Articles From Our Bulletins
Reflecting the Internal Light of Christ with Our Worthy Walk
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, de-ceiving ourselves." (James 1:22, ESV)
Do you consider your Christian service as your life-style? It is essential that Christians devote time to hear-ing God's word proclaimed, to encouraging one anoth-er through songs of praise to God and instruction to man, to discerning the body during communion, to studying what the Word says; but let us realize it is not enough to just make application to our lives only with-in the walls of the building, to stirring up one another to love and good works only within the walls of the building, to putting on humility, love, and the eternal verities of the gospel only within the walls of the build-ing. It is good to hear a sermon: it is better to live a sermon by allowing the principles of truth to embody themselves in our actions of fellowship with others in our daily walk. Please consider the following.
Christian life is being with God's people. Recall the example of the early church, of whom it was written, "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the pray-ers." (Ac. 2:42) These brethren, having all things in common, lived for common purpose, living the doc-trine they believed and taught others.
Devotion and hospitality is about how we spend our time. There is a time for every purpose under heaven. (Eccl. 3:1) Do we set aside time to spend with our fam-ily according to the spirit? Despite all the duties and obligations the church had in caring for its children, its families, its careers, these early brethren devoted time to showing hospitality to others.
How we spend our time is a choice we make. As we conduct ourselves with fear in the time that Yahweh God has given each of us, let us decide to make choic-es which reflect the love that God has for us and the love we have for him. (1 Pet. 1:17)
Each choice we make can have an effect on how others spend eternity. Christ's disciples are to live lives of good works for others, especially for saints. (Gal. 6:9-10) Consider that song which states how sad it was that Christ was never mentioned to a member of the world by members of the church. What if that member of the world had witnesses the good works of Christ's disci-ples, had been on the receiving end of a gracious or merciful act? Consider all of the works that God has done for you that you do not deserve; how should we treat those to whom we may do good? Let us consider how we may practice doing good first for other saints, then extending our personal good works to those who are not yet saints. Our good works show the world what light we have inside us; let us reflect the internal light of Christ with our steps and with our hands.
