The Elon Challenger
ELON CHURCH OF CHRIST
New Hope, Alabama
Seeking to challenge your interest in things
spiritual & eternal (Eph. 6:10-18)
Volume 14 Number 12
August, 2017
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Table of Contents
“You Will Know Them by Their Fruits” ———————————————- Dylan Stewart
Can We Trust Our Feelings About Salvation? ————————————- Mike Johnson
Marriage——————————————————————————– Bennie Lee Fudge
Which Are You? ———————————————————————————-Unknown
Be Ye Thankful ——————————————————————————- Glen Young
Truth’s Narrow Door —————————————————————- Earl Kimbrough
A Father’s Greatest Sermon ————————————————————— Unknown
Why Be Baptized? ——————————————————————– Richie Thetford
Truth & Error; How to Tell the Difference —————————————— Steve Klein
The Church Belongs to Christ Because: ———————————————– Unknown
Worms for Sale—————————————————————————— Unknown
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“YOU WILL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS”
Dylan Stewart
In Matthew 7:15-16, Christ warns us about false prophets. He urges us to “beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” After warning us against these false prophets, Christ explains how we can identify them. He declares, “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” These verses analogize the teaching of the gospel by describing the natural production of fruit.
False prophets are not the only ones bearing fruits. Faithful Christians are commanded by Christ to bear fruits. Speaking to His apostles, Jesus says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit” (John 15:16). Jesus also tells us what we need to do in order to bear fruit: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5). A branch must stay firmly attached to the trunk to stay alive. As disciples of Christ, we must stay firmly connected to Him to remain spiritually productive. A branch draws strength, nourishment, protection, and energy from the vine. If it is broken off, it quickly dies and becomes unfruitful. When we neglect our spiritual life, ignore the Word of God, skimp on prayer, and withhold from fellowship with faithful brothers and sisters, we are like a branch broken off the vine. Our lives become fruitless. We need daily surrender, daily communication, and daily—sometimes hourly—repentance in order to “walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). According to Paul, Christians should produce the following fruits: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:16). Are we producing these same fruits? Remember Christ’s words: we will be known by our fruits!
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CAN WE TRUST OUR FEELINGS
ABOUT SALVATION?
Mike Johnson
Some people seem to rely solely on their feelings for assurance of personal salvation. They may say, “I know that I am saved because I feel that I am.” They will often ignore very plain passages in the Bible about salvation because of a “feeling” they have. Some are heard to say, as they pat their chest, “I would not give up this feeling I have in my heart for all of the Bibles in the world.” Are our feelings the correct way to determine if we are saved or not?
Suppose we were to ask the attendant at a deli for a pound of sliced ham. What would we do if the person cut some meat and said, “This feels like a pound, four dollars please.” We would probably ask the person to weigh the meat.
Further, many people have felt fine just prior to the time they died. Thus, feelings are not always reliable as to our physical health. There are many examples in secular matters that could be given which would show clearly that feelings are not always reliable.
Consider further the Old Testament example of Jacob. He was deceived by his sons into thinking that his son, Joseph, was dead, but his feelings were wrong (Gen. 37).
We must be careful about our feelings in religious matters also as they can be incorrect. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Again, Solomon said (Pb. 28:26), “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool ….” Saul is another example here when he was persecuting Christians. He thought he was doing right (Acts 26:9), and he could have said, “I know how I feel!” However, clearly, he was wrong.
How can we know if we are saved or not? We can turn to the Bible and see if we have done what it says. Feelings change, but the Bible is a safe, steady standard. John wrote in I John 5:13, “These things Have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.” One of the things John had written is found in I John 2:17 which says, “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
We can know that we are saved when we have done what the Bible says. Let us not be guilty of using our feelings as a standard instead of the Word of God.
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MARRIAGE:
Bennie Lee Fudge
The marriage relationship is the closest relationship on earth. Closer than that between parents and children, between brothers and sisters, between the closest of friends.
Young people should realize this and should go into the marriage with a full realization that they are to put their marriage companion ahead of their own parents and everyone else.
Gospel Minutes
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WHICH ARE YOU?
A lot of Christians are comparable to a lot of things we could think of:
Some are like wheelbarrows—not good unless pushed.
Some are like kites—if you don’t keep a string on them, they fly away.
Some are like footballs—you can’t tell which way they will bounce next.
Some are like trailers—they have to be pulled.
Some are like balloons—full of wind and ready to blow up.
Some are like neon lights—they keep going on and off.
Some are like a good watch—open face, active hands, pure gold, quietly busy and full of good works.
