By
Shelby G. Floyd
David, the second king of Israel wrote most of the Psalms. These Psalms indicate that David was a very spiritually minded man of God. For example he wrote:
Psalms 122: 1
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go into the house of the LORD.”
NKJV
David was glad when someone said, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Some today may be sad or even mad, instead of glad, when it is time to go into the house of the Lord. Continue reading “MAD, SAD OR GLAD!”
By
Shelby G. Floyd
About 65 A.D., the apostle Peter warned the Christians in his day to be aware of false teachers coming into their congregations: “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you” (2 Peter 2:1). Since this is the case, how do we go about identifying these false teachers? We are not left in the dark for there are certain obvious signs of their devious ways. Continue reading “EXPOSING FALSE TEACHERS”
By
Shelby G. Floyd
All of God’s people should live our life in such a way, that when we come to the end, we can look back without regret. This means that we must dedicated to the Lord, study his word and rely upon divine wisdom to make the right choices. Life goes by fast and how many times do we hear someone say, “If I had my life to live over again I would have done such and such.” John Greenleaf Whittier wrote,
For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these,
‘It might have been’.
“It might have been” represents those who have neglected the great salvation offered by Christ.
In the book of Hebrews the people are warned not to neglect what is important:
Hebrews 2:1-3
Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.
NKJV
If we will heed what is said and not neglect our duty, then we can look back without regret and not think about what “might have been.”
No doubt Esau was filled with remorse and regret after he realized he sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. Esau was a profane person and was filled with regret, “For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he carefully sought it with tears” (Hebrews 12:17). No doubt he looked back and wondered again and again, “what might have been.”
Every one of us has a sphere of influence for Christ and the church. We have opportunities to do good for those out of Christ and for those especially who are in the household of God (Galatians 6:10). Let each one of us zealously work to bring our friends and acquaintances into Christ.
Copyright © 2015 Shelby G. Floyd, All Rights Reserved
Shelby G. Floyd
Heartland Church of Christ
1693 West Main Street
Greenwood, Indiana 46142
By
Shelby G. Floyd
There was a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, named Nicodemus. He came to Jesus by night. We don’t know why he came to Jesus by night instead of daytime. The Bible doesn’t tell us; it’s useless to speculate. We just know as a fact that he came to Jesus by night. He addressed the Master as Rabbi. “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God for no man can do the miracles that you do unless God be with him.” The term rabbi was a literary acknowledgment, just like bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, doctor’s degree are literary degrees today among us. The Jews had three of those degrees, rab, rabbi, and rabboni. Jesus said in Matthew 23, “Don’t call any man upon the earth rabbi or father.” In the church we do not distinguish one another, and that includes the preacher, elders and deacons, by some kind of worldly title that tries to exalt one person above another. We do not address one another in the church as doctor or master or rabbi or reverend or any of those terms. In the church we are a family and you don’t address members of your family like that, do you? They are your brothers and sisters. We are all brothers and sisters in the family of God and we do not seek to exalt one person above another by worldly titles. Jesus, being the divine Son of God, accepted those titles when they were addressed to Him. He didn’t rebuke Nicodemus when he called Him Rabbi, even though He rebuked our using those terms to address each other. So Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we know you are teacher come from God, for no man could do the miracles that you are doing, except God be with him.” Continue reading “THE NEW BIRTH”
By
Shelby G. Floyd
The New Testament clearly outlines the essentials on worship. These are: the Lord’s Supper, the contribution, prayer, preaching, and singing. However, in the matters of judgment or incidentals the New Testament does not have a lot to say. This indicates that God leaves it up to our human judgment as to how we should carry out what he has commanded. In our text, we have a window through which to see a worship service of the New Testament church. This worship took place at Troas on Paul’s third evangelistic journey (Acts 20:1-12).
Window into Worship
As Paul traveled around visiting the churches he encouraged them with the word of God. Comfort and encouragement mostly comes from the word of God. “He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece” (Acts 20: 2).
