General

The Church of Jesus is a living organism with many parts contributing to the whole body. 1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” This very truth makes church life a wonderful experience when we each find our place in God’s plan. The health and vitality of the whole body is dependent on the well being of each member. Likewise, the overall good health of the body will affect each member and empower them for greater service to the larger body.

Michael Sattler was an early Anabaptist martyr. He was born in Stauffen, Germany about 1490. Michael entered the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter’s near Freiberg, Germany where he probably became its prior. During the 1520’s, Michael left the monastery. This was probably due to theological differences and disgust over the depraved lives of the monks and priests.

Thanksgiving Day as known to North America is a harvest festival. As celebrated in the United States and Canada, it is traditionally a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude.

Truth is urgent. Urgency in passionately preaching the truth is urgent. Jesus urgently and passionately taught the will of His Father in Heaven though it cost His life. Paul urgently and passionately declared the whole counsel of God until he was pure from the blood of all men.

The apostle Paul recognized that he would soon leave this earthly life when he wrote to Timothy, “The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.” He clearly understood the importance of the printed word in providing for the needs of the church both present and future. The parchments would continue to speak to church generations long after the hand that scribed them had been stilled in death.

In the above verse that serves as the title, God is addressing Job. His question, along with more than three score like it, includes speaking of the Behemoth, a herbivore with a tail like a cedar. He also mentions a sea creature, the great Leviathan. These all reveal with crystal clarity how little Job understood after all. Job wisely responded, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth” (Job 40:4). With Job, we recognize that it is impossible from our vantage point to understand the omniscience of God.

Romans 12 is one of the many rich passages of Scripture recorded in God’s Word. This chapter begins with the practical outworking of the great plan of salvation and ends with chapter 16. This chapter presents one of the finest summaries of Christian duties found in the Scriptures. In this chapter we want to notice the expressions of love that are listed there and allow our lives to be challenged in our everyday life.

“In the beginning, God created”— these five words form the premise of the entire scriptural narrative. They explain foundational truths that we hold as self-evident and infallible.

Because gas is cheap and we are rich, we are able to pursue many possibilities in life. These possibilities open the gates for hobbies, special interests or just plain indulgence of legitimate functions such as work.

But not all of us are content to only pursue a closed-in world of a hobby like model shipbuilding or reading poetry. We look for something that is broader; something that involves other people. We want to socialize with our spare time.

All of us are faced with the challenge of living out the Christian life. Probably all of us have seen at some point people whose lives did not match up with how they talked. And likely all of us have come to a realization that in our own lives, we have not always been consistent in how our lives match our talk. The Bible has much to say about how we should walk. For an interesting study, look up the word walk and notice what God has to say about how we should live our lives.