Unknown
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BE YE THANKFUL
Glen Young
Thankfulness is one of those neglected Bible subjects. I don’t mean that we are unaware of thankfulness being in the Bible. We just don’t give it the kind of thought we should. Being thankful is important to the Christian life.
The Old Testament hero, King David, understood the importance of being thankful toward God. “Oh give thanks unto Jehovah; For he is good; For his lovingkindness (endureth) for ever.” (Ps. 118:1) This statement is found several times in the Psalms, thus indicating the prominent place David gave to giving thanks to God for His loving-kindness.
Ingratitude is a plague upon society. When men leave off the gentle virtue of being thankful, they degenerate into selfish children who think that they should receive anything and everything they desire. Like a two year old, they see something and say, “I want it, right now!” If they do not get ‘it,’ they become sullen and bemoan their miserable life. However, if they do get ‘it,’ they revel in their new gift without ever being grateful to the giver.
As Christians, we must not be as those who are unthankful. “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in one body; and be ye thankful. … And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, (do) all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col. 3:15 & 17).
Not only should we learn the lesson of being thankful, but we should learn the lesson of being thankful for the correct things. Again, like spoiled children, we become overwhelmed with disappointment simply because we fail to get what we want.
Too many religious people think of God as the genie in the bottle. They expect to be granted the fulfillment of their every wish. They should learn a lesson from Job. “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” Job 2:9-10. Are we thankful when evil comes our way? James says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” James 1:2 (NIV). To be filled with resentment, anger and remorse because life is not the way you think it ought to be, identifies you as a thankless person.
So what, if we do not have the fine house we want. Jesus didn’t even have a house (Luke 9:58). So what, if we never stand before the multitudes and hear their adoring adulation. Jesus was despised and rejected of men (Isaiah 53:3) and then crucified like a common criminal though He was innocent (Lk. 23:4).
When you pillow your head tonight, will you be thankful for the day which God has given you? Even if it was a day filled with many kinds of trials? Be thankful Pilgrim, be thankful for the proper things, for godliness with contentment is gain (1 Timothy 6:6).
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TRUTH’S NARROW DOOR
Earl Kimbrough
Jesus said, “Strive to enter in by the narrow door.” (Lk. 13:24, RSV) Truth is always narrow. This is true of all truth. Two plus two equals four. Of all the answers that might be given as the sum of two plus two, only one is right. A person who accepts the correct answer is necessarily “narrow-minded”—just as narrow in mind as the truth. Religious truth is also narrow. Whatever Christ teaches is truth and however “broadminded” one might be, it will not change that fact. One’s mind should be only broad enough to accept whatever is true, and it should be narrow enough to exclude whatever is not truth. When two things contradict, one or both are false. Truth does not contradict itself. The man who tries to accept all teaching in religion as “alright” if sincerely believed, would be a fool if he so acted in any other realm. Why does religion make it different?
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A FATHER’S GREATEST SERMON
The farmer and his family, after a hard year of typical farm work, were rewarded with an unusually fine crop of grain. There were happy days ahead.
Just a few days before harvest came a terrible wind and hail storm. The entire crop was destroyed! After the storm was over, the farmer, with his wife and little boy at his side, went out to the back porch to view the field and the damage.
The little boy looked at what was formerly a beautiful field of wheat, and tearfully looked up at his dad expecting to hear words of despair.
All at once his father started to sing softly, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee….” Years later, the little boy now grown said, “That was the greatest sermon I have ever heard.”
The farmer had lost a grain crop, but because of his faith, manifested in great trail, he had gained forever for the Lord the soul of his son. The son saw the faith of a godly man in practice!
Author Unknown
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WHY BE BAPTIZED
Richie Thetford
There are two main points of view about why a person should be baptized. One view holds that baptism is a purely symbolic act which should be done in order to show that we have recently been saved. The other view says that, while baptism is symbolic of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, that it is more than just a symbol. This view holds that baptism is a direct and vital command of the Lord which must be obeyed in order to receive salvation.
If you have been baptized, think back for a moment about why you were you baptized. Was it because you felt that you had recently been saved, or were you baptized in order to be saved? And now with this question in mind, let’s turn to the Bible to see what God really says about why a person should be baptized. In Acts Chapter 2, verse 38, the Apostle Peter in his great sermon on the day of Pentecost said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. The Bible says in this passage that both repentance and baptism are equally necessary for the remission of sins. When we remember that Peter was speaking by the inspiration of God, this verse should forever settle this question in our own minds. Baptism, according to the Bible, is not because we have already been saved, but in order to save us by washing away our sins. Does baptism really wash away sins? Some say no. The Bible says yes!
