By Tyler King

When you practice an activity long enough, you eventually gain the ability to participate without the effort of the mind. For instance, I can remember when I used to weld for a profession. At first, it was a daunting task mainly because the risk of death is ever present. If you ground yourself out to the work, you essentially have upwards of 120 amps running through your body. One amp is enough to stop the heart, so there needs to be great caution with such a work. However, as time went on, I gained muscle memory. I eventually got to the point to where I would almost fall asleep when performing certain welds. Time became the enabler for me to place my mind elsewhere.

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By Kevin Cauley

In Deuteronomy 8:17, we read, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’” Moses was speaking to the children of Israel about what would happen after they entered the land of Canaan and began to experience all the wonderful blessings that waited for them there. The temptation would be that they would begin to think that they earned these blessings because of their own righteousness. The next verse (18) says, “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” Do we face the same temptation today?

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By Tom Wacaster

(note: written for my pending commentary on 1 & 2 Corinthians next year)

When I was growing up, I was blessed to sit at the feet of good and godly men who taught our Sunday morning high school class, Wednesday evening class, and an occasional but regular men’s training class. It was during those six or seven years that I developed a desire to preach, a burning within my soul that would come to fruition immediately following my discharge from military service in 1970. There were a half dozen young men who attended those classes at the Urbandale church of Christ in Dallas and each of us were blessed beyond measure from the training we received that would eventually lead to many of us being active teachers, preachers, and leaders in the Lord’s church. While this is not the thrust of this week’s article I must pause and remind all of us that the classes at the local congregational level have a great influence upon those who sit at our feet. I doubt that those men who taught our classes at Urbandale had any idea what influence they would have on us young boys who barely had a handle on life itself. But I digress and must get back to the intent of this article.

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