Church Life
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A Sad Epitaph (and Maybe a Wake-Up Call)
After a kingdom that was once united divided into Israel and Judah, a man by the name of Jehoram became the fifth king of Judah. It would be an understatement to suggest that he was not one of their better kings. The book of 2 Chronicles is not the only place in The Bible that has information about him, but I will confine my thoughts here to what we find there. The twenty-first chapter of 2 Chronicles uses only twenty verses to sum up the entire reign of this man. The verbal picture it paints is (again to use another understatement) not at all pretty. If you have the interest…
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Better Resurrection
Does this ever happen to you: You are reading about a topic you have studied many times before but a particular phrase or concept seems to jump off the page at you? Often when this happens to me, as I continue to study I realize that I have used my love of language to glean a meaning that isn’t actually present in what I just read. However, those nuggets often become food for thought and further study. That happened when I was studying about all the ways the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is better. He is a better High Priest of a better covenant, with better promises,…
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Thank You, Mary Jane
[NOTE: Rarely do I post my bulletin articles from Central on our blog, but I made an exception in this case. The funeral for Mary Jane Kizer is being held on the day this article is being released and I wanted to share these words as a tribute to a lady who means a lot to Leah and me. I also chose to leave the “cover photo” blank out of respect for this emotional time. I hope this post honors Mary Jane.] Many of you have read the New Testament through. Some have read it numerous times, from Matthew to Revelation. In reading the entire New Testament, you have come across…
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What Is an EDA?
I’ve noticed what (at least for me) is a relatively new trend at politics events. To be honest, the trend may not be new, but a label may be. Now that both political parties have had their conventions, it may be safe to post this without seeming to take sides (I hope). At conventions, rallies, etc., there are always the usual types of speakers. Well known political people and other “important people” are part of the lineup. Most of them need no introduction. There are others, though, who do need some sort of introduction. Their names are not well-known and are probably forgotten not long after their speeches are complete.…
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Episode 177: Adam’s Bible Corner: Ruth 1:15-18
https://media.blubrry.com/faughnfamily/content.blubrry.com/faughnfamily/Ruth_1_15-18_Adam_s_Bible_Corner.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS (Player not displaying or working? Click here to listen.) Find our podcast on… Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher TuneIn Radio RSS
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Taste Your Talk; Tame Your Tone
Many years ago I developed a lesson to present at a Ladies’ Day entitled “Ten Commandments for Christian Women.” I used it multiple times at different places and it was almost always well received. Obviously, it was not all-inclusive because the Bible contains many commandments for both men and women. I simply selected 10 that I thought would be most helpful to women in particular. The title of this post contains two of those commandments given by God. Oh, He doesn’t say them exactly like that, but he does teach the principle. I selected these two to write about in this post because of what I’m hearing (or reading) from Christian…
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When Not to Call It a “Bible School Program”
I suppose one of the most common ways to refer to what some call “Sunday School” is to refer to it as the “Bible school program.” Children, teens, and adults attend classes and, over the years, hear hundreds of lessons. But today I want to give three times when calling it the “Bible school program” is not accurate, and each one provides something to honestly evaluate. First, don’t call it the “Bible school program” if it is not actually a program; in other words, if there is little-to-no organization. A great deal of time and attention needs to be paid to evaluating curriculum, for example. And, by the way, that…
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PTP
PTP. What in the world do those three initials stand for? At times you may hear people (including Donna and me) using these initials, but you may have no idea what we are talking about. While PTP is under the oversight of an eldership of a church of Christ in Alabama and is intended to strengthen and encourage churches of Christ, sadly (in my opinion), even some of “us” may not know that PTP stands for… Polishing the Pulpit. Contrary to what may first come to mind, we are not discussing what I guess could be called a piece of furniture used in some places during worship services. Rather, what…
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Refreshment
I don’t know about where you live, but where I am in Tennessee, it has been HOT! My 3rd graders come in from recess looking like their heads are about to explode from their brief time outside. Yesterday when I had car duty, I could feel sweat on my shins. Shins aren’t supposed to sweat! Perhaps that is why, as I was studying for a Bible class, the idea of refreshment seemed to jump off the page at me. My class is using the materials provided by ValleyBibleStudies.com to study through the New Testament. We are looking at Philemon this week. After appealing to Philemon to receive Onesimus as a…
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How to Study the Bible
If you came to this article expecting some “7-step process” on Bible study, you might as well click away now. Instead, this is based on something I am getting ready to teach and I am really excited about it. But, in some ways, I’m more excited about the process that led to this teaching opportunity. Starting next Wednesday, I will have a class of probably about 10 people and we will be taking the fall Bible school quarter (September through November) to walk through a class entitled “How to Study the Bible.” Here’s the thing: those 10 are our teenage boys…and the teen girls are studying the same thing in…
