by Stan Mitchell

Montgomery, Alabama: Chief Justice Roy Moore has made the headlines for his insistence that the Ten Commandments be displayed in his courthouse. He says that the Biblical code is the foundation of law in America, and our society's efforts to remove them represent a dangerous collapse of morals and ethics in our country.

Moore, a Vietnam veteran, declared: "We've turned the Constitution and the First Amendment from a shield to protect us into a sword to deprive us of our civil and religious rights."

You know the story; you've seen it on the news. But what I want to comment on is a placard the TV cameras were showing. It said: "We Demand Freedom From Religion." I had to laugh at that. Of course the phrase should be Freedom of religion, not from religion. But it's not just the ACLU and the Coalition for the American Way that want freedom from religion. That's what every rebellious teenager wants, and every independent man who doesn't want to be "told what to do" wants -- freedom from religion! That's what couples living in sin want, and drunks too -- freedom from religion. That's what dishonest politicians want, and most of us, too -- freedom from religion.

We don't want to be responsible to a God who demands our obedience. We would just as soon not change bad habits. We don't want a preacher, or a judge, or the Bible telling us how to live! We want freedom from religion!

Perhaps that's why so many are trying to push the Ten Commandments -- and the rest of the Bible -- out of our public places, and out of our hearts. We want freedom from religion. But remember this. Worship of pleasure is a religion. Worshiping rap artists, and flashy new cars, and our own self indulgence -- all of these is a religion. We have simply switched our loyalty from God to idols. There is no freedom from religion. Only freedom in Christ!

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).

by Richard Mansel

One of the most difficult things in life is to admit we are wrong. It cedes our authority and places it out of our control. This is reprehensible to many humans. Therefore, many cannot come to Christ because humility pays too high a price.

Repentance is required because we all have sinned and need forgiveness (Romans 3:23). However, this is predicated on our first admitting we have sinned, which most will not do. Truth, they feel, is relative because self-esteem is more treasured than certainty.

The first recorded words of Jesus' public ministry were, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Paul said, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Jesus was even more blunt, "unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3).

Knowing repentance is a command, we must determine what it means.

Repentance is not just being sorry for our sins or that we got caught (Matthew 27:3). It is not simply fear of God (Acts 24:25) nor is it covering up our sins (Numbers 32:23).

J. W. McGarvey said: "Repentance is something that stands in between sorrow for sin and the change of life in which sins are abandoned and a better course of conduct begins.... When a man is so thoroughly filled with sorrow and mourning and self-reproach on account of his sins that his will is subdued to the will of God, and he says, I will sin no more, I will hereafter submit to the will of God, this results in a change of life, and it is repentance, a change of will in regard to sin."

Repentance is godly sorrow in that we see our sins as God sees them. God is sinless and cannot be where sin is (1 John 1:5). Moreover sin put his Son on the cross. God is pained when we turn away from him and towards Satan because he sees through Satan's lies. He knows where we are headed. If we grow to hate sin as much as he does, we will be closer to living a life without its pockmarks.

Repentance is also action (Joel 2:12-14). It is a turning away from sin, but more so, a turn toward that which is right. We read in Isaiah 35:8 that the way to God is described as the "Highway of Holiness." Imagine we are traveling on that road. Going the other way is the road to Satan. As we travel toward God we see signs that promise pleasure and independence on Satan's path. We consider it and turn around and head to Satan's home. Conscience, holy words, or the encouragement of others causes us to repent of our actions. We turn around and go back toward God. We have changed our intention, perspective, goal, and path all in the same action. We no longer intend to run toward Satan. We are committed to being with Christ. This is repentance. It is a total change of direction.

We seek only to return to the arms of the Lord because we cannot imagine being anywhere else. Peter said to Christ, "to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). Daniel A. Brown said, "Repentance is not something we try for awhile to see if it works. In repentance, we voluntarily give up our right to have options."

The beautiful thing is that when we turn our lives over to Christ, he will make us something greater than we could ever be on our own.

by J. Randal Matheny

"Si vis doceri, doce." --Marcus Tullius Cicero

"If you want to learn, teach." Perhaps Cicero's phrase lies behind the adage that no one learns more than the teacher.

Perhaps this was, in part, the Hebrew Christians' problem, when the writer of that letter expressed exasperation over their condition.

"Concerning him [Melchizedek] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil" (Hebrews 5:11-14, NASB).

They should have been teachers. But they had not learned beyond the basic elements of the faith. Because they had not exercised themselves in more challenging material. They had not taken on the task of knowing and passing on what they knew.

