Sending Them Off With Prayer

Recently, the Lewisville (TX) church of Christ hosted their annual "Sending
Them Off With Prayer" Night. During this gathering, the church prays for
everyone involved in the beginning of a new school year.

This year, the Lewisville church added something new: Bibles were given to
all of the children who were entering the first grade. These rising
first-graders were called to the front of the building with their parents
and were presented with a Bible by the minister, Jeff Jenkins.

Jeff related some of the responses from these first graders:

"One of our parents sent me a picture of her little girl in bed the night
before her first day of school and she is holding her Bible."

"Another one of our students came up to me during the next church service
and said, 'Mr. Jeff, look, I brought my new Bible!'"

"Another parent sent me the following story about her daughter: 'Avery was
SO EXCITED tonight when she received her Bible at church. She quickly
noticed it had a map in the back. She looked up at me and said, "Mommy,
look, it has a map; now I will never be lost."'"

Jeff smiled and thought to myself, "You are right. this Bible is your map so
you will never be lost." *

The Bible, God's Word, IS our map. It reveals where we are, where we are
headed, and our desired destination.

The Bible reveals that we are lost in sin, and the wages of sin is DEATH
(Romans 6:23).

But the Bible also reveals that God loves us so much that He gave His Son
Jesus to die on the cross for our sins so that we might have forgiveness of
our sins and have access to the Way to eternal life in heaven (John 3:16).
Jesus is that Way (John 14:6).

The Bible gives us the following directions to reach our proper Destination
(Heaven): place your faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), repent of sin
(Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized
(immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).

Then we must continue to follow Heaven's Road Map for the rest of our lives,
being careful not to "veer off course" (1 John 1:7). We must continue to
follow that narrow and difficult way which leads to life everlasting
(Matthew 7:13-14).

"Your Word is a LAMP to my feet And a LIGHT to my path." - Psalm 119:105

Yes, Avery, God has given us a Map (His Word) so that we will never be
lost - IF we will read and heed His instructions.

Won't YOU?

David A. Sargent

Prayer Just Makes You Feel Better

When our country was at war with itself, a preacher from the North went to
visit with the sixteenth President of the United States--Abraham Lincoln.

When the preacher arrived at the White House, it wasn't to make a request,
but rather an observation and to offer a word of encouragement. He said that
we from the North are convinced that God is on our side in this war, and we
will win. Further, he stated that he wanted the President to know that a day
did not pass without every soldier's family constantly remembering their
President in prayer. The preacher wanted his President to know that he and
many others were praying that Lincoln might have wisdom and strength to lead
them to victory.

As the story goes, at this point President Lincoln was in tears and said
that he surely would have given up had it not been for all the prayers.
Further, he said that it was the custom of his people to ask the preacher to
lead a prayer in the presence of the host before leaving the residence. So,
the preacher led a prayer on President Lincoln's behalf.

At the conclusion of the prayer, the President grabbed the hand of the
preacher and said, "I feel better."

The Bible says, when someone uses you, pray (Lk. 6:28).

The Bible says, when you're stressed about how much work there is to do, and
how few workers there are to do it, pray (Lk. 10:2).

The Bible says, when you've sinned and need forgiveness, pray (Act 8:22).

The Bible says, when you're troubled and don't know what to say or how to
say it, just pray (Rm. 8:26).

The Bible says, when you're concerned about one another, pray (1 Thes.
5:23).

The point is, if you want to feel better about a situation, pause and talk
to the Lord about it. Then, let it go and let God work it out.

I hope you're having a great Thursday!

For previous devotionals, visit www.NeilRichey.com.

Daniel Larsen

In 1999, Daniel Larsen was convicted of a crime in California and put in
prison. Ten years later, new witnesses came forward, stacking the evidence
in Larsen's favor. As a result, a federal magistrate ruled that Larsen had
been denied rights to a fair trial and ordered his immediate release.
Unfortunately, because of some complicated rules and technical jargon, the
state of California has kept Larsen in prison for the past two years. Even
though Daniel had a shaky past and is to blame for some of his troubles, he
should still be a free man according to the evidence. However, he is
continuing to live his life behind bars.

