Steve Gaines provides encouraging health update, preaches on walking with God
By Baptist Press Staff
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP) – In a video released Friday (March 1), Steve Gaines shared the Lord has done a great thing in his life, and his family is so glad. Gaines, who announced in November that he had kidney cancer, shared in the video that significant progress is being made against the disease.
“The last PET scan that I had showed that there were no more polyps of cancer in my lungs,” Gaines said. “The previous PET scan, there were multiple polyps there but they’ve all gone and we’re grateful for that.”
Gaines, the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church and former SBC president, said cancer that was in a portion of his ribs is gone as well, and the cancer in his kidney “has also gone down significantly.”
He also announced he’d be preaching on Sunday at Bellevue from the book of Genesis. It was a promise kept.
On Sunday morning, he took the stage to a standing ovation where he preached, while seated, on walking with God. His sermon focused on Enoch – the man who walked so closely with God that “one day he disappeared because God took him.”
In Friday’s video, Gaines said the cancer treatments have reactivated a condition called Myasthenia Gravis. He said he’s dealt with the chronic autoimmune disorder for 24 years. The disorder, he said, has weakened muscles, primarily in his neck.
He asked the congregation to continue praying for him.
Gaines followed legendary pastor Adrian Rogers at Bellevue in 2005 and served as SBC president from 2016-18. His wife Donna has also been active in ministry and is currently serving on the Cooperation Group appointed by current SBC President Bart Barber.
Ramadan prayer guide available for download
By IMB Staff
A stab of hunger pain — it’s hours until Iftar, the meal when the fast is broken. A dry, scratchy throat, raspy for a drink of water. Saliva will have to do unless you are very devout and don’t swallow your spit at all. From sunrise to sundown, Muslims fast from food, drink, smoking and sexual relations during the holy month of Ramadan, which this year lasts from March 11 to April 9.
This physical pain and thirst indicate devotion, submission and a desire for acceptance. This aching hunger for acceptance and intimacy propels us as Christians to share that we are loved and accepted not by what we do as humans but because we are made in His image. Hope is within hand’s reach.
Pray they will hunger and thirst no more and find their worth and value in their Creator.
Download a 30-day Ramadan prayer guide and join us in daily interceding for the 1.8 billion followers of Islam.
