Hello to you from Morrilton, Arkansas beside the Arkansas River at the foot of Petit Jean Mountain. God is blessing us. We started the year off right with three new sisters in Christ. Two of our fantastic teenagers, cousins, Taylor Cox and Lillian Stover confessed Jesus as Lord and put Him on in baptism on January 3rd. Later that week Janice Gill was also baptized into Christ. Janice had been worshiping with us before the virus hit and over the past few weeks began to have questions that needed answering regarding her relationship with God. After studying with Brother Bane, she decided to confess Jesus and be baptized into Christ. The gospel of Christ is still and ever will be the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). And we will continue to preach and teach Jesus and Him, crucified. Christ is our hope for a better world today and always. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).
Our lesson series “Becoming a Great Church” continues this Sunday (17th) with the third characteristic of a great church. Last time we looked at the church in Rome and how their faith and their obedience was known throughout the world. Faith and obedience are marks of a great church. The third trait of a great church is LOVE. Our text is John 13:34-35. Love is a command. Love is the standard. Awesome things happen in life when we love.
On Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m. we will look at “Counting Our Blessings One by One in 2021″ again in the light of “Living Life with Optimism.” Paul chose to think differently. Learning to think differently led to his acting differently. As he thought and learned, he could now BE different. Come and hear and see.
To those listening online: We are in the process of purchasing a camera and digital system to make your online experience better. Thank you for your patience.
How can we correctly understand the Bible? As we read the Scriptures, we should ask ourselves certain questions: Question #1 – Who is speaking? This week Question #2 – Who is the speaker speaking to?
The Bible says in Genesis 6:14, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood…” Must we all, today make an ark? Of course, we know that no one must build an ark, because God was not speaking to everyone. He was speaking to Noah.
In Luke 18:22 Jesus commands, “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” To follow Jesus, must we all sell all we have? The answer is “no,” because Jesus was only speaking to a certain ruler (Luke 18:18). It is important to know who the speaker is speaking to.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.’” Here we find that the speaker is Jesus, and He is speaking to you, me, and everyone else. Am I, are you doing the will of the Father in heaven? Next week we will look at Question #3 – When was it spoken?
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