Todays Devonational
Today's devonation is "There is one Lord" from the Gospel Minutes newsletter.

An excerpt: Much of that has to do with how we treat
people. As believers we love our brothers in the
Lord (1 Peter 2:17). We love our neighbors (Luke
10:27). We even love our enemies and pray for
them (Matt. 5:44). How much easier would it be
to maintain unity among Christians if we all,
everyone of us adhered to this kind of love? We
should look different, especially when it comes to
our brothers and sisters. ---click on link for full story: http://www.wfcoc.org/WFCoC/Minutes_2009_files/gm121109.pdf

weekly Devonational
God Is Speaking to You?--Gospel Minutes

Excerpt: "What Jesus taught during His
ministry on earth was exactly what the Father
authorized Him to teach."
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.wfcoc.org/WFCoC/Minutes_2009_files/gm120409.pdf

Daily Devonational
Can a Person Be Forgiven When He Has Been Guilty of Really Terrible Sins?

First, all people who have sinned need to have sincere regret for the past. It is right that we should regret our sins, since godly sorrow is necessary in order for one to be forgiven (2 Cor. 7:10).

However, Jesus died to forgive sin. The Corinthians had been guilty of all kinds of sins, yet Jesus cleansed them (1 Cor. 6:9-11). Paul said he had been the chief of sinners. He had opposed Christ to the point of having Christians put to death. But God showed mercy on him as an example to show that He can save the worst of us (1 Tim. 1:12-17). Other people whom God forgave included Peter who denied Jesus three times and David who committed adultery and then had the woman's husband killed (Matthew 26:69-75; 2 Samuel 11 & 12).

All sin is terrible; but as regards eternal consequences, your sins are no worse than mine. All sin requires the blood of Jesus to forgive it. But Jesus is able to save to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). Sins He forgives are never again held against us (Heb. 10:1-18). Yes, a person who has been forgiven can still be lost, but only if they return to sin and do not repent (see our article about Can a Child of God Be Lost at our Bible Instruction web site at www.gospelway.com/instruct/).

So the nature or number of your past sins does not change the ability of Jesus to forgive. What matters is your willingness to turn from them and submit to Jesus' terms of forgiveness.
If you would like to learn more about how to be forgiven, I encourage you to visit our Bible Instruction web site at www.gospelway.com/instruct/. It contains online courses about forgiveness of sins plus articles on why we need forgiveness, the purpose of baptism, etc.

(c) Copyright David E. Pratte, 6/2007

Permission to use as stated on the gospelway.com webpage.

Daily Devonational
ARE CHURCH CHOIRS
AND SOLOS SCRIPTURAL?

     Many are using choirs and solos in their attempts to worship God. Are choirs and solos authorized by God as a part of Christian worship? To find the answer to this question, we must turn to the Bible. The Bible is God's Word (2 Timothy 3:16,17; John 12:48; Galatians 1:6-9; 2 Peter 1:3; Jude 3). Man does not have the right to add to, nor to take away from, the teachings of the Word of God (Revelation 22:18,19; Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:6). The New Testament portion of God's Word is the standard of authority for what we do in the work and worship of God today (Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 8:6-13).

     In His Word, God has authorized five acts of worship for His church. These five acts are:   singing  (Ephesians 5:19;  Colossians 3:16),  giving  (1 Corininthians 9:6, 7), prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17; 1 Timothy 2:8), eating the Lord's supper (1 Corinthians 11: 23-29; Acts 20:7), and the preaching of the Word of God (Acts 2:42; 20:7;  2 Timothy 4:1-4). These acts of worship are authorized by direct statements, commands, implications, and approved examples.

     Singing in worship is commanded by God. The New Testament contains many examples of Christians singing in worship to God (Acts 16:25; Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 14:15; Ephesians 5:18,19; Hebrews 2:12; James 5:13). These passages describe the kind of music God has authorized so that His people can worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). The kind of music God authorized is singing. This singing is congregational singing. It is done by every Christian in the assembly! It must be done with understanding.   The purpose of the singing is for Christians  to glorify God and to teach and admonish one another.

     Does Ephesians 5:19 teach congregational singing? The word in the Greek language in which the New Testament was written, which is translated as "speaking," means "to utter speech, to convey speech, to use the tongue or faculty of speech, to utter articulate sounds, to talk, to tell, to use words to declare one's mind and thoughts." The New Testament word translated “yourselves" is a "reflexive" pronoun of the third person. It shows that the person who acts and the person who receives the action is the same. While one is speaking to others in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, others are also speaking to him in the same way. This is a clear reference to congregational singing where  all  mutually  teach  one  another  as   they unite their voices in song. To obey this command, there must be an interchange  of  action.  When  one group or person is active (a choir or soloist)  and  another  group is passive (the listening audience) there is no interchange of action. Ephesians 5:19 can not be obeyed by choirs or solos!

