Sunday, March 17, 2024

Discipline

By Andrew Beasley

    To this day I can still remember the anxiety and the fear that would overcome me when my mother instructed me to go and “pick a switch.” Being on the end of the wrath of an authority figure because of our wrongdoing is not a pleasant feeling. Yet, at the same time, when people break the law or cause us offense, we desire retribution, justice and vengeance. As Christians, we can be certain that our God will avenge the wrongs we are subjected to by Satan and his forces. The book of Revelation, in part, is a reminder that God will avenge His people.

    However, we should remember what the wrath of God unleashed upon man looks like. One might think of the flood, or the Amalekite people, or perhaps even the people of Nineveh (Nah. 1:2) who were spared for a time by the preaching of Jonah. Paul describes the wrath of God as being terrible (2 Cor. 5:11) and points to it as a reason we persuade others to follow Jesus. Yes, God is an avenger and yes He will avenge His people. But that does not mean we should hope for this. Instead, we should desire that everyone we meet in our lives avoids our avenging God.


- Andrew Beasley serves as a minister with the Northwest Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: https://nwchurchofchrist.com/about/


You Lift Me Up

By Edd Sterchi


    There are several instances of Jesus (or one of His inspired followers through His power) lifting people from one situation to another:

* Peter’s mother(Mark 1:29-31)- “So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her” (v.31). She was lifted from sickness to health.

* A boy with a demon inside him (Mark 9:15-29) - “But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose” (v.27). He was lifted from internal turmoil to complete peace.

* The lame man (Acts 3:1-10) - “And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength” (v.7). He was lifted from brokenness to wholeness.

* Dorcas (Acts 9:36-42) - “Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive” (v.41). She was lifted from death to life.

Jesus still has the power to do this to us today. Whatever helpless situation we find ourselves in, know that Jesus can lift us up from where we are to where we need to be. So turn it all over to Him and let Him lift you up higher than you’ve ever been before!


- Edd Sterchi preaches for the Broadway Church of Christ in Campbellsville, KY. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.broadwaychurchofchrist.net/


A Church Worthy of Our Imitation

By Brian Mitchell


    We live in a world that is in desperate need of good role models. People need good role models to look up to because they help us to see what is good and they help us to strive to attain that which is good. Good role models are important because: they show us what can be done and how it can be done, they inspire us to follow their example and they encourage us to be steadfast in achieving our goals. Given these truths it is easy to see why I say that we have such a great need for good role models. Because bad role models also show us what can be done and how it can be done and they also often, to our own peril, inspire us to follow their example.
    So the question for us to ask ourselves, both individually and congregationally, is who are we looking up to. Who is it that we are allowing to let us see what can be done, what should be done, and how it can be done. Thankfully as Christians we have many good role models to look up to, both individually and congregationally. Individually, we have people like Abraham, David, Job, Daniel, Paul and a long list in Hebrews 11 (God’s Hall of Faith).
    Congregationally, we have the church at Smyrna (I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you are rich). We have the church at Philadelphia (I know your works for you have kept my word and not denied my name, thus I will also keep you). And we have the church at Thessalonica (and you became followers of us and the Lord, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia).
    What made the church at Thessalonica a church that was worthy of the emulation of others? They were a church that other congregations could look up to and follow; a role model for congregations.
    What characteristics did they possess that allowed them to be a congregation worthy of imitating. Of course we will obviously engage, in this study, to determine what things we as a congregation can and should be doing. So that in the end it could be said of us, that we are serving as an example of what God wants a congregation to be and what God wants a congregation to be doing.
    Paul’s commendation of the church at Thessalonica is found in 1 Thess.1:6-8. Paul mentions a number of things that made them an exemplary church. Could he say the same things of us? For what did Paul commend the church? Do we have a similar evangelistic focus? Are known for sounding forth the Word of God? Are we looking for and taking advantage of opportunities to evangelize our friends, neighbors, relatives, and co-workers. Are we looking for and taking advantage of opportunities to spread the gospel beyond our home area.
    The need for churches to sound forth the word of God is as great now as it has ever been. Will we answer the call of the Lord—Rom.10:14-17.


