God has given us everything we need to be updated. It’s called the Bible. Paul wrote, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Whether we need correction, protection, or edification, the word of God gives us what we need.
Ananias said to Saul, “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). The water is always ready at our building to baptize someone who so desires to call upon the name of the Lord! The Christian has his reservations made in heaven. Peter wrote that we have an “inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).
Both Christian men and women have an obligation to encourage their families to wear clothing that will give reverence to God, not their own bodies. The bedroom is the place where married men and women may practice godly personal relationships (Hebrews 13:4). Taking such practices out of the bedroom and putting them on display for the world is sinful. The Christian should have more shame than to take what God has given to share with only one and parade it in front of the world.
God made each person’s soul and placed it into a unique situation. No one else has had the experiences that you have. No one else knows the things that you know. No one else can do what you do. Why is this important to remember?
Not all of our work is going to be five-star quality. We make mistakes. We have bad days. Things don’t go right … a lot. Most of the time, people just ignore our failures and move on. Sometimes, we get negative feedback. How do we react? Do we take it constructively? Do we write it off? Do we plot to get them back? Think about Proverbs 13:18. “Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, But he who regards a rebuke will be honored.”
I’m glad to report, however, that January through April of 2021 has been significantly improved over last year. We broke 13,000 pageviews for April and the trend seems to be continuing upward. This bodes well for the future of our website.
My wife and I have a date every Tuesday for lunch. We usually grab a bite to eat at one of our local establishments. As we left one restaurant, we […]
Jesus was an evangelist. “Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God” (Mark 1:14). He said, “For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus did an amazing job of evangelizing others, however, even Jesus had challenges when it came to evangelism.
I sit here in my dining room surrounded by several inches if not a foot of snow on the outside of the house. I never thought I would see temperatures […]
An evangelist is literally someone who shares the gospel with another. Everyone should be an evangelist in the original sense of the word. This doesn’t mean that we will be baptizing people every hour. Relationships take time to develop, and we can’t share the gospel successfully with another person without developing a relationship with them. It takes time.
Who may approach God? Thank God for Jesus! He resolves this problem by being both God and man. John wrote further in John 1:18, “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Jesus literally interprets who God is for us so that we may know and have access Him. “For through Him we both have our access by one Spirit unto the Father.” (Ephesians 2:18).
To have orthodox beliefs means that they are supported by the teaching of Jesus and the Bible, that is, that they are true. To have unorthodox beliefs means that they are very different from what Jesus and the Bible taught.
This is the fiftieth year that the congregation has published a bulletin according to the volume number on our header. That represents a tremendous amount of work accomplished, all of which will be counted as effort made for the kingdom of God. There’s no telling how much good the bulletin has done over the past fifty years, but I’m sure it is significant.
In essence, what Jesus is telling us is that if we only love those who love us back, then we are no better than those we consider to be our enemies. The Pharisees despised both publicans and Gentiles, yet, their behavior was basically the same as theirs in their regard for their enemies. So, how could they show their enemies that they were any different than they were? They couldn’t! Jesus, however, calls us to a higher standard: loving others as God loves us. He even loves those who don’t love Him back. That is the kind of love that we must show for others.
What I want to emphasize about these blessings, however, is that they are only for faithful Christians! We should not lose sight of the significance of these expressions! If one is not a faithful Christian, he or she does not have these blessings. It is only for those who are faithful children of God. Ultimately, these are the only blessings that will matter. Are you blessed in Christ?
What we should see are people who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ with whom we want to have a full and complete relationship. That is what God sees through Christ Jesus, and it is only looking at one another from this perspective that we can be the body of believers that God wants us to be.
Do you see yourself as married to Christ? Do you own Jesus as your husband? Years ago, evangelist Marshall Keeble encountered a woman who came to be baptized in her wedding dress. He asked her if she wanted to change before she was immersed. She answered that she wanted to marry Jesus in the same clothes that she married her husband. He baptized her, wedding dress and all because she understood what she was doing.
Ahab’s attitude originated in wanting to have something that wasn’t his to have. God commanded through Moses, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17). When we don’t get what we want, how do we respond? Do we seek to impose our will on others? Do we run away and hide cutting ourselves off from everyone? Do we throw a fit and complain until we get what we want? Or, do we recognize that everything belongs to God, and it is not ours to command?
God has a standard of love that is quite different from humanity. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).
Preaching with little to no doctrinal content is not preaching, but pandering to the whims of fickle humans who enjoy a good story more than they do the truth of the gospel.