I try to be careful when I listen to sermons. It is very difficult for any man today to preach, without injecting some of himself into his message. I feel the best material we have for study and use is the Lord's word. I'm not saying sermons have no use, I am saying the Bible is much more valuable than a sermon containing some of the lord's word, and some of a man's ideas.

I attended a gospel meeting one time, and as soon as I saw the preacher, I was not excited to be there. For whatever reason, his appearance and voice did not appeal to me in any way. inspite of this, he is the gospel preacher who impressed me more than any other preacher has with the first few words he said. After he introduced himself, he said "I'm here to talk to you all about the book of Romans, acknowledging that it would be much more to your benefit just to read the book yourself, but I will try to represent the Lord's word as best I can."

The Lord will give understanding and wisdom to all who ask him. We must have patience with him, and remember, he does all things in his time. we might not get the understanding we desire the minute we ask, often times it comes weeks or months later, but when it is revealed, there can be not doubt it is the Lord's doing. We must remember that the lord knows how to save those he wants to save, as well as keep them who he will to condemnation. He hardens those he will, and has mercy on those he will.



There are sure to be disagreements, and misunderstandings of scripture, but we must avoid arguments and misunderstandings among breatheren.

If we can't behave towards our breatheren in such a way, that they know without a doubt of our love towards them, then not only is there no value to anything we have to say to them(1 Cor 13), but we are blatently disobaying the God of heaven.

How can our breatheren doubt our love for them if we have the attitude God commands us to have?

We are commanded to be kindly affectionate to one another in honor prefering one another(Rom 12). We are, in lowlyness of mind, to esteem others better than ourselves(Phil.). We are to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath(James 1). The man of God does not Strive with anyone, but is gentle to ALL men(2Tim 2). We know our Lord loves us, because he gave his life for us, and we ought to give our lives for the breatheren(1 John 3).

these are all clearly commandments that every christian must observe. I believe if many breatheren observed these commandments to half of the degree they observe our commandment to not forsake the assembly, the church would grow much more rapidly in both numbers and spirit. I believe many in the church today focus on being conservative, denouncing denominations, and on things much less important than our attitude towards the breatheren.

don't take my word for these things. The things I have written come from my understanding of the Lord's word, and are truly not my words. Look for yourself whether or not these things are true.

Its been a while, so I decided to update. My Wife and I are doing very well, we are currently renting, and looking for a house in Baltimore.

My son is 11 months, and he is a wild man. He is walking very well now, and he runs around all day yelling lol. He's a good boy, he obays pretty well. He knows what no means, and usually obays it. We are very happy with him.

I hope and pray we can bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that he will truly live up to his name(Christian) not outwardly only, but inwardly.

I've been discouraged a little bit recently. It seems the more I study God's word, the more I realize not only my own error, but also the error of people around me past, and present. I can do something about my own error, but it is also my responsibility to admonish(warn) others who seem to have erred, and I find the task daunting.

I need to remember what it says in 1 Timothy 2, that the man of god does not strive, but is gentle to all men.
I also need to remember that to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, it is sin.

I have many times in the past, not spoken with breatheren who I believe had erred because I didn't know if I could do it properly.
I am nowhere near perfect myself, and I am trying to remove a number of planks from my own eye.

I have heard some say, well it doesnt matter how you say it, you just have to tell people they are wrong.
I think it does matter how we admonish and exhort others, and I believe it is revealed to us in scripture. We have to first love the brother, enough that they know without a doubt that we love them(Rom. 12-...Be kindly affectionate...), and then, we must do it in gentleness, and not strive or argue, as Paul said to timothy, and titus.

I struggle with loving my breatheren, as we are told to in the bible, and I believe many CoC christians do as well. We have to esteem others more highly than ourselves, remember Jesus washed his desciples feet.

