By, Mike Riley In performing our day-to-day tasks, there are days our computers help us to “fly like an eagle.” Other times, they bog us down like quicksand. On “eagle days” we’re grateful for our computers, but there are those “quicksand days” when we probably rue the day we ever bought one.
By, G.E. Watkins Fathers! With every step you take, and every word you say, with every book you read, and every conversation with your wife, with every responsibility you take, and every thing you neglect, you are teaching your children. Fathers can’t get around it, fathers teach their children.
By Jay Luminus – 2020 Maud Church of Christ Maud, TX
What causes a person to board a plane, train, ship or auto and head out to a distant vacation destination? Escape, to ger away from the busyness and challenges of life for a while and to experience perhaps a beautiful new place. For Christians, the final destination is Heaven. It is one of the motivating factors that keep us moving through life. But what will it be like? What is it that draws us to it and gives us hope of being there for eternity? • Heaven is God’s dwelling place – 2 Chronicles 6:39 • Jesus Christ is There – Colossians 3:1 • A Place of Many Mansions (Dwellings) – John 14:2 • All things will Be Like New – Revelation 21:5 • There Will be Non-Stop Worship – Revelation 4:8 • Heaven has Been Prepared Just for Us – John 14:3 • Heaven has a Zero Crime Rate – Matthew 6:20 • We’ll Never be Sad in Heaven – Isaiah 60:20 • No One will Cry or Be in Pain – Revelation 21:4 • No Alarm Clocks or Deadlines in Heaven – Revelation 21:23 • We Will See Him and Be Like Christ – 1 John 3:2 • We’ll Never Grow Old in Heaven – 1 Corinthians 15:52 • Heaven’s Beauty is Indescribable – 1 Corinthians 2:9 Wow! I want to go, don’t you?
We are in full swing of the spring season! The trees plants and flowers are green and colorful. Nature has renewed itself one again. This season can bring to one’s mind ideas of personal renewal, a time to start fresh and new. As believers, we have the great blessing of renewal in times of spiritual difficulty or weakness. When we first come to Christ, the scriptures say that we put off the old man (person) and are renewed in the spirit of our mind (Ephesians 4: 2-24), but it doesn’t stop there. We’ll still struggle with worldly desires and thoughts but have the continued opportunity to avoid conforming to this world, but rather being transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). Living the life of a Christian can be overwhelming at times, especially when combined with the physical and mental stresses of everyday life. But our confidence can be found in the following verse, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16). Just as the tree puts out new leaves, the birds build new nests and the grass grows green again, we have the great blessing of spiritual renewal.
Praise God that He is not absent from this world. In fact, He has created all of us with the purpose that man “should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him…” (Acts 17:27). You and I are built with an instinct seeking God to know Him, but the last part of Acts 17:27 is most encouraging, “though He is not far from each one of us.” God has not left us as “babes in the woods” but freely gives us reassurance that He is there