The church doesn’t need to beg people for money. If the church would follow the Biblical pattern as taught in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, each local church would rely on its own working members to give into the collection on the first day of the week. That’s right, the local church is not to depend upon visitors and non Christians to support the work. The members of the local church have an obligation to carry on the work and give fairly to the Lord, for he loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).
The church isn’t into money making projects like bingo, cake and dinner sells, rummage sales, etc. These things are the doctrine and commandments of men (Mark 7:7). Many say. “How can the church make it on one collection each week?” This is how. Each person give a fair amount to the church, then the congregation should use the money wisely by working within a budget. By doing this the church will be okay, and God will be pleased. Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. Many say they are looking for God in their own way; but there is a problem with that. The problem is, they will never find Him. You see, man must not look for God in man’sway. People must look for God in God’s way (Acts 17:22-32; John 14:6-12; Jeremiah 10:23; Proverbs 14:12).
Man isn’t qualified to consider a relationship with God because of sin (Romans 3:10-12; Isaiah 59:1-3). But by the grace of God, a way has been created to have a relationship with God, and if man will accept God’s terms, then man can find God (Ephesians 2:1-22; James 4:6-10). If you want to find God, give up your way and be open to what God has to say. I ask you to read the story of the man who allowed Philip (a teacher) to instruct him in the way of Christ (Acts 8:26-39). The jailer who listened to Paul and Silas teach him words by which he could come to know God (Acts 16:29-34). Finding God begins with being taught the word of God (Romans 10:1-17, 6:17-18). So if you are open to being taught, you can find God (John 8:31-32, 6:45; Acts 17:10-12). Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. The first telephone can be seen with God’s communication with Moses though the burning bush. God was in heaven, and His voice to Moses came though the bush which was on fire but didn’t burn up (Exodus 3:1-6). Next time you go to the supermarket and the automatic door opens for your entrance, I ask that you read Acts 12:10. The angel led Peter to the main door of the prison and that huge door opened by itself and Peter walked out.
Columbus, Magellan, and others of his day were curious about the earth being flat, so they sailed and found out that it wasn’t. But centuries before, the prophet Isaiah said that the earth was a circle (Isaiah 40:22). And you know there was no space travel to confirm that at the time, but it was confirmed to the prophet by God. Eccl 1:10 said, “Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.” Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. Noah was not only the builder of the ark, but he also set aside time to warn men about the coming flood (2 Peter 2:5). The bad thing is, no one believed him—the people thought he was crazy for building this big boat on dry land and not a drop of water in sight. The people couldn’t understand his message, for there had never been a world-wide flood, but they failed to understand that Noah was moved by faith in God’s word (Hebrews 11:7).
And also since he apparently wasn’t gaining converts, people thought he was wrong because the only people standing with him were his own family of seven (1 Peter 3:20; Genesis 7:11-13). So because of all of this, the people avoided Noah like the plague, for no one wanted to be the first person to join with old, weird Noah (Gen. 6:12-13, 7:1, 7:21-24). But guess what? There are plenty of Noah’s around today. Are you listening? Or will we have the days of Noah all over again when God brings the final Judgment upon men with fire? (2 Peter 3:1-14). Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. Repentance is required if a person expects to get to heaven (Luke 13:3). However some refuse to repent (Revelation 2:21). The attitude of rejecting the message of God is like saying, “I don’t need to hear what the gospel has to say, because I do things my way, and the Lord better accept it.” But guess what? God is not going to do that. Heaven is God’s gift to give, and if a person wants to go there, he better stop mapping his own way and start listening to God’s way.
Repentance is going to require that a person provide the time to read the Bible to see what must be done (John 5:39). Heaven is available to man, but it is not going to be just simply given to men. Man must earn it by being obedient to what God wants (Matthew 7:21). Hell on the other hand is another story (Matt. 7:13-14). One can just sit around and do nothing and end up in hell (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10). Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. When visitors come to a church, the members should make them feel welcome. There are people who would visit a church, but they might not know anything about church doctrine or the people, so they feel apprehensive. The members of the church must realize that it is their duty to walk over and introduce themselves and make the visitor feel relaxed because no visitor should ever have to introduce himself. The church members shouldn’t smother the visitor with too many questions, nor should church members pressure visitors for phone numbers or addresses.
