“Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you’”(John 1:47).

I love this little story. On sight Jesus knows Nathanael, and knows him thoroughly. He knows there is no deceit in him—a description that Nathanael finds so fitting that he immediately asks Jesus how he knows this! Then Jesus astounds him further, saying that he saw him in a moment when he thought he was all alone.

My first impulse is to wonder how Jesus would describe me if he said just one sentence like this to me. Sadly, I don’t think “in whom there is no deceit” would fit me. But what would? How does Jesus think of me?

This passage reminds me of the tremendous biblical truth that God sees right through me. He is not influenced by my facades. He is not impressed with my bluster. He is not fooled by my tendency to blame others for my bad choices. He knows me inside and out. But it also reminds me that that’s not entirely bad! He also sees the good in me—the earnest desire to do right, to really obey, to be sincere, to treat others right. He sees when I try to make right what I’ve done wrong, as much as I can. He sees when I intend things to go well and they don’t. Like Nathanael, he sees things in me that bring him pleasure.

The Hebrew writer tells us, “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account”(Heb 4:13). He sees right through us.

David praises God because “you know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether”(Psa 139:2-4). He knows me completely.

Yet in spite of all God knows about me, he still wants me. He still loves me, and calls to me. He grieves when I spurn him, and rejoices when I come home to him. What a God!
Jacob Hudgins

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain” (1Corinthians 15:10)

The apostle Paul was one who made a difference in the history of the church. As we call to our memory his life as Saul of Tarsus, we see a man who was very zealous. A devout, learned man of the scriptures, who persecuted the early church because of his love for God. In the book of Acts it is recorded “And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul…And Saul was consenting unto his death,” (Acts 7:58 – 8:1).

The Lord must have seen something special in this young man as he came unto Saul while traveling on his way to Damascus with letters in hand to continue his persecution of the church. The vision that Saul encountered that day changed his life forever. Saul obeyed the direction of both the Lord and the disciple of the Lord Ananias, and was baptized in Damascus. In directing Ananias to seek out Saul the Lord told him “for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:10-16). What a turn of events.

Now known as Paul, that same desire to please the Lord was being used for good. Paul did suffer many great things for the Lord’s name but yet never seemed to complain. Paul actually wrote in 2Cor 4:17, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Light affliction? Paul suffered much and that is illustrated in his own words for us in 11th chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians. Later Paul wrote to the Philippians “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Php 4:11).

For me, some of Paul’s most inspirational words are found in 1Cor 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” It is the by grace of God that each of us have hope. Paul selfproclaimed as the chief sinner was able to see what a gift God’s grace is. It is too precious a gift to let go in vain. As God bestows his grace upon us let it not be in vain. We are all sinners and are in need of this precious gift. Let us follow Paul’s example and labor abundantly to bring glory to God!
Lenny Chapman

Elijah was a man who reached true greatness in the Lord service. He was always ready to go where God would send him (I Kings 18:1; 19:15); to pray whenever prayer was needed (I Kings 17:20, 21; 18:36, 37), and to confront evil whenever confrontation was necessary (I Kings 18:17-24; 21:17-19). He was translated without seeing death, and he, along with Moses, was chosen to appear with the Lord on the mount of transfiguration.

The remarkable thing about Elijah is that he attained this greatness while living in a wicked and hostile environment. Had he lived in Judah during the righteous reign of Hezekiah or Josiah, we might not be surprised at Elijah’s attainments. But he lived instead in Israel during the wicked reign of Ahab. He was subjected to the cruel intents of Jezebel. He was under constant harassment and threat of death. He became so discouraged at one point that he asked to die, but he never denied his God.

In this wicked environment Elijah was able to influence others. The widow of Zarephath was blessed through Elijah (I Kings 17:8-24). The multitudes on Mount Carmel were led to cry. “The Lord, He is God!” through his courageous efforts (I Kings 18:39). Elisha, his successor, must have been greatly influenced by him. And even Ahab was brought to humility on one occasion, clothing himself in sackcloth as a result of Elijah’s rebuke (I Kings 21:27-29). The message of Elijah is clear. You can live a godly life and influence others for good in a wicked and hostile environment.

