Evangelism takes money. Taking the Gospel to “all creation” (Mark 16:15) simply cannot be done without monetary funds. From supporting preachers to providing materials to helping with benevolent needs, money is needed if we are going to win the world for Christ. However, not every aspect of taking the Gospel to others costs money. Often, when we think of evangelizing the world, we only see the overwhelming numbers (over 7billion people; costs that could be very high) and we shy away. May I suggest to you, though, that there are several ways you can flood your community, and even much of the world, with the Gospel without spending a dime?…

Jesus said near the end of the Sermon on the Mount: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23) Jesus went on to finish His sermon by telling the parable of the wise and foolish builders. The moral explained in the parable is plain.…

Most who read this will be very familiar with the account of the conversion of the man who has come to be known as “the Ethiopian eunuch.” If you are not familiar with that material, you may want to read it in Acts 8:26-40. I was sitting in a Bible class recently in which a very good point was made about these events. The observation was made that Philip began his conversation with the eunuch by asking him whether or not he understood what he was reading (v. 30). This passage was compared to other cases of conversion recorded in Acts. It was also compared to people who have been brought to Christ in…

If a congregation chooses to have a Bible school program, one of the more difficult tasks is having a vibrant adult class or classes. Part of the reason for that is that it can be difficult to find literally years’ worth of good material. Think about it this way: a student is only in the youth group for about four years. If a class uses the quarter system on both Sundays and Wednesdays, that is still just 32 quarters of material. That sounds like a lot… …until you start looking at it beyond the youth group. Let’s say that same person leaves for a couple of years to go to college, then…

A recent study found that 72% of American adults believed in heaven, while about 58% believed in hell. These numbers are down from past decades. The concepts of eternal rewards and punishments are just not as accepted as the once were – but why? In particular, the reality of hell is something that many people in the 21st Century are just not willing to believe.  Again we might ask why.  After doing a good deal of reading and research on the opinions of those who do not believe in hell, the following seem to represent their most cited opinions: ·         An eternal place of punishment seems like an unjust consequence for…

Most of us are familiar with the little hand exercise that begins with: here is the church; here is the steeple. Depending on whether or not we have our fingers interlocked, it may end with: open the door; where’s all the people – or –  open the door; there’s all the people. If only it were that simple. If only the church and the people were two different things, life might be so much more simple. “Church problems” could be fixed with hammers, saws, paint, etc. if the church really was only a building.  I fully understand that, when many people think of the word “church,” they think of a building. To be sure,…

[Editor’s Note: Today’s article is a guest post from Jonathan Medley from the Pippen church of Christ. We are grateful for his willingness to share this article with our readers.] At one time, society considered the admission of being homosexual extremely taboo, and it ruined the reputation and careers of many high-profile individuals. More importantly, society considered it sinful. However, society has changed. Today, it almost seems “fashionable” to some to be homosexual, and there are many who unashamedly proclaim it to the world. Along with the change in society has come the concept of thinking that someone is “born this way.” By that, they claim that being homosexual is encoded into the person’s genetic…

Satan is good. He is horribly, terribly good. Oh, he’s not good in the sense that he is free from malice or evil. But he is good at his work. What exactly is the work of Satan? From the beginning, he has been a master deceiver seeking to disrupt the peace and harmony between God and man. In the book of Job, when questioned about his activity Satan said he had been “…going to and fro on the earth, and … walking up and down on it.” He conveniently left out what Peter reveals about those earthly wanderings in 1 Peter 5:8: “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring…

In the old King James Version, it was called “whispering” (Romans 1:29; 2 Corinthians 12:20). Today, we call it gossip. More than that, though, we often laugh at it, treating it as something harmless that people just do. In reality, gossip is a hideous sin, and it will destroy lives…and can even destroy a congregation. So…What is “Gossip?” To understand why gossip is so dangerous, though, we must understand what gossip is. The King James Version uses the word “whispering” or “whisperers” to translate the word that we usually think of as “gossip.” The reason why they chose that word was actually very good. There was another Greek term that…