It would be quite sad to know that we could and should be free, but still
find ourselves imprisoned. Yes, this would be terrible, but this situation
happens much more often then we might think. It even happens to people you
know!

Romans 6 discusses this very point, "What shall we say then? Are we to
continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we
who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore
we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life... Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal
body so that you obey its lusts... For when you were slaves of sin, you were
free in regard to righteousness...But now having been freed from sin and
enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and
the outcome, eternal life" (1-4, 12, 20, 22).

The idea behind Romans 6 is simply that those of us who have been freed from
sin through baptism should not continue to live life imprisoned by sin! The
problem is, spiritually free Christians choose to continue living behind the
prison bars of sin.

It's sad that Daniel Larsen is forced to stay in prison when he should be
free, but it is much more depressing when free people, Christians, choose to
live life enslaved to sin. Have we been freed from sin through baptism
(Romans 6:3-4; Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21)? If so, let's never take our freedom
for granted and continue to live a life free from sin.

Brett Petrillo

Psalm 139:14

                    "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous

                      are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Psalm 139:14

I'm quite sure that David wasn't watching the Olympic Games when he made the above statement, but had they been around in his time, he could certainly have been inspired to say it after seeing some of the things our bodies are able to do. And, yes I know, this is two weeks in a row that I'm using the Olympics as my inspiration for an editorial, but I just can't help myself, they provide a wealth of commentary fodder for an itinerant editorialist like me.

I mean, just look at the things the Olympic athletes are able to physically do with their bodies. Even though I'm tired of watching the girls fly, jump, twist and otherwise contort their tiny little bodies on bars, vaults, mats and the balance beam (is there no end to the number of events in this sport?) one has to admit that the things they can do is incredible.

David said a mouthful when he praised God for making mankind in the form that He did - "fearfully and wonderfully." A few years back some scientists were reporting that they were trying to create life in a test tube. Actually they were attempting to get some minute particles of various forms of matter to somehow fuse together which they thought would be an acid that our bodies basically consist of. Sort of like the theory of a molecule of slime bumping into another bit of slime in the ocean and VOILA!, life started.

To my knowledge, they haven't succeeded in "creating life" in their test tubes yet, but reading about their efforts conjured up some questions in my feeble little mind. First, how about trying to figure out where the oceans came from. Or the little bits of matter (slime)? And if they did ever get some sort of "life acid" in a test tube, how do they get it to the human bodies we're watching perform at the Olympics?

Personally I prefer the easier-to-believe version found in Gen. 1:27 where it says that I was made "in the image of God" and in 2:7 He tells me what He made me out of - "the dust of the ground" and then He "breathed the breath of life" into me. But, if you want to believe that you got here in the form that you're in by the "slime-bumping theory" nobody's going to stop you. Just recognize that a lot more faith is required to believe that theory than "In the beginning God...."

But, let's return to our discussion of the human body that God "fearfully and wonderfully" made. There are many, many interesting things about the make-up of our bodies and the first thing I'll mention is the scientific finding that our physical body contains about all the elements found on the earth. Doesn't that seem to verify what Gen. 2:7 said? I'll take a leap of faith here and say - yes it does.

If you looked at our human body as a machine, it has to be the most amazing and complicated piece of machinery ever built. No human engineer could ever come close to making something that will do what the human body will do. Oh, they can make robotic type machines that can do a few specific things, but really, what robot could ever be able to run, jump, swim or perform the way the Olympic athletes do? Or even us, for that matter. No robot can even do the everyday activities that we ordinary people are able to perform, regardless of the level of our performance.