In other related scriptures, we read that “Baptism doth also now save us” (1 Peter 3: 21). The Apostle Paul adds that we are not even in Christ until we have been scripturally baptized. We read this in Galatians 3:27, and in Romans 6:3-4). If you have never obeyed the Lord by being baptized for the remission of sins as the Bible requires, I encourage you to do so today before it is everlastingly too late.
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TRUTH AND ERROR; HOW TO
TELL THE DIFFERENCE
Steve Klein
We learn about a thing by experiencing it. Babies learn sweet from sour, hot from cold, and wet from dry by experiencing these things. Even so, we learn spiritual truth by experiencing it in God’s word, which is truth (John 17:17). Our use of God’s word enables us to readily distinguish between truth and error. Haddon Robinson relates the following story that illustrates this point:
A Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade went to study with a talented old teacher. This gentleman put a piece of the stone into the youth’s hand and told him to hold it tight. Then he began to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun, and almost everything under it. After an hour he took back the stone and sent the boy home. The procedure was repeated for weeks. The boy became frustrated-when would he be told about jade? – but he was too polite to interrupt his venerable teacher. Then one day when the old man put a stone into his hands, the boy cried out instantly, “That’s not jade!” (Biblical Preaching, p.102).
In Hebrews 5:12-14, the inspired writer is addressing Christians who were not mature enough to tell the difference between right and wrong. He admonishes them with these words: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
There are two words in the text that shed much light on our current topic. The first is the word “unskilled” and it means “inexperienced.” The Hebrew Christians had not progressed and developed because they did not have enough experience in the word. As a result, they were like children who cannot discern right from left; they were spiritual babes who could not tell right from wrong. The second word to consider is the word “exercised.” It comes from the Greek word “gymnazo” from which we get our word “gymnasium” – the place where athletes practice and train. Those who regularly use God’s word have their senses trained to “discern both good and evil.”
Why is it that some brethren don’t seem to be able to identify obvious error when they hear it? Why are so many Christians bogged down in their spiritual lives by moral relativism and compromises with the world? Can we not tell the difference between good and evil? Could the root of the problem be that we have had no meaningful experience with the “word of righteousness?”
My friends, may we this day resolve to hold God’s word in our hearts – to study it, meditate on it, and practice it — so that when we’re given something else we will be able to simply exclaim, “That’s not truth!”
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THE CHURCH BELONGS TO
CHRIST BECAUSE:
- He built it. (Matt. 16:18)
- He is its foundation. (I Cor. 3:11)
- He is its chief corner stone. (Eph. 2:19-22)
- He purchased it with His blood. (Acts 20:28)
- He is its head. (Eph. 5:23)
- He governs its worship. (Jn. 4:24)
- He assigned its work. (Eph. 4:11-16)
- He is its Savior (Eph. 5:23)
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WORMS FOR SALE
It is an old story, but is still worth telling. A lark, singing in the high branches of a tree, saw a traveler walking through the forest carrying a mysterious little black box. The lark flew down and perched on the traveler’s shoulder.
“What do you have in the little black box?’ he asked. “Worms,” the traveler replied. “Are they for sale?” asked the lark. “Yes, and very cheap, too, the price is only one feather.”
The lark thought for a moment. “I must have a million feathers. Most of them quite small. Surely “I’ll never miss one of them. Here is an opportunity to get a good dinner for no work at all.” So he told the man that he would buy just one.
He searched carefully under his wing for a tiny, tiny feather. He winced a bit as he pulled it out, but the size and quality of the worm made him quickly forget the pain. High up in the tree he began to sing as beautifully as before.
The next day he saw the same man and once more he exchanged a feather for a worm. “What a wonderful way to get dinner—and no effort at all!” he thought.
We skip the next day, and the next, for we are sure you are way ahead of us. In any event, he lost a feather each day and each loss seemed to hurt less and less. Finally, after the loss of one of his primary feathers, he could no longer reach the top of the tree, let alone fly up into the sky. The lark no longer sang because he was ashamed of his fallen state.
This is how unworthy habits possess us. First, painfully, then more easily until at last we find ourselves stripped of all that lets us soar and sing. This is how our freedom in Christ is lost; sacrificing one by one our Christian virtues for pleasures.
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The Elon Challenger is published monthly by the church of Christ meeting at 4021 Hobbs Island Road in Owens Cross Roads. The mailing address is PO Box 149, New Hope, AL, 35760 where any comments, questions, or requests for further information can be sent. The Challenger is also distributed monthly to the Elon congregation as an eight page, paper publication. The editor is Mike Johnson.
The website address is www.elonchurchofchrist.com.
Evangelist & Editor: Mike Johnson
www.seekingthingsabove.org