Bible Discussion Thread

Just a note of encouragement.

I'm not sure what to focus on next; but clearly the end of the Gospel of Matthew gives us the Great Commission after the story of the appearance of the Resurrected Christ.

One of the members of my church who is in charge of the online prayer meeting during the week mentioned the brother of a friend of his who he gave a copy of the Gospel of John to. He apparently got saved; from what I was told he said he "got right with God" and passed 2 days later. This demonstrates the need to persevere. This church member has gone through a lot; including surgery in the palate of his mouth; once he gets new teeth he wants to get back to handing out Gospel tracts and conversations; apparently he gave out thousands in past years.

This is encouraging news along with the man I mentioned the other day.

I want to mention something else that weighs heavily on me. I am sure we all know those who say they will come to church but don't. The enemy is often at work; and unconfessed sin can be a culprit. I am convinced that the Lord wants to use some people in a mighty way and that a whole congregation can suffer when someone doesn't realize the weight of responsibility that their gifts and calling require of them and sin of course can dull the affect of the Spirit. We need to be proactive here; I believe whenever there are those who express interest in coming to church prayer is needed that the enemy won't stop them; and we should also warn them it is likely to occur to be prepared for it. I always try to emphasize that it isn't so important to come to my church but go anywhere where the truth is preached. This isn't to say that some aren't in the plan of God but may be at a later time or some would cause more harm than good and still others of course will never come to knowledge of the truth. Many nonetheless are spiritually sick having allowed the world; flesh and the Devil to have a stronghold on their souls and need to be freed.

Sometimes the church is its own worst enemy. Me, my wife and 2 sons attended a small church for 6+ years and we were very actively involved . Trying to fit in. Despite the effort after that time, we knew very few people by name in that church. Covid hit and we started watching different ministers on tv .. Pastor Jeremiah, Yousseff, Hagee and couple others . and our hearts have been fulfilled with a passion for Christianity . And not denomination religion. Since Covid - we have been looking for a local church to attend but finding one that preaches the word of the Bible is easier said than done. Too many feel good preachers out there telling people what they want to hear to keep their job rather than preach the Word of God. We continue to look for a local church but in rural Illinois, it is difficult finding a receptive congregation to outsiders accepting strangers and feeling welcome - AND say the hard truth and preach the Bible. We continue to feed our hearts and souls with the words from these men I mentioned and watch their old sermons through out the week.