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The Gospel Observer
"Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20, NASB).
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January 27, 2018
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Contents:
1) The Way of Man (Bill Crews)
2) Thank You, God, For Patience (John Thompson)
3) News & Notes
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The Way of Man
Bill Crews
One of the
fundamental principles which must be embraced by those who truly
believe in God, earnestly desire to honor Him as God, and ardently
long to spend eternity in heaven with Him, is found in Jeremiah
10:23. It reads: “O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in
himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”
In this verse from one of God’s prophets can be seen the divine
right and wisdom of God and the weaknesses and limitations of men.
God is the Creator, and man is the creature; God is the Maker, and
man is the made; God is the offended, and man is the offender; God
is the sinned against, and man the sinner. God has the divine right
to direct our religious and moral path; God also has the divine
wisdom essential to that great task. Man has neither.
How can we frail creatures know what is pleasing to Him who is “over
all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6), whose thoughts and
ways are above our thoughts and ways as the heavens are higher than
the earth (Isaiah 55:8-9)? How can we devise our own way of
salvation or provide our own way of redemption? We know not the way!
The fact is we cannot and must not even attempt it.
Proverbs 3:5-6 reads: “Trust in Jehovah with all your heart, and
lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is
a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
In the days of Isaiah God said to His people, Israel, “I have
stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk
in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts” (Isaiah
65:2).
Friend, are you directing your religious walk by what you think best
or by the instructions of God’s word?
By His divine wisdom God knows how you must live, and by His divine
right God has specified how you must live. It is yours and mine by
faith to follow.
-- Via The Roanridge Reader, January 6, 2019
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-2-
Thank You, God, For Patience
John Thompson
We have so much to thank our heavenly Father for, but patience?
Should we put patience on our list of things to be thankful for?
Should it be part of our daily prayers? In a recent sermon on
waiting on the Lord, patience was discussed at length. The
selflessness of patience and the selfishness of impatience were
often repeated themes in that lesson. The sermon was a very
important and much needed exhortation and, hopefully, it has already
produced positive results in your life.
But what is there about patience that makes it something to be
thankful for? Is it something like rain or sunshine? No, it is
probably something much more intangible than those things. Perhaps
we should consider it to be a blessing from the Father, a blessing
that benefits us immensely and without which we would find it
virtually impossible to be pleasing to our Maker. I would suggest
that we should thank God for creating this thing called patience
that is so intimately a part of all that goes into making a
faithful, fully committed, obedient Christian. Our thankfulness
should include the fact that we are created with an innate capacity
to learn what patience is all about, to appreciate its usefulness to
the Christian, and to grow in its application as we live from day to
day. We cannot endure without patience. We cannot persevere without
patience. We cannot be gentle and kind without patience. We cannot
trust without patience. We cannot love without patience. The bottom
line is that we simply cannot be pleasing to God without patience.
Take endurance, for instance. How in the world are we to get through
the darkness of difficult times to the light on the other side of
the darkness if we do not endure? Patience is what gets us through.
Patience enables us to remain calm; and when calm, we are able to
reason things through. Patience puts us into the proper frame of
mind consistent with prayer, with Bible reading and meditation, and
with remembering that God has promised better things. Here is what
Jesus wrote to some of the seven churches of Asia:
To the church at Ephesus: “I know you are enduring patiently and
bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary”
(Revelation 2:3).
To the church at Thyatira: “I know your works, your love and faith
and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed
the first” (Revelation 2:19).
To the church at Philadelphia: “Because you have kept my word about
patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is
coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth”
(Revelation 3:10).
Endurance is not consistent with some constantly happy-go-lucky,
stress free, all’s right with the world time. No, endurance implies
hard work, struggle, despair, temptation, persecution, and various
and sundry other plagues of life. Endurance is our victory over such
obstacles and patience is what carries us through. Some obstacles
are specifically mentioned in the scriptures. Paul told Timothy he
must patiently endure evil (2 Timothy 2:24), and he wrote to the
Corinthians commending them for patiently enduring the same
sufferings he experienced (2 Corinthians 1:6).