In the last paragraph I mentioned the complexity of the body and here's a few examples of that complexity. There are some things about our bodies that almost stagger our imagination. Let me just mention it's circulatory system with it's pump and all of it's blood vessels. Did you know that the average body has about 60,000 miles of blood vessels? And that the pump that runs this system pumps 10 pints of blood EVERY MINUTE? Since our entire blood supply consists of from 8-10 pints of blood, every bit of our blood is circulated through the pump and body EVERY MINUTE! Don't know about you, but I find that literally amazing.

Here's some more information about our circulatory system that I find mind-blowing: the capillaries, which are the smallest blood vessels in the body and reach into their particular areas, if laid out surface-wise would cover an area of about 1 ½ acres. And, they are constantly opening and closing and that requires a control system to keep them from all opening at the same time. If they did, all of our blood would drain into them in a matter of seconds. Plus, it's the capillaries in the lungs that do the exchanging of oxygen for the carbon dioxide in the blood. How does that work? Amazing, isn't it?

Well, how about the body as a whole? It contains about 208 bones, 650 muscles and has more than 100 joints. I've been moving all this past week and I have at least that many aching right now. The things that hold the muscles to the bones are called tendons and do you know that they can take stress up to 8 tons per square inch? Almost unbelievable.

We have around 9,000 taste buds (I think I have more, at least that's going to be my excuse for being overweight), millions of nerve cells with about 4 million little sensors in our skin that let's us know when something is hot or cold or is painful.

How about the covering of our body? Have you ever considered what an amazing thing our skin is? To me, it's just about the most remarkable part created by God. The average body has about 20 square feet of covering material (I've stretched mine a bit further), it wears away and is replaced every few weeks. But here's where it really gets mind-boggling: it's a barrier that keeps out dirt and germs, and also moisture (it's waterproof) all the while it's keeping the moisture inside the body from drying out. It also has about 5 million hairs on it. (Probably a bit less for some of us)

But really, the greatest part of the human body, put there by God, is it's operating system, it's computer - the brain. Here's a lump of material that weighs about 3 pounds and controls everything we do, consciously and unconsciously. Consciously: how we think, talk and act, and unconsciously: breathing and well, how about those little capillaries opening and closing, do you have to think about that? Yeah, man can build computers that do amazing calculations, but always remember this - it's man's internal, God-given, computer that devises the ones he makes.

In wrapping up my thoughts here today let me just opine that no scientist, playing with his test tubes, could ever produce anything that remotely resembles life as we know it. That our magnificently created bodies did not get here by an accidental bumping together of slime in the ocean. (Even Sounds sorta slimy to me) It would be the height of man's arrogance to think that they could somehow duplicate the system that we're watching perform in the Olympic games.

No, I prefer to echo the words of David and praise God "for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."

Ron Covey

　

　

Excuses for missing #church

Through the years I have heard lots of excuses as to why folks have missed
attending the worship assembly of their church. Understand, they don't need
to make excuses to me, I'm only the preacher, and it is God to whom they
really need to explain themselves (if any explanation is needed).

Personally I've always thought that one excuse is as good as another if you
didn't want to do something. However I may have been wrong! I just heard an
imaginative and humorous excuse I thought was worth sharing.

A preacher met a habitually absent church member at the local grocery and
the church member immediately began to make excuses for not being in
services. The preacher responded, "You really don't have to explain yourself
to me," but the absent member insisted that they really had a good excuse.
The minister said, "OK, what is your excuse for not meeting with the church
yesterday?" To which the member replied, "Well, you see it was like this. I
was abducted by aliens and the implant they put in the back of my head
caused an infection that required me to be held longer than usual."

If you are done laughing, like I said, "one excuse is as good as another if
you didn't want to do something." The funny thing about an excuse is that if
you feel like you need one; it really may be saying something about the
condition of your spirit.

I thought you might find it interesting what the Apostle Paul writes in 2
Corinthians 13:5 regarding our spiritual condition. He says we are to:
"Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely
you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of
genuine faith." (NLT)

Now the word translated as "examine" in the original Greek carries this
meaning, " to try, make trial of, test: for the purpose of ascertaining his
quality, or what he thinks, or how he will behave himself."

