Hello and welcome family and friends. It is so good when Christians can gather together with family and friends to worship God in spirit and in truth on the Lord’s Day and at any other time during the week. Winter is beginning to give way to spring, cool at night and warm when the sun comes up. The buttercups have already sprung up in my yard and my blueberry bushes are budding. We live in such a beautiful area of the country. Just look northwest and see Petit Jean Mountain with all its glory and story. We live right beside the Arkansas River running steady and strong. No wonder Arkansas is called “The Natural State.” God knows what He’s doing.
The Harding Street congregation is moving forward, continuing in the Way of Jesus Christ simple, strong, and steady, holding tightly to the faith that is in Christ. What does Hebrews 11:6 tell us about faith? Note the word “must” in God’s admonition. And what about repentance? When we sin; saying “I’m sorry” and changing our hearts, minds, and actions is common sense and Biblical truth (Acts 2:38). Is God asking us to do something that we just cannot do? Of course not! And what about confession? Either we deny Jesus is the Christ or we confess Him as the Christ. There is no in between (Matthew 6:24). And baptism? No matter what people say or teach to the contrary, baptism is required for salvation simply because Jesus declared it to be (Matthew 28:18-20, John 3:5, Mark 16:16, Acts 22:16). Note the order of what Saul did to have his sins washed away. True Christian living is not so difficult to grasp. The Bible is relevant, vibrant, alive, convicting, needed, and just as true in this day as it was in the days before. And here at Harding Street we will ever read it, respect it, rely on it, teach it, and preach it until our Savior comes again.
We continued in our sermon series “Find the Joy” on Sunday morning and considered the joy in singing. Jesus sang. Have you ever thought about His voice? One day we will hear Him as He sings with us, just has He did with His disciples (Matthew 26:30). The church of Christ in the Bible sang. How can we find the joy in singing? We can when we understand the purpose of singing and when we open our hearts to sing with the spirit and with the understanding. Sunday evening at 4:30 we meet to sing. Then, at the 5:00 hour a representative from Truth for Today visited with us to give a report of the good work we are doing together to send out the gospel to the world.
Bible Classes at Harding Street are especially good at 10:00. We celebrated birthdays in February with a Birthday and Anniversary Potluck lunch together up in the Annex. We always enjoy our time together as brothers and sisters in Christ. MB
Leave a Reply