells Timothy.  FLEE - Run from what will trap you. Paul says to run away from false teaching. False teaching still affects us today. We have to be discerning of our spiritual teachers. We need to also flee from having our hearts set on...

Weekly Devotional 5.5.2025 Glorious Ascent: Jesus’ Exaltation as Lord  “ Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen.” Revelation 1:7 We celebrate certain aspects of the person and work of Jesus, but sometimes overlook important topics. As Christians, we love to focus on the inc...

How do we give thanks for what God has done for us?   We give thanks through the memories, for remembering what God has done for us.   “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion...

Weekly Devotional 4.28.2025 Making Disciples: The Great Commission  “ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” Romans 10:14-15 A...

Today, we celebrate the incredible truth that Jesus Christ is the only person in human history to rise from the dead—and this is not just a historical fact confined to the past. Jesus calls us to follow His path now. He invites us to take up our cross and follow Him—today. He promises that resurrection life is possible for us now. In our Scripture passage, Paul speaks of us sharing in the same dea...

Weekly Devotional 4.21.2025  He is Risen: Resurrection Hope “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” 1 Peter 1:3-4 The word "hope" can mean several things depending on the context in which...

There is a four word question that Jesus often asks people he encounters: "What do you seek?" What about you?  If the Resurrected Lord were here and asked you that question, what would you say?  What is your expectation of Jesus?  There are many layers to the story of the Triumphal Entry, a sort of misnomer in itself.  Jesus was embracing all the Old Testament imagery of Messiah and the...

Weekly Devotional 4.14.2025  Hosanna in the Highest: The Triumphal Entry “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9 Yesterday, we celebrated Palm Sunday, when Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem. When Jesus enter...

This is an important season in the life of the church as we make our way to Holy Week.  Lent is a journey toward death.  When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he was trying to sidetrack him from death.  But in being faithful to God, Jesus was moving toward death.  We take up our crosses as well.   Death is not something to be avoided at all costs, but because we are resurrection people, we a...

In our scripture passage today, we see Moses dealing with the Israelites complaining. To be fair to the Israelites, they have left the only home they ever knew and have been wandering in the desert for a long time.  But here they complain about the manna God has given them. They describe the different types of food they had in Egypt and they long to return to slavery! Moses has had enough of the p...

Have you ever been changed by a friendship?  In Exodus 33, after Moses had received the commandments and the golden calf incident, Moses began meeting with God "as one would speak with a friend."   Moses asks: "Please let me know your ways so that I may know You."  (Exodus 33:13) and "Please, show me your glory!"  (Exodus 33:18) After the Lord answered Moses, it chang...

Ryan McCoy, FBC Shreveport Minister of Discipleship, delivered a powerful and artful sermon yesterday in the form of a soliloquy from the point of view of Pharaoh from the stories of Moses in Exodus.  In looking at it from this point of view, we were able to connect with the ways in which the postures of Pharoah's heart might mirror our own. He expounded upon the way Pharoah reacted to Yahweh...

Do any of you talk to your plants? Moses had a significant conversation with a plant (tree) that had consequences throughout the entire world. Moses went from a Prince to a slave and at age 80 spoke to God. The sermon bullets: A Suffering people. Egyptians beating Hebrews A compassionate God. Exodus 2:24-25            How does God respond?  A mysterious meeting. Exodus 3:1-3 An unexpected calling....

What do we do when we are brought low in life? In our text today, Moses experiences a sudden fall. After he kills an Egyptian slave driver he is expelled from his life of luxury in the Egyptian palace. He flees Egypt and heads east.  Everything in Moses’ life changes. He marries a shepherd’s wife and becomes a shepherd himself. The prince becomes an exile - he finds himself in the lowest of lows....

A Beautiful Thing: Anointing at Bethany Weekly Devotional 3.3.2025 “But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:7-8 Mary, Lazarus’s sister, used an e...

For the next few weeks we'll be looking at the life of Moses. So much of Moses' life echoes the life of Jesus and we're looking forward to diving in.  Moses is born in a time of genocide and suffering.  The Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians.  Moses' mother had to resort to sending her baby down the Nile.  At that point, Moses' life hung on the compassion of others for...

Power Over All: Jesus Raises Weekly Devotional 2.24.2025 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 This week, we continue to explore Jesus’ miracles and His power and authority over death! The two miracles we will focus on today are Jes...