The Gospel Spotlight

(Electronic Edition)

(Romans 1:16)

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation . . . .”

JuLy, 2002 Vol. 1 - No. 5

 

The Gospel Spotlight is a

publication of the Sixty Fifth St. church of Christ

7115 West Sixty Fifth St.

P.O. Box 19062

Little Rock AR 72219-1062

 

Editor and Evangelist

Don McClain - donmccla@msn.com

Contents

Dangerous Thinking - Don McClain –

Bitterness - Walter N. Henderson in Reminders

The Joys of Worship - From the Gospel Light

Tater People

What Makes A Pattern In Christianity?

A Hypocrite  ----Taken from The 20th Century Christian

Do You Grumble? - By Louis J. Sharp

 

Dangerous Thinking

Don McClain –

(Original article and idea attributed to Reeder Oldham originally appeared in “The Friendly Visitor,” which I attained from the ancient files of Jim Sasser.)

In Proverbs 23:7 Solomon said, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Again he said, "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life," (Proverbs 4:23).  Jesus also had much to say about thinking, as in Matthew 12:34, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Thinking controls our character, practice, and relationships, including, our relationship with God.  Thinking is the determining factor in who and what we are.

Our thinking then MUST be right. We MUST allow God to control our thinking!  Why?  Thinking for ourselves, to the exclusion of the things He has revealed, is spiritual suicide, (Jeremiah 10:23; Isaiah 55:8,9).  We cannot know the character of God nor how to approach, please, serve, or worship Him except through His revealed will.  For example, many have devised a god of their own imagination and therefore think wrongly of God.  - Many see Him ONLY as a God of love and mercy. However, (although the Bible certainly teaches that He is a God of love and mercy), it also teaches us that He is a God of justice, righteousness, wrath and truth.  We must not forget that "Our God is a consuming fire." God will finally take vengeance on them that do not obey Him, (Hebrews 12:29).

Many think wrongly about conscience when they depend on it as a guide.  Conscience is rather a judge of conduct. If we have been taught that a thing is wrong and do it, our conscience condemns us, but if we do what we believe to be right, our conscience approves.  Our conscience reacts in accordance with our belief system.  If we have been taught wrong, and therefore accepted false teaching as our standard, our conscience will not condemn us for practicing that which is wrong, (Acts 23:1; 26:8-11)!  Why?  Because we believe it to be right!  Our thinking a thing is right does NOT make the thing right.  We MUST depend upon what the Bible says to guide us.

Many think that emotion provides one with assurance of their deeds being right or wrong.  Actually what they have done is thrown thinking out the window almost altogether - "don't confuse them with the facts, they know how they feel." When emotion becomes the standard instead of the word of God, people refuse to examine the scripture. They lose all desire to think based upon revelation.  Consider that the plan of salvation is revealed clearly in the New Testament but is discarded by so many who claim to believe the New Testament.  - They "FEEL" saved, and that is enough for them!  - You can't convince them with a stack of Bibles ten feet high that they are not.  Such will only be convinced when they here the words, "Depart from me I never knew you, ye workers of lawlessness."

Emotion is used in an attempt to justify sins such as adultery, fornication, social drinking, forsaking the assembly, the refusal to discipline, etc.  Truth is never established by how we FEEL about a thing, (Proverbs 14:12), but rather by "what sayeth the Lord." Feelings do not determine truth!  Feelings must be the product of right thinking, which is founded upon the solid rock of revealed truth.

Many people think wrongly about how to come to God.  They have some traditional ideas in regard to the matter that are not found in the Bible.  Prayer alone, or faith alone, or faith and prayer, they think, are all that matters.  This is not what the Lord has said.  He enjoins faith, repentance and prayer for Christians, but not for the alien sinner. The Lord most certainly requires faith, but the faith that saves is an obedient working faith!  The Lord said, -"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." (Mark 16:16).  Peter told those who had rejected Christ and put Him to death that they MUST "repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins," (Acts 2:38).  Baptism, when submitted to in faith and repentance, places one INTO Christ, (Romans 6:3,4; Galatians 3:26,27; 1 Corinthians 12:13), where all spiritual blessings are, (Ephesians 1:3).  The Lord demands obedience to His gospel, (Luke 6:46). Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 1:7,8 that the Lord is coming to take vengeance on them that "know not God and obey not the gospel."

