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The Word
by Terry Wane Benton Why does John speak of Jesus as “the Word”? See John 1:1-14. Consider that Jesus is the fulfillment and substance of all that God had been promising and prophesying all through the years from the beginning of all communication. Jesus was who God had spoken about and was providing what God…
Read MoreDarkness
by Zeke Flores There’s something about it that’s foreboding, frightening, and … dark. Lying alone in the dark can be a dreadful thing. In the darkness, our insecurities find an outlet. We lie awake staring into the blackness, playing our failures in our minds over and over again like a newsreel stuck on repeat. We…
Read MoreHeartfelt Religion
by A. Adams Scripture can put you on the spot when it makes it obvious that your beliefs, actions, or choices are wrong. The simple solution to such conflict is to change and only believe what comes by “hearing…the word” (Romans 10:17); or, said another way, stop doing what you’ve been doing, and start being…
Read MoreRespect (Moyer)
by Doy Moyer Being made in God’s image requires that we respect (esteem) one another as fellow divine image-bearers. This stands under the “golden rule,” as stated by Jesus: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12). The connection…
Read MoreSometimes It Is Not Enough!
by Aubrey Belue One of the earliest jobs my dad had was teaching school – he began while still in his teens, at a one-room school in upstate Mississippi. Some of his students in the higher grades were as old and as big as he was, and more than once, he maintained discipline with the…
Read MoreImitating Paul
by Hugh DeLong “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1). Jesus gave the great commission to “go into all the world and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever…
Read MoreGod and Good
by Terry Wane Benton Have you ever noticed how the book of Genesis begins and ends? It begins with God creating everything and “it was good” (Genesis 1). After man chose to let sin in the world, it was cursed (Genesis 3). But God wanted to get back to “blessed” with man and God back…
Read MoreIs It Possible to Identify the Church Found in the New Testament?
by Todd Clippard With so many forms of “Christianity” today, one may ask, “How can I know I’ve found the church of the New Testament?” With recent estimates showing over 2000 individual religious groups all claiming to be a form of Christianity, this is a valid question, and we can see why one would be…
Read MoreA Father Rejected, But Who Still Loves
by Steven Harper Consider the sad description of Israel’s unfaithfulness, as recorded by Hosea. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images” (Hosea 11:1-2). After hearing their…
Read MoreMy family says I can’t attend a church of Christ until after I get engaged
Question: I am currently attending a Baptist church with my family, but I am dating someone who attends a church of Christ. We have been dating for some time now, and we have studied together a lot. We agree on several things that we used not to, such as once saved always saved being false,…
Read MoreOn Identifying False Teachers
by Dub McClish As our Lord drew the Sermon on the Mount to a close, He gave the following warning: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:15-16). Do we still need this warning? It is presently easier…
Read MoreThis Is Marvelous in Our Eyes
by Terry Wane Benton “This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Mark 12:11 ESV). Watch closely what Jesus is saying and why. He is talking to the Jews who were rejecting Him and reminding them that they were fulfilling the scripture statement of Psalms 118:22 that said, “The stone which…
Read MoreLove Bears All Things
by Greg Weston The word Paul used in this text, which is translated “bears” in the New King James translation, means “to cover” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, p. 586). Thayer gives the varied usage of this word as “1. to protect or keep by covering, to preserve… 2. to cover with silence; to keep secret; to…
Read MoreOur Anchor
by Zeke Flores When the waves won’t listen and the sky won’t clear, faith becomes the anchor that holds. Acts 27 has Paul in a dangerous storm at sea along with 275 other people. The great difference is that while the majority of the other passengers were scared witless, Paul had Christ in the storm.…
Read MoreNot Feeling the Spirit Move There?
by Terry Wane Benton I’ve heard several speak of attending various churches and “not feeling the Spirit move” there. This idea is foreign to the Bible. Feelings have never been the detector of the Spirit of God. If you rely upon feelings, you are not relying upon the Spirit of God. You are relying upon…
Read MoreGutter Mouth
by Jonnie Hutchison Where I grew up in Missouri, a person whose language included various curse words would be called a “gutter mouth.” Cursing, at least in public, was frowned upon by most people back then. It was characteristic of the undesirable and the rebellious in society. Today it is much different. One cannot turn…
Read MoreRespect for the Elderly
by Terry Wane Benton “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:32 ESV). These are the ones who lived through all kinds of troubles, weathered many storms of life, and learned a few things along…
Read MoreDavid, “Old and Full of Years”
by Tol Burk We are introduced to David as a young man, too young to fight Goliath (according to man’s standards). But it doesn’t end there—David is one of the very few that we see from youth to old age. Age changed things in his life, but his faith in God never changed. We know…
Read MoreJames, First Peter, and Second Peter
by Doy Moyer While there were many men named James in the first century, this is most likely the brother of Jesus who became a very strong leader in the early church (James the apostle was put to death about AD 44, Acts 12). We find James becoming prominent in Acts 15, and his influence…
Read MoreWe Look for New Heavens and a New Earth
by Dan King The natural longing that exists within each one of us to “better our situation” and improve upon our lifestyle grows out of a deeper instinct within the human soul. Our parents wanted us to “have it better” than they did, and we want our children to “do better” than we have. One…
Read MoreRoman Law and I Corinthians 6
by Hugh DeLong The Corinthians did not live in 21st-century America (surprise) and therefore, were not governed by our law system and the foundational concepts upon which it is based. While we struggle to maintain those concepts and apply them fairly, the Corinthians had a different system in place. They were a Roman Colony, and…
Read MoreExercising Your Rights
by Zeke Flores Acts 25 has Paul exercising his right as a Roman citizen to appeal to Caesar, which may be a reminder that it’s not wrong to stand for one’s rights. However, he didn’t do it in a way that would bring criticism on the cause of Christ or his own personal integrity. That’s…
Read MoreMistaking Cowardliness for Humility
by Eric Lyons In 2006, Baylor University published the results of a survey indicating more Americans claim affiliation with Christianity than with any other religion. In fact, the report claimed that “82 percent of Americans are Christians” (see Tooley, 2006). Sadly, the vast majority claiming Christianity as their religion have no respect for what their…
Read MoreMeekness in the Media Age
by Bubba Garner We live in the age of media. Not just the 24-hour news cycle, but all kinds of social media as well. Just last week, I saw a comic strip of a couple getting married. The preacher said, “You may now change your relationship status on Facebook.” That’s the world we live in.…
Read MoreNot Teach?
