Hello my friends and welcome! We are so happy to be together each and every Lord’s Day to worship God, study the Bible, and enjoy Christian fellowship. Many of our Christian brothers and sisters are not able to do so. Continue to pray every day for our nation, for God to deliver us from doubt and fear through faith in Jesus and our obedience to His will, for those who are sick to be well, and for the church to be the light we can be to those who are living in darkness. Pray persistently, consistently, and passionately with thanksgiving to our God who is ready, willing, and able to help us in our time of need.
This Sunday morning (10th) we will begin a new series of lessons entitled “Becoming a Great Church.” Are we a “great church?” A church is not great by accident. The “greatness” of a congregation is the result of desire, foresight, careful planning, faithful obedience, patience, and discipline. Of course, “greatness” is a matter of perspective. “Great” to the world and “great” to God often means very different things. We will consider two things that the church of Christ in Rome had that we need to have today. Just look to Romans 1:8 and Romans 16:19 to see.
This Sunday evening we will continue to “Count Our Blessings One by One in 2021” to see if we are living life one day at a time. Yesterday is past. We must not look back but look and move ahead. Tomorrow may or may not be. We must look ahead but not too far ahead. Today is all we have. We must not waste today but live it fully.
Cindi and I are reading the Bible together every day and want to understand what we are reading. How can we understand the Bible correctly? Jesus promised us in John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He always keeps His promises (Hebrews 10:23). We are commanded to understand God’s word in Ephesians 5:17, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Over the next few weeks, I will offer a few questions to ask ourselves as we read the Bible. I hope these questions will help us understand God’s word a better.
Question #1 – WHO IS SPEAKING! The Bible says in Job 2:9, “Curse God and die.” The rest of the Bible teaches us to worship God, not to curse Him. What are we to do? When reading the Bible, we should ask, “Who is speaking?” Here, the answer is Job’s wife. She told Job to curse God and die and was speaking foolishly. Psalm 14:1 says, “There is no God” but who is speaking? The answer is “a fool.” I have a lot to learn, but I am not a fool. In Acts 4:18 we read a command to “not speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” We are not to obey this command. Why not? When we ask ourselves the question, “Who is speaking?” we learn that the enemies of Christ gave this command. We teach because Jesus gave the command to teach (Matthew 28:18-20). As you read the Bible, ask question #1 – Who is speaking? The answer will help you understand. Next time we will look at Question #2 – Who is the speaker speaking to?
Leave a Reply