“13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus…

Loved ones, one of the ways to measure the spiritual health of a congregation is to consider its attitude toward preaching and toward those who do the preaching. Throughout the Bible, God has chosen to spread His message through human messengers, imperfect men who carry a perfect gospel. Because of that, our attitude toward preaching is never a small matter. It reflects how we view the Word of Go…

Loved ones, do you consider it "bad form" to talk about religion? Should a person keep his religion to himself? Most of us at one time or another have had to deal with someone who used little tact in their approach to speaking about their faith. To put it mildly, they were obnoxious! So perhaps then and there we decided that from now on we would be silent about our Christian faith. If that has b…

Loved ones, looking at optical illusions made me think about spiritual illusions that deceive many people. To help us clearly distinguish between man-made illusions and divinely revealed truth, here are a few spiritual illusions to consider. 1. “One church is as good as another.” This illusion assumes that all the churches men have established are pleasing to God (2 Cor. 5:9-10). But Jesus built…

Loved ones, the false “saved by faith only” teachers say, “Men are baptized because they have been saved, not in order to be saved.” How would anyone come to that conclusion if he reads what the Bible teaches about baptism? Consider this prophecy: “76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77 to give knowled…

Loved ones, a little girl and her mother were discussing the child's Sunday Bible class lesson and how that Jesus had gone up to Heaven and is now sitting beside the Father. A little while later the mother noticed a rainbow and not wanting to waste the opportunity to mention God, said to her daughter, “Look at the pretty rainbow God has painted for us.” The little girl agreed and then said, “And…

Loved ones, never did a day begin with such gloom and end with such glow! Those faithful women who had viewed the crucifixion from afar were now making their way to the garden plot where the body of Jesus had been tenderly laid. They were wondering how they would manage to roll aside the stone which blocked the entrance to the cave-like tomb. The anguish of the stark tragedy which they had so la…

Loved ones, there is both a divine side and a human side to Christian faith. God is the author of the faith and men are the respondents. From the human side faith is composed of right belief and right action, both of which are legislated by God. That being the case, right belief may properly be thought of as the ground on which all else pertaining to faith stands. One may adopt a personally desir…

Loved ones, the life of people can be beautiful if given circumstances that permit it. With money, many things are possible: feasts, celebrations, trips, purchases, luxury or, at least, a good living standard. But Jesus tells us that nobody can buy freedom from sin with money. The amount is not important. Only Christ can set us free from sin. His death, burial, and resurrection make salvation pos…

Loved ones, in this world of so many differing faiths and practices, all claiming Christ as their Savior, a restoration to God's way must be diligently preached. Were the prophets and apostles of Scripture living, they would be pressing for massive reforms by those who claim Christ as their Lord. They would be interested in no compromise with those doctrines or practices which are untaught in the…

“Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hand” (Hebrews 2:7, KJV). Loved ones, a basketball in my hands is worth about $19. A basketball in Michael Jordan's hands is worth about $100 million. It depends whose hands it's in. A baseball in my hands is worth about $6. A baseball in Mark McGuire's hands is worth…

Loved ones, Paul wrote, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation…" (Romans 1:16). Imagine anything so powerful that it can take away every sin that has ever been committed! (Not that every sin will be blotted out, but every sin could be.) Just what is this power that is so great? You say, "The Gospel." True, but what is the Gospel? Several times in the N…