- Brian Mitchell serves as a minister with the Jackson Church of Christ in Jackson, MO. He may be contacted through the congregation's website at https://www.jacksonchurchofchrist.net


Every Christian is Either an Evangelist or a Hypocrite

By Gerald Cowan


    Charles H. Spurgeon is reported to have said, Every Christian is either an evangelist or a hypocrite."  Would you agree with him or debate against the idea? With this lesson we are undertaking a brief series on the concept, obligations, and methods of evangelism. I hope you will take it to be as serious a matter as God’s word makes it. The basic premise of the lessons is: HOW AND WHY TO TALK ABOUT RELIGION.   

    Missionary John M. McCaleb’s song asserting The Gospel Is For All should be (unexplainably is not) in every hymnal. Maybe it is missing because we do not feel personally responsible for getting God’s message of salvation out to every person in every place in all the world in all times. I was involved in a series of meetings on the importance and the “how to do it” of world evangelism several years ago in a nation foreign to most of us and I recall that we sang at each assembly these words:
        Oh Lord, prepare me to be a missionary,
        Pure and holy, tried and true.
        And with thanksgiving, I’ll be a living
        Missionary for You. 
I also remember the words of a visiting missionary (I have forgotten his name but not his words): “Nobody deserves to hear the gospel twice until everybody everywhere has heard it once.”  It may be an overstatement, but I can’t find the courage or reason to argue with it.
    I believe being and evangelistic missionary is not only an honorable and worthy mission, but is a commandment of the Lord, an obligation incumbent on all who call themselves Christian. I intend to justify my statements from God’s word by citing those very words from God’s Holy Book, the Bible, from both Old and New Testaments and Covenants. Since today we live under a new covenant and law we will emphasize the word of Christ and the Holy Spirit-guided apostles and prophets preserved for us in the New and forever unchanging Covenant (Jeremiah31:31-34; see also Hebrews 8:6-13 and 10:15-17). Jesus himself stated that all things written prophetically about Him (Luke 24:44-53). He commissioned His apostles and us too: preach to everybody in all the world what He had commanded (Matthew 28:15-28, Mark 16:15-16). To paraphrase it, He said: You are to be obedient preachers of all I have commanded you and make obedient preachers of all who hear it from you, that they should also become obedient preachers and make obedient preachers of those who hear it from them – and from us.
    We sing (occasionally but seldom enthusiastically) Will Houghton’s chorus: “Lead me to some soul today; O teach me Lord just what to say ... to those who cannot find their way.  Melt my heart and fill my life; give me one soul today.”  If that is not your genuine prayer as a would-be evangelist, stop singing it. If it is not serious and genuine it is hypocrisy to sing or pray it.


- Gerald Cowan, a longtime preacher and missionary, is retired from full-time pulpit preaching. Gerald publishes an e-mail newsletter entitled GERALD COWAN’S PERSONAL PERIODICAL WRITINGS. He is available for Gospel Meetings and he may be contacted at Geraldcowan1931@aol.com


What was the Attitude of Christ Toward the Scriptures?

By Bob Prichard


    The attitude of Christ toward the scriptures was one of complete trust, knowing that He relied on His heavenly father completely. He said, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me” (John 7:16). He astonished the people because He spoke with authority, by appealing to the scriptures (Matthew 7:28-29). He warned that it was by his words that all will be judged:  “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).
    Christ’s teaching was filled with quotations of and allusions to scripture. He spoke of the creation, the institution of marriage, Noah, Sodom, Abraham, Elijah, Zechariah, and a host of other Bible characters and events. He spoke of these people and events as being historical. Modern “scholars” frequently deny that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, but Jesus upholds Mosaic authorship (John 7:19).  When Satan came to test Him at the beginning of His ministry, He answered each challenge by quoting scripture: “It is written … it is written … it is said” (Luke 4:4, 8, 12). Even in death, He quoted scripture. When He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), He was quoting from Psalm 22:1, and thus calling attention to the fact that He was fulfilling many prophecies in that very psalm. Even as He made His way to the cross, He submitted to the scripture, knowing that all must be fulfilled. “For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end” (Luke 22:37).
    The very basis of Christ’s teaching was the written word. “The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:3-6). Not only did Jesus appeal to the scriptures for authority, but He counted them as the final authority in debate. When the Pharisees sought to entrap Him concerning marriage, Jesus asked, “Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:31-32). God spoke in words that could be read, and Jesus counted them as the final authority.
    Jesus came to fulfill scripture, upholding its authority to the smallest detail. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). We can do no less than to uphold and defend the authority of the written Word.


