Hiawatha church of Christ

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash Cleansing through the Word The Psalmist raised the question, “How can a young man cleanse his way?”  Within the same passage he answers the question. He states, “…By taking heed according to Your word.” (Psalms 119:9) It is not possible to live pleasing unto God apart from the knowledge of His word. In the book of Hosea the Lord states, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6a).  Therefore, it is to our advantage to know the will of God and to follow the teachings contained within. The word of God helps us to cleanse our way by first revealing the devastation of sin. Paul wrote, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’”. (Romans 7:7) The word of God reveals to us what sin is and the consequences of it. Isaiah said it this way, “But your iniquities have se...

  On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached the first gospel sermon. Within that sermon Peter convicted the men of that day that they were the ones who had consented to the death of the Lord. Consequently, they were cut to the heart, and they asked the all-important question, “Men and brethren what shall we do?” Peter told them that they must repent and be baptized everyone of them into the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins.” (Acts 2:38). In response, about three thousand souls were baptized (vs. 41) and thus added to the church (vs. 47). What point were they saved? This question has been the subject of much debate among bible teachers. There is the popular teaching that salvation takes place at the point of faith. To prove their point, they will use such passages as Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Or they will use Acts 10:43, “…whoever believes in Him will receive the remission of sins.” When we ...

  The walls had come down! Israel had just won its first victory in the land of promise. Jericho had been destroyed. Rahab and her family had been saved. The next city on the chopping block was Ai. Ai was such a small city that Joshua was advised, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.” (Joshua 7:3) When Israel attacked, they were met with defeat. They turned their backs to their enemies and thirty-six of their men perished. Joshua was dismayed and came before the Lord. He informed Joshua the reason for the defeat was sin in the camp. If the sin was not dealt with, there would be not more victories in the land of Canaan. Achan committed a great sin against God and his own people. He coveted the accursed things from Jericho and hid them in his tent (Joshua 7:21). Earlier, Joshua gave specific instructions not to take any of the accursed things from Jericho (...

  Paul wrote, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” Romans 12:18. It is a well-known fact that there are some people in this world you are not going to live in peace with no matter how good and nice you are to them. Some people just hate for no reason whatsoever. What we must keep in mind is that they are the exception and not the rule. Paul teaches us to do all that is within our power to live at peace with others. Before diving into how we do this, we should note that there are limits. For example, we cannot compromise the truth of God’s word for the sake of peace with others. The apostles were commanded by the council to stop preaching Christ. Peter responded, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) Peter was not about to compromise the truth of the gospel for the comfort of the officials. We do well to remember that the gospel is not ours to compromise. Therefore, we must be bold for Christ. While living at peace with all...