When one hears the excuses people make today, it is obvious that Elijah’s message is badly needed in this generation. People excuse their failure to teach others the gospel with, “People are so prejudiced around here they just won’t listen”; when the truth is, little effort has been made. If they are approached about their ungodly conduct, they explain that “You just don’t know how terrible the people are that I have to work around every day”. If their children go astray their explanation is, “Our children are faced with pressures that we didn’t have growing up”. Such statements, repeated often enough, become to many a “license” to do wrong and a salve to soothe their troubled consciences.

We must throw aside our excuses and make up our minds to do right. Elijah could serve God in wicked surroundings. And so can we.
– by Bill Hall

Requested by Royce Bell

““The Christian Scriptures are so deep that, even if I studied them to the exclusion of all else, from early childhood to worn-out old age, with ample leisure and untiring zeal, and with greater capacity of mind than I possess, each day I would still discover new riches within them. The fundamental truths necessary for salvation are found with ease in the Scriptures. But even when a person has accepted these truths, and is both God-fearing and righteous in his actions, there are still so many things which lie under a vast veil of mystery. Through reading the Scriptures, we can pierce this veil, and find the deepest wisdom in the words which express these mysteries, and in the mysteries themselves. The oldest, the ablest, and the most ardent student of Scripture, will say at the end of each day: ‘I have finished, and yet my studies have only just begun.’”

—Augustine of Hippo, Letter 137

(Nicholas R. Needham, 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power Vol. 1: The Age of the Early Church Fathers), p291.

An oft-repeated charge against members of the church of Christ is that we seem to think that
we are infallible. Herein we intend to address ourselves to the validity or invalidity of such a
charge with the aim of clearing up any mistaken impressions.

First of all, a fundamental principle upon which our examination must be based is the fact that
NO MAN can truthfully claim infallibility! “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”
(Rom. 3:23). Since sin and infallibility cannot co-exist, we must conclude that all men are fallible
including members of the church of Christ.

Secondly, I have never known of a member of the church who has claimed infallibility. I have
known some few who ACTED as if they were perfect, and perhaps a few who thought they were.
But the point is this: members of the church of Christ do not generally and publicly claim to be
infallible humans.

How then did the charge originate? If we do not claim to be infallible, and in view of our
constant references to such passages as Rom. 3:23, why do people think we claim perfection?

Consider a few possible reasons.
(1) We believe in an infallible Christ. Unlike the modernists, we believe without any doubt
that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, that He died on the cross for our sins, that He arose from the
dead, and that He now serves us in heaven [as High Priest of God]. We believe what Peter
declared on Pentecost when he said: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that
God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). We
are also convinced that He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
Our Savior is a Perfect One!

(2) We believe in infallible authority. After Jesus was raised from the dead, He declared: “All
authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). Later the apostle Paul
wrote that God “hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to
the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:21-23). So the
authority upon which our religion is based is infallible. The blind unfounded expressions of
human authority are not approved by a God who gave all authority to His Son.

(3) We believe in only one infallible way to heaven. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and
the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Thus it is our blessed belief that
the way of Jesus is the only infallible way to glory. This means that we, with God, must reject the
“many ways to heaven” concept, and do our best to encourage our religious neighbors to do the
same.

No!! Members of the church of Christ are not infallible. But we believe in an infallible Savior
who has by His infallible authority revealed through the New Testament the only infallible way to
heaven. Some of us may fall from that way (1 Cor. 10:12), and we may not always follow the
example of our perfect Savior, but we firmly believe that we “are complete in Him, which is the
head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:10).
– by Warren Berkley

If you are concerned about your character, your conduct, your life and your destiny, THEN BE CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The heart is the mind, and the mind is the center of thoughts. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). A man may not be what he appears to be, but he is what he thinks.

What goes into your mind, then, is extremely important. Be careful about the interests you acquire, the tastes you cultivate, the desires you develop. They shape what goes into your mind. The conversations you listen to, the scenes you observe, the movies you view, the TV programs you tune into, the newspapers, magazines and books you read, the songs by which you are entertained, the jokes you laugh at, the things you are taught all have a part in feeding information into your mind.