Too many are waiting to learn before they start teaching. Wrong approach! Certainly, one must prepare and know one's subject, but what better way than to accept the challenge of teaching!

James doesn't want to discourage Christians from teaching, but he does tell us to weigh the responsibility. "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment" (James 3:1). Rather than diminish their ranks, he wants to increase the company of qualified teachers. He wants us to get serious with the task of teaching.

The old problem of credit and loans doesn't apply here. How to get credit? Get a loan. But to get a loan you need credit. (Actually, we can do very well living on a cash basis, without loans or credit, but that's another article.)

To learn, start teaching. To teach, start learning.

The dearth of teachers, when it occurs in Christ's church, is not from God's miserliness. It means somebody must be hiding his talent. Or not developing it.

Might that someone be you?

by Phil Sanders

Robert McClain, a long-time employee of Concord Rd., a gospel preacher, and an upholsterer, recently told me about one of his customers who is a Titans fan.

She had come to see about her furniture and was talking to him about going to the Titans game one Sunday.

She said she wore her shorts for Bible class, so she wouldn't have to change for the game. The lady didn't stay for worship, because it would make her late to the game.

I am amazed at fans who will go to the game hours early. They go to the parking lot at 6 am to get a good tail-gate spot, while some of my brethren can hardly make it to church by 9 am.

Some people seem to think that worshipping the Lord is what you do when you don't have anything else to do. They let every wind that blows come first.

What if Jesus had done that? What if he had been too busy with social functions to preach? What if he had too many irons in the fire to heal the sick? What if he had more important things to do than to waste his time dying upon a cross?

Worship is not an option for those whose hearts are fully set upon serving God. Merely taking the Lord's Supper to do your duty is not in the thinking of spiritual people.

We must not let the thorny soil of this world grow up in our lives and crowd out the Word (Luke 8:14). The garden of our souls needs good soil for the Word of God. We must not let the worries and pleasures and riches of this life leave no room for the more important things.

Martha was a very good woman, but she lacked in her life the most important thing, intimacy with the Lord in a worship setting (Luke 10:38-42).

Would it not be better that we sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to him speak?

Love demands that we put him first in everything (Matthew 6:33; Colossians 1:15-18).

The winds blow in all our lives. There will always be something to do. Family and children will always keep our lives busy, but we cannot neglect the spiritual.

We have but one Lord and Savior. Let's devote ourselves to him first, last, and always. Let's live with love in our hearts and pay attention to the only thing that matters.

by Michael E. Brooks

"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).

I had an interesting conversation with George, our cook here at Khulna Bible College, the other day.

George: "What would you like to have for lunch today?" Mike: "I don't know, what do you have?" George: "No, what do you want?" Mike: "What about spaghetti?" George: "No, I have tortoise curry, rice, dahl, some eggplant and some salad." Mike: "Okay, that will be fine."

In my experience, many "choices" turn out about like George's menu. We have preferences and often express them, but it turns out that we usually have to take what is available. Selection, economics, time, and many other factors work to limit our actual options much more than our theoretical selections seem to offer. But we usually get by, at least.

That reality makes the fact of our moral freedom of will before Almighty God truly amazing. He is Sovereign of the Universe, Lord of all that is, was, and ever will be. Yet he gives us genuine freedom of choice. Moses offered the Israelites, whom God had brought from slavery out of Egypt, complete freedom as to whether to enter the land of promise. Later Joshua would demand, "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15). It was up to them. And it is totally and completely up to us as well. We have that same freedom of choice.

Not all accept this. There is a school of theology that says that if God is truly all-powerful and sovereign, he cannot be denied. For man to refuse to serve him would be to limit the power of the Almighty, by definition impossible. This school demands either universal salvation or arbitrary predestination. All the choices are God's. Man has no say. Millions have believed these doctrines.

But the Bible plainly denies them, asserting in their place the wonderful truth of free will. Just as Adam chose death, so we may and must choose between death and life. Does this limit God's power? It would, if the choice was imposed upon him from without. But it is God who gave us this freedom. God does not compromise his sovereignty when he places limits upon himself. It is he who decided not to impose his all powerful will upon man, but to invite sinful man, in love, to accept God's grace and be saved.

This elevates man, not to the status of equal, but to the nature of rational, thinking being, able to do what his will and knowledge lead him to do. We are made in God's own image, the image of one with will and self-determination. It is that being whom God finds worth saving, even at the incredible price of the death of his own beloved son, Jesus. Man is not a machine, a puppet, or an unthinking animal whom God compels into fellowship. He is a rational being, whom God invites. One with real freedom of choice.