Bulletin Articles

Just as we eat 3 meals a day to sustain our physical bodies, we must also feast on God’s word daily to sustain our souls. If we don’t we are in danger of losing our souls. God says in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” People will be lost because they did not care enough to read and study God’s instruction book on how to go to Heaven.

Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 that people will be lost “because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Satan wants to distract us with the cares and deceits of this world. He does not want us to read and study our Bibles every day. He knows that we become weak and vulnerable when we fail to study. Our strongest defense is a shield of faith. How do we obtain that shield of faith to protect us? Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” The more we study the word of God the stronger our faith will be. If we want to protect ourselves against Satan we must have a strong faith.

In years past we in the churches of Christ were known as “walking Bibles” because brethren then studied their Bibles. But what happens when we fail to study God’s word and become spiritually starved? 2 Peter 3:16 says that those who are “untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the scriptures.” We cannot understand God’s word unless we study it. And because of this Jesus says in Matthew 15:14, “They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” Brethren at the Miami Gardens church of Christ must lead by example and continual study of God’s Word.

To keep from wandering around in spiritual darkness; let’s study God’s word so that: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path”
Psalms 119:105.

Let’s not endanger our souls by a lack of study of God’s word. Let’s take time to study it daily.

The words “attend the church of your choice” greet readers searching for churches who advertise in newspapers. If it is true that one church is as good as another, then it is also true that one may confidently attend the church of his choice. Let us now search the Scriptures and see if they shed any light on the subject.

Is one founder as good as another? Jesus promised He would build his church (Matthew 16:18). Christ, and not a man nor a group of men, is the founder of His church. The apostle Paul affirms this truth by saying, “For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

Think of all the different foundations that have been laid by religious groups. Will one accuse the Christ of laying different foundations? Our Lord is neither the author of division (1 Corinthians 1:10-13) nor confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). Christ has made it clear that “every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up” (Matthew 15:13). If one founder is as good as another, then one can confidently attend the church of his choice!

Is the shedding of any person’s blood as good as the shedding of the blood of Christ? The church that Jesus promised to build was purchased by the shedding of His blood. The Lord’s church was not purchased by the blood of “bulls and goats” (Hebrews 10:4) or by the blood of any human being! In Acts 20:28, Paul reminds the Ephesian elders that they are to “feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.”

Who will presumptuously proclaim that his shed blood purchased the church of our Lord? Who will arrogantly boast that his blood can cleanse one of his sins? If it is true that anyone’s blood can be shed for our sins, the shedding of Christ’s blood was unnecessary.

Is Christ the only head of the church or is one head as good as another? Do those who attend man-made denominations really believe that Christ is the head of a church that a man or woman founded? Christ is only the head of His church, “which is his body” (Ephesians 1:22-23). How many “heads” are there? Only one — Christ! How many bodies should exist if there is only one head? Only one! The apostle Paul affirms such in saying, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).

If you were to die today do you know for certain, without a doubt, that you would go to heaven and be with the Lord forever? Jesus says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Our number one priority in this life must be to go to heaven. Nothing is as important as this. We cannot afford to miss Heaven.

Our Lord tells us in Matthew 7:13-14 that only few people will go to Heaven, but the vast majority will be eternally lost in the burning fires of Hell. This is not a pleasant thought. But all of us will make the choice as to where we will spend eternity. The only way, to even grasp how long eternity will be, is to think that after we have been in Heaven or Hell a billion years, eternity will have just begun.

Our soul is the most precious thing we possess. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Our soul is worth more than the whole world put together. If we lose our soul in Hell, we lose it all.

Jesus wants us to pay attention to what He is trying to tell us. He says in Matthew 13:41-43, “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom (the church, that’s us) all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He, who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Our Lord is trying to warn us if we will only listen. He has already paid the awful price for our salvation and He doesn’t want to see it wasted.

For a child of God, sin in our life will keep us out of Heaven. Because of unrepented sins, our name will be taken out of God’s Book of Life. Revelation 22:19 says, “God shall take away his part from the Book of Life and from the holy city.” Has your name been taken out of God’s Book of Life? If it has, then this is a very serious matter. Revelation 20:15, “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” God wants to forgive us. As a Christian, how do we get our name put back into the Book of Life? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Jesus has promised, “Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of Life” (Revelation 2:10).

If you are not a Christian, how do you get your name into God’s Book of Life, so you can be saved and go to Heaven? Our Lord says in Luke 13:3, “Except you repent you will all likewise perish.” Jesus also says, “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will confess before My Father who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32). Our Lord then tells us, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). If a person misses Heaven, he will only have himself to blame.

Please know that tomorrow is not promised…be saved today!

Merriam-Webster online, defines the word, apology as being derived from the Greek word, apologia which means, “a speaking in defense.” This Greek word does not imply an admission of guilt or regret, but a desire to make clear the grounds for some course, belief, or position, i.e. “his speech was an apologia for his foreign policy.”

The apostle Paul used the above Greek word in Philippians 1:7,17 – KJV (as well as in 1 Corinthians 9:3; 2 Corinthians 7:11; 2 Timothy 4:16) when he made clear his “defense” of the gospel.

Thus the inspired apostle Paul was indeed an “apologist” in “defense” of the gospel of Christ, therefore, apologists are necessary and the study of “apologetics” (“a branch of theology devoted to the defense of the divine origin and authority of Christianity”) is necessary as well. Too many are failing to preach the whole counsel of God today for fear that it may hurt the “numbers”. God’s expectation of us is to preach without addition or subtraction (Revelations 22:18-19).

Using Paul as our example (1 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17), we as Christians, should always be prepared to make a defense (give an answer or apologia), to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15).

We make no apology (admission of guilt or regret) for being God’s children! May we continue to study, fellowship, and encourage one another to ensure that we are equipped to serve and defend.

