Author: Tim

By Jay Launius, via Bulletin Digest

When thinking about the earthly life of Jesus Christ, it is nothing short of extraordinary. From His humble birth in a manger, to His ministry to the multitudes, we are fascinated by His composure, compassion and character. He reached out to the rich and the poor, the popular and unpopular, without partiality. Having the full measure of the Holy Spirit, He performed amazing healing miracles including bringing the dead back to life. Yes, when we consider the life of Jesus, it is remarkable.

Thus, the perceived dilemma of 1 John 2:3-6. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” Walk (live) just as Jesus walked? How is that possible? Why would God ask us to do the impossible? The truth is, He never would.

Not only does this passage encourage us to be like Jesus, but there are others as well. Matthew 11:29, John 13:15, and 1 Peter 2:21 all tell us to exemplify the life of Christ.

We do this by being humble, compassionate, giving, sacrificial, and possessing the servant’s attitude. We may not be able to heal the sick, raise the dead, or walk on water, but we can take on the character of the Christ and thus be like Jesus!

With Whom Are You Walking? You cannot walk with Jesus and with the world at the same time. They are going two different directions. –Doug Smith

By Glen Elliott via Bulletin Digest

Friendship is one of our deepest needs. Yet so many have no idea about how to fulfill that longing. Fortunately, the Bible has much to say about the matter. Solomon wrote, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Prov. 17:17). Later, he adds, “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (18:24). Such friendship is a beautiful and treasured possession. A friend is one who loves at all times, even when our weaknesses become evident. An old proverb says, “He who seeks a friend without a fault remains without one.” A friend does not easily give up but seeks to encourage and strengthen. “A friend loves at all times.” In fact, “A brother is born for adversity” (17:17). If you cannot lean on a friend, who can you lean on? How does a friend get to be someone who sticks closer than a brother? The answer lies in the realm of adversity. A friend does not give up on us, even when we have given up on ourselves. A friend remains loyal when loyalty is not popular. A friend believes and expects the best of his friend and their friendship. How do we go about developing friendships? There are no short-cuts. Relationships require time and energy. In our madly-paced world, many are starving for friendship. Many of our “so-called” friendships are shallow and unfulfilling. The one who would have friends must show himself to be friendly (Prov. 18:24, KJV).

No one would argue that a person can seriously seek friendship without seeking to be a friend. In a practical sense, this means that we must develop those qualities which will make us a good friend to others. Loyalty, dependability, a sense of caring and an ability to overlook another’s weaknesses are a few of the essentials of friendship. It takes time to develop close friendships; but while we are waiting, we must seek to develop the qualities which will make a good friend.

By Joe Slater via Bulletin Digest

“They received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11b, NKJV).

I’ve been hearing a saying that is new to me: “I have the receipts.” It’s a memorable way of saying, “I’m telling the truth, and I can prove it.” When you need to return that defective appliance, you can prove where you bought it by showing them the receipt.

Jesus tasked His disciples (that’s us) with spreading His gospel to all people throughout the world. As Paul fulfilled that commission in Berea, he proclaimed the truth to them. Unlike some in Thessalonica, the openminded Bereans gave Paul a fair hearing. But before accepting what he taught, they looked to see if he “had the receipts” (i.e. was his doctrine what the Old Testament Scriptures said about Messiah?).

We have no right to expect people to believe what we teach them unless we “have the receipts.” Modern American culture has bought heavily into the Oprah Winfree idea that everyone has their own version of truth: “Your truth, my truth, his truth, her truth, their truth, somebody else’s truth.” But what about “the” truth?

We owe it to the Lord and to our neighbors to know the Bible well enough to lovingly and kindly point people to God’s word, which is truth (John 17:17). Jesus said the truth will make people free from the slavery of sin (John 8:32). That being the case, we simply must “have the receipts”! If we don’t handle aright the word of truth, innumerable false teachers will be more than happy to lead our neighbors astray. Do you have the receipts?

By Robert Kargbo via Bulletin Digest

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed, trying to make sense of life’s complexities, feeling the weight of decisions, problems, or even your own thoughts? In today’s fast-paced world, we often strive to have all the answers, to figure things out on our own. But the truth is, we were never meant to carry such a burden. Just as the brain, with all its billions of neurons, is far beyond our ability to fully comprehend, so too is life itself. The Creator, in His infinite wisdom, designed both to be complex, knowing that we would need to rely on Him.

