What a very inspiring story by the Baptist Press! Glory!

NEW HOME, Texas (BP) – New Home Baptist Church gave Pastor LJ Wright a chance in 2019. Since then, the congregation’s faith has produced fruit – despite the pandemic and the pastor’s own tragic personal loss.

Wright’s journey to New Home Baptist, located in the small Texas Panhandle town of the same name, population 350, just south of Lubbock, followed an atypical track.

“I wasn’t raised in a Christian home,” Wright said. At age 10, he was removed from his biological parents and raised in the foster system, living “all over the place.” He spent his early childhood in Oregon, then New Mexico, and finally graduated from high school in West Virginia. More Here

What does it mean that in Him we have redemption (Ephesians 1:7)?

From Got Questions: In Ephesians 1 we learn about our incredible spiritual riches in Christ (Ephesians 1:3) and how God works to provide these riches for us—including our redemption: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:7–8).

In Ephesians 1 Paul encourages believers at Ephesus by explaining their new identity in Christ. God gave us that new identity, and we learn in the following chapter that we receive God’s grace by faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9). This new identity in Christ is characterized by our having every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). More Here