“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) For What Shall We Pray? (Doy Moyer)
2) Forgiveness and Forgetting (Frank Jamerson)
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For What Shall We Pray?
Doy Moyer
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, he contrasted godly prayer with the hypocritical prayers made by those who desired more to be seen and the prayers heaped up with empty phrases. The prayer offered by Jesus as an example is not complicated or verbose. There is a reverent simplicity showing us that God is not wanting a show with flowery language. “Pray then like this,” Jesus said:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt 6:9-13).
This was not meant to be a formula of mere words to be mindlessly repeated. Jesus shows us various categories that need our attention as we go before God. We ought to address God with great reverence and respect. We should pray for His kingdom, for His will to be done. We need to pray about our daily sustenance, for forgiveness, and aid in avoiding temptation.
We can turn to the Psalms and see ways in which we can express our thoughts, our praise, our troubles, and our confessions. We also see places where Paul, as an example, asks for prayers for himself as he faced the difficulties in spreading the gospel (Col 4:2-4; Eph 6:18-19). Yet we still sometimes wonder what we can be more specific about in our prayers. Following are more suggestions, though surely not exhaustive. Perhaps these can stir some thoughts that will encourage us to expand on specific matters for which we can pray. As we do this, think of this as a principle we can work with as well: Paul told the Philippians, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil 4:6). Whatever we can worry about, we can pray about.
Some specific areas for which we can be praying include:
1. The physical pain and struggles so many face, from sickness to injury and the unknown reasons. Physical difficulties are a part of this world. We can pray for each others’ well-being during times of physical ailment and trouble.
2. The mental and emotional traumas that so many suffer, perhaps even from childhood or other situations over which they had no control. We may not even be aware of what many go through. They may seem well enough on the outside, but inside hurting and crying for help.
3. The spiritual agony of those trying to find the way and of those who are on the edge of falling into sins that would take them down a dark path leading to regret and death. Some sit on the fence wondering if they will make it, perhaps afraid to say anything to anyone for fear of what others may think. We need to pray and be open to the sharing of such struggles so that we can help bear the load (Gal 6:1-2).
4. A culture that has contributed to moral confusion and loss of respect for reality and truth, manifested in, for example, a defense of taking the lives of the unborn or redefined views of gender, love, and marriage; a cultural in which evil is called good and good evil (Isa 5:20). The world is lost, sheep gone astray, and needing what the Lord offers. Pray for them.
5. Government and public leaders, including: 1) those who abuse power and contribute to fear and oppression over those who have no power; 2) those who are among the few who seek God’s help and try to represent with integrity and honor. Remember Paul’s admonition to Timothy to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim 2:2).
6. Churches that struggle with division; Elders who deal with difficult situations; preachers who cry to be heard and to encourage; Christians who feel betrayed and torn down; Christians who need basic encouragement to get through the week. We are all likely in here somewhere, and we need the encouragement of knowing that we are praying for one another.
7. Christians who just want to grow, heal, and contribute what they can to the Kingdom of God. They are looking for ways to serve and want to know they are useful in what they do.
8. Parents who have such deep concerns about their children growing up, how to handle the world, and how to maintain balance in the home. This is no small matter. Those who have already raised children and those who have no children can still pray for young parents who are in the midst of trying to raise their children up in the Lord.
9. Wives and husbands who work to keep their marriage what it ought to be; wives and husbands who aren’t loving one another well and struggle to keep things together; homes that can be beacons in a dark world and homes that have fallen to the world. All need prayer.
What would you add? For what are you praying? “Pray without ceasing.”
— Via Bulletin Articles from the Vestavia church of Christ, September 24 2025
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Forgiveness And Forgetting
Frank Jamerson
Many Christians have a problem with forgiveness and forgetting. They ask God’s forgiveness, but still feel that because of their remembering the sin, they may not have been forgiven. Sometimes, those who obey the Lord in baptism continue to remember their past sins and wonder whether God has truly forgiven them.
There is a difference between being forgiven and forgetting. Saul of Tarsus was forgiven of his sins when he was baptized “to wash away” his sins (Acts 22:16), but he remembered his past sins when he wrote Timothy (1 Tim. 1:13-15). In the Old Testament we read of David being forgiven, yet he remembered his past sins. Nathan said, “God hath put away thy sin” (2 Sam. 12:13), but years later David wrote about his past sins (Psa. 32:1-5). The apostle Peter was pricked in the heart by the crowing of a rooster (Lk. 22:61, 62), and obviously repented of his sin. His life afterward shows clearly that he was aware of God’s forgiveness, but no doubt the sound of a rooster crowing sent pains through his heart for a long time after that event.
The Bible records many sins that God had forgiven and did not hold against the forgiven party. Did God remember them? If not, how did He inspire the writers to write about them? Did God forgive the fornicator in Corinth, after he repented? In the second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul said, “Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many; so that contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow” (2 Cor. 2:6,7). This clearly implies that God had forgiven him, and that they were to do likewise, yet God “remembered” in the sense that he inspired Paul to write about it. There is a difference between forgiving and forgetting.
When a child of God commits sin and asks God’s forgiveness, how does he know that he has been forgiven? The same way that an alien sinner knows that God has forgiven him – by what God said! God said that if “we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). This does not mean that we forget that we committed the sin, but we can be assured that God treats us as though we had never committed it. He does not hold it against us.
Though Paul remembered the terrible persecutions that he had inflicted upon God’s people (1 Tim. 1:12-15), he could still “forget the things that are behind” (Phil. 3:13), in the sense that he did not allow them to hinder his faithfulness to Christ. There was no doubt in Paul’s mind whether God had forgiven him. Neither should there be any in our minds when we conform to the conditions God has revealed.
— Via Guardian of Truth XXVIII: 4, p. 117, February 16, 1984
https://www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume28/GOT028066.html
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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
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.)