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This article was complied a couple of years ago by Jack Wilkie and published on the Focus Press site. I do not necessarily identify with all of these, but many of them are applicable to me personally; it is good food for thought in general for other ministers you have a relationship with. I have edited and abridged it slightly for redundancy and formatting. All italics below are part of the original article and are not my words. BP The…

There are times when all of us are tempted to become discouraged in doing the Lord’s work. Times when you want to smile but you just have to sigh, as the poet said. Times when things just seem to be pressing in on you. But in those moments, Scripture offers us comfort: we discover in its pages men and women of God through the ages who were discouraged too; those who ventured to serve God and confronted the same problems…

I first shared the little list that appears in the latter part of this article with you several years ago. But the start of football season—I have been talking with my brother this week about them putting the pads on, and NFL preseason games have begun—combined with the general malaise that seems to afflict many in our society in the aftermath of COVID, impacting churches among other organizations, has me thinking a good deal about this again lately. So I…

It hardly seems possible, but summer is essentially over—not in the technical meaning with its unrelenting heat, unfortunately, but in the sense of the break in the calendar. Teachers went back to work here this past week, and most students in the area begin this week. Some of you—parents in particular—may be looking forward to that. Maybe even some of the kids are, too. But if you are anything like I was in grade school, you definitely are not. I…

We have been studying 1 Corinthians in our Sunday morning Bible class all year. For the last several weeks, we have slowed our pace as we have very deliberately been working our way through chapter 13. Paul’s words there on love are familiar to all of us—familiar to the point that, I think, we sometimes fail to appreciate just how significant they are. But he makes the point that no matter what we might accomplish for the Lord, if we…

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and…

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and…

Our sermons in Acts, study of 1 Corinthians on Sunday mornings, and Wednesday evening topical series have all been themed around the church this year. One of the things we have talked about a good bit is how to become more of an organic community of believers—a family—like we see portrayed in the New Testament as opposed to the top-down, institutional, producer/consumer model that characterizes so many churches. I ran across this old article this week from a publication called…

Tomorrow is Independence Day—and, in fact, we are viewing fireworks here tonight—a time when we reflect on the Founding Fathers. Similarly, I think it is beneficial to consider the views of our forebears in the faith. David Lipscomb was the editor of the Gospel Advocate for more than 50 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fittingly, we want to consider his views on the relationship between Christians and the civil government. This comes from the January 9,…

We just returned from our vacation a couple of days ago. I appreciate so much those who helped fill in for me here in my absence: I listened to Bobby’s sermon Sunday afternoon, and he did a great job; I am sure Robert did as well leading the discussion Sunday evening; and Barb pulled an old article out to print in last week’s bulletin when I lost track of what day it was and forgot to send her one! But…

Our faith in the risen Savior has a past, present, and future importance. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to our faith. Paul reminds us, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV). But Christ is risen from the dead, the culmination of God’s work of salvation. The apostle links the resurrection with our salvation, “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for…

This is a follow-up to last week’s article, where we simply listed a number of passages from the NT on employing violence against enemies. It’s essential that we address this topic because so many Christians look at the violence in our society and propose to meet it with more violence in return. And while that may well be necessary in some cases—and it might even be defended with Scripture—the problem is that many advocate embracing that proudly, proactively as a…