A Small Beginning

By: Keith McNeely

                Great things often have small beginnings. Imagine a great oceangoing vessel that began to be built by the draftsman putting the first line on the first page of a series of intricate drawings.  Picture a small acorn falling to the ground. It somehow makes its way into the dirt, sprouts, and 200 years later we stand under the massive oak tree and shade ourselves on a hot summer day. Large things often have small beginnings.

            The Lord’s church follows this same pattern in so many ways. It first began relatively small with Peter and the other eleven (Acts 2:14) preaching the precious Gospel message to crowds from “every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5).  Further, while today the Lord’s church is indeed a worldwide organization it continues to have small beginnings in the lives of each and every individual that first comes in contact with the Gospel message. The Seed of God’s Word (Luke 8:11) first is planted into their heart and with some care, feeding, and watering  (1 Corinthians 3:5-10) it begins to gradually grow to a great plant, hopefully, one day producing beautiful fruit.

            Jesus said “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed” (Matthew 13:31). Jesus here (among other great lessons) calls our attention to how powerful a single small seed can be. Set your mind on how powerful seeds are. For example, have you ever thought of a small grain of corn planted in the earth pushing its way up to where that plant can get to available sunlight?  Likewise, Jesus is here, and in other combined passages, calling our attention to how His seed, the Word of God, has extreme power to change lives such as ours.

            That grand old oak will consume an estimated 50 gallons of water a day in order to attain the nutrients and minerals it needs to continue to live and grow. Friend, we as Christians often claim to want to grow but yet we never open God’s Word, the Bible.  Certainly you can thus understand the necessity of reading, studying, and learning even one verse of scripture, let alone a chapter or even an entire book of the Bible. What growth can you experience from just a small beginning?

Are You Ready?

By: Gary Stanton

            The word “ready” means “prepared mentally or physically for some experience or action…willingly disposed” or “immediately available” (Webster). There are some things that Christians are instructed to be ready to do; they are to be in a willing frame of mind, willingly disposed to them. Let us look at some of the things that Christians are to be ready to do.

            Christians must “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). In the face of difficult times Christians must maintain their hope, and by so doing, this might open up an opportunity to explain their hope. There are two ways that Christians do not live up to in this verse. First, because of a weak faith and lack of dedication, some people when faced with difficulties just simply give up; they lose their hope! Secondly, some do not know the “reason of the hope” that is in them. They are spiritually anemic. Christians need hope (Romans 8:24) and they need to know the reason of the hope that they have. Why do we have acappella singing? Why do we observe weekly the Lord’s Supper and that only on the first day of the week? Why do we place our hope in baptism for the purpose of remission of sins? Christians need to be able to answer these and other questions about their hope.

            Christians should be ready to die for Christ. Once, when Paul wanted to go to Jerusalem but some of his friends did not want him to because of the danger that awaited him there, Paul said, “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). Can we boldly and confidently make the same statement of readiness? Are we willing to die for Jesus’ sake? We are hardly ready to die for Christ if we are not willing to live for him! What Christian is willing to be put to death because they are not willing to put away worldly ideas and practices? For some, it is too much trouble to attend all worship and Bible study opportunities, to pray every day, to read and study God’s word, and to give a fair percentage of their income back to God. We are not ready to die for Christ until we are ready to live for Him!

            Christians must be ready for the Lord’s return. When Jesus returns it will mark the end of the earth and the universe and mark the beginning of judgment and eternity (2 Peter 3:10-12). The only way to face these events is to be ready when He comes. “Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).

Compromise

By: Kevin Rutherford

            The vast majority of the world would consider members of the church of Christ to be radical far right conservatives. This would be their judgment based upon our stand for strong moral values and our belief in the all-sufficiency of the Bible.

            We are seeing an increase in hatred for those who stand firm on the Scriptures. We are being painted as ignorant, uneducated, bigoted, and hateful. We should not be surprised. A similar war of propaganda was waged against the early church ultimately resulting in their persecution.

            The pressure of being placed upon conservative Christians is not just coming from atheists, humanists, secularists, socialists, and liberal minded people of influence. Pressure is also coming from religious people who do not have enough respect for the authority of the Scriptures.

            There are two approaches we can take in addressing this pressure. We can conform to the standards of those applying the pressure in hopes that they will accept us and stop hating us. This approach is ungodly and anti-biblical and yet it is the approach that too many of our brethren are taking. The second approach we can take is to do what God teaches in His Word and to remain faithful to His Word no matter what others may say or do. This is what we must do if we are to save our souls (1 Peter 4:11).

            What do you do when your faith is challenged? Do you give a loving, but firm, defense with meekness and godly fear, or do you collapse and compromise so that you don’t offend anyone (1 Peter 3:15)?

What Costs Me Nothing

By: Al Brown (deceased)

            After David had been told by God to build an altar and worship God on the threshing floor of Araunah, this Jebusite offered the king the threshing floor and everything necessary to worship God. David refused the offer with these words: “Nay, but I will verily buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto Jehovah my God which cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24).

            Would that all Christians had the attitude of David. Instead, they often show the very opposite disposition. David realized that an offering which cost him nothing was worth exactly that to him – nothing. God has always demanded the best that a person has – not what somebody else has (Leviticus 22:21).

            All we have has been given to us by God to use for His glory and in His service. We are but stewards of these things (1 Peter 4:10). The Lord expects us to be good stewards, but giving what comes without cost to us is not practicing faithful stewardship.

            The measure of our devotion, reverence, and love for God is in direct proportion to how much we are willing to commit to the service of God, or how much we are willing to sacrifice (cf. John 12:3ff). Those who take the easiest, cheapest way to serve God are, in reality, servants of self, not God.

            There is to be nothing cheap about our religion. It is to be the best we have – the same attitude that characterized David. “I will not offer…unto Jehovah my God [that] which cost me nothing.”