by Mike Benson

QUESTION: "I am concerned about raising my two children in today's permissive society. ...What can I do to guide them in the right way?"

ANSWER: I appreciate your question, as well as your concern for your family. The Psalmist wrote, "Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it..." (Psalm 127:1a). With this passage in mind, let me encourage you to study the following:

1. Talk about God's word and will as part of your everyday conversation. We as parents often talk to our children about "everything under the sun," but then fail to discuss the most important subjects. Moses urged, "...These words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up" (Deuteronomy 6:6,7).

2. Avoid the "Don't do as I do, but do as I say" policy. Role models are extremely important to children. Unfortunately, "children are finding life-models on the televisions. The model now chosen and copied is crude, violent and amoral."1 Solomon said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). As a parent, your most effective training will come through your own godly example (cf. Ephesians 6:4).

3. Administer corrective discipline, in love, as necessary. The Bible says, "He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly" (Proverbs 13:24). "The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother" (Proverbs 29:15). "Do not withhold correction from a child; for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with a rod, and deliver his soul from Sheol" (Proverbs 23:13,14). Let me be very clear, the Bible in NO WAY condones child abuse, but IT DOES teach physical punishment. "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him" (Proverbs 22:15).

1/ Gordon MacDonald, "Wear Shoes You Want Filled," The Effective Father, p. 102

by Mitchell Skelton

During the preparations for an evangelistic crusade in Latin America, a very poor, unshaven man came to one of the week-long biblical counseling courses. It was unusual to see a man of this condition attending an in-depth training session. Most often, those with a better education and social standing are the ones who take an active role in this type of intensive preparation. The illiterate man attended every class, but those in leadership did not expect him to do much counseling. Several weeks later, all available counselors were busy when a physician walked in. This shabbily-dressed man greeted the doctor and took him into a room for counseling. Once the director discovered what had happened, he became deeply concerned. When the doctor came out, the director asked if he needed any help. The physician replied, "No, thank you. This fellow has helped me very much." The next day that same doctor showed up with two other colleagues and asked to see the shoeless man. By the end of the week, that illiterate man had led four doctors and their wives to Christ. God needs nothing more than available servants.1

The call to evangelize was given to every Christian, when Jesus said "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel." "Go Ye" means Go Me! There are no excuses for not being evangelistic. Every Christian can evangelize in some way. You can tell someone why and how you came to Christ.

Evangelism by definition is spreading good news to a lost and dying world. Christians should be compelled to evangelize. "Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it" (1 Corinthians 9:16–19). Christians should be compelled by the love God has shown to us (John 3:16). We should be compelled by our love for others.

Evangelism has no room for excuses. If you are a Christian then you know enough to tell someone how to become a Christian. The power of the gospel message is not in the one who delivers but in the message itself. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16).

Unleash the power of the gospel today! Tell someone about Christ.

1 Christian Reader, Sept./Oct. 1991, p. 61.

by Stan Mitchell

In her recent book Useful Idiots, Mona Charen speaks of the impulse some people have to "blame America first." In her view, there are those who will, as a reflex, blame America every time something goes wrong in the world. She speaks of an attitude where they will take anybody's side against that of their own country.

It must be a sign of the times, because I often sense the same attitude towards the church of Christ. Brethren will speak admiringly of the qualities of various denominations (and there are good qualities in many of them), but when it comes to their own fellowship, they seem to "blame the church of Christ first."

Please understand. I am not saying that we cannot speak to our leaders about our concerns and our deep desire to honor God better as a fellowship. I am not saying that we can do no wrong. The church is comprised of imperfect people. Of course we can make mistakes!

But it hurts me to hear "us" speaking mockingly of our great fellowship. I'm heartbroken when people flippantly refer to the "CoC" rather than lovingly repeat the name by which we are called.

American democracy is big, rambunctious and often flawed; its call to liberties and human rights is still, politically, the best hope of the world. The Church of Christ's call to go back to the Bible has been dented and misdirected at times by our flaws, divisions, and personal ambitions, but its call to follow Christ alone, and scripture alone, is more than the best hope of the world.

It is its only hope.

"Do not grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door!" (James 5:9, NIV).

by Barry Newton

I can hardly be justified in calling them clues because the framework was never intended to be a puzzle to be solved. Nevertheless, the following "clues" provide the necessary pieces for discovering the consistent principle of grace by which God has chosen to identify those who belong to him. The Lord knows those who are his and his word reveals his perspective.

