“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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Contents:
1) Be Thou Faithful (Randy Harshbarger)
2) Reasons You Can Trust God (Kyle Pope)
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Be Thou Faithful
Randy Harshbarger
Revelation 2:10 says: “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” A new year is upon us. This is a time when many are making resolutions for 1993. How did you do with keeping last year’s resolutions? Did you accomplish everything you set out to do? A better question is: What were your goals for this past year and what will they be for the coming days? Will the Lord be included in your plans? Are you making preparations to grow spiritually? Are your dreams and aspirations concerned solely with “this life” and the things therein? Revelation 2:10 speaks to Christians who were being persecuted because of their faith in the Lord. In a very real way, being faithful unto death meant unto the point of death. Even if they were asked to lay their life on the line, they should do so willingly. Are we asked to serve the Lord to such an extreme degree? No, but what would be our reaction if that time came? Actually, you can determine your willingness to serve the Lord in difficult times by how you are serving the Lord now. When the times are favorable for spreading the gospel and worshipping the Father above, do you use every opportunity to put the Lord first? Why do you think that you would give up your life for the Lord, when you will not even put him first now. Jesus plainly says to put him first (Matt. 6:33). As the new year begins let us be concerned about “the good part” that cannot be taken away (Mk. 10:48).
There will be disappointments this year. Family trouble, a financial crisis, or even trouble on the job will surely come to some. Will we continue to faithfully do the Lord’s will in spite of these problems? Undoubtedly Jesus was disappointed when his followers turned away (Jn. 6:66-69). Paul experienced heartache as his once faithful co-workers turned away in his time of need. Christians are not immune from troubles (Job 14:1). Let us resolve not to let anything or anyone turn us away from the Lord.
Satan will be seeking to gain an advantage over us during this year. He seeks our spiritual destruction (1 Pet. 5:8). The Lord provides the way of escape; let us make sure we look for it and use it (1 Cor. 10:13).
We continue to be blessed beyond measure in the riches of this world. Are our possessions possessing us or do we possess them? “I have to work all the time.” “I have to make ends meet.” Is this really true? Is your soul worth all that you are working for? The things of this life have a way of choking out the true riches that should be in our hearts (Lk. 8:14). Are you working for a good retirement in this life or in the one to come (Lk. 12:15-21)? Faithful stewardship means that we willingly give back to the Lord what is his already (1 Cor. 4:2). The rich fall into a trap that is hard to get out of (1 Tim. 6:6-8).
Let our resolve this year be that our reward in heaven is the one goal we will work for. Let everything else be secondary. Put the Lord first. Seek heaven. When we do that, we have blessings now and in the world to come, eternal life!
— Via Guardian of Truth XXXV: 1, p.1, January 7, 1993, https://www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume37/GOT037001.html
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Psalm 118:24
“This is the day which the LORD has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
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Reasons You Can Trust God
Kyle Pope
If you are like many people in this world, it may be that the hardships of life, discouragements you have faced, mistreatment by others, or pain that you have experienced have brought you to a point that you find it difficult to put your trust in God. You may feel like He has let you down. You don’t feel like He cares about you. If so, you are not the first to feel this way, but let me offer you some good reasons that you can trust God.
1. He is the source of any joy or good thing in your life. In spite of any disappointments, pain, and suffering you have faced in life, at some point you have experienced good things, happy things, and pleasant things. God gave you those things. The Holy Spirit led James to write, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (Jas. 1:17, NKJV). Don’t let the pain make you forget the joys— however few you feel like they may have been.
2. He loves you as no one else ever has. A newborn baby isn’t fully aware of all of the hard work, long hours, sleepless nights, and endless effort that are a part of the love that parents show to their children, but it is there none-the-less. There is no one who has ever loved you like God has! He was loving you before you were ever born. God told Jeremiah, “Before you were in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you” (Jer. 1:5). He was with you in the cradle. He cared for you in ways you don’t even realize even when you faced hardships. In the moving messianic Psalm 22, which Jesus quotes in part from the cross, the Psalmist (and Jesus in anguish) cry out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1; cf. Matt. 27:46). Yet, the focus of the Psalm (and perhaps the focus of Jesus’s use of it) is the recognition that God was there all along — “He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him, He heard” (Ps. 22:24). The very death of Jesus was a demonstration of His love for you—a love that continues even now. He loves you more than a lover, a mate, a parent, a friend, or a sibling. You can trust One who loves you so much.
