The Bible is known by the phrase, "the good book." Such is true, however, the Bible is more than that—the Bible is "the best book." This book teaches men to "love thy neighbor," (Levitcus 19:18, Romans 13:9-10). One cannot love his neighbor by refusing to speak to him. It is amazing that some people will see their neighbor outside and not even say hello. A worse case is a person hearing his neighbor utter a greeting, but refusing to acknowledge the greeting. Such disrespect leaves the person who spoke feeling terrible. That certainly isn't loving thy neighbor.
Stealing from a neighbor isn't loving him either. The neighborhood should be a place where people can leave their homes, and it stays safe. It is bad when outsiders come into the hood and steal, but it is appalling when neighbors destroy each other by breaking into homes. People who live on the same block have living quarters in common, and they should be working together to improve the surroundings, not making it unsafe. Not keeping one's home tidy is offensive to others who are working hard to keep the block a wonderful place to live. A neat block with well-kept houses and yards do a lot for the morale of the people who live there. It shows the world that filth, shabby houses, and rodents aren't welcome. If one loves his neighbor, he will not be the cause of concern. Causing disturbances will upset the neighbors, and that doesn't showing them love. People ruin the sleep of others with loud music, fighting, barking dogs, weird guests, etc. Respect the rights and concerns of others, don't disturb them by what you do (Matthew 7:12). Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. There are some falsehoods about what you can and cannot eat. First of all it is wrong for religious groups to say that you sin if you eat pork, rabbit, or any other kind of food. Sin has been defined as breaking the law of God. No such laws exist today, therefore there can be no violation when it comes to what one can or cannot eat (1 John 3:4, Romans 5:13).
The New Testament is God's law for today, and it teaches all food is good and no one should prohibit anything from going into his mouth (1 Timothy 4:1-5, Colossians 2:16). Some believe that if a person eats a piece of pork, that person becomes defiled. Jesus Christ refuted that by teaching, "nothing entering into a man's mouth defiles him, because it passes out of his system; but that which corrupts him comes from his heart," Matthew 15:10-20, Mark 7:19. Another false doctrine is that certain foods must be eaten on certain days, for example, "fish on Friday." No such command is found in God's word, so this must be of man, and the scriptures teach us to avoid the doctrines of men (Mark 7:7, Acts 15:24). Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. Everyone needs to slow down and take a rest—I mean a break, a breather, a nap, some quiet time for oneself, a vacation, etc. All these things are for the benefit of man's physical well being, so he can be fit and ready to take on the world. The cold, cruel world is very tough and without proper rest, it will kill a person. Just take a look around you, there are many zombies walking around suffering from the lack of proper rest and quiet time. These people yawn all the time, look spaced out and they are also stressed out, cranky and just not 100 percent. With the proper rest, a man can recharge his batteries and take the stress away. In the Bible, we see that Jesus Christ, took advantage of the benefits of rest and quiet time (Mark 1:35, Mk. 4:37-39, Mk. 6:31-32, Mk 6:46-47, John 6:15, John 11:12).
The idea of taking time for rest and thinking is not to promote selfishness. Instead it keeps a person alert, so he can think clearly when dealing with others. And above all things, he can be ready to pay attention when he goes to church. At church, one can hear the words of God being preached, and the listerners should be rested so they don't end up like Eutychus, who dozed off and fell out of a window, killing himself (Acts 20:7-9). We want you to stay alive and learn when you come to church; we don't want you dozing off, missing some of the sermon; we want you to hear every word spoken (Matthew 13:9). Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. We hear a lot about tolerance these days. Tolerance of one's race. Tolerance of one's sexual orientation. Tolerance of one's religion, etc., etc. It is fine to show tolerance toward those who are different if they aren't doing wrong in the eyes of God (Proverbs 15:3).