by Lester Kamp How can that be? Why should that be? We all understand that Christianity is a taught religion! People do not become Christians unless there is teaching. One of the distinctions between the covenant of Moses and the covenant of Christ is that under the new covenant “they shall be all taught of…
Read MoreReach Out and Touch Someone
by Dee Bowman It may well be that the besetting sin of modern-day discipleship is its failure to procreate itself. Speed has been so aggrandized in our society that it has become necessary that whatever we do, we must do in a hurry. We seem to be possessed with a determination to succeed more than…
Read MoreGoodbyes
by Chadwick Brewer “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). Rotten, awful, very bad, no good goodbyes. Unfortunately, goodbyes are a part of our everyday lives. They often…
Read MoreSome Things Ever-Changing, and Some Things Never-Changing
by Philip C. Strong We probably need both sets, but ought to really give thanks for the things that never change! I’ve never considered myself necessarily “lucky” when it comes to games of chance and the like. But I am very “fortunate” in any number of ways. One of these, which comes to mind each…
Read MoreIn Fear of Truth
by David Gibson In Acts 24, Paul spoke the truth to power, and power got scared. Felix, Paul’s audience, chose to ignore the truth in spite of its obvious effects on him, and was worse off for it. Sometimes the truth hurts the hearer, and sometimes it hurts the truth-teller. Felix, the frightened one, left…
Read MoreHow God Stretches Our Understanding
by David Gibson Moving beyond what we know God designed our minds so we can absorb new insights much more easily if we can connect them with something we already know. So often, Christ drew parallels between common things in everyday life and less familiar spiritual concepts, using figures of speech such as similes (“The…
Read MoreFrom the Womb of the Morning
by Terry Wane Benton “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’ The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power; In the beauties…
Read MoreServing In My Senior Years
by Robert Harkrider I well remember how disappointed I was when, as a young preacher, I was told that one of our elders was “retiring” as an elder. I thought, “How could any Christian of any age ever retire?” Aren’t we responsible to do like Paul, who wrote, “I press toward the goal for the…
Read MoreIt’s Not About the Sign
by Doy Moyer A well-known restaurant chain, which shall remain nameless, recently was in the news for changing a long-standing sign and logo. The backlash was strong, and they ultimately reversed their decision. I’m not concerned about the particulars of that controversy, but I do want to note one thing. Some characterized the controversy as…
Read MoreEquipping the Saints
by Floyd Chappelear via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 1, 31 March 1992 Were one to try to identify the single most important imperative for the gospel preacher, one might choose II Timothy 4:5: “do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” Doing such work so that one can make full proof…
Read MoreThe Hand: A Special Gift from God
by Charles Box Many times, we enjoy blessings from God and never thank God for those blessings. Have you ever thanked God for the blessings of your “hands?” The terms “hand” and “hands” are used frequently in our King James Bible. The word “Hand” is in 1,411 verses, and the word “Hands” is in 458…
Read MoreGood Things Happen When We Teach the Lost
by Roger D. Campbell What child of God would not agree that it is “good” to teach the Gospel to those who are lost outside of Jesus? Surely no member of the Lord’s church would be opposed to the idea of teaching the lost. The “glad tidings of good things” (Romans 10:15) is God’s message…
Read MoreSeeker-Friendly Churches
by Perry Hall “How can we get the unchurched to come to church?” This important question was asked by a certain soon-to-be “mega-church” Pastor. His answer came from listening to the radio. Soon, his church was modeling its worship services after what the world liked in music. Their attendance grew. This method became the practice…
Read MoreWas Jesus “Retrofitted” onto the Prophecies of the Old Testament?
by Terry Wane Benton If the gospel writers just made the story of Jesus fit the Old Testament, what were the secular historical accounts doing? Tacitus (c. 56–120 CE), the Roman historian, in his final work Annals (written around 115 CE), wrote about Emperor Nero’s persecution of Christians following the Great Fire of Rome in…
Read MoreNot Far
by David Gibson Almost there! Once a scribe asked Jesus, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered that loving God with all your heart comes first, followed by loving others as yourself. The scribe heartily agreed, adding that love of God and others “is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” “When…
Read MoreWhy Are You Waiting?
by Zeke Flores In Chapter 2 of his prophetic book, Joel foretells the events related to Pentecost in Acts 2. His concluding statement from that prophecy was that “it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered” (Joel 2:32). To “call on the name of the Lord” sounds…
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