Posts by 70 West Church of Christ

Some seem to have the idea that the Bible is only a book for preachers to find a text in. I have known some preachers whose sermons showed that is what they thought. They selected a text and never got back to it or else paid no attention to its context. Preachers have no monopoly on understanding the Bible. Preachers gain a knowledge of the Bible in the same way as anyone else, through study. It is a mistake to…

Where did God come from? Most everyone knows the Christian’s response to this question: “God is eternal. He did not ‘come from’ anywhere.” Although atheists may think that this answer is unscientific and merely an attempt to avoid the question, in truth, observation and reason declare otherwise. The question “Where did God come from?” (or “What caused God?”) assumes that God had a cause. However, by definition, an eternal spirit (“the everlasting God”) cannot logically have a cause. Asking about…

More knocking on doors and less knocking on each other. The great commission demands that we busy ourselves in taking the gospel to others (Mark 16:5). The Bible says, “speak not evil on of another” (James 4:11). It is so much better to be busy doing good rather than evil. More sound heads and fewer soreheads. Perhaps there has never been a time in the history of the church in which we have had a greater need for men sound…

How deep the Father’s love for us, How vast beyond all measure! That He should give His only Son, To make a wretch His treasure. How great the pain of searing loss! The Father turns His face away; As wounds which marred the Chosen One Bring many sons to glory. Behold the man upon a cross: My sin upon His shoulders; Ashamed I hear my mocking voice Call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there…

God allows us to live our lives how we want to. He gives us free will. He does not control every move that we make. We are not predestined individually to be saved or lost. God made all things and made the rules. God provided what we need for salvation and what we need to live. He told us how we need to live but did not control us to live in that very way. God has given us free…

Jesus Christ came to earth from heaven and was made a little lower than the angels. He became flesh John 1:1–3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” He lived a life that was full of servitude to the Father and made the choice to…

We need to ask ourselves a few questions as we go through life. What kind of person do I want to be? How do I want to be seen? Do the kind of people that I hang out with have an effect on those things? Do I need to be careful of who I choose to consider my friend? The answer to all of these is yes, but we do not always see it that way. Maybe when considering the…

The city of Philadelphia is 25 to 30 miles southeast of Sardis. It is on a plateau extending from The north slopes of the Timolus/Boz Mountains toward the Hermus River, today called Gediz but along this specific stretch, Cogamis. They city was established in the second century B.C. and it was named in honor of the brother of Attalus II, king of Eumenes. The king loved his brother very much and thus one has the city of “brotherly love” or…

Abortion from Society’s Standpoint…How does society view human life? The earliest generations respected the word that God gave us and saw human life as sacred. The values of human life have changed drastically because man is no longer seen as being made in the image of God but has downgraded so much that “the present generation sees man as a highly sophisticated miniaturized computer [sic] (Simpson, 1977).” They have lowered the importance of human life in general. Laws in the…

How often do we go through life and think that we are blessed with the things that we have or go through because it could be worse? How often do we think that we are blessed when we go through hardships or persecutions? In Matthew’s account on the sermon on the mount, Jesus says (Matt. 5:10–11 KJV) “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile…

People see love in many different ways and in many different situations. This can be shown to those you have relationships with, or to random strangers that you meet. Love can be shown between a husband and a wife. Love can be shown between parents and children or siblings. Love can be shown within the brethren, the body of Christ. In English, we use the word love flippantly because that encases all types of love and we do not have…

Events in this life tend to get in the way of what we need to remember. We might remember that a sports game is playing on television today, or that we need to make a trip to the grocery store to pick up some milk. Maybe you need to pick up the kids from ball practice or take them to the doctor’s office. With all the things that we do in this life, are we remembering to pray to the…