3. He has never forsaken you. You may have faced situations in which people you trusted betrayed you, hurt you, or let you down. God has never done that! The Hebrew writer quotes Jesus’s promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). Jesus promised His disciples, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). No one else has ever been as faithful to you. You may not have always recognized that He was with you, but don’t confuse what others may have done with what God has done.
4. He has never lied to you. Trust means that we have a confidence in the words or actions of the one in whom we have put our trust. When trust is lost it is because the one in whom we believed failed to honor something that was said or acted in a way that was contrary to our trust. God has never done that to you! The Holy Spirit tells us, “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18)—in fact God “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). No one else can say that. Any betrayals you may have felt were not done to you by God. He always keeps His word. You may not like what He says, but He will always tell you the truth.
5. He has never mistreated you. People are capable of horrible mistreatment of one another. You may have suffered such mistreatment. God is not indifferent to these things. He “is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps. 7:11) — “the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates” (Ps. 11:5). Freewill allows human beings opportunities for great good, but also great evil. Whatever others have done to you, God has never mistreated you. God asked the people through Micah, “what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me” (Micah 6:3). We can’t blame God for what others have done to us. A father is not guilty for the sins of his children (cf. Ezek. 18:20). God didn’t mistreat you. He has been with you seeking your good in spite of whatever you may have suffered. He may not have spared you from mistreatment, but He cared for you when you faced it.
6. He can sympathize with your struggles. You may wish that God had not allowed you to go through some of the dark times you have faced. Unfortunately, as Jesus said, “in this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33), but you can trust God through such things knowing that God in Christ has experienced dark times Himself. The Hebrew writer assures us that we have a High Priest who can “sympathize” with our struggles because He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Christ’s suffering keeps us from ever being able to say—“He doesn’t know what it’s like!” or “He doesn’t know how it feels!” We can trust One who has faced what we have faced.
7. He has been patient with you. The first time you doubted Him, or disobeyed Him, as your Creator He had the right to punish you at once for your defiance and rebellion, but He didn’t. The Psalmist rejoices because God, “has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Ps. 103:10). Every day you continue to live, God is giving you time to repent. Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). If God cared enough about you to be patient with you, you can trust that He has your best interests in mind.
8. He promises you hope of an eternity free of suffering. If you doubt God because of what you or others have suffered, consider what you are choosing if you reject Him. Rejection of God doesn’t take away what you have suffered. Instead it consigns you to nothing but suffering! The suffering of your life becomes the sum of your existence. The suffering you will face for rebellion against God will become your fate for eternity. On the other hand, you can trust the One who, in spite of all you may have faced, offers you the hope of a life with Him in which “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). One who has both the power and the desire to offer such things to you is beyond all question One whom you can trust!
— Via Faithful Sayings, Volume 24, Issue 52 (December 25, 2022)
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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 Jesus Christ, the Son of God (John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent of sins. For every accountable person has sinned (Romans 3:23; Romans 3:10), which causes one to be spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1) and separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2; Romans 6:23). Therefore, repentance of sin is necessary (Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30). For whether the sin seems great or small, there will still be the same penalty for either (Matt. 12:36-37; 2 Cor. 5:10) — and even for a lie (Rev. 21:8).
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; 1 Pet. 3:21). This is the final step that puts one into Christ (Gal. 3:26-27). For from that baptism, one is then raised as a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17), having all sins forgiven and beginning a new life as a Christian (Rom. 6:3-4). For the one being baptized does so “through faith in the working of God” (Col. 2:12). In other words, believing that God will keep His word and forgive after one submits to these necessary steps. And now as a Christian, we then need to…
6) Continue in the faith by living for the Lord; for, if not, salvation can be lost (Matt. 24:13; 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: 9 a.m. Bible Classes and 10 a.m. Worship Service. We also have a Congregational Song Service at 5 p.m. for every first Sunday of the month.
Wednesday: 7 p.m. Bible Classes
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (912) 281-9917
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
https://thomastedwards.com/go/all.htm/ (This is a link to the older version of the Gospel Observer website, but with bulletins going back to March 4, 1990.)