Thinking bitter thoughts, planning vengeance, and building up hatred, is dangerous. Such thinking destroys all the finer impulses of our being, eating as a canker into our moral and spiritual being.  We need to replace them with thoughts of pity, love, and sorrow, and focus our concerns on our brother who may have mistreated us that we may bring him to repentance and thus back to the Lord.  This is how love covers a multitude of sins, (James 5:20; 1 Peter 4:8).  Therefore think about the well being of others- (Philippians.  2:2-5)

Thinking consumed with anxiety is dangerous! Dwelling on things over which we have no control has hindered many Christians from reaching their potential.  It is like a chain fastened to our ankle - It holds us back!  (Matthew 25:25).  What could we be if we replaced our fears with faith?  We need to think more on the promises of God and believe them, (2 Timothy 1:12), instead of dwelling on and worrying about the pitfalls, threats and dangers of the world, (Matthew 6:25-34).

False pride and vainglory are also dangerous thoughts to allow into our hearts.  Jesus deals with the thoughts of the Jewish leaders in Matthew 6:1-18.  Their egos destroyed their service and worship!  You may do all the right things outwardly, but if your ego prompts you to be more concerned with what other men think of you than upon serving and pleasing God, you have your reward, (6:2,5,16).  To think to highly of ones self is dangerous thinking, (Romans 12:3). Pride will also lead us to think upon selfish desires, thinking in terms of, "What pleases me," rather than, "What pleases God." Our thoughts will turn to the world with its vain promises of 'satisfaction,' which it can't deliver.  Our thoughts should be more like those of Moses, who "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward." (Hebrews 11:24-26).

It is dangerous to think about things that God has forbidden! We should "Set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:2). Worldly and sinful thoughts are apt to sprout into worldly and sinful behavior, but even if they never materialize into action, Jesus teaches that one who carries out sin in thought has already sinned in his heart, (Matthew 5:28). Sinful things should NEVER be allowed into our minds, (Job 31:1) . . . (such as pornography, filthy speech, unlawful relationships or activities, etc.). An inordinate love affair with the world, (even things in and of themselves innocent) destroys ones relationship with God.  (Matthew 6:19-23; 13:22; James 4:4).

God, through Paul, warns us of the danger of thinking we cannot fall, (1 Corinthians 10:12).  Therefore, we need to be ever alert, giving all diligence to spiritual growth, (2 Peter 1:5-10). I had a discussion with a lady and her husband this past Thursday concerning the false doctrine “Once Saved Always Saved.” They believed the doctrine to be true so I tried to encourage them to study the matter. I ask them to read Galatians 5:4 and Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 at which point they decided to end the discussion. Sad isn’t it? What are the consequences of such a destructive doctrine? People live it! They do not walk circumspectly, (Ephesians 5:15), but too often fulfill the lust of their flesh . . . and “Why Not?” We must think about the dangers that are around us or we will be deceived and destroyed by them!

On the other hand, thinking defeatism and fear is dangerous.  The Christian has nothing to fear, (Romans 8:28-39), if he through faith applies the armor of God, sin can and will be defeated, (1 Corinthians 10:13; Ephesians 6:10-18).  Paul has said that we can do all things that we need to do through Christ who strengthens us, (Philippians 4:13).

Conclusion:

Peter exhorts us to gird up the loins of our mind, (1 Peter 1:13), or in other words, discipline, control and focus our thoughts upon the things of eternal consequence.  Paul speaks of the mind as being the key in our resistance to the world so that we are not conformed into its image, (Romans 12:1,2).  We must be transformed, as he says, by the renewing of our mind, i.e., allowing God's revealed will to be the focus and guide of both thought and deed thus becoming the person that God wants us to be.

As Christians we are told to think on "whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things." (Philippians 4:8), but many instead are engaged in "Dangerous Thinking!" - "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." (Galatians 6:3).  It then is NOT important that we merely think, but that we think rightly!  Are you willing to lay down your pride, deny yourself, (Matthew 16:24), and allow God to teach you what to think?

 

 

Bitterness 

Walter N.  Henderson

Perhaps, the aftermath of a church fuss brings no greater evil than the bitterness in the hearts of some of those involved. Often times it matters not whether a brother was contending for the right or the wrong, he lets Satan fill his heart with bitterness against his foes. As long as this condition exists reconciliation is impossible.

Bitterness is a cancer of the soul, which eats away all that is high and holy. Paul admonished the Ephesians: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Eph. 4:31,32).

When one has been deeply hurt, if he broods over it long, he is apt to become embittered. Some times his bitterness extends beyond the one who injured him, to society as a whole. This is a worse sin than the injury he received. Therefore, Paul said, "Let ALL bitterness...be put away from you."

