Recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast; Gen Z leads the way in anxiety; Examining what we worship

Good News for Today

Thousands of residents in New Orleans are finally receiving power after Hurricane Francine made landfall across the Gulf Coast late last week.

Disaster Relief workers from at least Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas are working in Louisiana. Feeding teams, chainsaw teams and chaplains are work.

Thousands of meals are being served as people pick up from the heavy winds and rains.

You can learn how to affect those affected by visiting SendRelief.org.

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Generation Z, the first to grow up with smartphones and tablets, is the most fearful and anxious of any age, the American Bible Society (ABS) said in its latest release from the 2024 State of the Bible.

But regular Bible engagement, a practice that attracts only 11 percent of Gen Z, reduces anxiety by half and can improve other markers of emotional health, study authors said in releasing chapter six of the study Sept. 12.

Scripture engaged Gen Z can score just as well as any other group on several measures of emotional health, but the group ranks lowest in Scripture engagement among all generations. As such, all findings regarding Bible engaged Gen Z members are from a comparatively small cohort, study authors said.

Extreme fears of grief and loss, family stress or trauma, and financial stress or hardship are chief among their concerns, cited among nearly a third of Gen Z respondents, followed by moderate levels of fears of those matters among 45 percent of Gen Z, study authors said.

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Sometimes hardships are caused by holy circumstances and sometimes they are the result of less than circumstance.

A Lifeway Bible Study points to Paul’s preaching in the first century and the Bible’s written word that has lasted over the centuries.

In Acts 14, Paul challenged the people to turn from “worthless things to the living God” (v. 15). He noted that only the one, true God created everything and as such, was worthy of worship.

There are times in our lives when we should take an inventory to see if we’re prioritizing things that would honor God. Read the full piece at Baptist Press.

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More than 2 billion face food insecurity. Learn how you can help at IMB.org.