The church may mention that visitors cards are available, but a visitor cannot be pressured nor made to feel obligated to fill out one. If a visitor wishes to become a member of that church, he should continue to visit in order to get to know the church members and find out what is taught. So yes, there is no need to be afraid to visit, just come and you will find potential friends (Micah 4:1-2; Psalm 122:1; 1 Corinthians 14:23-25; Genesis 28:16-17). Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. One of the quickest ways to become someone’s enemy is to tell them the truth (Galatians 4:16). We are sure we will make some people angry with what we write, but it must be written because it is the truth, and the truth is what sets men free (John 8:31-32).
Did you know that it is wrong to pray for the dead? When people have died, their works are all they have and no prayer can help them. The word of God teaches that hope, repentance and prayers are only for the living because after death, one is in God’s hands and will be on the Judgment Day as they were when they died (Daniel 12:2; Ecclesiastes 9:4-6, 10, 11:3; John 5:28-29, 8:21-24; Revelation 14:13; Luke 16:19-31; Matthew 25:31-46). With all the scriptures of God’s word on prayer, not one of them mentions or teaches about giving prayers for the dead. That being the case, we must reject such as false teaching. What people should be doing is praying for the living because they are the ones who need it. Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. “He, seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither did His flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:31-32) (KJV).
This was the Apostle Peter in the first sermon preached on the Jewish day of Pentecost (Matthew 16:18-19; Acts 2:1:14). Peter establishes several points: King David had a grave site, but there is no grave site for Christ (Acts 2:29). The reason: Jesus rose from the dead! (Acts 2:32; Luke 24:1-8). King David and all the other dead decomposed in their graves, but the body of Christ did not (Acts 2:31; John 20:26-31). Today, Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and He will be the Judge of men on the final day (Acts 7:55-60; Hebrews 4:14-15; Acts 2:33; Acts 5:30-31; 1 Peter 3:22; Acts 17:31; John 5:22-23). Peter also said that he and others saw the risen Christ and can testify that he did rise from the dead (1 John 1:1; John 20:19). You cannot go wrong with Christ for He is the Way, the Truth and the Light (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; John 10:7-9, 6:35:48:51). Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. Many say, “I forgive, but I don’t forget”. Well, this so-called forgiveness isn’t of any profit to anyone, and it’s certainly not the way the Lord works when He forgives. God is willing to forgive anyone who will repent and ask His forgiveness (Isaiah 1:10-20; Acts 2:38). After that, God doesn’t keep the sin of man still on the books and neither will He bring it up again in the future. When God forgives, He forgets, and so should men (Hebrews 10:17). Yet, we still see those who hold grudges and refuse to give secondchances to those who seek forgiveness.
No one can be forgiven of their trespasses if they refuse the same courtesy to others (Matthew 6:12, 18:21-35; James 2:13; Ephesians 4:31-32). We best get rid of all those grudges and start forgiving because the mercy we refuse to show today, will be denied us tomorrow (Galatians 6:7; Proverbs 11:5; Numbers 32:23; Prov. 26:27; Daniel 6:24). Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. There is only right or wrong when discussing a matter. One person can be right and the other wrong or both could be wrong, but both cannot be right.
For example, if the Bible teaches that a person will be lost in Hell for failing to repent (Luke 13:3). The conclusion is, anyone who believes differently is wrong. If the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin, then any different view is wrong (Romans 1:26-32; Matthew 19:4-6; 1 Timothy 1:8-10). If a person teaches that any church will do and the Bible teaches that Jesus built one church, then the opposite view is wrong (Matt. 16:18; Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22-23). Many in the religious world call for unity in diversity, rather then asking people to give up man-made doctrines and unite on what the Bible teaches (Mark 7:7; Proverbs 14:12; Matt. 15:12-14; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Eph. 5:11; Galatians 1:8-10; Philippians 3:16). Further evidence of only being right or wrong can be seen from what will take place at the Judgment. People will go to Heaven or they will go to Hell—there is no middle ground (Matt 25:31-46; John 5:28-29). Hope to hear from you or see you at the services. |