Simple Truth: the Singularity of the Church
Peter once referred to the writings of Paul this way, “There are some things in them that are hard to understand” (2 Pet. 3:16). Not that my opinion matters, but I know where Peter is coming from. I suspect you do, too. But just because there are some Biblical concepts that are hard to grasp, this does not mean that all of them are. As a matter of fact, some of the most important doctrines of the New Testament are…
Jesus Went About Doing Good (2)
Peter made one of the simplest statements about Jesus that you’ll find in Scripture. But it is also packed with meaning and application. He said that Jesus “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). This understated affirmation deserves our deeper exploration. What were some of these good things that our Lord went about doing? Here are three more: He Pointed People to the Scriptures. People regularly approached Jesus with questions. Some were only trying to trap Him in His words, but…
Jesus Went About Doing Good (1)
Peter made one of the simplest statements about Jesus that you’ll find in Scripture. But it is also packed with meaning and application. He said that Jesus “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). This understated affirmation deserves our deeper exploration. What were some of these good things that our Lord went about doing? Consider the following list representative, but not exhaustive. He Rejoiced with Celebrating Friends. The apostle John tells us of a wedding that took place in the small…
What Lies Beneath?
On 24 March 2015, Andreas Lubitz took control of Germanwings Flight 9525 and crashed the Airbus A320 into the side of a mountain in French Alps. 124 passengers and 6 crew members perished. Investigations into this catastrophe revealed that Lubitz, a co-pilot on the flight, had a history of severe depression and suicidal tendencies, characteristics that might have kept him out of the cockpit. So why didn’t they? We may never know the full story, but it seems to have…
Ancient Psalms and Modern Worship (3)
In recent weeks we have highlighted some areas in which the Psalms can enhance and improve our worship (specifically, in the areas of prayer and penitence). I suppose it goes without saying that the Psalms can be used even today as part of our worship in song (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). But in this regard, a word of caution is in order. Some in churches of Christ who are pushing for the inclusion of instrumental music in our worship will…
Ancient Psalms and Modern Worship (2)
Like the disciples in the days of Jesus, we sometimes struggle with prayer. They asked Jesus for help (Luke 11:1). We, too, can find help from God by looking into His word for instruction. The Psalms brim with the help we need, yet are an untapped resource for many. While there will probably always be times when “we do not know how to pray as we should” (Rom. 8:26), we can lessen those occasions by utilizing the Psalms. Consider the…
Ancient Psalms and Modern Worship (1)
Today’s Christian is probably not much different than the first-century disciples of Jesus in that we, as did they, struggle with prayer. While I cannot remember a time in the gospel accounts that the disciples ever asked Jesus to teach them to preach, teach, or sing, we do find them making this request, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Paul would later write, “We do not know how to pray as we should” (Rom. 8:26). I know the feeling.…
The Abiding Consequences of Sin
There are at least two results of sinful choices: guilt and consequences. By guilt, I mean the debt that God places on your spiritual account and for which the impenitent will be lost. By consequences, I refer to the adverse temporal circumstances in one’s life that are brought about by the sin. Consider these two components. Guilt When a man commits sin he transgresses God’s law (1 John 3:4) and incurs a debt to God that he is incapable of…
The Treasure of Scripture
According to the Wycliffe Bible Translators (www.wycliffe.org/about/statistics), there are over 6,900 languages spoken in the world today. Just over 2,000 of those languages have no part of the Bible translated into them. The total number of people who do not have access to a Bible in their language is estimated to be 350 million. To be among one of the language communities in the world with access to the entire Biblical text is one of God’s great blessings. Though one…
Praying Like You Mean It
Has anyone ever watched you pray silently and concluded that you were drunk? I don’t know about you, but that’s never happened to me. However, it happened to Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:9-18. In the past I pictured Hannah’s prayer as coming from a prim and proper June Cleaver-ish young lady sitting up straight in a chair, hands folded and gently placed in her lap. With that picture in mind, I struggled to understand how Eli could watch a woman…
Pushing Baptism Too Quickly – Part 2
In part one of this article, we called attention to two important facts: (1) that immersion in water is essential if one wants the blood of Jesus to wash his sins away (Acts 22:16; Rev. 1:5); (2) that in their haste to get sinners into the water, some well-meaning Christians have not sufficiently focused on the teaching that must precede baptism. Let us conclude with the following: When is a Sinner Ready for Baptism? The best place to start is…
Pushing Baptism Too Quickly
The role of immersion in God’s plan for the salvation of souls has been the subject of debate for a long time, especially over the last 200 years in America. From the early days of the Restoration Movement until now, faithful Christians have argued, and rightly so, that immersion in water is the point in time when a sinner comes out of the world and into the body of Christ (Gal. 3:27); when a sinner becomes saint; when a child…