Church Blog (Page 19)

“Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” (Romans 14:22) To adequately explain and apply this verse, you and I must first understand the context of the book and chapter. The book of Romans is written to a group of Christians living and worshipping in Rome where they are outcast and hated. They are seen as different and they are completely different form the pagan world…

“Are you saved?” This question doesn’t seem to be a difficult question to answer. Perhaps a better way to ask this question is: “Have you been saved by God’s plan of salvation?” As we explore this question, remember it is only by His plan that man is saved and it is only His way.  Do you know you are lost? To understand the idea of being lost is the key to understanding how to be saved. Sin is our problem.…

The 18-month period in our nation known as the Covid Crisis had the entire nation in the clutches of its sinister hand for a while. We learned about masks, boy, did we learn about masks. We learned about social distancing and other important ideas to keep us a little more healthy. We are drawing closer to the idea of having this pandemic under control. Perhaps a more important question is this: What have we learned in the church through this…

The gift of God to man is God’s ability to redeem mankind. To redeem means to “buy back from” sinfulness. In order to access this gift, I must first understand what is being offered. Listening to God’s offer and understanding all the terms is crucial to choosing correctly. Many people have only heard that God has a plan, never trying to learn about the details of the plan of God. I must understand God’s plan. If I have heard and…

Our world-wide evangelism impact keeps on growing. Last week a preachers’ training school in Ghana started using our videos and study guides for their students who are preparing to preach in their native country. I hope to soon be doing a one hour Zoom class on behalf of the students. Ghana joins India and the Philippines as countries who are using our materials to further God’s Kingdom in their countries. While we celebrate our growing international evangelism effort let’s not…

“And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. …But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.” – 1 Corinthians 12:6 & 20, NKJV In this chapter Paul is talking about spiritual gifts and jealousy. Later in that chapter, Paul explains that the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” In a similar sense, the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the…

“What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see. And I look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace. When He takes me by the hand, and leads me through the Promised Land. What a day, glorious day that will be.” We often sing this song as we look forward to the Day God will judge all of mankind, separating His sheep from the goats and ushering the faithful into an Eternal Home…

I probably lack the ability to have the deep under-standing some have regarding this weekend. Neither my brother, father, myself, or my son served in the military. In years past I would turn to my oldest cousin, who served as a long time P-O-W during World War II, to help me understand. He died a few years ago, just shy of 100. As a P-O-W he went in weighing around 150 pounds and was returned home weighing around 100 pounds.…

I will receive a lot of disagreement on this because you believe you had the best mom (and rightly so) but here I go anyway. In my life I have benefited from the GREATEST MOMS of all time. First, I had the blessing of growing up with my own mother who was a true sacrificial mom. She gave up so much in order for me to have a great childhood. I was her ‘baby’ by many years as I had…

Today I want you to listen and try to fully digest this pithy statement. “There is plenty of cheese in a mouse trap, but there are no happy mice.” We often giggle and snicker at the statement. As we do that, we are only looking at the surface of this statement. Let’s look deeply this morning. Plenty of cheese in a mouse trap: (Hebrews 11: 24-25) Cheese is the draw to the dangerous and deadly mouse trap. The cheese is…

Growing up on a farm my family would often burn off the stubble on our fields at the end of harvest. In a matter of a few minutes an entire 40-acre plot of land would be scorched. What is amazing to me is the massive burn only required one small spark to start the raging fire. The Bible says something similar about the tongue in James 3:5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See…

When I arrived here @ 70 West church of Christ, I made a change in my life. While I was raised on the King James Version (KJV) with my mom being my primary teacher, as a minister I had used almost exclusively the New King James Version (NKJV). Upon moving to Hot Springs, I noticed that the Bibles given to new Christians and High School Seniors along with the pew Bibles were English Standard Version (ESV). I had never owned…