Topic(s): Faith

The story is told of a poor man who plodded along toward home in an Irish town, carrying a huge bag of potatoes. A man came along in a horse-drawn wagon and invited the man to climb inside. When the man sat down in the wagon, he held the bag of potatoes in his arms. When it was suggested that he should set it down, he said very warmly, "I don't want to trouble you too much. You're giving me a ride; I'll carry the potatoes." Sometimes we think we're doing the Lord a favor when we carry the burden. But the work is His, and He asks us only to be faithful. Let us permit Him to "carry the potatoes" also.

-Virgil Brown

"Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved" -Psalm 55.22

 

Bales-ism

Topic(s): Marriage, Divorce

When error rises and establishes its beachhead at our very doorsteps, the forces of truth must also rise with sword in hand and do battle till error is eliminated and truth alone occupies the battle arena. Do we have a cause in the matter of marriage, divorce, and remarriage? Indeed we do, and the matter is more momentous than what David and physical Israel faced in southwest Palestine three thousand years ago (1 Samuel 17:8-28). If they lost to Goliath and the pagan Philistines, they faced physical serfdom to their pagan Palestinian neighbors. But people in physical slavery, not desirable and very painful we grant readily, can still be faithful to God and go home to heaven at last. Not so with this momentous matter.

People cannot thwart God's law for marriage and divorce according to their whimsical wills, enter into multiple adulterous remarriages and die in such without placing in peril their very souls. This is the very direction too many preachers, elders, and congregations are now headed. Too many are saying that we need to drop all such contentions relative to marriage, divorce, and remarriage and get on with the business of converting souls. If Bales-ism is true, we do not have any souls out there to convert for they are not even amenable to the Gospel that we have to take to them! Furthermore, we are going to convert souls to truth and have them placed into congregational settings all over our brotherhood where unscriptural divorces and adulterous remarriages are the order of the day. Becoming Christians demands repentance, and repentance, the Biblical brand of it, not Bales' brand-does not mean keeping something stolen whether it be another man's watch, his car, his house, or even his wife.

Some of our brethren no longer believe, preach, or practice what they once did relative to repentance. They have had to change Bible definitions of repentance to fit their newer and more novel views of what to do with a stolen wife subsequent to baptism. So-called repentance has reached a disastrous low in brotherhood thinking when men will advocate that stolen watches, cars, and houses have to be returned in the name of genuine repentance but stolen wives can be retained and with God's full approval; that the water of baptism takes each of stolen husbands and/or wives. But baptism does not wash away husbands and wives to which people have never had possessive rights in God's sight!

Yes, there is a cause and too much has not been said and written yet on the side of truth. As long as errors relative to marriage, divorce, and remarriage are taught then lovers of truth have no alternative other than to keep active their tongues and pens in upholding the majesty of marriage and the holiness of the home.

-Robert Taylor,  PO Box 464, Ripley TN 38063

“And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”  -Matthew 19:9

 

Optimists

Topic(s): Philosophy

 ... are seldom surprised by trouble.

 ... look for partial solutions even if an entire solution can't be found.

 ... believe God has control over their future.

 ... allow for regular renewal.

 ... derail their negative trains of thought.

 ... heighten their powers of appreciation.

 ... use imagination to rehearse success.

 ... are cheerful even when they can't be happy.

 ... think they have an almost unlimited capacity for stretching.

 ... build lots of love into their lives

 ... like swapping good news.

 ... accept what cannot be changed.

-adapted from Alan McGinnis