You evaluate and monitor all that you hear and see. Your standard for evaluation and your conscience are vital and play their roles. You may seek out or receive what is vulgar or distorted, or you may reject and refuse it. You may pursue and embrace what is wholesome and true, or you may have no interest in it and neglect it. Be cautious, particular and selective about what goes into your mind. If you allow garbage to go in, then garbage will come out in the form of words and deeds.

What goes on in your mind is also extremely important. Be careful about your thoughts, meditations, desires, ambitions, daydreams and fantasies. You determine what goes on in your mind. You are the master of it because you have control over it. It is your own little secret world — except that God knows all about it, and will one day bring it to light when you have to answer for it in the judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14; Acts 17:30-31; Romans 2:16; II Corinthians 5:10). And sooner or later it will find expression in your life and make itself known.

We cannot be like God without thinking the thoughts of God. We cannot know the thoughts of God apart from the revelation of the things of God in the word of God (I Corinthians 2:11-13). We cannot have the thoughts of God in our hearts apart from reverent study of and meditation upon the word of God, coupled with a sincere desire to do the will of God (John 7:17).
Bill Crews

In James 1:27 Christians are instructed “to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” Unfortunately, some have abused this passage in an attempt to justify the church contributing to human benevolent organizations. An even greater problem is the attitude that has resulted from this practice. How many have dropped a dollar in the collection plate thinking “I have visited those in need,” when they have failed to fulfill the most basic element of “visiting.”

The translation of James’s instruction from the original Greek to English has lost its full meaning and force. When you say today “I’m going to visit,” you usually mean you are going to see someone and chat awhile. But the Greek word “episkeptomai,” translated “visit” in English, means much more. In Greek to “visit” is “to look upon or after, to inspect, examine with the eyes; in order to see how he is, i.e. to visit, go see one: Acts 7:23; 15:36 (Judg. 15:1); the poor and afflicted, Jas. 1:27; the sick, Mt. 25:36, 43 b. Hebraistically, to look upon in order to help or benefit; e.g. to look after, have a care for, provide for” (Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 242).

“Visit” in Greek is related to the Greek word “overseer,” so to “visit” includes “to look upon, care for, exercise oversight.” (W. E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 1213).

There are three elements required by “episkeptomai,” “to visit”:

First, personal contact—going to the needy in person.

Second, personal examination—seeing to their needs.

Third, personal provision—providing for their needs.

The word “visit” occurs ten times in the New Testament and every use demands the three elements of personal contact, examination and provision. Christ’s “visit” was not just to chat awhile or the sending of a representative angel. “The Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace…” “For He has visited and redeemed His people” (Luke 1:78-79, 68). Christ’s visit to men was God’s personal contact and inspection to oversee our great need for salvation from sin and He personally provided the redemption price to meet that need.

Likewise, Jesus emphasized the individual duty of His followers to personally visit the less fortunate, “for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you visited me” (Matt. 25:35-36).

Thus the command to “visit” the less fortunate is intensely personal and practical for each and every Christian. Greek authority Marvin Vincent writes of “visit” in James 1:27, “James strikes a downright blow here at ministry by proxy, or by mere gifts of money. Pure and undefiled religion demands personal contact with the world’s sorrow: to visit the afflicted, and to visit them in their affliction.” (Vincent’s Word Studies, Vol. 1, p. 736).

Those churches which send money to human benevolent organizations cannot find support for their error in James 1:27, by the very definition of “visit.” James is clearly instructing individual Christians to assist those in need—he is teaching pure religion is individual and personal, not institutional and impersonal. Those who give money to the church, for the church to give to a human benevolent organization, are twice removed from truly “visiting” the fatherless and widows in their affliction! Where is the personal going? Where is the personal oversight? Where is the personal assistance? You cannot visit the sick and needy by putting money into a collection plate.
Wayne Greene

In Mark’s last verse of chapter nine the Lord tells us to have salt in ourselves. Please note. “Salt is good, but if salt loses its flavor, how will you season it. Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.” MARK 9:50 (NKJV)

Jesus said a similar thing in His mountain sermon. We have the thought in Matthew 5:13. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Christians are the salt of the earth. Their purpose is the salvation of mankind. By their lives and teaching they preserve those with whom they have contact.