We shall not get into what is wrong or what is right, but we do want people to understand that there is such a thing as right and wrong. We are currently living in times when many believe that no one should speak out against what others may be doing. "Just live and let live," many will say. Those who utter such remarks show that they will stand against nothing and will roll with anything. One just cannot do that in life. You must stand for something which means you will be opposed to something. Many of the things that people are calling tolerance for, are all wrong, as far as God is concerned (Luke 16:15). God never shows tolerance for things contrary to His will because those are things He calls sin (1 John 3:4, 1 John 5:17). So, think on these things. Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. I would like to talk about safe sex and the young person. I know that most won't like what I have to say, but it is the truth and so will I speak. To our young people in high school, you must understand that God exists and that he left man the Bible. The Bible is a book that is to be read and obeyed. In the Bible, humans learn that God gave sexual relations to man in Genesis 3:16. God created the attraction between the sexes—the desire to be with one another sexually. However, God expects mankind to satisfy those sexual desires in the way that he prescribed. God placed sexual relations inside the marriage fold and gave that kind of sex His endorsement (Hebrews 13:4). When young people have sex with others without being married, God calls this kind of sex "FORNICATION."
Sex outside marriage is illegal (sinful) in God's eyes. He didn't intend for man to do that, so when it happens it is call "fornication." Now all who commit fornication and don't repent, those people will go to hell (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 18). Do you want to go to hell? Is one night of sex worth eternal torment in hell? Safe sex is in the marriage. No other sex is safe. Young men, young girls, keep yourselves free from fornication. I know it won't be easy, you will have pressure from everywhere. But still, keep yourselves from sin. Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. It is election time and voting is what people do because they are concerned about government (Matthew 22:21). The morals of a cnadidate should be of importance to people, but it seems that a great majority couldn't care less. People say, "As long as the man can do the job, I'll vote for him." With a person being competent to do the job, I'm in agreement (Colossians 3:22-24). However, I'm also concerned with the morals of the politicians as well (Proverbs 16:12, Prov. 25:5). For only by righteousness will a nation be blessed and the elected man deal truthfully with those whom he serves (Prov. 11:11, Psalms 33:12). But then, it is very clear that the majority of people aren't concerned with the laws of the Lord, so they have no idea what is right or wrong in God's eyes, and they certainly will put secular achievement ahead of spiritual needs (1 Kings 12:6-14, Matt. 27:15-31).
We read in the Bible about God's displeasure with evil kingdoms, which he later destroyed (1 Samuel 12:24-25, Jonah 3, Genesis 18:22-33, Leviticus 20:22-24, 2 Kings 24:8-20). If a person is higly skilled to hold an office, but yet he has ungodly views which he plans to enforce by passing laws to make such stronger or legal, I wouldn't vote for him based on his support of what is wrong according to the word of God (1 Thessalonians 5:22). I realize that only those who have respect for the Bible will appreciate what is said in this writing, for if one doesn't believe that the Bible, he will surely reject it (John 12:48). Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. Slander means to speak lies about a person with the intent to damage that person's character. Sometimes slanderers will take a little bit of what someone has said and twist it just enough to fit their evil purpose, afterward hoping the listeners will be stupid enough not to know the difference. At other times, sladerous persons will create out of the clear blue, some kind of accusation composed of totally untrue material. As it has been said, the slanderer is relying heavily upon the listerer's gullibility. Being bold enough to make outrageous statements is very important in slandering, for if one isn't hardened to sin enough to do that, the person can never be a good slanderer. I remember a slanderous woman speaking out in a Bible class, accusing a couple of "kidnapping," simply because that couple brought their neighbor's son to church even though they had his parents' permission. To say such a thing shows the depths some will swoop to. But we aren't helpless, people can expose slander by simply discerning whether a person is calling a snake a rope.
