Speak Out


from Jan-Feb 2011 issue of COUNSEL Magazine

Popular posts from this blog

How To Begin The New Year

Image
   by William MacDonald "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you .”" (Exodus 12:2) New Year’s resolutions are good but fragile, that is, easily broken. New Year’s prayers are better; they ascend to the throne of God and set answering wheels in motion. As we come to the beginning of another year, we would do well to make the following prayer requests our own: · Lord Jesus, I rededicate myself afresh to You today. I want you to take my life this coming year and use it for Your glory. “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.” · I pray that You will keep me from sin, from anything that will bring dishonor to Your Name. · Keep me teachable by the Holy Spirit. I want to move forward for You. Don’t let me settle in a rut. · May my motto this year be, “He must increase; I must decrease.” The glory must all be Yours. Help me not to touch it. · Teach me to make every decision a matter of prayer...
Read more

A Distinguishing Trait of a True New Testament Church

Image
  by Robert Gessner (1930-2014) The church is not ashamed to bear the reproach of Christ. "For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews" (1 Thess. 2:14).      It is not the name of a local church that distinguishes it as being a pattern of the New Testament. The church may have a very unique title such as "The New Testament Church of Jesus Christ" and yet it may not follow the pattern displayed in the New Testament. It is not even the creed formulated by a local church that gives it the distinction of being patterned after the New Testament. The creed, as far as it goes, may be very true to New Testament theology, and yet the church may be far from meeting in a New Testament manner. Obviously, no church would meet New Testament credentials if it did not teach the basic truths of the New Testament; however, it is not just ...
Read more

The Christian and Politics

Image
“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”    2 Timothy 2:4 You would think that after reading a verse like that, no further commentary would be necessary concerning politics or many other matters.  However, in light of increasing involvement of professing Christians in politics it has become necessary to expound more specifically this and other texts related to our subject.       First of all, every true Christian is a soldier and servant of the Lord, and like it or not, is engaged in warfare.  And one reason why so many don’t even show up in the fight, or wage an ineffective spiritual warfare, being unable to “fight the good fight of faith,” is their entanglements.  This world system, (gr. kosmos), organized and headed by the devil, dedicated to the purpose of keeping men happy without God, dangles before Christians various lures of entanglement. Politi...
Read more