The Gooch Lane church of Christ is a group of people in Madison, Alabama seeking to study the Bible and put God’s teachings into practice. We’d love to have you join us for Bible study and worship.
A word is a wonderful thing. Words are often aptly defined as vehicles of thought. Technically, they are a speech sound which has meaning attached to it. So strong is the word attached to the thing it represents that we cannot separate the two. Some have called words signs of ideas—and so they are. They represent something. They are not actually that thing, but they represent it so closely you cannot think of the thing without using the sign that represents it.
If there is any proof that the plans we make for ourselves can be thwarted, it has been these last two years. Plans I had went awry, and I am certain yours did, too. Intended travel was canceled or postponed, some jobs were lost, loved ones were lost as well. Something as disruptive as the pandemic is proof that none of us are in control of the circumstances of our lives, and we are not in control of most things.
It is interesting how certain phrases are incorporated into everyday language. For example, Americans often use firefighter code to describe everything from the heat intensity of chili to the seriousness of a situation encountered in any host of situations. Just as with firefighters, the number of “alarms” demonstrates the magnitude of the situation.
The book of Proverbs contains many interesting proverbs, some that are not easy to understand. Perhaps because we’re missing the cultural context of a few thousand years, or just because the advice the proverb is encouraging may seem counter-intuitive, sometimes the meaning or intent of a proverb can be lost on us. One of the hardest pairs of parables to potentially understand are found in 26:4-5.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
“Come on in, the door’s unlocked!” were the words I heard from my aged brother in Christ when I knocked on his door late one afternoon. I went in and found him stretched across an island counter in his kitchen, feet on the floor on one side, body draped across the counter. He said, “I can’t sit or lie down without awful pain, but I can get relief when I stretch across this counter.” “Brother Tom, I’m so sorry. That’s terrible,” I said. He replied, “No, no, I need to learn patience!” Somehow, my brother had decided that the pain he was experiencing would give him an opportunity to “learn patience.”
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about our relationship with Christ as one of transformation: “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (4:22-24). The apostle uses the imagery of clothing, putting off and putting on, to show the contrast of what we were before and what we should become after Christ has entered our lives. But it’s more than a fresh set of clothes we are putting on, but an entire self, a renewed spirit of mind, a self made in the likeness of God.
God has made it clear not only that He wants us to pray, but also to trust that our prayers can have great impact. To this end, the apostle Paul admonished Christians to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17) and the writer James stated, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (5:16b ESV). A life devoted to prayer with a faith that trusts these prayers are heard by the Lord should build confidence in His children!
Character studies have long been a staple of Bible teaching and preaching. This is certainly a God-approved plan since the divinely inspired New Testament writers reached back into ancient times to discuss people like Abraham, Sarah, Noah, and Moses to bolster their points about faithful service to God. In consideration of this type of teaching, consider three thoughts:
April 27th will be the 10 year anniversary of the Super Tornado Outbreak, one of the largest, costliest and deadliest tornadic events historically recorded and certainly the case in our lifetime. It was a significant event for many of us to live through, affecting us all adversely in some way. In total, at least 362 tornadoes were confirmed, contributing to a loss of 348 precious lives. One of those tornadoes, which cut a swath across Limestone and Madison counties, was later identified as an EF5 with over 200 mph winds, the highest rating possible. Many of us knew someone personally that succumbed to this horrific event.