Bitterness is one of the hazards which we have to guard against while engaging in a hard battle for the truth. Especially is this true when the struggle is within the church. As long as brethren bring in their innovations, or insist on living in sin, these battles have to be fought. But when we are slandered, persecuted, and mistreated because we stood for that which is right, we must not allow ourselves to become bitter against anyone. Bitterness is so deceitful it is often mistaken by its victim for zeal for the truth. It has a way of making its victim think he is contending for the faith, when in actuality he is slandering his brother for whom Christ died. Just mention his opponent's name, and the one possessed with bitterness will spray you with a deluge of verbal venom.

Bitterness will cause one to lie; (Rom.  3:13,14); it will even cause one to lie against the truth according to Jas.  3:14. Why? Because the one possessed with bitterness cannot see the truth in all of its beauty for he looks at it through jaundiced eyes.

Many great men, preachers of power, and faithful saints of God have been destroyed because they let Satan fill thier hearts with bitterness, and they refused to put it away as the Scripture instructed them to do.  Asa, a great king, let bitterness mar an almost perfect life.  (2 Chron.  16:12). Don't let this happen to you; I must guard against it too.

Bitterness can be put away.  God doesn't require the impossible of His children. Jesus said: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." (Matt.  5:44).

The man who does this will put away all bitterness, for it cannot live in a heart that is filled with love.  ------Walter N.  Henderson in Reminders.

 

The Joys of Worship

David said, "Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psa.  16:11).

Somewhere some of us have gotten the idea that worship is not a thing to be enjoyed; but an act to be performed solely through the sense of duty, and the fear of judgment; hence, a grievous burden.  Some feel that if they worship Sunday morning, they have done all the Lord expects of them and they can get to heaven on it.  But, others are searching for a deeper spiritual life, a greater love for God, and they enjoy worshipping Him at every opportunity.  What a joy it is for them to sing the hymns of Zion, to boy in humble prayer to God; and to feast upon the bread of life Sunday night and Wednesday night, as well as Sunday morning.

If one does not develop the proper attitude toward spiritual and heavenly things, while living in the church, he will be unfit for those things in eternity.

Yes, in the presence of God there is Joy!  Worship is drawing near to God, hence it is a joyful thing.  At His right hand there are pleasures.  And the Lord has promised to be with us when we are gathered together in His name.  This is not to say that worship is amusing or entertaining, but there is pleasure and joy in it for him who has set his love on heavenly things in which you find pleasure.  ----From the Gospel Light.

Tater People

Some people never seem motivated to participate, but are just content to watch while others do the work.  - They are called Spectators.

Some people never do anything to help, but are gifted at finding fault with the way others do the work.  They are called Commentators.

Some people are very bossy and like to tell others what to do, but don't want to soil their own hands.  They are called Dictators.

Some people are always looking to cause problems.  It is too hot or too cold, too sour or too sweet.  They are called Agitators.

There are those who say they will help, but just never get around to actually doing the promised help.  They are called Hesitators.

Some people can put up a front and pretend to be someone they are not.  They are called imitators.

Then there are those who love others and are always prepared to stop and lend a helping hand.  They bring real sunshine into the lives of others.  They are called Sweet Taters.

What Makes A Pattern In Christianity?

The sum total of what God has said about anything becomes the pattern for it. Examine the following statements.  Are they true or false?

1.  All that god has said about the plan of salvation is a pattern for salvation to every person.

2.  All that God has said about the New Testament church is a pattern by which it is identified.

3.  All that God has said about becoming a member of the Lord's church is a pattern for everyone.

4.  All that God has said about the acts of worship is a pattern.

5.  All that God has said about the day to observe the Lord's Supper is a pattern for Christians.

6.  All that God has said about the church and the support of preaching is a pattern to observe.

7.  All that God has said about the church and helping the needy is a pattern for Christians today.

8.  All that God has said about following Christ in Spirit, etc., is a pattern for us.

I count it safe to follow the information we have in the Bible.  I commend what it says to everyone.  James said, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offenc in one point, he is guilty of all." (Jas.  2:10). 

-------B.G.  Hope

 

Debates Do More Harm Than Good

"Debates do more harm than good."  That's what we hear on every hand. People in the church say it.  But is it true?  Well, yes in a certain sense it is.

Debates DO HARM to false teaching.  A false doctrine may thrive and grow alone but under the glaring light of truth it will wither away.  No wonder false teachers soon decide that they don't believe in debating.  Their doctrine can't take it.

Debates DO HARM to indifferent, compromising church members.  Debates make them feel uncomfortable with their relatives, friends and neighbors who are in error.

