DISCIPLE

    “And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer” (Rev. 10:6).        The Bible teaches us that our lives are fragile and our time is short. “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psa. 90:10).  We should be humbled by this, and strive to use time wisely (Psa. 90:12; Eph. 5:16), since we have none to spare.    We who are Christians are greatly blessed to know that the Lord is with us always – to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20 ), and will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). But the unsaved have no such promises.     David, in troubled times, looked heavenward and said, “My times are in thy hand” (Psa. 31:15).  As believers we can echo these

 Note: The following is not from an actual dream or experience, but simply the use of a story to convey certain thoughts. THE CHRISTMAS THAT JESUS  CAME TO MY HOUSE by Carl T. Knott, Jr. the watercolor illustrations were done by Emily R. Knott de González It was the first morning of the Christmas holidays. School was out, and my wife and children had just left for some last-minute gift shopping. I sat quietly at my desk addressing Christmas cards while "Silver Bells" played on my stereo radio. It was then that I heard a knock on the front door. I put down the pen and listened. There it was again. Who could that be? A friend dropping by for a visit? Maybe bringing a gift? The mailman with a holiday package? One of the neighborhood children? I turned down the stereo, walked to the door, and opened it. There He was. He didn't look like the Bible storybook pictures of Him. He was different, yet, somehow I sensed instantly who He was. Maybe it was the look in His eyes. But whe

          In today’s society it’s increasingly common to see men with long hair. Sports figures, singers, actors and other artists are among those setting a bad example for young people in this and other areas. For example, many male athletes display long flowing locks, earrings, and bodies covered with tattoos. When the rich and famous, popular athletes, singers or actors have long hair, dreadlocks, ponytails, piercings, earrings, tattoos, or wear bracelets, necklaces, or a certain style or brand of clothes, the tendency is to imitate them. Others say they just like to wear their hair long; it’s a personal thing. This article focuses on men, but women are equally guilty of imitating the world’s fashions, and use the same excuses.      “Be not conformed to this world,” Romans 12:2 exhorts. Phillips in his paraphrase of the New Testament puts it this way, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.” That’s exactly what happens when Christians take their cues from th

An American parody of Luke 2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from the U.S. Treasury, that all of America should go shopping. 2 (And this decree was  first made when leading economic indicators dipped to their lowest point.) 3 And all went out to shop, each to his own mall. 4 And a Christian also went up from his suburban home to the city with its many malls because he wanted to prove he was from the household of prosperity. 5 And with him was  his wife, who was great with economic worry. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, they found many expensive presents, pudgy-faced dolls, trucks that turn into robots, and a various assortment of video games. 7 And the woman wrote checks for those they could afford and charged the rest on many different kinds of plastic cards; she wrapped the presents in bright paper and laid them in the garage; for there was no room for them in her closet. 8 And there were in the same county children keeping

  Many today are concerned about maintaining the standards of the Reformation; others, those of the so-called Fathers; but the author of these papers is not concerned with standards such as these. It is not sufficient to get back to the Reformation, however blessed this movement was of God; still less to the teachings and practices of the successors of the Apostles. The latter invariably warned us of those who would succeed them, and commend us alone to God and the Word of His grace.     The author, then, knows no standard of authority but the Holy Scriptures. To argue from history and tradition would be to meet the enemy on his own platform, and to court defeat. But he is silenced when, in simplicity and faith, we meet him with the Word of God.     How important then, it is for us to go to the Fountain Head of truth and to search reverently and weigh solemnly the Scriptures to which the author has appealed in support of his statements, statements which contradict the cumulative author

W. E. Vine, respected author of the well-known Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words , exposes the pagan origins of the Christmas celebration in his little-known but equally scholarly work, The Origin and Rise of Ecclesiasticism. Excerpt from Chapter 4, Further Developments Towards The Papal System "...We have noticed the combined effect upon the churches, in the third century, of the desire for worldly aggrandizement on the part of the Church leaders, and of the patronage of the Emperors, who on their part saw possibilities of unifying the elements of the State through the instrumentality of the Church. With a view to establishing his throne on a secure basis, the Emperor Constantine the Great reconstructed the official arrangements of the Imperial Government, and adjusted the constitution of the Church so as to model it approximately to that of the State. The ecclesiastical organization of the churches, by this time so vastly different from the New Testament