- Bob Prichard serves as an elder and evangelist for the Hillview Church of Christ in Birmingham, Alabama, since 2016. In his forty-five years of preaching he has served churches in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama.


Sunday, March 10, 2024

When Fleece Starts Flying

By David A. Sargent


    In 2005, townspeople in Gevas, Turkey, watched in horror as one sheep jumped to its death, and then 1,500 others followed over the same cliff.
    When the villagers, whose livelihoods depended on the flock, reached the bottom of the mountain, they found a billowy white pile of death. Some 450 sheep were lost, but amazingly 1,000 survived. As the pile grew, the dead bodies cushioned the fall of other sheep.
    How did this happen? The shepherds responsible for protecting the flock had left the sheep on the mountain to eat breakfast, and then the fleeces started to fly. *
    We are a lot like sheep.
    We tend to be followers.  So, we must be very careful as to whom we follow.  “If the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14).  We need to ask ourselves: “What is the destination of the person or people that I am following?”  Consider Matthew 7:13-14 as you consider this question.
    We make bad decisions.  Our selfish search for “greener pastures” can lead to trouble and even death.
    We need a shepherd.  We need a caring shepherd to guide us, to lead us in the right direction.
    Jesus looked at a crowd of people.  Notice what He observed: “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
    Here’s the Good News: God loves sheep.  God loves people.  Even though we make such foolish, fatal decisions, He still loves us and desires to save us.
    Some 700 years before Jesus came into this world, Isaiah made a prophecy about what He would do for us: “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
    This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we can be saved and receive eternal life (1 Peter 2:24).  Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, gave His life for us so that we might live (John 10:11).
    God will save and add to His eternal fold those “sheep” (people) who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).
    Before “the fleece starts flying,” look to the Good Shepherd.  Listen to Him and follow Him.  He will lead you to safe, green, eternal pastures.  The Good Shepherd says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).


- David A. Sargent, minister for the Church of Christ at Creekwood in Mobile, Alabama, is also the editor of an electronic devotional entitled "Living Water." To learn more about this excellent resource contact David via their website: http://www.creekwoodcc.org

* From “Shepherds” as cited in www.sermonillustrations.co.uk which also references “450 Turkish Sheep Leap to Their Deaths” by the Associated Press in www.foxnews.com.


As Daniel Purposed in His Heart

By Dale Babinsky


    Do you remember what it was like to be a teenager, and to have to face the constant peer pressure of those who were around you? Just imagine what it would be like to have to spend those years in a foreign country, where you might have very little say over what you could or could not do. Imagine how difficult that would be in our youthful years.
    This was the case with Daniel and his friends, who were taken captive by the Babylonians in
606 – 605 BC, when they were likely only about 14 or 15 years old. Yet, even in a foreign land as a captive, Daniel had a resolve to not defile himself. Notice what is recorded about him, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (Daniel 1:8). In this verse, Daniel resolves not to defile himself with the king’s food or wine.
    Daniel’s decision to abstain from the king’s food and wine was not just a matter of personal preference. It was a matter of faith. Daniel was committed to following the Mosaic Law, which prohibited the eating of certain food (Leviticus 11). This could not have been an easy decision, but Daniel purposed in his heart ahead of time, before the temptations would have come, to do the Lord’s will. Daniel was in a foreign land surrounded by others who did not share his beliefs. The peer pressure would have been great to go along to get along. However, Daniel remained faithful, and God rewarded him for it.
    Daniel’s resolve is a great example for us to remember to stand up for what God wants even when it may be difficult – even when surrounded by non-believers. When we purpose in our hearts to do what is right, we will be less likely to compromise godly values and beliefs. Remember, it is more important to be Christlike than to be popular.


- Dale J. Babinsky preaches for the Great Smoky Mountains Church of Christ in Pigeon Forge, TN. He may be contacted through the congregation's website - https://gsmchurchofchrist.com/