They must either stand up for truth or sink further back into spiritual stupor.  No wonder weak unconverted church members are always the first to oppose debating.

Debates DO HARM to lazy preachers.  If a man knows that he must be ready to defend what he preaches on the polemic platform, then he will study more to make sure he is right.  The preacher who has never prepared for a public debate doesn't know what real study is.  I can easily see why many preachers say that debates do harm.  They are afraid someone will challenge them, and they are not willing to accept.

Debates DO HARM to one's popularity.  The quickest way to become unpopular with the masses (even with many in the church) is to debate.  It is not popular anymore to have convictions and stand up for them.

Some may say, "But I do know of debates that have done harm.  Why, some of the people got mad, and the debaters got mad too.  They attacked each other rather then the issue."  This, my friend, is not debating, at least, not honorable debating.

"Well, since some are like this, I don't think any debate is good."  Some sermons are bad.  The preacher gets mad, and some of those who hear get angry also.

Should we do away with sermons because of that?  Those who debated Stephen became so angry that they stoned him to death, (Acts 7), but this did not stop other disciples from preaching and debating.

Debates DO GOOD.  Down through the years many have been turned from darkness to light, from error to truth, through debates.  False teachers know this -- even those in the church.  That is why it is almost impossible to get them to debate.

Truth has no fear of open, fair examination.  It will shine forth more brightly under the searching light of honorable controversy.  Those who love truth and seek after it, welcome discussion -- either private or public --of what they believe.  If there is any error, any inconsistency, in what they believe, teach and practice, they want to know it.  Debates will bring it to the surface.  Every honest person will skim off the error and cleave to the pure truth.  --------Jimmy Thomas

A Hypocrite  ----Taken from The 20th Century Christian

A hypocrite is neither what he seems, nor does he seem what he is.

He is condemned by the world for seeming to be a Christian and by the Lord for not being one.  On earth he is outwardly the picture of a saint -- a wolf in sheep's clothing, but in eternity, stripped of his ill appropriated apparel, he will appear at the judgment in his true colors and in his hideous deformity.  "Neither is there any creature tht is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." (Heb.  4:13). 

----Taken from The 20th Century Christian.

 

  Do You Grumble?

By Louis J. Sharp

Regardless of the many times Christians are admonished to be content, most of us are prone to complain and grumble about our circumstances in life.  In Hebrews 13:5, we are told to "be content with such things as ye have." The apostle Paul had learned a lesson we need to learn: "for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Philippians 4:11) Our blessed Lord taught us, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33) Yet, we grumble. Like Israel of old, many have not learned to put their faith and trust in God.

Writing in First Corinthians 10:9-10, Paul warned us of the murmuring of Israel: "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer." This seemingly is a difficult lesson to learn, although easily understood. Israel was well-known for the sin of murmuring.  It condemned an entire generation.  Let us consider the following:

Grumbling never did help anyone. 

If you say, "It made me feel better." Did it? Did it really help?  Usually, it only serves to amplify the problem.

Grumbling never eased a pain. 

The pain remained as it was.  Again, your grumpy disposition most likely increased the pain.  It only helped to make bad matters worse.

Grumbling never solved a problem. 

After all the worked-up emotions subsided, the problem remained.  It takes "cool heads" to solve problems, not a mind contorted with rage.  After all the hatefulness, the problem had not gone away. Grumbling never caused the weather to change.  Bill Rumker told me a story of a Christian who was being ridiculed by an atheist.  In the hot summer-time, the atheist said, "Why don't you ask your God to send us cooler weather?" The Christian said, "I will think about that." When they later met, the Christian told the atheist, "I talked with God about the cooler weather, and He said He would send it in three or four months." As the old adage goes, "Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it."

Grumbling never did improve a relationship. 

But it has destroyed many a pleasant association. Will we never learn? Grumbling doesn't settle matters! Grumbling never did make food taste any better. How many long-suffering housewives wish that their husbands would learn this lesson. After she has labored long in food preparation, to have a husband come in and set at the table, complaining about her efforts.  In some families, the role may be reversed, but it works both ways.  Express appreciation for the labor of love done by your wife or husband.

Grumbling never did make a poor man richer. 

As Paul said, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." This does not take away initiative, or striving to change one's state, but it does tell us to graciously accept and endure the state we are in.  After all, grumbling will not change it. Really, we need to see the other side of our affairs. We have so many things for which to be thankful. Let us learn to be gracious and express our gratitude for all the good things we enjoy day by day.

Are you are grumbler? How about giving up an unwholesome practice?

Louis J.  Sharp

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