1) Eating the Flesh, Drinking the Blood (Clarence Johnson)
2) God\u2019s Rules Should Become Our Habits (Gary Henry)
3) Rescue the Perishing (Heath Rogers)
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Eating the Flesh, Drinking the Blood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Clarence Johnson -2-<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discover how the quiet power of daily habits can turn God\u2019s commands from occasional efforts into the steady pattern that shapes a holy life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gary Henry -3-<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heath Rogers<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.\u201d 1) Hear <\/strong>the gospel — for that is how faith comes (Rom. 10:17; John 20:30-31). Tebeau Street “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).——————– Contents: 1) Eating the Flesh, Drinking the Blood (Clarence Johnson)2) God\u2019s Rules Should Become Our Habits (Gary Henry)3) Rescue the Perishing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3514"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3519,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3514\/revisions\/3519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Jesus said to the Jews in Capernaum, \u201c\u2026\u2018I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.\u2019 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, \u2018How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?\u2019 Then Jesus said to them, \u2018Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven–not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.\u2019 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum\u201d (John 6:47-59).\u201d
The Jews had been impressed by the miracle of the manna in the wilderness. Jesus reminded them that those who ate of the manna for 40 years had died. In spite of eating that physical bread which came from God, they had died. In fact, many of them had died, alienated from God by their sins. They had needed more than physical blessings from God. They also needed to maintain a spiritual relationship with Him.
Though Jesus inhabited a physical body descended from David, His spirit had been with the Father eternally, John 1:1-3, 14. He had literally come down from heaven. He had come in order that those who would choose to come to Him, might have quality life forever.
As the ancient Israelites had eaten the manna from heaven, people could now \u201ceat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood\u201d and live perpetually. Even for us today, this is sometimes a difficult concept. We, of course, do not literally eat His flesh or literally drink His blood. When we observe the Lord\u2019s supper, we partake of unleavened bread and \u201cfruit of the vine\u201d which are symbols of His body and His blood. But the Lord\u2019s supper was not really in view in this passage from John 6. That supper was not yet instituted, and there is no way His listeners could have understood such a concept.
Rather Jesus was talking about spiritually appropriating His life and His teaching into our minds and into our actions so that He has, in a very real sense, become a part of our own being. As Paul later said, \u201cChrist will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ\u2026\u201d (Philippians 1:20-21). In Colossians 3:4, he refers to \u201cChrist, who is our life.\u201d
For those who come to Him for the forgiveness of their sins, Jesus, the bread of life is more real than any physical loaf could ever be; and the blessings He brings are not temporary, but permanent.
— Via the Weekly Bulletin<\/em> of the Prattmont church of Christ, May 25, 2025
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nGod\u2019s Rules Should Become Our Habits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn imitation of the holy One who has called you \u2014 you also must be holy in all your habits of life\u201d (1 Peter 1:15 Weymouth).
Often disparaged, habit is more valuable than we make it out to be. If habit is a pattern of behavior that has become typical within a person\u2019s life, shouldn\u2019t we want obedience to God to become such? When doing what is right has become an established norm, rather than something unusual, isn\u2019t that a good thing?
To keep us within beneficial boundaries, God has given us some rules for our behavior. At the beginning of our lives in Christ, we may find some of these rules unpleasant to obey, but eventually it gets easier. As God\u2019s rules become our habits, staying within His boundaries begins to be characteristic of our conduct: obedience becomes the norm rather than the exception in our lives.
Godly habits are powerful helpers in our daily walk. When the king outlawed prayer, think how much Daniel\u2019s habits helped him to do what was right: \u201che knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days\u201d (Daniel 6:10). When obedience becomes dangerous, we desperately need the \u201cmomentum\u201d imparted by habits<\/em> of obedience, traits established long before the situation became an emergency.
Of course, sinful habits have their own momentum, and that\u2019s one reason we should break those habits as quickly as possible. If doing certain wrong things has become \u201cnatural\u201d to us, we need to get back to where they are un<\/em>-natural and un<\/em>-characteristic of us.
As we all know, forming a habit requires repetition. If it\u2019s a good habit, it will take practice and patient training: repeatedly urging ourselves to do things that are hard until they finally become easy.<\/em> As Hyman G. Rickover observed, \u201cGood ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.\u201d
Ultimately, it is our habits that determine our character. We all occasionally act in ways that are inconsistent with our character, but it is our habits \u2014 our typical behaviors \u2014 that define that character. Rules have their place, both God\u2019s rules and our own, but until a rule becomes a habit, the results are going to be minimal. However, when God\u2019s rules become our habits, powerful things begin to happen.
\u201cHabits are safer than rules; you don\u2019t have to watch them, and you don\u2019t have to keep them either \u2014 they keep you\u201d (Avery Johnson).
— Via Ecclesiastes Workshop,<\/em> March 11, 2026
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nRescue the Perishing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We sing this old hymn from time to time. Do we understand what it means? Do we understand what it is calling on us to accomplish? The urgency we are to show in saving those around us who are lost? We know the facts, but sometimes we aren\u2019t acting like anyone needs to be rescued.
Jude tells us, \u201cand some save, snatching them out of the fire\u2026\u201d<\/em> (Jude 23, ASV). If any of us passed by a house that was on fire, and we knew someone was trapped inside that we could save, I believe we would do everything within our power to rescue them. Yet our friends and neighbors are headed for an eternal fire and we put forth little if any effort to rescue them from this fate. Those around us who are outside of Christ are in danger. The only thing keeping them out of Hell is God\u2019s patience (2 Pet. 3:9). We must rescue them before time runs out. We must snatch them out of the fire. The power to save is not ours, but the responsibility certainly is. We must throw out the life-line.
When Jesus walked among us, He saw us as being sick with sin (Matt. 9:12). He saw us as lost and in need of a shepherd and a savior (Matt. 9:36; Luke 19:10). He knew what Heaven is like and He knew what Hell is like. His love for us caused Him to do what He could to \u201crescue the perishing.\u201d
Do we look on others the same way Jesus did? Do we have the same love for their souls? Does it bother you when someone who is lost dies? Does it bother you knowing they were not rescued from the fire? Think about it. Act on it.
Our hymn ends with this verse: \u201cRescue the perishing, duty demands it, strength for thy labor the Lord will provide: Back to the narrow way, patiently win them; tell the poor wand\u2019rer a Savior has died. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying; Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.\u201d
– Via the weekly bulletin of the Knollwood church of Christ, July 2026
______________<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2) Believe <\/strong>in the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent<\/strong> 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 <\/strong>in Christ (Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized <\/strong>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 \u201cthrough faith in the working of God\u201d (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\u2026
6) Continue in the faith <\/strong>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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CHURCH OF CHRIST
1402 Tebeau Street, Waycross, GA 31501
Sunday:<\/strong> 9 a.m<\/strong>. Bible Classes (except for last of the month Song Service)
and 10 a.m. <\/strong>Worship Service
Wednesday:<\/strong> 7 p.m.<\/strong> Bible Classes
evangelist\/editor: <\/strong>Tom Edwards (912) 281-9917
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com<\/a>
https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/go\/all.htm<\/a> (This is a link to the older version of the Gospel Observer website, but with bulletins going back to March 4, 1990.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"