God’s invitation is clear: we are not to lean on our own understanding. The pressure to know everything, to manage every detail of our lives, is not something He ever intended for us to bear. And this is where the love of Christ comes in. Jesus, fully aware of our limitations, came to help carry our burdens. He invites us to find rest in Him. When we find ourselves anxious or confused, it is a sign to step back and trust in God’s higher wisdom through Christ. We may not have all the answers, but we have the assurance that God does—and Jesus is with us every step of the way. We don’t have to figure everything out because Christ is already holding everything together for us.

Today, reflect on an area of your life where you’ve been trying to carry the weight of understanding on your own. What would it look like to release that to Christ? Spend a
moment in prayer, asking for the strength to let go and trust in His plan.

Your citizenship is in Heaven You only have a work visa for earth (Philippians 2:20)

By Richard Dent via Bulletin Digest

In Mark 2:3-12 a paralyzed man needed help to come to
Jesus. Fortunately, he had friends willing to help. His
friends picked up the mat on which he was lying and
carried him to the house where Jesus was. Not just one
or two men could have done the job. It took all four,
each carrying his corner of the mat.

But wait! The story gets even more intriguing as we find
that so many people were in the house that the men
couldn’t get their stricken friend inside. They lifted their
friend, mat and all, onto the roof, made a hole, and
lowered him into the room where Jesus was (Mark 2:4).

Jesus was impressed with the men’s faith and said to the
paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you” (2:5). The
man immediately arose, took up his mat as Jesus
directed him, and went out from the presence of them
all. Then they glorified God, saying, “We never saw
anything like this before” (2:11-12).

Friend, do you know that there are many in any given
community who will never find the truth or hear the
words of Jesus about salvation without our help? If any
one of those friends had dropped his corner of the mat,
the paralyzed man couldn’t have reached Jesus

As a Christian, have you dropped your corner? Or are you
carrying it to the best of your ability to serve the Lord?

Every member is needed to shoulder the responsibility for
helping the Lord’s work to progress. We need Bible School
teachers. We need parents who set faithful examples for
their children. We need men who dependably serve in
leading prayers and songs. We need men who aspire to
serve as elders and deacons.

Let us all carry our corner!

By Glen Elliott via Bulletin Digest

A casual stroll down the appropriate supermarket aisle reveals that we have at our disposal a wide variety of detergents from which we may choose as the need arises. Which product will we use to cleanse our soiled garments? Despite claims to the contrary, one detergent may be just as good as the next. But, when it comes to purging the soul, it makes a great difference which cleansing agent we select. There is only one cleansing agent for the soul and that is the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

The Hebrews writer said that “all things are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). However, not just any blood will do the job for “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). The blood of Jesus alone cleanses our souls from sin (1 John 1:7). In the book of Revelation, when John envisioned souls before the throne of God and asked, “Who are these?”, He was told they were those who had “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). Only in a spiritual sense can blood be a cleansing agent. We would not think of washing our linen in blood to make it white. But, in the spiritual realm, it is only the blood of Jesus which can so cleanse our spiritual garments as to make them white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).

How can we obtain the benefit of Christ’s blood? The answer is found in Romans chapter five, where we learn that we are “justified by
faith…” (v. 1). Later in verse nine, we are told that we are
“justified by His blood….” Putting these two verses
together, we conclude that we are justified through our
faith in the power of Christ’s blood. Our faith, then, leads
us to become united with Christ through baptism into His
death and raised up with Him to walk in newness of life
(Romans 6:3-5). Let us never forget that it is Christ’s blood
which answers our most urgent need, namely, our need for
spiritual cleansing.

By Glen Elliott via Bulletin Digest

“One of the primary building blocks of a nation is the character of its people. Webster, in one of his renderings, notes that character is moral excellence and strength. Our nation, founded upon godly principles, has enjoyed unparalleled success and prosperity. In stark contrast, the French revolution of the eighteenth century, founded upon godless principles, produced anarchy and repression. We may confidently rely on the age-old axiom: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverb 14:34). The building of character will be the key to the continued success of our nation.

Character is that which is supplied by the inward and spiritual part of man. While the Bible stresses the importance of living exemplary lives in the outward man, it does so by encouraging the transformation of the inward man into the likeness of Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:9-11; Romans 12:1-2).

There are three persons in each of us, as Dr. Childress affirms:
1) What people think we are.
2) What we think ourselves to be.
3) What God really knows us to be.

