The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
February 13, 2005
In
This Issue:
God's
Word: Can You Put Up With It?
by
Steve Klein
Repent
or Perish
by
W. Bruce Tooley
"This
is a Faithful Saying"
by
Carrol Sutton
God's Word: Can You Put Up With It?
Have you ever had a boss, or a teacher or a parent who got under your skin by constantly pointing out your faults, correcting you, and demanding that you do better? If so, you may have found the situation very hard to put up with, especially if you were not personally motivated to perform well in your role as employee, student or child. Most of us have a hard time putting up with correction and criticism unless we have a deep desire to improve.
It takes a little courage and determination to continue to look into the mirror every morning and see the numerous aspects of our appearance that need attention. It would be easier to forego this morning ritual and just go about the day "as is" (From the looks of things, I think that this must actually be the approach that a few young people in our society are taking.) Even so, it takes some determination to continue looking into the word of God and allowing it to criticize and correct us. Like a mirror, the word of God reflects back to us images of our imperfections (James 1:23-25). It is critical of us and it demands improvement. But unless we want to improve, we won't put up with it for long -- we will either stop looking into it, or we will purposely put out of our minds the glaring faults it reveals.
In Hebrews 13:22 the inspired writer appeals to brethren to "bear with the word of exhortation." The phrase "bear with" is translated from a Greek word that means to "put up with&ldots;endure, forbear, suffer" (Strong's Dictionary).
Is there a Bible passage that causes you to cringe every time the preacher refers to it? Is there a verse that you don't like to think about because when you do it makes you feel guilty or uncomfortable? Are there parts of God's word that you have a hard time putting up with? If so, you have three choices: You can stop looking, you can choose to forget what you see, or you can decide that you want to improve yourself and become fit for the kingdom of heaven.
-- Steve Klein
God has made repentance part of two laws of pardon. It is the only cornmand that God requires of both the alien sinner and also of the Christian for the forgiveness of sins. We believe, confess Jesus, and are baptized only once. But as Christians, when we sin we must repent and pray for forgiveness. Repentance is probably the hardest command to obey. Too many times we either do not understand repentance or we do not see the need for repentance. Sometimes it might be weakness of the flesh or worldliness or just plain stubbornness that keeps us from repenting. As we study together let us look at God's word to see if we need to repent as God would have us to do.
Repentance is defined as "to have a change of mind or purpose." It is the mental act of changing one's rnind. It is starting to hate sin and turning to do good, no longer serving Satan but serving God. I believe it is best illus-trated by the story of the prodigal son (LK. 15: 11-32). He had taken his inheritance, squandered it on sinful living, and ended up in a pigpen before he realized his condition, and then changed his mind concerning his life. Too many times we, like the prodigal son, learn our lessons too late in life.
God, in His infinite wisdom, knows what is best for us. God can see the consequences of sins and the price we will have to pay for our evil actions. Today, the homosexual wishes he would have repented now that he suffers from AIDS. The thief sits in jail and wishes he would have repented of stealing. The adulterer carries the shame of a broken family and the respect that he has lost and sees that if he had repented he would still be with his wife and family. The alcoholic, with his diseased liver, looks back and wishes he had never started "social drinking." All of these are like the prodigal son - they learned their lessons too late. When God tells us not to do something to avoid certain sins, we will be much better off to heed God's warnings.
But, you might be thinking... "I am not a homosexual or a thief or an adulterer or a drunkard. Why would I need to repent?" Well, maybe you don't need to repent of these, but maybe you do need to repent of not serving God as He wants you to serve Him. It might be that all you need to do is render obedience in baptism. Whatever it is, you need to take care of it with repentance.
God said that if we do not repent we will perish (Luke 13:5). This is talking about spiritual death, which is eternal separation from God. All of us need to check our lives and see if we need to repent and then change our lives accordingly.
To sum up... "What is repentance?" It is a change of mind brought about by godly sorrow, which in turn produces a change in life; we stop living sinfully and we start living for God through obedience. A sinner who has never been saved must repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38). The back sliding Christian must repent and pray for forgiveness (Acts 8:22).
What about you? Have you truly REPENTED?
-- W. Bruce Tooley
We find the expression, "This is -a faithful saying" or its equivalent used by the apostle Paul several times in the New Testament Scriptures. Faithful sayings would be true sayings. Some sayings are not faithful. Let us consider some faithful sayings.
I. I TIM. 1:15 says: "THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING, AND WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTATION, THAT CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS..." We learn from a number of passages such as Luke 19:10; 5:32 and John 3:16-18 that Jesus came to save sinners. Although this is certainly a true saying, it is absolutely essential that sinners must obey Christ in order to be saved! (Read Mt. 7:21; Heb. 5:8-9; Rev. 22:14; James 2:24).
II. I TIM. 3:1 SAYS, 'THIS IS A TRUE SAYING, IF A MAN DESIRE THE OFFICE OF A BISHOP, HE DESIRETH A GOOD WORK." It is God's plan that there be a plurality of bishops (i.e., elders, shepherds, pastors) to feed and oversee along with deacons to be special servants in each local church. (Read Acts 14:23; 20:17; Phil. 1:1; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1-4; 1 Tim. 3:113; Titus 1:5-9).
III. I TIM. 4:8-10 says, "...THlS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING AND WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTATION. FOR THEREFORE WE BOTH LABOUR AND SUFFER REPROACH, BECAUSE WE- TRUST IN THE LIVING GOD,..." Indeed we should put God first in our lives and we do labour and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God (Read Mt. 6:33; Luke 9:23; 14:33; 1 Cor. 15:58; Titus 2:14; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Peter 4:13-16 & Mt. 5:11-12).
IV. II TIM. 2:11-13 says, "IT IS A FAITHFUL SAYING: FOR IF WE BE DEAD WITH HIM, WE SHALL ALSO LIVE WITH HIM: IF WE SUFFER WE SHALL ALSO REIGN WITH HIM: IF WE DENY HIM, HE ALSO WILL DENY US: IF WE BELIEVE NOT, YET HE ABIDETH FAITHFUL: HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF." We must die to sin and must not deny God by our actions. (See Rom. 6:1-18; Titus 1: 16). Christ abides faithful?
V. READ TITUS 3:5-8: "...THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING..." (Also read Eph. 2:8-9; Acts 10:35; Tit. 3:1). Accept these faithful sayings!
-- Carrol Sutton