People resort to slander when they cannot defeat a foe. Slander gives a person that much needed tool to do battle, since they cannot do battle any other way. Our courts are tied up every year with slanderous cases, where someone is perjuring themselves in an attempt to get their mission completed. The evil of slander will never end until people learn to say, "Okay, you win, I will give up." Stay away from slander, it is an evil of Satan, and you will go to hell for failing to repent of its use (Proverbs 19:9, Psalms 101:7, Revelation 22:15). Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. The church of Christ has been purchased with the blood of Jesus Himself (Acts 20:28). The church of Christ is also the pillar and ground of truth, for it has no mission but that of doing the work that God has given for it to do (1 Timothy 3:15, John 18:36). That isn't to say that the church won't be among men, because it will; the church began in Jerusalem about 33 AD on the day of Pentecost (Luke 24:46, Acts 1 and 2).
The work of the church isn't to be having dinners, ball games, bingo, car washes, two or more collections; support to colleges and other human institutions, or providing secular courses such as math, reading, computer, etc. Yet we see so much of this and more being done by churches, and people just come to believe that the church can be involved in anything that we choose. However, man must realize that the Bible is to be our guide, and that we must use it in order to prove what we do in religion (1 Peter 4:11, 2 John 8, Matthew 7:24-27, John 8:3). Churches must have authority for all that is done and practiced. The Bible teaches that the work that Jesus has prescribed for his blood-bought body is to be the care of saints (Acts 11:26-30, Acts 5:32-37). The support of preachers of the gospel (Phillipians 4:14-20, 2 Corinthians 11:8-9). And the local church is to care about the edification of its own spiritual welfare (Acts 20:28, Ephesians 4:11-13). By what authority does your church do what it does? (Mark 11:28). Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. Just when you think you've heard the worst concerning child abuse, you hear something else that lets you know, "you ain't seen nothing yet." Just recently there was a story on the local news concerning a man who locked a child inside a dog house for his punishment. Now no matter what the child had done wrong, how can one justify locking him in a dog house? This type of cruelty really gives truth to the phrase, "in the dog house."
But the horror doesn't end there. This idiot lit a cigarette and started blowing smoke into the doghouse in order to torture the child! What kind of nut case is this guy? Doesn't he understand that second-hand smoke is dangerous to anyone inhaling it? Yet this man went ahead and threatened the child's health with this kind of stupidity. But fear not, the authorities got the man, and he was arrested. Thank God! There is just too much abuse directed at the children; I'm speaking of beating them until they die. Smoking, drinking, taking drugs, viewing or listening to immoral movies or songs around them. Keeping the child values pure is not in the plans of many parents. Some single parents are having sex with others in the house, demonstrating to the child how to live an immoral life. Also with one night stands, comes the danger of the parent subjecting herself and the child to a possible killer or weirdo. Treat your children right, and if you don't want to do so, DON'T HAVE CHILDREN!!! (Matthew 7:11, Matt. 23:37, Mark 10:13-16, Colossians 3:21, 1 Thessalonians 2:7). Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. Jesus Christ existed before the creation of the world, and He assisted in its design (Colossians 1:14-19, John 17:5). Jesus Christ died for the sins of every man on earth because He was the only one qualifed to do so (1 Corinthian 15:3-4, 1 Peter 1:18-25. Hebrews 9:11-28). Jesus will come in judgment upon this earth, and every man will stand and be judged by Him.
Jesus Christ built one church, and He will save ONLY that church from damnation (Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 5:23, John 10:9,16). Man made churches are no good because they only lead men to hell. Matt. 7:15-23, 1 Peter 2:1, Matt. 15:13, Proverbs 16:25). If men don't believe in Jesus Christ, they won't be saved from the wrath of God (Acts 4:12, John 3:36, John 4:42, John 14:6, 1 John 4:15, 1 John 5:10-12, Heb. 5:9). Jesus Christ gave the word of God unto men, and He allows the choice to either receive or reject it (Matt. 7:34, Matt. 10:32, Romans 10:13-14, John 3:11-21). In the word of Christ, you willr ead no statement tell Christians to "kill the unbelievers!" Jesus is not evil, and he won't kill a person or put him in jail because he chose not to become a Christian. Jesus permits believers and unbelievers to live together (Matt. 5:45, Matt. 13:24-30). Hope to hear from you or to see you at the services. |