Posts from December 2017

Posts from December 2017

I Am Resolved

One of the things each new year brings to mind is our personal deficiencies, both real and perceived. We find ourselves making New Year’s resolutions in an attempt to correct things in our lives we find discouraging or distasteful. Some resolve to lose weight, others resolve to spend more time with family, kick their tobacco habit, exercise more, read more, or any number of other things we think would improve our lives or health. When kept, these resolutions have the…

Something Jesus Never Heard

When faithful Christians discuss the Bible with their loved ones, friends, co-workers, etc, they are often faced with the following response, “Well, that’s just your opinion.” In the entire record of Jesus’ ministry, we never see that response given to our Lord. Even when dealing with the devil, the devil never offered that lame excuse at Jesus’ feet. Consider also how the latter part of Jesus’ ministry was marked by controversy. That is, there seemed to be a continuous barrage…

Let Brotherly Love Continue

Last Lord’s Day was yet another banner day for the Burleson church family. We had a wonderful fellowship and gift exchange following the evening service. It is a great blessing to be part of a congregation that loves to spend time together in and out of the assembly! As you can see on the previous page, there are more opportunities coming! Today we will have an extended morning worship service similar to that we had last year. Primarily, we will…

The Need for Religious Authority

It was an organizational meeting for youth league baseball. Everyone referred to the effort as “Little League.” As the meeting progressed, several dads were proposing their own ideas as to how the league should be organized and the rules of play. After a lengthy discussion, one sage father said, ‘Fellas, you can do whatever you want, but if you don’t go by the handbook, you can’t call it Little League baseball.’ As I recollect from my hearing of this account,…

Teaching Our Children To Give the Best Gift of All, Tyler Young

“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:30). Here Paul quotes Jesus, when exhorting the elders of the church in Ephesus to remember we “must support the weak.” We do well to bring these words to mind in this season of giving and getting, especially in the midst of a generation that is more accustomed to the latter than the former. Most children today think of Christmas as a time to receive, as we lavish loads of…

Will There be Degrees of Reward and Punishment?: Part 3

On the opposite side of the equation, there is the matter of degrees of punishment. If anything, the Bible is even more decisive on this issue. Jesus informed the citizens of certain communities in Galilee that in the day of judgment, it would be “more tolerable” for certain people of the ancient world (e.g., Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom) than for them (Mt. 11:20-24; cf. 10:15). The word “tolerable” means “bearable, endurable.” In the Greek Testament the word represents a comparative…