          Does Colossians 3:16 teach congregational singing? The New Testament word, which is translated "teaching," means "to teach, instruct, by word of mouth." It requires that the one who is taught understand the teaching given. The New Testament word translated "admonishing" means "to put into the mind, instruct, warn." This teaching and admonishing is to be done to "one another." The phrase "one another" is translated from the same New Testament word as "yourselves" in Ephesians 5:19. Therefore, when the church  is worshiping God by the act of singing, there is teaching and admonishing one another taking place.  Colossians  3:16 clearly teaches congregational singing! When one group  or individual (the choir or soloist) is active, and another group is passive (the listening audience), there is no interchange of teaching and admonishing!

          Congregational singing (singing by every member of the congregation) was the practice of the church in the first century.   But many today claim that  choirs and solos in the worship are permitted because the Bible is silent concerning them. When God commanded Christians to sing and admonish one another, that eliminated choirs and solos in worship.  It was not necessary for God to give a long list of "Thou shalt nots" concerning singing.  It was not necessary for God to say, "Thou shalt not use mechanical instruments of music in My worship."  It was not necessary for God to say, "Thou shalt not use choirs or solos in my worship." When God specified congregational singing, that eliminated choirs, solos, and instrumental music.

       Choirs, solos and mechanical instruments of music in New Testament worship were never commanded by the Lord! No apostle of Christ ever approved of them!     No inspired New Testament writer ever taught or approved of them. There is no command, implication or approved example of the use of choirs, solos or instrumental  music in New Testament worship. Thus, they are completely without the authority of the Lord!  To use them in worship is sinful (Matthew 15:8,9-12; John 9-11; Revelation 22:18, 19).

          Must worship be entertaining?  Many seem to think so.  Every Christian must realize that God has commanded him to worship in “spirit and truth" (John 4:24). This means that every every Christian must worship with the correct attitude and the correct actions. God is the One Who is being worshipped.  He is the audience. Therefore, He is the One Who must be pleased!

          Some try to defend  the use of choirs and solos by  saying that 1 Corinthians 14:26 teaches such.  A close look at the verse will reveal that it does not teach the use of either choirs or solos. To say that "each of you has a psalm" does not mean that every one sang a solo or that several sang solos.  A psalm can be read, or quoted.  In this context, Paul is dealing with the misuse of a spiritual gift.   The best explanation of what the verse means is Acts 4:23-30.  When the disciples heard what had happened to Peter and John, "they lifted up their voice to God with one accord..." (Acts 4:24).

          Lyman Coleman, a church historian, wrote: "The prevailing mode of singing during the first three centuries was congregational. The whole congregation united their voices in the sacred song of praise, in strains suited to their ability .... the most ancient and most common mode of singing was confessedly for the whole assembly;   men, women and children blend their voices in their songs of praise in the great congregation" (Ancient Christianity Exemplified, pages 329, 330).

     All worship, at all times, and in all places must be done in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). If one does not worship in the right acts and with the right attitudes, his worship is vain and he is guilty of sin. There is absolutely no authority in the New Testament for the use of choirs and solos in worship. Therefore, those who practice such are worshipping in vain and are guilty of sin.
    
Ref: Truth for the World
webpage: http://www.tftw2.org/Tracts/choirssolos.htm

Daily Devonational
For What Should a Sinner Pray?---Gospel Minutes 2009
Excerpt: . Pray for Grace?
This has been a favorite petition at many
prayer benches and altars. But what has God
aid on the subject? "For the grace of God,
which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all
men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
ighteously, and godly, in this present world"
Tit. 2:11-12). Why pray for God's grace when it
has already been so abundantly given through
he gospel? And isn't it very foolish to pray for
grace while refusing the teaching which grace
has given? God's grace must be appropriated by
aith which works by love (Eph. 2:8-9). Have
you sufficient faith to obey the teaching of
grace? If not, then have you faith enough to be
effectual in prayer?--Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.wfcoc.org/WFCoC/Minutes_2009_files/gm110609.pdf 

Daily Devonational
Are We Saved By Faith Only?
By Ron Boatwright

         Today the vast majority of the religious world says that they are saved by "faith only".  Many good people erroneously think they are saved when they "accept Jesus as their personal saviour" and say the "sinner’s prayer".  But where in the Bible are we told this?  It is not there.  This may sound good and impressive, but this is false.  This is a lie of Satan.  This is something man has dreamed up.  Then two or three weeks later many churches encourage people to be baptized to join that denomination.  They say that one does not have to be baptized to be saved because they say you are saved before you are baptized.  I cannot think of a more flagrant crime against both God and Man than to teach lost sinners, who want to be saved something different than what God says in the Bible.