It seems, though, that we will more likely experience impatience
than patience unless we can train ourselves away from that deadly
attitude. Impatience is manifested in a variety of ways, such as: We
cannot wait; we cannot tolerate, put up with, sit through, submit,
or persevere. While impatient we may become irritable, agitated,
fidgety, mouthy, obnoxious, disruptive. Impatience is selfish in
that it places expectations upon others. If I expect you to cater to
my need to not have to wait, who benefits? Not you. You are the one
that my impatience is inconveniencing. My impatience benefits only
me, and that is the essence of selfishness, i.e. seeing to my
welfare at the expense of all others. When you get right down to it,
impatience is a failure of endurance and perseverance. Impatience
makes no provision for gentleness and kindness and destroys one’s
capacity for love. Remember 1 Corinthians 13:4? Love is patient and
kind.
But we can learn to be more patient. We must learn to be patient.
And we can grow our patience by sitting at the feet of Jesus, the
Master Teacher. Paul stated his desire for those Christians in
Thessalonica, “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of
God and into the patience of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5, NKJV). No
man has ever been calmer and more patient than the Christ Jesus as
he proceeded through his trials and crucifixion. “When he was
reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not
threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly”
(1 Peter 2:23).
Sometimes we sing “None of Self and All of Thee.” Our hymn
book leaves out the wording in verse 3 that is in bold type below:
“Day by day His tender mercy
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and ah! so patient
Brought me lower, while I whispered,
‘Less of self, and more of Thee!’"
We sing “O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee.” Perhaps the next time we
sing this song verses 3 and 4 will remind us of our responsibility
to learn of and grow in patience.
“Teach me Thy patience! still with Thee
In closer, dearer company,
In work that keeps faith sweet and strong,
In trust that triumphs over wrong.
In hope that sends a shining ray
Far down the future’s broad’ning way,
In peace that only Thou canst give,
With Thee, O Master, let me live.”
Thank you, God, for patience. And, thank you, Adam, for the sermon.
— Via the University Heights Messenger, January 2, 2019,
Volume 11, Number 1, Lexington, Kentucky
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“Blessed are You, O LORD; teach me Your statutes” (Psalm 119:12,
NASB).
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News & Notes
Folks to be praying for:
Jim Lively had another fall last Wednesday, but this one had
him in the emergency room for 10 stiches.
Others to remember in prayer: Pat Joyner, Myrna Jordan,
Anita Young, Shirley Davis, Melotine Davis, Doyle Rittenhouse,
Rick Cuthbertson, A.J. Joyner, Bennie & Deborah Medlock, James
Medlock, Mary Vandevander, Michelle Rittenhouse, John
Stoval, Everleigh and Hazel Greer, Marilyn Roberts, Danny
Hutcheson, Roger Montgomery, Mary Aldrich, Rex & Frankie
Hadley, and Tommy Lin
The Walnut Street church of Christ in Jesup will be having a gospel
meeting February 6-10 with Ryan Hasty (from Auburn, AL) as
their guest speaker. Wednesday through Friday: 7 p.m.
Saturday: 10:30 a.m. Sunday: 9 & 10 a.m. The church
meets at 567 East Walnut Street .
WordPress version for this bulletin:
https://thegospelobserver.wordpress.com/2019/01/27/the-gospel-observer-january-27-2019/
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The Steps That
Lead to Eternal Salvation
1) Hear the
gospel, for that is how faith
comes (Rom. 10:17; John 20:30-31).
2) Believe in the
deity of Christ (John 8:24; John
3:18).
3) Repent of sins
(Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith in
Christ (Rom. 10:9-10; Acts
8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water
for the remission of sins (Mark
16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom.
6:3-4; Gal. 3:26-27; 1 Pet. 3:21).
6) Continue in the faith, living
for the Lord; for, if not,
salvation can be lost (Heb.
10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet.
2:20-22).
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Tebeau Street
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1402 Tebeau Street, Waycross,
GA 31501
Sunday services: 9:00
a.m. (Bible class); 10 a.m. &
5 p.m. (worship)
Tuesday: 2 p.m.
(Ladies' Bible class)
Wednesday: 7 p.m.
(Bible class)
evangelist/editor: Tom
Edwards (912) 281-9917
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
http://thegospelobserver.wordpress.com (Gospel
Observer website with pictures in
WordPress)
http://thomastedwards.com/go
(Older version of Gospel Observer
website without pictures, but back
to March 1990)
http://tebeaustreetchurchofchrist.org/
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/audioser.html
(audio sermon