By Fenter Northern

Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.  Matt. 7:13-14

God help us to walk in righteousness and be among the few. We Americans have been so blessed to have been born in this country where the few who do not flow with the crowd are protected by laws that protect religious freedom. Thousands risk their lives dreaming of coming here. Some spoiled ingrates who curse our flag should go to a country of their better choice. Some backward nations have laws for capital punishment for worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ. Although lately there have been some horrible incidents against worshippers here, it is still against the law, which is contrary to many other governments in the world. Our freedom of worship is protected, thank the Lord.

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By Fenter Northern (Northern Notes)

1. Oh, for a faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by every foe,
That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe!

2. That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath the chast’ning rod,
But, in the hour of grief or pain,
Will lean upon its God.

3. A faith that shines more bright and clear
When tempests rage without;
That when in danger knows no fear,
In darkness feels no doubt.

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By Fenter Northern

Patience and hope. That’s what we need in this day of bafflement and fearfulness for future existence on this planet. What do we Christians need in such unsettled times in a world, not of just non-Christian, but growing militantly anti-Christian? Where values are being turned upside down so that what was lovely and good yesterday have become ugly and bad, and the ugly and bad are being championed by violent advocates determined to have their way.

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By Fenter Northern

If you are a New Testament Christian, you are different. The New Testament speaks of Christian difference as sanctification. The basic meaning of sanctification is “set apart.” Bible usage is a bit broader than that because it includes purpose, to be separated for a purpose. Jesus revealed the purpose in His Sermon on the Mount. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and GLORIFY YOUR FATHER which is in heaven.” When the light of God’s word enters the heart of a sinner, turning them around 180 degrees, from darkness to light; from being a servant of sin to a servant of righteousness; the new holiness the world sees emanating in that sanctified person is the glory of God – the best sermon that can be preached.

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By Fenter Northern

TWO THINGS I see this virus has done: It has wakened this nation from a lapse of complacency as well as having revealed the angelic segment in some souls.

Protracted periods of ease and comfortable living seen in our blessed nation for many years served to drift us away from God, and consequently from each other, ushering in a meltdown in personal and governmental ethics. Our nation had receded into an opioid land where values indispensable to true happiness were relegated to the dusty archives of the social mind.

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By Fenter Northern

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. — Romans 8:28

SUFFERING has been here since Cain; not just since he ruthlessly murdered his righteous brother, but even before that in his mind. Cain previously suffered the pain of jealousy in his heart over his younger brother’s righteousness which cast reflection on his conduct toward God as being less than excellent which gradually grew worse. Thus, Jealousy turned to envy, and envy hate, and hate vented itself in murder.

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By Fenter Northern

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Php 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Php 4:6

What is the matter with Paul? Sounds purely simplistic when a tough, biting crisis is having its day. If this is to prove the big examining day of our faith, who will make an A? God’s children have faced crises after crises since Eden, dying in them. The dying is not as worrisome as maintaining the grit it takes to live through it. Consequently, when this text comes to our mind in the midst of a crisis as this that causes so much distraction, social disorder, and anxiety, our faith is greatly taxed to live up to its calling.

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By Fenter Northern

CHRISTIANS LOVE walking with God in the sunshine so much Henry J. Zelley wrote the popular hymn, Walking in Sunlight, in 1899. It’s easy to be a Christian when all things go well.

Then suddenly the ceiling falls through in one’s world and down crashes the curtain on our happy sunlight Christianity. We should be aware that Paul’s encouragement to “walk in the light as He [Jesus] is in the light,” is talking about the light of truth. Truth is still truth whenever darkness falls around us. John wrote God is light, 1 Jn. 1:5., but that does not mean He cannot be found in the dark moment of your life. Moses said he drew near to God on a very dark day: Exo 20:21 “And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”

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“Everything shall live whither the river cometh.” Ezekiel 47

From this wistful text written by this fine young Jewish priest, we see with our mind’s eye one who is swept away in a beautiful vision to his cherish homeland.

For decades he has been in exile in the pagan land of Babylon. Still burning in his mind is the heartbreaking deportation by Nebuchadnezzar’s army driving God’s wayward people, his kindred, out of the burning city of God. Ezekiel’s graphic vision still captivates one’s thinking now. We can see that river flowing from beneath the temple’s altar. Ezekiel said it was flowing from the heights. What we must see here is that all hope for this dead, barren wasteland on earth is to be reckoned only from God. In him alone is there any hope for a better world. Jeremiah said, “It is not in man that walks to direct his own steps,” yet, all his proposed planning is continually on the horizontal plain. Utopia is to be found here if man can utilize his own power to make it happen — but it never happens. God says such thinking is a blind hallucination. Hope flows only from the altar of God.

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By Fenter Northern

What is a congregation of the Lord? That is a valid, challenging question that must be settled according to scripture. One of equal importance is: when is a congregation functioning as the body of Christ? What then, makes a congregation the church of Christ?

The answer is so biblically basic there should be no need to ask members of the church of Christ those questions, especially overseers in some congregations, but today there is. “For also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves.”

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