Leadership
Media Under Attack
Today as I write this blog I not only write it as a Pastor but I write it as a broadcaster as well.
Since 1987, in one form of another, I have had the honor to be a part of three radio stations and of course our own Wayne County Christian TV Station WHFL-TV. When I read on Facebook about the shooting that took place in Roanoke, Virginia on August 26 not only was I shocked as everyone else was, but the shock turned to anger at the fact that somebody would purposely target a wonderful young TV reporter and camera man, doing their jobs in this nation we call “Land of the Free.”
I praise God that we live in the “Land of the Free”, however, the individual who wickedly and purposely decided that he was God and felt like he had the right to murder two innocent people is a sin not only against God but against the term “Land of the Free.”
When our forefathers put in the U.S. Constitution that we as Americans had the right to bear arms, they NEVER intended for people to feel as if they were God and had the right to give and take life. What this man did hurts my heart just as it did when my brothers and sisters in Charleston were killed by another lunatic who felt as if he had the right to play God. People, GOD IS GOD and no one else will EVER BE!!!
For those who break the laws of God there will be punishment and judgment for their wicked deeds. The man who murdered Alison Parker and Adam Ward thought he was getting the easy way out but when he went out into eternity yesterday, there was a God of power, and judgment waiting for him when he stepped out of this world. So if you can find any consolation in any of this, it is to know that he did not get away with what he was trying to accomplish as He met the great and terrible God who punished those for their wickedness and their evil.
As a broadcaster who has programmed on location, it reinforces that we are certainly in those “Perilous Times” spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:1 which interpreted is “troubled times.”
As a father of a 22 and 21 year old I can only imagine the heartache that Alison and Adam’s families are going through after being robbed by a mentality unstable individual. My prayers are with them all and with our nation as it has been, as all this junk about “rights” and “fairness” and “I’ve been offended” has done nothing except cause death and destruction. Have I ever been offended? Certainly I have with attacks upon Christianity being a daily thing in America these days it seems. But we do as Jesus says and “do good to those who use you, criticize and abuse you and let God take care of the rest .”
We live in a nation that seems to be based on “I am offended” by everything” here in 2015. Folks, let me quote my dear wife as she has told me many time in our 23 years of marriage.”There are sometimes you just have to build a bridge and get over it.” And I do prefer building that bridge over violence any day.
BARRY STALLINGS
Senior Pastor
“The Grove”: Pleasant Grove Original Free Baptist Church | Pikeville, NC
barrystallings.com
In 1988 Barry accepted Jesus Christ into his heart and life and a year later in September 1989 answered God’s call to preach the gospel. Also, within this period he wrote his first of many songs which led him to sing gospel music. In 1989 he became a southern gospel music radio announcer that led him into Christian television in 1992. On July 6th the same year he became the host of a southern gospel music video program, “Together Again with Barry Stallings”, which airs to this day on WHFL-TV43 in Goldsboro, NC.
Since December 2003 Barry has been serving as Senior Pastor of Pleasant Grove Original Free Will Baptist Church otherwise nicknamed “The Grove” of Pikeville, NC, and hosts a TV and radio ministry entitled “Pleasant News From the Grove” each week which are outreaches of Pleasant Grove Church. He has been married to his wife Olivia since March of 1992 and they have two very talented daughters Karen, 22 and Katie, 20.
