By Dan Jenkins
For over two hundred years after the death of Solomon, those ten tribes in the northern part of Palestine never worshiped God. If you want to see just how longsuffering God is, consider that during this time they had nineteen kings and not a single one of them was righteous. It was not that they had no way to know God, for He sent prophet after prophet to call them back. They refused to hear.
By Dan Jenkins
That transformation which occurs when one becomes a Christian is so remarkable. The apostle Paul emphasized this to those new Christians in Corinth. In his second letter to that church he spoke of all he was in Judaism before becoming a follower of Jesus. No one excelled his credentials, yet he gave it all up. He reminded them of this truth and then applied this transformation to all Christians. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).
By Neal Pollard
Jesus said, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). Paul preached that there is no spiritual healing unless one is converted (Acts 28:27). To be converted means literally to twist, turn around, and reverse. In spiritual application, the word means to leave one thing for another. In evangelism, the attempt is to turn one from the world to Christ. However, people have been known to turn from the world to something other than Jesus and His doctrine. This is unfortunate, but true. Consider a few deadly alternatives to conversion to the Lord.
By Dan Jenkins
One of the mistakes we so often make is that we read the Bible too fast. Divine truths are so profound that as we read the Bible, we overlook eternal truths which could change our lives. Consider these words from Solomon. “He has made everything beautiful in its times. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end” (Ecc. 3:11). Every phrase in this verse should be considered, but let’s focus on one of them. “He has put eternity in their hearts.” Read it slowly and think about it.
By Fenter Northern
There is always the hidden joy in the soul abiding there due to the knowledge of our salvation and being heirs of eternal life.
However, we older members in the Lord’s church recall the jubilant thrill that rang in the congregations during the early years of last century when the church was growing by leaps with building programs everywhere. So much of that excited expectancy seems to have faded away with the coming of the new century. It’s sad that young Christians do not know that wonderful delight of seeing so many souls so excited as we did responding in those great gospel meetings. In those early days they lasted two weeks,–two Sunday meetings with morning services, without any complaining. Meetings gradually decreased in time to one week, then Sunday through Wednesday. Preachers in big demand for meetings taught in Bible colleges. That limited their availability to weekends. This made weekend meetings popular among the churches. Finally, interest even in these short meetings waned so much some were questioning if the day for gospel meetings was over in the church. Churches began on special Sundays having meals after morning services with a second service following the meal, then eliminating the evening service. With the graying of memberships, evening services have been jettisoned in some places. What the future holds with the ebbing of preaching and teaching service no one knows, but this I know. No congregation can survive that has lost its appetite for the true bread of life.
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?
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.
By Wayne Jackson
Is it wrong for Christians to celebrate some of the holidays popular in our society – like giving gifts at Christmas time, allowing children to go trick-or-treating at Halloween, or hunting eggs at Easter?
In considering this issue, several things should be kept in view.
By Dan Jenkins
Imagine a situation where you were annually given half a million dollars. You were told to invest it wisely, and the profit from how you invested it each year would all be yours. How much time would you devote, knowing that in the next decade you would be investing over $52,000,000?
By Fenter Northern
2Th 2:15 So, brothers and sisters, stand strong and continue to believe the teachings we gave you when we were there and by letter.
The text speaks to us concerning the identical critical issue that has remained constant since that day of Pentecost on which the Lord’s church was first established—“Save yourselves from this crooked generation. The same Lion that Peter warned the church about in his fist epistle is still on his hungry prowl. The antichrist that John warned about in his first two epistles is still anti-Christ today. He has just adapted the modern trappings that best suit his purposes to destroy or render ineffective the children of God in this generation age of electronic obsession.