When is the last time you really stopped and "examined" yourself? We get
into habits which sometime are not the best for us, such as being frequently
absent for the meetings of the church. The writer of the book of Hebrews
reminds us: "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for
God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one
another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting
together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that
the day of his return is drawing near." (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Some say, that they have just gotten into a rut, but then I'm reminded that
the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth! So. what's your
excuse?

Russ Lawson

Don't Repeat This

I had never met the fellow in person. He called me on the phone about a
matter
of which I frankly knew nothing, yet he didn't hesitate to fill me in on
details
that were of no concern to me. Some of the details had been told to him by
someone else. As he relayed them to me he said, "Now this is secondhand
information, so don't repeat it."

Don't repeat it?! I wondered silently why he had not followed that maxim
himself. In the first place, the issue about which he called didn't concern
me.
But even if it had, I didn't need to hear the salacious details he had
passed
along to me. In my book such conversation is called "gossip".

I couldn't help thinking of the skit on the old "Hee Haw" television
program.
Four women are pictured doing their laundry outdoors, one at a scrub board,
another hanging up clothes, etc. They're singing a ditty that has stuck
with me
ever since: "We're not ones to go around repeating gossip - so you'd better
be
sure and listen close the first time."

We laugh about such things - unless the subject of the gossip is ourselves
or
ones that we love. Then we see it for what it is: Character assassination.

Bright minds have spoken out on this topic. Mark Twain, for example, said
this:
"He gossips habitually; he lacks the common wisdom to keep still that deadly
enemy of man, his own tongue." Richard Steele observed, "Fire and swords
are
slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a gossip."

The Bible, not surprisingly, has warnings against this kind of activity.
"Where
there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer,
strife
ceases" (Proverbs 26:20). Those who speak of things they shouldn't may be
contributing to the downfall of an innocent person.

Jesus was the target of talebearers. It is true that he often associated
with
known sinners - His purpose in coming to earth was to bring them to
repentance
(Luke 5:31,32). But was Jesus guilty of the talk that was going around
about
Him? "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a
glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'" (Luke
7:34).
Some of that observation is true; He was a friend of sinners. But the
intended
message was that Jesus had become just like those with whom He associated,
and
that was absolutely not true.

Here's another sample of Biblical wisdom: "He who covers a transgression
seeks
love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends" (Proverbs 17:9). The
facts
you're speaking to me about another may be true. But why are you telling
me?
Is there something I can do to make things better? Idle talk does no good;
it
only satisfies (for a time) the appetite of those who love to hear of
scandal.

The most sobering words come from the One who will one day judge us: "But I
say
to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it
in
the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your
words
you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:36,37).

Our children sometimes sing, "Oh, be careful little lips what you say."
That's
good advice.

Timothy D. Hall

I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life

                        "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk

                             in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

The combination of three things serve as the basis for my editorial lesson today. One of them is an old, familiar church hymn, another is an historical event and the third is a statement by Jesus seen in the above cited verse of John 8:12. Stay with me here and I'll do my best to link these three together in an understandable way.

First, let's talk a minute about the old hymn. I say "old" because it was written by P.P. Bliss, who wrote many of the hymns found in our songbooks, and he died in a train accident in 1876. This particular hymn he entitled "Let The Lower Lights Be Burning."

Like many of you may do from time to time, I notice a phrase from one of our hymns and wonder just what it means. What is the writer speaking about when he pens a song that refers to "the lower lights? I was curious so I did a little research and found out that this phrase relates to a historical event on Lake Erie at the port of Cleveland, Ohio.

Let me just tell you the circumstances of the event and that will explain both what the "lower lights" are and by knowing that, we can tie them into the statement by Christ that He is "the light of the world."

It was reported that the event happened on a dark, stormy night as a passenger ship was trying to make it into the harbor. The waves on the lake were said to be like "mountains" and no stars could be seen. There was a pilot steering the ship and he knew that in order to safely navigate into the harbor he had to keep two lower lights lined up with the main beacon.

