The Return of COVID (08.31.23)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Plain Bible Teaching Podcast

This week we’re talking about the return of COVID. There has been a lot of talk lately of a new variant, mask mandates, and lockdowns. We went through all of this three years ago and it seemed like we were able to put this behind us, but now it seems like it’s about to be thrust upon us again. So, if all of these things come back, how should we, as Christians, handle it?
Continue Reading

Cold, Empty Churches

Empty church

Corydon E. Fuller, in Reminiscences of James A. Garfield, described a period in which he (the author) was working with a school in Hambden, Ohio, in 1851. In this “little village” that “enjoyed no past, and had no hope in the future,” there were two churches which he described in this way:

“The two churches stood like gladiators over against each other, shabby in their weather-beaten habiliments, faded and tattered by winter’s storms and summer’s heat. Without, they were forbidding and repulsive; within, the fires had grown cold upon their altars, and the worshipers had departed, save a few fossils who had come down from a former generation.” (Reminiscences of James A. Garfield, p. 39)

No additional information is given about these churches and how they got into this condition. However, any church could find itself in this condition in the future, no matter its current state.

The churches Fuller described were once active in their work and worship. Yet over time, their services had “grown cold,” and most of the “worshipers had departed.” Whether one condition led to the other or both happened concurrently, they were related (and can also be in our churches today).Continue Reading

Churches Canceling Services for Christmas (12.22.22)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS

Plain Bible Teaching Podcast

This week we’re talking about churches canceling services for Christmas. December 25th falls on a Sunday this year. And while most churches in the religious world place a special emphasis on this as a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, there are a number of churches that are planning not to meet at all because of the holiday. There are some points I want us to consider about this.Continue Reading

Answering Basic Questions (Part 11): What Is the Work of the Church?

Answering Basic Questions

Earlier in this series, we discussed the question: What is the church? A related question, and one that will come up from time to time, is about what local churches are to be doing. If you ask various people, you will likely get many different answers. This is the reason why there is an almost limitless number of activities and “ministries” offered by churches today. Is it necessary – or even good – for churches to do all of these things?

What is the work of the church? There are four points for us to consider here.Continue Reading

Answering Basic Questions (Part 9): What Is Worship?

Answering Basic Questions

Many people equate being religious with worship, and for good reason. Worship may not be all that we do in service to God, but it must be a necessary and fundamental part of it.

What is worship? Let us consider four points about this subject.Continue Reading

Joy in the Assembly

Psalm 122:1

I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’” (Psalm 122:1).

This is a familiar verse to many of us (and for good reason). In this psalm, David described the attitude that God’s people should have toward worship – particularly the opportunities to assemble for worship. The psalmist described going to Jerusalem and worshiping in the temple (“the house of the Lord”). The parallel for us today is in our gathering with the church as we assemble for worship.

This psalm is a “Song of Ascents” – part of a collection of fifteen psalms (120-134) which are generally recognized as songs that would be sung by those ascending the road to Jerusalem to worship. This would happen three times a year (Deuteronomy 16:16) – at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. This psalm began with an exclamation of joy over the mere mention of the journey to the place where the people of God would be gathered to worship Him.

Today, worship is not something that is confined to Jerusalem (John 4:21); it can be done anywhere. Yet wherever we gather to worship, we need to have the same attitude expressed by the psalmist.Continue Reading

A New and Living Way

Garden path

Throughout the book of Hebrews, a comparison is made between the new covenant and the old covenant. In every way, the new covenant in Christ is far superior to the old covenant. Because the new way is better, we should respond to it in a certain way. Notice what the author of Hebrews wrote:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us…” (Hebrews 10:19-22).

Following that statement, the Hebrew said, “Let us” do certain things. In the subsequent verses, we find three things we are to do now that we are a part of the “new and living way” in Christ. In this article, we will consider each of these.Continue Reading