         In this case if they are eventually baptized, their sins are not forgiven and they are not saved because their baptism was not for this purpose.  They still have every sin they have ever committed and are still lost because they have believed a lie.  As we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth."

         "Faith only" will not save anyone.  In James 2:19 & 24 we read, "You believe that there is one God.  You do well.  Even the devils believe and tremble….You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only."  If all we do is believe, then we are no better than the devils.  We must obey what God says to do, when God says to do it, how God says to do it, and for the reason God says to do it.

         Jesus says in Mark 16:16, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved".  There is nothing hard to understand about this.  A person has to have help to misunderstand what the Lord says here.  Until people do what Jesus says that one must do to be saved then they are still hopelessly lost.
REF: http://www.netbiblestudy.net/bulletin/
Permission to use as stated on the webpage.

Daily Devonational

How Were People under the Old Testament forgiven? ---Gospelway.com
 

Anyone who is saved, no matter when they lived, will be saved by Jesus. Heb. 9:15 says that, though Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant (Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant), yet Jesus' death was also the redemption for the transgressions under the first covenant. So Jesus died for both the people before He lived and the people after He lived.

However, what that means is that people who lived under the Old Covenant did not have a means of lasting forgiveness as a part of the covenant under which they lived. By contrast, our forgiveness is available to us as part of the new covenant which we have now. This is the sense in which the law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Under the Old Covenant, people had laws to live by, but they had no sacrifice that could take away their sins permanently. Instead their sins were remembered every year. Study Heb. chap. 10, esp. v1-18. So they lacked grace in the sense that the means of their forgiveness had not yet come.

When Jesus came and died, He removed the Old Covenant (all of it) -- Col. 2:14,16 -- and instituted the New Testament (Heb. 10:9,10; 9:16,17). Under the New Covenant we still have laws and commands to obey. These are the commands and laws of the New Covenant, not those of the Old Covenant (1 Cor. 14:37; Matt. 28:18-20; Heb. 1:1,2; John 14:15; 1 John 5:3). But the difference is that, when we sin, we have a means of forgiveness as a part of the very covenant under which we live. We do not have to look forward to some future event to obtain our forgiveness.

People under the Old Covenant had no lasting forgiveness under their covenant. The only way they could ultimately be forgiven was for their covenant to be removed and replaced by the New Covenant (Heb. 8:7-13). Salvation for all people, regardless of when they lived, is available only through Jesus.

To learn more about the removal of the Old Testament law, see our online article about the Old Testament for Today at our Bible Instruction web site at www.gospelway.com/instruct/. 
 

(c) Copyright David E. Pratte, 2/5/2005

*Permission to use as stated on the webpage

Daily Devonational

IS ANYTHING REALLY WRONG
WITH CHOIRS AND SOLOS?--Truth for the World

     An Excerpt: Choirs and solos have plagued the religious world since their beginning by man, in the fifth century, hundreds of years after Christ established His church.  So why have people, for many years now, been interested in using them to worship God?  Is anything really wrong with choirs and solos?

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.tftw2.org/Tracts/wrongwithchoirs.htm

Daily Devonational

Better Never Born"---Gospel Minutes

Excerpt: "The Apostate - Who Renounces the Lord
Apostasy is defined as: "A renunciation of
faith, defection, turning away from." When one
deliberately turns his back on the Lord, deserts
the principles the Lord gives him to guide his
life, that person is apostate. Not every sinner
falls into this category. We may fall without
falling away (Jer. 3:13; Hos. 14:4; Gal. 6:1). We
are told, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us" (l John
1:8). Yet verse 7 declares, "If we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus his
Son cleanseth us from all sin." Through either
fear or weakness, because of the "pleasures of
sin" (Heb. 11:25), or yet for other reasons, we
may sin. But that is not apostasy.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.wfcoc.org/WFCoC/Minutes_2009_files/gm103009.pdf
(In PdF format)

Daily Devonational

Should We Use Instrumental Music in Worship?
Kevin Cauley--preacherfiles.com

Yes! In fact, we have a divine obligation to use instrumental music in worship! Perhaps you are wondering at this point if this writer is the same Kevin Cauley who preaches for the Berryville church of Christ in Berryville, Arkansas. You know, the church that doesn’t believe in “instrumental music.” Well, it is the same one. Some of you have probably already caught on as to what is coming in the article. To the rest I say, read on dear friend!