Character, in the spiritual sense, is what God knows us to be. God does not accept pretended religion, but requires service from the heart. When we serve God in the spirit as
well as in the letter of the law, we find Christianity to be a character-building way of life. This is not only good for our nation; it is essential to the salvation of our souls

By Robert Kargbo (Bulletin Digest)
 
“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.” (Psalm 18:16) Water is one of the most powerful forces on earth. It sustains life, cleanses, and shapes the world. But it can also bring destruction—storms rage, floods rise, and oceans swallow ships whole.
 
Scripture often uses water as a symbol of both danger and deliverance. When the Israelites were trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea, God parted the waters to save them. When Jonah ran from God, he was swallowed by the depths until repentance brought him back to dry land. When Peter walked on water toward Jesus, doubt nearly drowned him—until Christ reached out His hand.
 
Have we ever felt like we were drowning in life? Fear, shame, and regret can rise so high that we struggle to stay afloat. But Psalm 18:16 reminds us that God is not distant from our struggles. He reaches into our deepest waters, pulls us up, and sets our feet on solid ground.
 
Water is also a symbol of renewal. Through baptism, we are buried with Christ and raised into new life. The very element that can destroy also brings salvation. When Noah and his family were saved from a world of sin, they passed through water into a new beginning.
 
Who is praying for us? Perhaps our parents have whispered
our names before God since we were born. Maybe a friend
or someone we don’t know has lifted us up in prayer. These
prayers are spiritual lifelines, unseen currents that carry us
toward the shore.
 
If we feel overwhelmed today, remember this: the same
God who pulled Peter from the sea, who split the Red Sea,
and who washes us clean in baptism, is reaching for us
now. His hands are strong. His mercy is deep. 

Joe Slater

The New Testament sometimes poses “letter” and “spirit” in contrast to each other. Christians “serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6). How should we understand this distinction? Newness and oldness should clue us in! This very verse begins, “But now we have been delivered from the law.” Oldness, then, would refer to the Law of Moses in contrast to the newness of the Gospel (New Covenant).

The same distinction occurs in 2 Corinthians 3:6 with an even more obvious application to the Old and New Covenants: “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.”

Sad to say, many carelessly refer to “letter” as strict compliance with the text of Scripture, as opposed to a more generalized and loose interpretation (spirit). We hear such things as, “We must go by the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.” No doubt some have gone to unwarranted extremes and missed God’s intent, just as Jesus said the Pharisees did by straining out gnats and swallowing camels (Matthew 23:24). But was this Paul’s subject in the passage quoted above? No, indeed!

The apostle himself makes it crystal clear he is contrasting Old and New Covenants, not strict and loose interpretation! Immediately before saying “the letter kills but the spirit gives life,” Paul stated that God “made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit.” He went on to refer to the Old Covenant as “the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones” (3:7) and a “ministry of condemnation” (3:9).

In these contexts, then, letter and spirit are metaphors for the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament lacked any provision to make sinners right with God. By contrast, the New Testament has the blood of Jesus which paid the atonement price in full. Glory be to God!

Joe Slater via Bulletin Digest
 
Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow concluded with a promise and a question. Jesus promised that God will speedily avenge His persecuted people; and he asked, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth” (Luke 18:8).
 
Trials and mistreatment test our faith. The persistent widow in the parable kept pleading to the unjust judge for justice and finally received it. How much more should the servants of a just and faithful God keep praying even under the worst of circumstances?
 
But some disciples allow severe trials to destroy their faith. In the parable of the sower (Luke 8), Jesus spoke of the rocky soil where the tender plant had no depth of root and perished in the hot sun. This illustrated people with shallow faith who “in time of temptation/trial fall away” (8:13).
 
Christians in the early church endured devastating persecution from both Jews and the Roman government. Many remained faithful unto death; but some surrendered their faith to save their lives. They gave up before God avenged the blood of the martyrs by destroying Jerusalem and causing the fall of the Roman Empire.
 
Faithful believers have continued to be abused down through the centuries by Catholics, Protestants, atheist governments, and others. Here again, some brethren remained steadfast while others threw in the towel. Nobody said waiting for God to take His vengeance would be easy.
 
If persecuted Christians should remain faithful under such challenging circumstances, how much more ought we to serve the Lord zealously when the worst we face might be an ugly remark or a door slammed in our face? We know not when Jesus will return, but when He does, will He find you being faithful?