The ship's Captain, watching from the pilot house, could see only one light shining from the lighthouse. He asked the pilot, "Are you sure this is Cleveland?" The pilot replied, "Quite sure, sir." The Captain then asked, "Where are the lower lights?" The pilot said, "They've gone out, sir." The next questions from the Captain was, "Can you make the harbor?" The pilot's answer to that was very terse and carries a great analogy to our lesson. He said, "We must or we perish, sir."

Without being able to see the "lower lights" the pilot turned the wheel and the result was not good. They missed the safe channel into the harbor, crashed onto the rocks and many souls perished that night. I used the term "souls" because the phrase "souls on board" is an old seafaring term relating to the number of passengers on board the ship. It's since been adopted by the FAA and the airlines to indicate the number of passengers on an airplane.

Okay, let's see if we can't tie this old song and some of it's words to the ship wreck at Cleveland harbor with Jesus and His words. First off, Jesus said "I am the Light of the world....." In our little analogy today, Jesus would be the "main beacon." The light from the lighthouse that John 1:9 tells us is "the true Light." The "Light" that "lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

Now that we know and understand Who, and What, the "main Light" is, we can understand just who and what the "lower lights" are. To make a long story short, we, Christians, are the "lower lights." We're not the "main Light." Not the "Lighthouse." We're the "lower lights," the ones who reflect the "main Light."

There are several scriptures that tell us that Christians serve as "lights" in the world. Here's just a few for you to look at: in Eph. 5:8 and 1 Thess. 5:5 we read that followers of Christ are "children of light." And when we read a little further down the page in Eph. 5 we see that it is Christ who gives us our light (vs. 14).

You've probably never thought of it in this way, but we can even see in The Scriptures that John the Baptist was also a "lower light." Look at what it says in John 1:6-9 where, speaking of John the Baptist, that he was "not that Light" but was a "witness of that Light." Aren't we tasked with the same thing? To bear "witness" of the "True Light?" (The answer is yes.)

Now that I think about it, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas were also "lower lights." If you open your Bible to Acts 13:47 you'll read where Paul tells those at Antioch of Pisidia that he had been sent to be a "light of the Gentiles."

I hope that you've taken notice of my using the lower case (l) when referring to John, Paul, Barnabas and us and the upper case (L) when referring to Christ, "the true Light." I do that because that's the way it reads in The Bible and this is very fitting to our discussion of the "lights" and "Light" of our lesson, don't you think?

Here's a couple more scriptural references regarding Christians being the "lower lights" and then we'll wrap up our lesson today. I particularly like something Jesus told His disciples recorded in the 12^th chapter of Luke. He's giving them a teaching on their duties in this chapter and in the 35^th verse He tells them: "Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning." As if saying, always be dressed as disciples and have your light shining.

My second and last reference passage comes from Phil. 2:15 where Paul is saying that Christians are to always be faithful to God and Christ, even though we live in a "crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world." That is our mission on this earth. To provide "light" or as Paul puts it in 2Cor. 4:4 "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ" to our part of the world.

In closing my thoughts today, I'd just like to remind you of one more thing. We've seen that, as Christians, if we "walk (live) in the light" (of Christ) as we live our lives here on earth "for a season" then I want you to know that in heaven we'll "walk" in His light eternally because Jesus, "the Lamb" is "the light thereof." (Rev. 21:23-24)

And here's some closing words from our song: "But to us He gives the keeping, Of the lights along the shore." The gospel is left in our hands. We are to be the "light of that glorious gospel." Our "lights" are to always be shining. Or as the song says: "Trim your feeble lamp, my brother! Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed, trying now to make the harbor, in the darkness may be lost."

If we let our lights go out, like the "lower lights" by the Cleveland harbor, souls won't be able to see the "true Light" and be saved. If we only learn one thing from this lesson today, let it be - keep our feeble lamps trimmed and burning.

Ron Covey