Many people today use pianos, guitars, and other similar instruments in their worship. This is NOT the kind of instrument of which I am speaking. But the Bible does teach us to use an instrument to accompany our singing in worship to God. In Ephesians 5:19 we read, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Notice the phrase “in your heart” in this passage. The instrument upon which God expects the Christian to “play” is the heart. Colossians 3:16 states this principle in similar words, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” In both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 instrumental accompaniment is commanded. Singing is to be accompanied with a specific instrument-the heart. Please note that when God specifies something, we must respect God’s instructions. Let’s look at several Bible examples that illustrate this principle.

One great example where God specifies the use of a particular item is Noah and the ark. If we look back at Genesis 6:14, God tells Noah, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.” We don’t know what gopher wood was, but Noah knew! God specified this type of wood for a reason and Noah was expected to respect God’s specific instructions in that regard. In Genesis 6:22, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” Noah built the ark out of gopher wood because God told him to do it that way and was saved from the flood.

Another great example is found in Exodus 12, where God gives Moses specific instructions for how to avoid the tenth plague-the death of the firstborn. Part of the instructions were to kill a lamb, take the blood and put it on the doorposts and lintel with a bunch of hyssop twigs (Exodus 12:7, 22). The Bible says that when God saw the blood, He would pass over the house and spare the firstborn. God specified a lamb’s blood. Those who followed God’s specific instructions were spared the life of their firstborn. Those who used anything but the blood of a lamb lost their firstborn that night.

We read of a man named Naaman in 2 Kings chapter 5. Naaman had leprosy, a deadly disease, but through the prophet Elisha, God gave Naaman the opportunity to be healed. God gave Naaman a specific condition. Naaman had to immerse himself in the Jordan river seven times. Naaman was angry because he didn’t want to get into that nasty, muddy, dirty Jordan River, but God had specified THAT river. Naaman wanted to go back to his homeland and immerse himself in one of the rivers of Damascas. He said, “Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel” Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage? (2 Kings 5:12). But those rivers could not have cleansed him. Only after washing seven times in the Jordan did Naaman’s leprosy go away.

As a last example, many in the religious world today observe the Lord’s supper. Paul tells us that this holy meal is to be observed in remembrance of the death of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:24). Both Jesus body and His blood are represented in this supper. No doubt everyone in the religious world who observes the Lord’s supper can tell you the elements used within it. These elements are the bread and the fruit of the vine. These things were specifically mentioned by Jesus as items that were to be used to in this supper (Matthew 26:26-29). Now ask one who observes this religious practice if Jesus would be happy if we substituted a McDonald’s hamburger for the bread and Coca Cola for the fruit of the vine. The predominant response you would receive would be, “Of course not. Jesus said to use bread and fruit of the vine and that settles that.” To which we reply, Amen.

In each of these Bible examples God specified something and those who wanted to receive the blessings of God were expected to do as God had specified. Noah was to build the ark of gopher wood because that was what God specified. Moses was to use the blood of a lamb because that was what God specified. Naaman was to immerse himself seven times in the Jordan river because that is what God specified. Christians are expected to partake of the bread and fruit of the vine in the Lord’s supper because that is what God specifies. In each of these instances to abandon, substitute, or add something different for what God specified would have lead to disaster. Noah’s ark would have sunk. Moses would have lost his firstborn son. Naaman would have died of leprosy. Christians would have observed “in an unworthy manner” (1 Corinthians 11:29). The principle in each of these examples is the same. When God specifies how He wants something done, we must do it the way God says to do it without deletion, substitution, or addition.

Let me refine my question in the title of this article. What instrument should the Christian use to worship God in song? The heart-God has specified the heart as the instrument the Christian is to accompany song in worship to Him. If we delete the heart, substitute some other instrument for the heart or add some other instrument to the heart, then we worship in vain. Should we accompany our worship to God in song with any other instrument of music than the heart? No, we should not. To do such would be to abandon the blessings that God says we have through worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Our worship to God must be done as God has specified. To worship God in any other way than the way God has specified is to place our own righteousness above the righteousness of God. Let us humbly submit to God’s will in our songs of worship.

* Permission to use as stated on the preacherfile.com webpage.