Paul the apostle wrote, “Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.”
– 1 Thessalonians 5:21

Consider the following illustration: suppose you were stranded in the desert without water and you came across two people. One person said, “I have water and here is the evidence that proves it to be clean and healthy. Test it for yourself.” The second person said, “Don’t listen to that combative fellow who wants to test everything. Do I have water? I don’t know if I do or not. It could be poison. I’m not going to allow you to test it, but let’s drink it together and see what happens.” Who is humble and who is arrogant?

Is there such a thing as false humility? There is. Paul wrote in Colossians 2:23 that some had a “show” of humility, but were not truly being humble. These were humble in appearance only, but not actually. So also, those who today “don’t claim to have the answer” are only being apparently humble. The truth is that they want you to believe what they are putting forth, but they want you to believe it without setting forth any evidence or allowing you to subject their beliefs to criticism. Such is truly the height of arrogance. They are also hypocrites. They are hypocritical because while they verbally deny any claim to knowledge, they certainly don’t live like that. If they lived consistently with their claim to not know the answer, they would give up their unknowable beliefs. The fact is that they live their lives based upon the things that they are teaching to others; their claim “not to know” what they believe and practice is inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst.

What do you do when someone says to you, “You may be right and I may be wrong”? You ask questions like, “Then why are you living the way that you are living?” “If you may be wrong, then why don’t you give up what you are doing?” “If you don’t know, then why are you teaching others the things that you believe?”

The truth is that their comment “You may be right” is simply a ploy for them to escape criticism of their beliefs. It is simply a way to not have to defend what they are teaching to be true. It is intellectually dishonest, arrogant, and hypocritical.

Like the church at Colossae, we have allowed individuals who use such ploys to redefine humility. We need to come back to the true standard of humility. Humility isn’t shrugging your shoulders and saying, “I don’t know” but I want you to believe what I’m saying anyway. Humility is offering up what you have, defending it, and allowing others to either accept or reject it based upon a rigorous evaluation of the evidence. As a Christian, I have no fear of that process. On the contrary, those who reject rigorous examinations of their beliefs have everything to fear.

For part 1 of this epistle, check out The True Test of Humility (Part 1 of 2)

Paul the apostle wrote, “Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.”
– 1 Thessalonians 5:21

The law of rationality states that we ought to justify our conclusion by adequate evidence. Christianity is a religion that is not afraid of evaluation. In fact, Christianity invites public evaluation and examination because Christians believe the evidence holds up under public scrutiny (e.g. Acts 17:11). One can see this in even a cursory reading of the New Testament. Advocates of Christianity were publicly tried on multiple occasions without complaint of the trial.

In contrast to that kind of thinking, many “religions” in the world today are woefully lacking. These “religions” do not see truth as propositional and thus subject to criticism. They want “truth” in religion to be merely a matter of personal subjective conclusion and nothing else.

When asked whether what they believe is “right” or “wrong” the individuals involved in the discussion will not be so quick to claim to be right. They may say things like, “I don’t know” or “you may be right.” Such answers appear “humble.” After all, how could a person be arrogant if they are not claiming to know anything?

What is deceiving is that these individuals want you to believe what they believe. They would not be having a conversation with you if they did not. If an individual truly does not know something or believes that someone else is right, then they are not going to comment at all; that is the truly humble action in such a situation, namely, when you do not know, to say, “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

On the contrary, when an individual does not know what he or she has, it is the height of arrogance to offer it up as a solution. The humble thing to do in that situation is to keep quiet and let someone who has solutions to answer. On the other hand, it is not arrogant to say, “I have the solution,” present the evidence to support it, and invite criticism.

The truth is that these religions simply do not want to defend their beliefs under criticism. To justify themselves, they castigate individuals who want to “debate.” This, they say, is the problem. It is curious to note that they do not seem to have a problem knowing what the problem is. In a system that claims to know nothing, they know an awful lot when it comes to evaluating the beliefs of others.

For part 2 of this epistle, check out The True Test of Humility (Part 2 of 2)

Many as a child would say “I had the meanest mother in the world” as compared to other children. Listen to this testimony and decide for yourself.

While other kids ate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal, eggs, and toast. When others had cokes and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. As you can guess, my supper was different from the other kids also. But at least I was not alone in my suffering. All my siblings had the same mean mother I did.

My mother insisted upon knowing where we were all the time. You would think we were on a chain gang. She had to know who our friends were and what we were doing. She insisted if we said we’d be gone an hour, that we be gone an hour or less, not one hour and one minute. I am almost ashamed to admit it, but she actually disciplined us; not only once, but each time we did as we pleased. Can you imagine someone actually disciplining a child when they disobey? (Prov. 22:15). Now you can begin to see how she really was.

The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by nine each night and up early the next morning. We could not sleep until noon like our friends. So while they slept, my mother actually had the nerve to break the child labor law — she made us work. We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, and all sorts of cruel things. I believe she lay awake nights thinking of mean things to do to us.

She always insisted upon us telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth even if it killed us — and sometimes it nearly did! By the time we were teenagers, she was much worse and wiser and our lives became even more unbearable. None of this tooting the horn of a car for us to come running. She embarrassed us to no end by making our dates and friends come to the door and get us.

My mother was a complete failure as a mother. None of us has ever been arrested or beaten his mate. And, whom do we have to blame for the terrible way we turned out? You are right, our mean mother. She forced us to grow up into God-fearing, educated, honest adults (Prov. 22:6).

Using this as a background, I am raising my children the same way. I stand a little taller and I am filled with pride when my children call me mean.

I am so thankful God gave me “The Meanest Mother in the World”. Looking back on it, I have never regretted it for one moment.

Thank God for our Mothers…
May their Godly legacies live on through us!