Articles
Jesus is Real
JESUS IS REAL
By Steve Melton, August 10, 2024
For those coming to Christ.
Believe that Jesus is real.
It starts out by faith in Him.
Later it is something you can feel.
Jesus is Lord of all creation.
But, a servant to us all.
He has opened the door to salvation.
To those who heed His call.
Jesus will judge all the people.
From Eden til the final day.
Will you receive His mercy?
Only you will have the final say.
Jesus came from heaven.
To live and be a true man.
He is the only sacrifice for sin.
This is God’s only plan.
We must give our all to Jesus.
Our mind, body and soul.
For eternity, He will take us to heaven.
But, only if we give Him full control.
Taken for Granted
One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.
He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she may be ill, or that something serious had happened. He found her lounging in the bedroom, still curled in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.
He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?" She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what in the world I did today?" "Yes" was his incredulous reply. She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it."
We often take for granted those things that others do for us, and it sometimes takes their absence for us to appreciate what they do. Now think... what if God took the day off? Psalm 145:1-3 - “I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.” Acts 17:28 - "For in Him we live and move and have our being..."
It’s Not Fair!
John Selden wrote an essay on Equity and Fairness in his book Table Talk in 1645: "Equity is a roguish thing. For Law we have a measure, know what to trust to; Equity is according to the conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower, so is Equity. 'Tis all one as if they should make the standard for the measure we call a 'foot' a Chancellor's foot; what an uncertain measure would this be! One Chancellor has a long foot, another a short foot, a third an indifferent foot. 'Tis the same thing in the Chancellor's conscience."
Fairness and equity are often defined by the times. 300 years ago, slavery was considered fair. Today in Africa, Muslims are enslaving Christians, and no one in the world considers this fair except African Muslims. It changed. Who is to say that in another 300 years slavery might be accepted again among the ungodly? It happened among the children of Israel.
What our culture, leaders, and judges consider fair today has changed over the years, not always for the better. Equal pay for equal work is fair. Yet, victims of crime suffer, while criminals are pampered. That's unfair. And it will change again in another 50 years. Man's conscience is always changing to conform to evolving philosophical fashions. It is comforting to know that the true standard, by which all other measures of fairness are judged, remains the same. "The word of God that lives and abides forever" (1Peter 1:23).
Nor does the Chancellor, the Judge, change His conscience with the times. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). We tend to overlook a few things in our own lives. He will judge us carefully. Some judge themselves too harshly. He will judge with mercy. We judge ourselves by our culture's standards of fairness and ethics. He will judge us by the eternal standard of fairness.
My admonition is to get acquainted with and practice what is written in the eternal standard of fairness and right (John 12:47-50). Do not judge God's word by what you think is fair and right. Judge yourself by what God has said is fair and right.
A Moments Wisdom
--Few of us realize that racism is man’s gravest threat to man, the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason, the maximum of cruelty for a minimum of thinking.
--The rewards of heaven are so great and glorious, and Christ’s burden is so light, his yoke so easy, that it is a shameless impudence to expect so great glories at a less rate than so little a service, at a lower rate than a holy life.
--The State that undermines the authority of God and rejects the supremacy of the moral order is thereby destroying the strongest supports of its own authority and is on the way to ruin.
Upcoming Sermons
8/18/24 AM - “Who is This Son of Man?” PM - Rebuilding the Tower of Babel
8/25/24 AM - Have You Been Transformed or Just Baptized? PM - Boaz the Redeemer
9/1/24 AM - Humility Vs. Self-Deprecation (Requested); PM - Congregational Choice of Songs
9/8/24 AM - We are Never Alone; PM - The Day Everything Went Wrong
9/15/24 AM - Guest Speaker; PM - Guest Speaker
9/22/24 AM - Guest Speaker; PM - Guest Speaker
9/29/24 AM - “For Ye are the Light of the World”; PM - Guest Speaker: Doug Sanders
