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.
Rita Snowden relates an incident from the life of Colonel T. E. Lawrence. In 1915 he was journeying across the desert with some Arabs.
Things were desperate. Food was almost gone and water was down to the last drops.
Their hoods were over their heads to shelter them from the wind which was like a flame.
It was also full of the stinging sand of the sandstorm. Suddenly, someone said…Where is Jasmin?
Jasmin was a no good…yellow faced man…who had fled into the desert because he had killed a Turkish tax collector.
His camel was present. The saddle was empty. But no one knew of his whereabouts.
Furthermore…No one seemed to care one way or another. What did it matter they agreed among themselves.
His life was worthless. Let it be. And they hunched themselves up on their camels…and rode on.
But Lawrence turned and rode back the way they had come…Alone…In the blazing heat and at the risk of his own life he rode.
After riding for an hour and a half he saw something against the sand. It was Jasmin.
He was blind and mad with the heat and lack of water. He was dying. Lawrence lifted him up on his camel…
Gave him some of the last drops of his precious water…Then slowly plodded back and finally caught up with the others.
When he did…The Arabs looked in amazement. There is Jasmin they said among themselves.
Jasmin…who is worthless. Saved at the risk of his own life by Lawrence. That is a parable for us to consider.
Paul says no matter what we face…Jesus never loses sight of our predicament. We read in Romans 5:6-8
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Things were desperate. Food was almost gone and water was down to the last drops.
Their hoods were over their heads to shelter them from the wind which was like a flame.
It was also full of the stinging sand of the sandstorm. Suddenly, someone said…Where is Jasmin?
Jasmin was a no good…yellow faced man…who had fled into the desert because he had killed a Turkish tax collector.
His camel was present. The saddle was empty. But no one knew of his whereabouts.
Furthermore…No one seemed to care one way or another. What did it matter they agreed among themselves.
His life was worthless. Let it be. And they hunched themselves up on their camels…and rode on.
But Lawrence turned and rode back the way they had come…Alone…In the blazing heat and at the risk of his own life he rode.
After riding for an hour and a half he saw something against the sand. It was Jasmin.
He was blind and mad with the heat and lack of water. He was dying. Lawrence lifted him up on his camel…
Gave him some of the last drops of his precious water…Then slowly plodded back and finally caught up with the others.
When he did…The Arabs looked in amazement. There is Jasmin they said among themselves.
Jasmin…who is worthless. Saved at the risk of his own life by Lawrence. That is a parable for us to consider.
Paul says no matter what we face…Jesus never loses sight of our predicament. We read in Romans 5:6-8
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.