Jesus said, “Salt is good, but if salt loses its flavor, how will you season it?” This reflects a heart that is salted by our own spirit of self-sacrifice, a spirit patterned after the Lord’s. As we give up worldly affections, we salt our lives as a sweet sacrifice to God and improve our saltiness for the preservation of those whose lives we touch. It is imperative that a disciple of Christ not lose that saltiness.

If our saltiness is lost, of what use are we? Jesus reminds us that when salt loses the peculiar chemical property which makes it salty, it is useless. There is no way to regain that property. You cannot restore it with another more powerful salt. You cannot treat it with some other chemical. It is good for nothing! We also, as the salt of the earth, will be good for nothing but to be thrown out if we fail in the great cause of saving souls.

In view of the context beginning at verse 38, verse 49 is probably speaking of the trials of life which each believer must face. Listen to Him. “For everyone will be seasoned with fire,..” Fire purifies. Temptations and trials of life are a fire, testing and proving our faith.

Now let’s add the rest of the verse. “For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.” Under the Law of Moses, sacrificial offerings to the Lord were seasoned with salt. (Leviticus 2:13) Salt is both a flavoring and a preservative. In this Christian age, Jesus Christ is our offering for sin, but you and I are also sacrificial offerings. Romans 12:1 says, “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,..” If I am the sacrifice, what then is the salt with which I am seasoned. The overall context suggests that it is those things I have given up to remove sin from my life. No matter how good my life, it can never be a sacrifice worthy of God. But, as I give up things of this life I hold dear, things which might divert me from godly service, my life is seasoned with grace, made more acceptable as a sacrifice to God.

Can we learn the importance of laying our lives before our God, a sacrifice seasoned to His taste? Can we realize everything we are and do rises to God’s nostrils as an odor either of a pleasing sacrifice, or of the rottenness of sin. Which are you?
Charles Brackett

How Am I Approaching Our Gospel Meeting This Week?

Is it a bother and inconvenience or a blessed opportunity?

Is it a time to complain and gripe or a chance to show my gratitude?

Is it a moment to find excuses for not attending or an occasion to do everything I can to attend?

Is it a complete waste of time or time well spent?

Is it a matter of my allegiance?

Am I doing more to glorify Satan or God?

How am I approaching our gospel meeting?

Terry Starling

On the Tuesday before His crucifixion, our Lord went into the temple for the last time. He denounced its inhabitants as being the “sons of those who murdered the prophets,” a “brood of vipers,” and those destined for the “condemnation of hell” (Matt 23:31–33). They would fill up the measure of their father’s guilt. By crucifying the Son of God and their continual rejection of the gospel message and its messengers, they would prove whose sons they were. Satan was truly their father and “like father, like son.”

In the seventh and final woe that Jesus pronounces on Jerusalem, He gives the death sentence for the city and says that generation of people would feel the wrath of God for their rejection and murder of the Son of God (Matt 23:34–39). The destruction of the temple would symbolize God’s repudiation of it. After this scathing rebuke, Jesus leaves the temple, never to return to it again.

As Jesus and His disciples were walking away from Herod’s Temple, He told them that the day was coming when “not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matt 24:2). Apparently, the disciples were stunned into silence by our Lord’s statement.

His disciples privately ask, “When will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matt 24:3). The destruction of the temple was such a remarkable event that the disciples could only think of it being accompanied by the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. Jesus clears up their misunderstandings and answers their questions in order. First, He tells them about the various signs that would be seen before the temple’s destruction. Second, Jesus explains there will be no signs given before His return and the end of the world.

Jesus called the destruction of Jerusalem “the days of vengeance” (Luke 21:22). The destruction of Jerusalem was an act of God’s vengeance and judgment, not Rome’s; these would be the days when people were punished for their sins. The destruction of the holy city was not a random or arbitrary act, but the just recompense of reward for those who rejected God’s Son.
David Padfield

We are pleased to offer a new book, Days Of Vengeance, by David Padfield. This book is a very detailed examination of Jerusalem’s destruction and a look at the events that followed.

Download the Days Of Vengeance now (32 pages; PDF file size: 737k).
https://www.padfield.com/acrobat/history/days-of-vengeance.pdf