Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 5 is challenging to our sense of right and wrong. He calls us there to “go the extra mile,” and this teaching can inspire us to reach beyond our natural sense of goodness to a supernatural expression of God’s love to the world around us.
During our Thursday night meeting, Brother Deron Porter shared this message on Ruth and Naomi’s experiences as they returned to Bethlehem.
When Jesus meets Nathaniel at the beginning of the Gospel of John, He tells him he would see “heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). By calling up the imagery from Jacob’s dream of the opened heaven, the Christ reveals the true significance of the Christmas story. The real question is, how will we respond to the wonder of it?
During this advent season, the ministry of John the Baptist takes on special significance as he prepared the way of the Lord. While we wait for the Lord to come into our lives and our situations, the valleys must be filled and the mountains laid low. The message of the gospel both humbles us and exalts us, depending on our unique need.
Advent is a season of waiting, and as we look at the condition of our lives and wait for the coming of Jesus, we can sometimes think there is little hope or beauty to be seen. However, when Jesus comes into our situation, He brings a beauty we can only begin to imagine. We spent time this Lord’s Day considering some scriptures on the Lord Jesus as the shoot from the stump of Jesse.
The account of King Asa in 2 Chronicles reminds us of the importance of turning to God for help in the midst of trouble rather than seeking the wisdom of man. May we all take this warning to heart!
When we stumble as believers, the Lord is not through with us. Instead, as Peter tells us, he intends to “restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us. As we look at the way the Lord restored Peter himself after he failed, we can gain encouragement for those times when we are at our lowest.
The picture of the Lord Jesus in 1 Peter 2 as the Cornerstone, rejected by men but chosen by God, is an encouraging one for us as we endure various forms of rejection in our own lives.
Brother Norris uses two object lessons to show the power of the gospel message in providing strength for us to endure the sufferings we face in this life.
There are several reasons the Lord left us with the practice of regularly breaking the bread and drinking the cup in remembrance of him. Brother Richard goes through several of these purposes as revealed in 1 Corinthians 11.
During a visit to our area, Brother Viv John preached an encouraging message on the “musts” of the Son, the Servant, the Savior, and the soul winner at our Thursday night meeting.
This briefest statement of the Lord from the cross holds a lot for our consideration. More than simply physical thirst, these words reveal the depth to which the Lord Jesus thirsts for our salvation and for the holiness of God to be manifest on the earth. Even in the darkest of moments, we were on His heart!
Looking at verses in John 10 and Psalm 23, we see several beautiful aspects of the Lord Jesus as our Shepherd, the One who knows us, who laid down His life for us, and who leads us in the paths we take throughout our lives.
May the doctrine concerning the imminent coming of Jesus Christ convict, comfort, and compel us to move forward in power as we live the life of faith.
By looking at three places in the Word where we see someone changing their clothes, we can see a beautiful picture of what the Lord has done to obtain our salvation and also a challenging call for us to respond to this wonderful work.
As the elderly Apostle John was worshiping in the Spirit one Lord’s Day, he was given a vision of the resurrected Lord Jesus. Each aspect of this glorious vision reveals something about the Lord that still resonates with us today.
Galatians 4 gives us a beautiful glimpse into the blessings that come with our redemption: namely, the adoption to sonship. May this word encourage you as you realize just how much God loves and cherishes you in Christ.
When we pass through storms in our lives—both literal and metaphorical—we need the Lord Jesus in a very real and concrete way. As we in South Florida anticipated the impact of Hurricane Dorian, we meditated on five things we need from the Lord as we pass through an intimidating storm.
In the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus, we see the three disciples—and especially Peter—coming to a new appreciation of the Lord’s peerlessness, His purpose in coming to earth, and His power. May we also receive a clearer vision of His glory!
Scripture is filled with the greatness of God. In this meditation following our Breaking of Bread meeting, Brother Richard Ledgister drew our attention to seven “greats” in the New Testament that we receive through the work of the Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep (Heb. 13:20).