As someone whose family had worshipped other gods, Abram did not deserve the favor of being the recipient of God's covenant. But God appeared to Abram commanding him to walk blamelessly before him and offering him a series of promises through a covenant relationship. One of those promises was that the LORD would be his God and the God of his descendants./1 Through covenant, God took Abram and his descendants to be his people.

Years later at Mount Sinai to the gathered descendants of Abram's grandson, Israel, God thundered that he would take them to be his own possession from among all the peoples, if they would keep his covenant./2 Throughout the history of Israel, God's covenant with Israel was the vehicle of grace by which God took them to belong to himself./3

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God announced that the days were coming when he would create a new covenant. God promised to forgive the sins and to take as his own people those who would enter into this covenant./4 Through grace God sent his Son to die in order that he might create this new covenant./5 Accordingly, it is the person of Jesus who makes possible our forgiveness and adoption as children of God.

God has not changed how he elects those who belong to him. He calls people into a covenant relationship with himself. Through Christ, God has offered by grace a new covenant to the whole world. It is through the blood of this covenant that the Lord forgives and takes a people to be his own. Salvation is a gift of grace to those who enter Christ's covenant.

There is a very good reason why baptism is described in the New Testament as being how someone receives the promises of the new covenant (forgiveness & becoming a child of God, that is, salvation)./6 When someone responds to the good news of Jesus by being baptized, that individual enters the new covenant. The gospel calls us to rely upon Jesus by being baptized. This is why when Jesus is preached, people seek to be baptized./7

If the blood of the covenant by which God forgives and claims people as his own is essential for being saved today, then must not also the means for entering that covenant be essential for salvation? If trusting in Jesus is essential for salvation, then must not the manner by which the Scriptures call for us to rely upon Jesus also be essential?

1/ Genesis 17:1-8 2/ Exodus 19:5,6; 24:5-8 3/ Deuteronomy 29:12-15; Ezekiel 16:8; Jeremiah 11:3,4 4/ Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:6-13; 10:16,17 5/ Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:15-17 and 10:9,10 6/ Acts 2:38; 22:16; Galatians 3:26,27; 1 Peter 3:21 7/ Acts 8:12, 35,36

by Richard Mansel

Being separated from God because of our sins, we do not have access to him for remission of our trespasses (Isaiah 59:1,2). We can do nothing to be reconciled to God on our own. We do not have an "intercessor" (Isaiah 59:16) to bring us back to God. God will not even hear us because our lives are dominated by sinful pursuits.

However, God is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV). John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Ezekiel 18:23 says, "Do I have any pleasure that the wicked should die? And not that he should turn from his ways and live?"

God looked and found a Redeemer in his son, Jesus the Christ. Becoming the "captain" of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10, KJV), Jesus bridged the impassable river and delivered us to God.

Paul writes in Romans 5:8,9, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."

Because we chose to sin, we became "enemies" of God. We were supposed to die for our sins. We were God's enemies and we are told that when Christ returns he will "take vengeance on those who know not God" (1 Thessalonians 1:8). We would be swept away into eternal destruction (Matthew 25:46).

But God had too much love for us and provided an avenue of escape.

Jesus died for us even though our sins put him on the cross. We could never remove his blood from our hands no matter how we tried. The classic hymn says, "there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stains" ("There is a Fountain," lyrics by William Cowper).

Because of this "indescribable gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15), we now have the opportunity to come to Jesus for this redemption. We do so by accepting that Jesus is the source of our salvation (John 8:24). Then we must repent that we have sought salvation in any other source (Acts 17:30). We must confess him as the new Lord of our life (Romans 10:9,10). Finally, we must die as he did and be baptized for the remission of our sins (Romans 6:3,4; Acts 2:38). When we are born again (John 3:3-5), we arise with the blood removed from our hands.

As scripture asks, "how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). How can we enter heaven for all eternity if we are not willing to admit Christ is the source of our salvation? How can we look for another redeemer and still be pleasing to God?

Jesus once asked the apostles if they were going to leave him as the disciples did. Peter responded, "to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?" (John 6:68).

If we are "in Christ" we have access to God through Jesus. He has brought us to his father and petitions him with our prayers (1 John 2:1). We will live with him in this life and dwell with him forever in eternity (Revelation 3:20; John 14:1-3).