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Let me share with you an experience I had just a few days ago. I have no idea what prompted it, but the lyrics of a song which I had not thought of for more than seventy years came back to me. They were written on my heart before I entered school, and for some reason, I remembered them. Where had I learned this song? In my memory I went back to the wooden frame building at West Huntsville, AL…

The words of Paul to the Corinthians reveal so much about the response to the gospel when the lost hear it. “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (1 Cor. 1:26). Why is this true? All of mankind is invited to come to Jesus, but so many of the mighty and noble do not answer the invitation. Much can be learned by looking at those…

UNDERSTANDING TRUTH IS IMPORTANT “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). To deny God on the basis of learning is foolish as the ignorant, unlearned say the same thing—“There is no God.” We can produce numerical evidence among the learned and the unlearned that God is; as well as those who claim God is not. Numbers prove nothing! Truth and knowledge prove God is. The fact is those who deny God’s existence are governed…

IT BEGINS IN YOUR HEART “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1; 53:1). This text emphasizes the importance of man’s relationship to God. Our relationship with God is allimportant. We are to love God with the totality of our being (Matthew 22:37). Man’s relationship with God is the vital matter of all matters as our eternity depends upon it. Consider the psalmist’s statement, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’”…

As far as much of society is concerned truth has been placed on life support, and few really seem to care. The idea that truth is real, that it is objective and absolute is an absolutely archaic idea in a world where, philosophically speaking, relativism rules. And the people of God have not been immune to this problem. Many Christians are scurrying for cover as they struggle to be true to the truth of God’s word. They want to take…

What’s the purpose of the church? What should God’s people today truly emphasize? What are we to be all about? The book of 2 Timothy is a letter that specifically deals with our conduct and behavior as Christians (1 Timothy 3:15). Perhaps too often the church gets involved in “busyness” and becomes a “corporation” with something of a spiritual facade, but in such misdirection, we fail to properly emphasize Christ and what He desires for His people. Because of Who…

How much does God really mean to you? What we truly prize, we truly praise. And that’s precisely what should be taking place in the worship of God. In true worship, we are expressing how much God means to us (Psalm 29:2; Matthew 4:9-10). Our prizing of Him simply must express itself in praise. We express our adoration, awe, awareness, and appreciation of all God is and does through the avenues authorized in His word (John 4:23- 24). Yet it…

What we truly prize, we really praise. It’s just that simple. Worship is a matter of expression and of completion. We praise Him in worship because we prize Him above all. “Give unto the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2). When we truly worship, God means so much to us that there’s a bubbling over. In worship, we express our adoration, awareness, awe, and appreciation of God through the avenues…

1. HE IS THE BUILDER OF IT. (Matthew 16:18) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 2. HE IS THE FOUNDATION OF IT. (1 Cor. 3:11) For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 3. HE IS THE HEAD OF IT. (Eph. 5:23) For the husband is the head of the…

The city of Tyre is mentioned nearly sixty times in seventeen books of the Bible. This ancient Phoenician city occupies an important place in both Bible and world history. Many great truths are understood as we look at those verses which tell us about this important nation, which developed our alphabet and spread it around the western world. Nebuchadnezzar and Tyre While many Bible students are aware that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem and carried the Jews into Babylon…

Although many regularly mention repentance as part of the plan of salvation, citing verses such as Acts 17:30 and Luke 13:3, and while many refer to Peter’s rebuke of Simon, the former sorcerer, to demonstrate that Christians also need to repent (Acts 8:22), few seem to understand that repentance should become part of the basic mindset of every Christian in a very real way. When Jesus said, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”…

As we have observed previously, repentance is an intellectual enterprise–not the emotional godly sorrow that provokes it or the corrective actions that follow it. However, the nature of these required intellectual changes often elude us. Paul described this process in great detail, as we observed in the last issue. So, for further elaboration, we return to Paul’s description of repentance in the second Corinthian epistle. “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it…