We also must be willing to give our lives for the breathren, says John, as Jesus gave his life for us.
I believe if we don't have this love for even 1 brother, it is a serious error that must be remedied.
when john says he who loves not his brother can't love god, I believe if we fail to love 1 brother, this verse holds true.

I have seen brothers be argumentative, and quick to anger. We go to one passage in hebrews when we discuss the necessity of attendance, but some including myself overlook the vital importance of being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath(James 1).
if we ignore this passage, are we not disobediant, and guilty of sin?

I have some issues with CoC worship practice, but I won't discuss them here, until I have discussed it with older and wiser men, so that I am sure not to lead any astray, if I am wrong in these things.

I enjoy comments!

Paul

I am very sad about the direction our society has gone in the past 100 years.

The bible, and God, used to be integrated into every aspect of our nation, and that is what made us the greatest nation in the world. Our national striving for Godlyness.

As I talked about in my last post, we as a society have drifted away from our Godly roots into hedonism and Immorality. Evidence of this is rampant in our government, culture, and in buisness.

Many of our government leaders are corrupt, evil men. Just do a search for Billy Tozen, or culture of corruption. The evidence is overwhelming. Read about the "oversight" of the $700B bailout.

Our culture has continually regressed to the point that, today, movies, tv, and music are all infected with grevious sin and immorality. I have since given up watching tv, movies, and listening to modern music, because it all is truly filth.

Our buisness leaders lie and in their greed, defraud millions of Americans, and get away with it every time.

I believe that we, as a nation, have strayed from our path, and The United States of America will be punished, if efforts are not swiftly made to return God and the Bible back to where they belong.

I am not confident this will happen, but all hope is not lost.

William Tyndale was an english scholar, and the first man to ever print the New Testament in the English language. Once he translated the bible, he strove for the rest of his life teaching the English people the bible, and making it available to the comman man. In 1536, as he was being burnt at the stake, he uttered his last words, "Lord open the king of England's eyes"
3 years later, the king of england published Henry the 8th's english translation of the bible.

I pray daily that God Allmighty will open the eyes of Americans, our Leaders, and Barak Obama especially, that they would turn to HIM for guidance, see the great evil growing daily in our nation, and take steps against it.

We still have nothing to fear. Even if our country falls, and is destroyed, God IS and will still be the God of his people. He will make a way for them. He loves us, and will give us our reward.

We as a people need to remember what this country was founded on.

This country was formed, as a safe haven for those who loved god, and wanted to worship him without danger.
Our constitution was formed with godly principles in hand,

although many of our forefathers were not the most moral of all men, they did know that god exists, and that a countries greatness is in its' closeness to God.

George Washington said paraphrased, it is impossible to rightly rule a nation without the bible.

for hundreds of years this was understood, but in the early part of this century, people with no love for god, or desire to do his will, set out to gain power, and remove the bible, and god, from every aspect of our great country.

This movement has been largly successful, and still exists today.

this has been disasterous to our nation and our people. Our Morality, Culture, and now Economy, are all in dire peril, and no one in washington knows what needs to be done.

we dont need bailouts for our economy, or new laws in place.

we as a people need to return to our roots, and return god and the bible to their rightful place in our lives, and in our society. Until this is done, I see no way that we can truly progress as a nation.

historically, as great nations fell, their morality would first degrade. Then their culture, economic power, and military power all colapse.

I fear that we are well on our way, as a nation, to collapse, and unless we can restore our morality, this great nation, founded on biblical principles, will diminish to nothing.

We have government officials stealing from the american people, ceos stealing money and defrauding millions of workers.

in the old days, this would be condemned immediately.

but in our "highly advanced" society, nothing is done.

all that is said now, is there are no laws against it, so we can't do anything about it.

this is a very sad thing.

It's been over a year since the last post, and that gf is now my wife, and I'm on laundry duty exclusively because she's pregnant and cant carry the baskets...

My son is due December 8, and we are having a baby shower this sunday.

I'm working in baltimore and attending Glen Burney church of christ.

bye