Wellington Church of Christ

Within the hearts of the disciples of Jesus was the desire to be great, but not great in the way that God defines greatness.  They wanted to be great in the way that the world defines greatness.  They wanted to be in charge.  To run the show.  To have the authority.  To be the boss.  They often fought about who was the greatest among them.

In Matthew 20:26, Jesus responded to them in their wrong way of thinking by saying,

²⁶…whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant;

Jesus was explaining to them that they were completely wrong in their thinking.  Not a little bit wrong.  Completely wrong.

Over the years I’ve learned through a lot of trial and error what helps me to speak with the most confidence. 

There are many factors that come into play when it comes to speaking with confidence, but there is only one that I highly esteem: knowledge.

Think about it.  What questions do you love to answer?  In my experience, I’ve found that most people love to answer questions regarding subjects in which they are very knowledgeable.  Even people who are presumed to be quiet or shy typically enjoy speaking out when they are knowledgeable.

There are some things that are crucial for Christians to understand.  One of those things is our understanding of fairness.

Oxford Dictionary defines fairness as, impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination.

If we don’t have a good understanding of fairness, our thinking can get really messed up.  So what do we need to know, exactly?  Here are a couple things that help:

Some of the saddest words recorded in the Bible are in Matthew 19:22 –

²² But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.

No matter how many times I read it, the story of the “Rich Young Ruler” always causes me heartache.  How could he walk away?  On bended knee before the Lord Jesus, he’s invited by the Lord Himself to

²² …come, follow Me.

In the long history of the Church, there is only one teaching strategy that I have ever approved of in order to lead others to salvation, which is, to teach salvation in the same manner as Jesus.

Jesus’ teaching on salvation was not popular in His time and it certainly is not popular in our time.  Why not?  One reason is because His teaching regarding salvation often sounded like He was discouraging people to follow Him instead of encouraging them.

The Biblical teaching regarding children and our responsibilities to them is clear.  What are we doing to live out the Biblical teaching? 

Here is a checklist of things to remember regarding children from the Bible:

A trend that I find bizarre in churches is when its members get upset at the teaching of God’s Word. 

I’m not talking about the false teaching of the Word.  I’m not talking about when people get upset because of a harsh delivery of the Word either.  I can understand people being upset, rightly, about those things.

What I’m referring to is the thoughtful, skillful, kind and precise teaching of the Word that still upsets the believer.

Have you ever had your debt purchased?  That sounds like such a bizarre concept, but it happens all of the time.

Such a thing has happened to me many times already.  I used to be a part of a credit union that was purchased by another bank.  I received a letter in the mail that basically explained that I now owed money to a different institution.  The same thing happened with my college student loans.  If I recall correctly, that debt was purchased by a few different banks before I finally paid off the debt.

There is a big push in the evangelical world today to extinguish the teachings of some of the Bible by means of other teachings of the Bible.

This is nothing new.  If mankind can be said to have excelled at anything, we have excelled in the justification of our actions.