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"Where
the truths of God’s word are taught" |
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You Were Asked To Pray For: |
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A Thought From C. H. Spurgeon: He Freely Gives If
this is not a promise in form, it is in fact. Indeed, it is more than one
promise, it is a conglomerate of promises. It is a mass of rubies, and
emeralds, and diamonds, with a nugget of gold for their setting. It is a
question which can never be answered so as to cause us any anxiety of heart.
What can the LORD deny us after giving us Jesus? If we need all things in
heaven and earth, He will grant them to us: for if there had been a limit
anywhere, He would have kept back His own Son. What
do I want today? I have only to ask for it. I may seek earnestly, but not as
if I had to use pressure and extort an unwilling gift from the LORD's hand; for He will give freely. Of His own He gave
us His own Son. Certainly no one would have proposed such a gift to Him. No
one would have ventured to ask for it. It would have been too presumptuous.
He freely gave His Only-begotten, and, O my soul, canst thou not trust thy
heavenly Father to give thee anything, to give thee everything? Thy poor
prayer would have no force with Omnipotence if force were needed; but His
love, like a spring, rises of itself and overflows for the supply of all thy
needs. |
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A Thought From Our Pastor: The First and the Last. Revelation
22:13 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last.” Alpha
and Omega of which Α alpha and Ω omega are the first and last
letters of the Greek alphabet, however to us it would be better understood as
A and Z there is nothing before A and nothing after Z in that it must be
understood there is nothing before the Lord and there will certainly is not anything
after Him. The Lord reminds us throughout His word that He is the first and
the last, Isaiah 41:4, "I the Lord, the first, and with the last;” and
Isaiah 44:6, "I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is
no God;" and in Isaiah 48:12, "I am he; I am the first, I also am
the last." This is the bottom line here outside of Jesus Christ there is
nothing and by that I mean nothing! So many today want to exist outside of
Jesus Christ and that is impossible since there is no outside of Him. People
wonder how to be saved; salvation is not outside of Jesus Christ. I
understand that so many today want it to be, but according to the bible if
you have a salvation outside of Christ you do not have salvation. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the first part of salvation and the finality of it, or He is
the author and finisher of it Heb. 12:2a “Looking unto Jesus the author and
finisher of our faith;” To be outside of Him is to be non-existent and by
that I mean you are not saved. Satan would have some to believe that
salvation exist outside of Christ however Satan would also have you to spend
eternity in hell with him and if you believe that there is a salvation
outside of Christ that is exactly where you will spend eternity, in hell with
Satan. The Lord made one basic statement about salvation and that is, Acts
16:31 “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved …” Are you in Christ, or are you
non-existent? |
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Thought for the week: Baptism, Baptist or Christian? I heard on a tape of my
grandfather's (Harry J. Hille) that he was preaching and someone asked him if
"John's Baptism" was Scriptural or Christian or something to that
effect. Pa replied, "Well, it was the only kind Jesus had!”
How can John's
Baptism not be "Christian Baptism"? Let us examine what is
needed for "Christian Baptism". And to do so we must examine
those Words: "Christian" and "Baptism". We must also
look to the 3 requirements of Scriptural or Christian Baptism: 1) Must have Authority--the
one who baptizes must have authority 2) The candidate for
baptism, must be a proper candidate --A righteous man, one who is saved 3) The right
mode--Immersion First, The word
"Christian" means, "Christ-like". Acts.11:26 tells
us that they were first called Christians at Second, The word
"Baptism" is really not a true word in the english
sense. It is a perversion of the greek word, 'baptizo' which means, "to immerse, to
plunge under". The word "Baptism" came into existence
when the Bible was translated into english because
King James ran into a problem. The translators told him that 'baptizo' means to immerse. Well, the Romans,
nor the Episcopalians, nor the Church or Now to the three requirements
of Scriptural Baptism: 1) The Authority--Did
not John have authority? We speak that Jesus went all the way to the If John did not have
authority then why did Jesus go to him? The Bible speaks concerning
John's Authority to baptize in several places: Mk.14:27-33 where the pharisees asked regarding Christ's authority.
Matt.3:13-17-- we read of Christ coming from Galilee to Is that not what a
Christian is supposed to do? Fulfill all righteousness? Certainly
it is...we are to be doers of righteousness 1Jn.2:29. Now, let us look at
this. If John's baptism was not "Christian" or
"Christ-like" then why was "Christ" baptized by
John? Why did the clouds open, the Spirit of God descend upon Jesus
like a dove and the Heavenly Father speak "This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased." if John's baptism was not
"Christian"? 2) Right
Candidate: I don't care how many times is baptized, as long as they are
lost...it is no more than a bath. All they did was go in dry and come
out wet. But here was Jesus, perfect, holy, sinless and He was
baptized. Could there be a better candidate? Could there be a
better one to show that He was dead unto sin and alive unto the Lord? 3) Proper Mode:
I.E. immersion--Baptism is not Baptism unless one is immersed. And we
know that this is how John did baptize. Now let us look at
the whole. John had authority. Jesus was a proper
Candidate. John baptized him in the proper mode (i.e. immersion).
How then could it not be "Christian Baptism". This was an e-mail
between Bro. Harold McSwain and Bro. Nathanial Hille however the writing was
actually written by Bro. Hille. |