As one of the deacons here at Southside, I have been asked to submit a bulletin article in support of our one-year plan centered around the theme of “Come to Jesus.”  The topic given to me was “The World Today.”

    In this article I am going to be talking in generalizations.  I understand that there are always exceptions.  I also am going to be concentrating my thoughts on Americans since I have no other experience with any others, so you might as well title this “The United States Today.”

    Let’s begin in 2 Timothy 3:1-5: “But realize this, that…

    In a sermon several years ago now, Brother Bowman remarked how “Hope is the apparatus that reaches out into our future and affixes itself to that for which we long.”  I can still remember how much I liked the way this sounded, I wrote it down immediately and have obviously committed it to memory.  It wasn’t until a few more years had passed that what had been a really neat way of framing a concept took on a great deal more significance.  My Mother returned to the Lord in 2013 after 40 years away … this expression now had…

            It is almost unfair to try and write a discourse on the providence of God in so short a space, seeing that His providence touches every facet of our lives–from here to eternity.

            The term has been damaged by mis-use and mis-applications of various sorts. If it can be viewed in our lives, it has to be done mostly retrospectively and not prospectively, seeing that we don’t always know if a certain happening is God’s providence or a “time and chance happens to them all”…

            “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

            This well-known commandment makes it very clear what our responsibility is when it comes to assembling with the saints. Faithful attendance is a direct command and we should desire to gather together with those of like precious faith to worship…

            Christians are familiar with the responsibility of parents to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph.6:4).  As a result of their love for the Lord and their children, many are very conscientious in this area.  And, many are ultimately rewarded with godly, mature, devoted offspring.

            On the other hand, there are godly parents who do exactly as described and get the opposite results.  It’s tragic, heartbreaking and discouraging.

            The discouragement is often…

            There is a tendency in man to disregard God's government in preference for personal autonomy (auto--self; nomos, rule). He wants to rule himself–without interruptions. Illustrations of the fact are numerous.  You see them everywhere, on bumper stickers, in magazines and newspapers, everywhere.  Perhaps the most all-inclusive statement of it is seen in this generation's proclivity to “do your own thing,” or “it’s my life, I can handle it!”

            Jeremiah sounded the warning. so did Solomon.  Jeremiah said, “...it is not in man that walketh…

            The Bible is unique in all the literature of the world. There are several things that set it apart from any human literary production.

            It is inspired. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that the Scriptures are “God-breathed.” God breathed them out through His Holy Spirit. He has also breathed Himself into them, so that the Bible is a living thing (Hebrews 4:12) imbued with God’s own thoughts.

            In some ways it is like other books. It communicates like other…

            The Bible is perennial.  It never has to be renewed and revised since it is pertinent to any age and applicable to any culture.  It says the same thing to a nation with a Socialist government as to a free Democratic society.  In fact, the Bible is so fixed by God that it will tolerate no change and condemns any effort to alter it in any way (II John 9-11).

            The Bible is primarily for persons. Everything in it is intended to speak…

            “Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Eph. 6:16).

            Here, Paul alludes to the great oblong, semi cylindrical shield, or scutum, used by the Roman soldiers, which not only covered the whole front body, but also could protect them on the sides. For us, this unique shield of faith, when used with dexterity, will help us to cover up all the other parts of our armor as…

By David Diestelkamp

By Leslie Diestelkamp

By David Diestelkamp