By Jim Mettenbrink
In answering the question about what is really important in life, we have been considering a lawyer’s inquiry to Jesus – “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”(Luke 10:25). Jesus’ response was a story about the Good Samaritan, the Jews’ arch enemy. We have been considering the background of this 500 years of hostility. The accounts of the Gospel, reveal that this hatred was perpetually simmering beneath the surface at the time Jesus walked the earth.
By David Phillips
How do you reconcile the seemingly conflicting ideas of spiritual freedom and service? In Gal. 5:1 Paul says, for freedom Christ has set us free. Then in the same chapter, verse 13, He reminds us we were called to freedom… But he immediately gives two conditions to be met, one a negative, the other a positive:
Liberty in Christ sets us free from the guilt and bondage of sin and self, freeing us to turn our energies toward serving God and one another.
By David Phillips
Just how gullible are we? I’d say the answer to that is, “pretty gullible.” In fact, these days political schemes, sales plans and even religious doctrines seem to depend on the likelihood that the majority of people in general will tend to fall for almost anything, especially if the pitch is convincingly presented with important-sounding terms.
By David Phillips
Some seem almost offended by the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14 regarding the fact that few will find the narrow gate to eternal life.
Jesus is not talking about ineptitude, or the idea that most are ‘too dumb’ to be saved. He is speaking of the poor decision-making process that will characterize the spiritual choices of the majority of humanity. Satan is all too aware of our tendency toward taking the path of least resistance, and he carefully crafts temptations that are designed to entice us to take the easy way out. And the sad, sad truth is that the majority of people fall for it. Don’t sell him short, and don’t be one of the many.
By Flavil Nichols
During the War Between the States, a young woman learned the truth and obeyed the gospel. Her sweetheart, J.B. Halbrook, was a confederate soldier. He was captured by the union army and kept a prisoner in Michigan until the war was over. He was given a ticket to Nashville, TN and $2.50. From there, he returned to Centerville and found what was left of his home and family. He found his girlfriend and they were married. His wife studied the Bible with him, and he soon became a Christian. He thought the truth was so good and so simple that he began to teach and baptize many of his friends and neighbors. He began to preach, but he recognized his need for more training, so he came to the original Mars Hill Bible School, taught by T.B. Larimore. Upon completing his studies there, instead of going back to Tennessee, they moved farther south, coming into Walker, Marion, Fayette, and Lamar counties in Alabama. One of his many converts was Charley Alexander Wheeler. His wife taught him to read from the Bible. Along with his wife, C.A. Wheeler obeyed the gospel and soon began preaching to others. He started more than 100 congregations and baptized more than 6,000 people. But wait, the story is not ended! One of those 6,000 was my father, the late Gus Nichols. Twelve thousand were baptized under his preaching. Among those baptized by Gus Nichols, no one knows, nor can know, how many began to preach “the glorious gospel of Christ” (2Cor. 4:3,4 ); but I personally know several. I, Flavil Nichols, am ONE whom he baptized and whom he encouraged to preach the truth. And under my preaching, about three thousand have been baptized. A few among them preached the gospel also!
Only eternity can reveal the total results of the conversion of that one girl nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. The results are not yet all in! But this shows that TWENTY-ONE THOUSAND people have become Christians through this single thread in the fabric of her influence.
“Go, and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). YOU are important, tool Dear reader, if you go to heaven, others probably will be saved by you! “For what knowest thou, 0 wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how know est thou, 0 man, whether thou shalt save thy wife” ( 1 Cor. 7: 16)? “Let you light so shine before men, that they may see you good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Each ONE is very important.
By David Phillips
That question generally makes me a little nervous when I hear it, because it often implies that there is an issue or a situation that needs the attention of whoever is running things. There is another sense in which that question is even more urgent, and that is the sense of our daily lives.
Peter lists self-control as one of the Christian graces, 2 Peter 1:6, and Paul instructs Titus to instruct 3 specific age groups in the church (older men, young women and younger men) to be self-controlled, Titus 2:2-4 ESV.
Suffice it to say that there is more than ample evidence in Scripture to conclude that God wants all of us to add this very achievable trait to our lives. Many have wanted to excuse themselves in this matter, but consider this: if you are not in control, then who IS in charge?
By Jim Mettenbrink
When the lawyer asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life. Jesus’ response was with a parable commonly called the Story of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans were the arch-enemy of the Jews. The previous article revealed that the seeds of this tension began when the Assyrians exiled Israel’s northern kingdom and repopulated the land with foreigners who intermarried with the remaining 10% of the Israelites (700 BC). They would be known as Samaritans. The Samaritans opposed the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem when the Southern kingdom (Jews) returned from Babylonian captivity. Thus the tension began (520BC; (Ezra 4-6; Nehemiah 4-6). Through the next 500 years, this tension became an armed conflict.
By Jim Mettenbrink
When a lawyer asked Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”(Luke 10:25), He referred to a Samaritan man rendering much more than first aid to a dying Jew (Lk 10:33-35). Last week, we noted that Samaritans suddenly appear when Israel (Northern Kingdom) had been destroyed (2 Kings 17:29). Who were the Samaritans?
By Jim Mettenbrink
That man wants to live beyond the grave is evident. It is noticed in some of man’s doings, yet he knows he will die – gone from society, friends, and family, never to return. Philanthropists give huge amounts to have names on institutions. In a remote area of the sandhills of Nebraska, a man built a monument to himself at the entrance to his acreage. He wants to be remembered if he can’t be on terra firma. Do these folks believe that death is the end of their existence that prompts the desire to somehow have an existence of some sort here? Even if it is just the posting of their name on a building? Or a carved stone? The Bible reveals that death is not the end of man’s existence. In fact, without the Bible, no one would know he/she became an eternal entity from the moment of conception in their mother’s womb.
By Jim Mettenbrink
Regardless of what the Bible reveals, it is man’s selfish nature to believe that once a person is saved from his sins, he can not lose his salvation, but will live forever in heaven. When those who are saved or think they are saved walk away from Jesus and returned to their previous sinful life, adherents to the “once saved, always saved” (OSAS) belief declare that they were not saved in the first place, because upon conversion, the truly saved were given the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to make sure they stayed saved (Calvinist doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints – OSAS). Although it’s a most comforting belief, is it true? What say the Bible?