Pastor Taylor is a native of Pine Bluff and a graduate of Pine Bluff High School. He attended Ouachita Baptist University and received his B.A. in 1967. He did graduate Work at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, California. He received his Master of Divinity degree from there in 1970 and the Doctor of Ministry degree in 1980. While attending Seminary, Pastor Taylor served as a Student Chaplain at San Quentin State Prison for two years. He has served as Pastor in Arkansas, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area. Pastor Taylor and his wife JoAnne have two grown children and twelve grandchildren.
Stephen Girard, an unbelieving millionaire of Philadelphia, told his clerks on Saturday that they had to come the next day and unload a ship which had just arrived. One young employee stepped up to the desk and said, Mr. Girard, I cannot work on Sunday. Well sir, replied Mr. Girard, if you cannot do as I wish, we can separate.
I know that sir, said the young man, and I know too that I have a widowed mother to care for, but I cannot work on Sunday. Very well, said Mr. Girard, go to the cashier’s desk and he will settle with you.
For three long weeks, the young man tramped the streets looking for work. One day a bank president asked Girard if he knew of a suitable person for cashier for a new bank about to be started? After reflection, Girard named the young man he had fired. But I thought you had discharged him, said the bank president.
I did, replied Girard, because he wouldn’t work on Sunday. And I tell you…the man that will lose his job on account of a conviction is the man to whom you can trust your money. People today seem to have many opinions…but few convictions. Opinions are our thoughts on how things are…or ought to be. This is the endless talk we have on radio and television shows as well as articles in the papers. Everyone, it seems, has many different opinions about life. But convictions are different.
Webster defines a conviction as a belief. This was apparent in the life of three men in Daniel 3. The king had made an image, an idol really, and demanded that all bow down before the image in worship. As they did so these three refused and were brought before the king who demanded they bow or be thrown into a burning furnace.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused, saying to the king “…we are not careful to answer thee in this matter (it means they didn’t even have to think about it) If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship thy golden image which thou has set up.” (Daniel 3:16b-18)
Thrown into the fire the king looks and sees not three men, but four. And…he exclaims “…the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (Daniel 3:25) God may not always keep us from the fire. But when he doesn't he joins us in the midst of the fire. Never fear what the world, the flesh, and the devil seek to do to you. Keep you eyes on God and put your trust in Him.
I know that sir, said the young man, and I know too that I have a widowed mother to care for, but I cannot work on Sunday. Very well, said Mr. Girard, go to the cashier’s desk and he will settle with you.
For three long weeks, the young man tramped the streets looking for work. One day a bank president asked Girard if he knew of a suitable person for cashier for a new bank about to be started? After reflection, Girard named the young man he had fired. But I thought you had discharged him, said the bank president.
I did, replied Girard, because he wouldn’t work on Sunday. And I tell you…the man that will lose his job on account of a conviction is the man to whom you can trust your money. People today seem to have many opinions…but few convictions. Opinions are our thoughts on how things are…or ought to be. This is the endless talk we have on radio and television shows as well as articles in the papers. Everyone, it seems, has many different opinions about life. But convictions are different.
Webster defines a conviction as a belief. This was apparent in the life of three men in Daniel 3. The king had made an image, an idol really, and demanded that all bow down before the image in worship. As they did so these three refused and were brought before the king who demanded they bow or be thrown into a burning furnace.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused, saying to the king “…we are not careful to answer thee in this matter (it means they didn’t even have to think about it) If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship thy golden image which thou has set up.” (Daniel 3:16b-18)
Thrown into the fire the king looks and sees not three men, but four. And…he exclaims “…the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (Daniel 3:25) God may not always keep us from the fire. But when he doesn't he joins us in the midst of the fire. Never fear what the world, the flesh, and the devil seek to do to you. Keep you eyes on God and put your trust in Him.