First Day of the Week Worship
We notice that worship at Troas was on the first day of the week. This is what we call Sunday. Why was worship on Sunday and not on Saturday or any other day of the week? “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight” (Acts 20: 7). Why did the New Testament church worship on Sunday instead of Saturday, which was the day of worship of the Jews? By his own resurrection from the dead on the first day the week, Jesus Christ himself sanctified the first day of the week, not the seventh day (Luke 24:1).
The Lord’s Supper Observed on Sunday
Let us also be devoted to taking the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week to remember the salvation we have in Christ. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2: 42). The apostle John was exiled on the island of Patmos and declared he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” This was definitely Sunday the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
Copyright © 2014 Shelby Floyd All Rights Reserved
Shelby G. Floyd
Heartland Church of Christ
1693 West Main Street
Greenwood, Indiana 46142
By
Shelby G. Floyd
The United States Marines have a motto that says, “We are looking for a few good men.” The Marine Corps has a glorious history of good men who were courageous, brave, caring for their fellow Marines, and loyal patriots of America.
Lee Iacocca was a brilliant businessman who pulled the Chrysler Corporation out of almost certain bankruptcy. After he retired he published a book with the title, “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?” He was referring to business leaders who are failing to lead businesses and corporations in successful ways.
God is also looking for leaders and good men to serve him in the family, in the church, and in our great country. Too many fathers are abandoning their families, their jobs, and the church. They are not faithful to their family, their job and the church of Christ.
It is time for fathers to assume their God-given responsibility as the head of the home and religious leader of the family. There is an old English proverb that says, “One father is worth more than one hundred schoolmasters.” The American icon, Mark Twain declared, “My father was an amazing man. The older I got, the smarter he got.”
In the early days of our country, a well-known preacher by the name of Jonathan Edwards said,
Resolved: first; that every man should live at his highest and best for Christ always and everywhere, and second; whether any other man in the world so lives are not, I shall strive with God’s help so to live to the end of my day.
God Almighty is looking for a few good men to be leaders in the home and in the church. But it is increasingly becoming more difficult to find these kinds of men to be leaders in all of the different kinds of responsibilities incumbent on them. There seems to be a decline of male leadership in almost all of our institutions in America. This is not a good thing and we must turn it around in order for God to bless his people.
DECLINE
Today, our lesson is on The Ezekiel Project. There is in the book of Ezekiel a sentence that emphasizes the power of one person:
Ezekiel 22:30-31
So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God.
NKJV
Each person has an individual and personal responsibility to fulfill before Almighty God. And our great leader Jesus Christ does not allow the individual to get lost in the crowd. He wants us to step up and be a man.
In the days of Ezekiel the world was much like our world is today. There was a decline in everything that was good during the sixth century before Christ.
o There was a decline of standards of right and wrong, truth and error.
o There was a decline of morals with everyone doing what was right in their own eyes.
o There was a decline of religion, with the people of God abandoning his word and worshiping and serving pagan idolatry.
The nation of Israel had fallen away from God and was in exile because of their sin and rebellion. Israel had desecrated the Sabbath day–the Jewish day of worship. They were guilty of every form of idolatry—worshiping false gods created by men. They had shed much blood by committing murder. They were guilty of every kind of immorality as described in Leviticus 18, and 20. They were even guilty of practicing child sacrifices that they had learned from their ungodly neighbors.
All of these evil and sinful things were being practiced from the princes to the people—from the head to the toe. Continue reading “The Ezekiel Project–God’s Search For a Man”
By
Shelby G. Floyd
1 Peter 1:22-25
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
NIV
I have just lived to see the new birth of our fifth and sixth great grandson. The physical new birth of a child is one of the great wonders of life and blessing from God. An even greater wonder is how Almighty God can take a sin-laden person and give that person new life spiritually, with the promise of everlasting life to come.
In a conversation with Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, Jesus stated that there must be a radical change before he could enter the kingdom of God. In highly figurative language, Jesus spoke of this radical change under the figure of a new birth. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3: 3-5 NKJV). Continue reading “The New Birth”