Category: Bulletin Articles

Welcome to the Groveland Church of Christ.

In this section, you will find announcements of upcoming congregation events and fellowship activities as well as articles of spiritual interest and encouragement.

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?

Adapted from an article by Joe Slater

July 4, 2026, marks 250 years since John Hancock and 55 other delegates of the thirteen colonies signed the Declaration of Independence. As flawed human beings, neither they nor we have ever completely succeeded in practicing the lofty goals and principles of that matchless document. Nevertheless, those goals and principles shine forth like a beacon to challenge us to improve.

“Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). No nation in history has been without fault; that certainly includes America! Genocide against the original inhabitants of the country and the institution of slavery are but two of many stains that tarnish the nation’s image. Denying or minimizing those sad realities only prevents us from improving.

It is equally erroneous and counterproductive to ignore improvement while denouncing the entire nation because perfect solutions haven’t been reached. As long as flawed humans are in charge (and that will always be the case), ideal solutions aren’t even in the realm of possibility. Humans will never create Utopia!

Christians can and should be a preserving influence. A mere ten righteous people would have moved the Lord to spare the sinful city of Sodom (Genesis 19:32). The very sin that spelled Sodom’s doom was heralded all of last month in America as something to be proud of! The same Satanic forces are in a dither now that their “right” to slaughter pre-born humans will be restricted in several states. Given the genocidal and racist nature of abortion in America, the hypocrisy is staggering.

While never stooping to their level of vulgarity or resorting to violence, we must kindly, firmly, and plainly teach and practice the truth as revealed in God’s word. May God help us to be the salt of the earth and light of the world!