Two verses stuck out to me this week from the daily verses from my Bible app on my phone. The first was Proverbs 11:25, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” Are we truly living generous lives? Are we striving to refresh those who are in need? This time of year especially, there are so many people who are in need. Those in need of warm clothes, shelter, food, and many other things. All around our community there are events going on to gather resources to help those in need. If you haven’t already, look for ways you can help the people of our community. Find a food drive to donate to, donate to the care center, buy a gift for a family in need, donate clothes to help those who are stuck in this cold weather. If we are generous and refresh others, then our God will be generous and refresh us. Make sure during these holiday times, we are looking at just how blessed we are and we are searching for ways to spread those blessings to others who are in need.

The second verse that stuck out to me was 2 Corinthians 12:10, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Sometimes we are not in a position to be generous, sometimes we are the ones who are struggling with hard times. But, when we are stuck in these hardships and difficulties, we have to remember to look for the good in them. We must look for the ways we can grow and learn to trust in God through our trials. If we can learn to lean on God when we are struggling, we will be made stronger for future trials.

-Geoffrey Bane

Today we will be continuing our new series on the Nature of God, and we will be looking at the love of God. If you were at the Gospel Gathering this past month, you would have already heard the sermon that I am teaching. God’s love is eternal, unwavering, and victorious. God’s love remains with us in both the joys of life and the trials of life. God loved us so much that He sent His only son to die so we can have the hope of Heaven. We have to live our lives in a way that shows how grateful we are for the love that God has shown us. The only way to truly accept God’s love and to show our thankfulness is to sacrifice every aspect of our lives to Him. As Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord…” To truly accept the love of God, and to call ourselves His children, we must do everything in His name. We must speak in a way that glorifies Him, we must act in a way that glorifies Him, and we must think in a way that glorifies Him. There is not one aspect of our lives that should be used in a way that doesn’t lift up the name of the Lord if we are to truly accept His love in our lives.

-Geoffrey Bane

This week the Bible verse I focused on was Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” We have to ask ourselves constantly, are we presenting ourselves in a way that is a pleasing living sacrifice to God? Are we presenting ourselves in a way that God will look down on us and find joy in His children? If we aren’t we need to make a change within ourselves. We must live every day working towards being better reflections of God, showing God’s nature through our lives.

Speaking on God’s nature, we are beginning a new lesson series on Sunday mornings titled, “The Nature of God.” Through this series I hope we can grow a better understanding of who God is and how we can better serve Him. This week we will start the series by looking at the Holiness of God. In the coming weeks we will look at other aspects of God’s nature such as the love of God, the mercy of God, the justice of God, and a few others. I hope that you will join us every Sunday morning to hear these lessons so we can grow to be better Christians and learn to live in accordance with God’s will. We are also starting a new series on Sunday evening titled, “The Seven I Am Statements of Jesus.” Tonight we will look at the first lesson where Jesus claims that he is the Bread of Life. I hope you will also make an effort to join us on Sunday evenings to hear some lessons about our Savior.

This morning we will be finishing our series on the Parables of Jesus. I hope you have learned something from them as I have learned something from preparing them. We have looked at six parables in this series, and will look at the seventh one today. When we study the parables that Jesus taught with, we can learn so many great lessons about the secrets of this world and of the Kingdom of God. Let’s look at a recap of what we have looked at and the lessons we learn from them:

The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 12:1-23): From this parable we learned about different types of soil that represented the condition of the human heart. We learned that there are types of soil that don’t accept and grow the word of God, and then we learned of the soil, which accepts and cultivates God’s word. That is the soil we should strive to be.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37): From this parable we learned that our love for the people of the world should transcend societal boundaries, and we should love everyone through action and sacrifice, not just words and thoughts.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32): From this parable we learned that no matter how far we stray away from God, he is always watching and waiting for our return with open arms.

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30): From this parable we learned that God blesses all of us with different talents, and we are expected to put those talents to work for the growth of His kingdom.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matthew 13:31-32): From this parable we learned that God’s kingdom started small, but it will grow beyond what we can imagine or expect. We should look for the small things God puts in our life, so we can grow them into greater things in the future.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13): From this parable we learned that we should always be prepared for Christ’s return, because we never know when he may return to this world.

One of my daily verses this week was Matthew 5:6. This verse is found in the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus declares, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. If we earnestly seek Him, if we long for righteousness, then we are blessed. Seeking God and longing for righteousness is a mark of those who truly follow Christ. Now it doesn’t say to just casually desire these things, but to hunger and thirst for them. This shows that we should desire to have an intense craving and a sense of urgency that drives us to pursue righteousness. Just as we hunger and thirst for the things needed for survival physically, we should hunger and thirst for righteousness for our own spiritual well-being. This hunger should cause us to want to see God’s will and justice done in our own lives and in the world around us. What does it mean for us to hunger and thirst for righteousness? It means that we desire to live in a right relationship with God, seeking to align our lives with His word, and longing for His justice and peace to prevail. It involves turning away from sin and self-centered feelings and pursuing a life that reflects the holiness of Christ. This hunger also includes a deep concern for others – the desire to see righteousness and justice all around our communities.

There is a promise attached to this statement, that we will be satisfied. Jesus assures us that those who seek righteousness will not be left empty and hungry, but will be filled and satisfied. We will be transformed by His spirit, and we will be filled with peace, joy, and purpose. This is what is promised to us if we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Do we truly hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do we truly long to see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven? We are surrounded by worldly distractions, so we must work to fix our eyes on what truly satisfies; Jesus Christ, who is the source of all righteousness.

-Geoffrey Bane

A Bible verse that stood out to me this week was Ecclesiastes 12:13, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Are we living our life following this verse? Are we fearing God in our lives? We learn from the Bible that our God is merciful, loving, and slow to anger. But we also learn that God is to be feared, because he is a jealous and vengeful God. Are we living our lives fearing the judgment of the Lord? Because if we are not we need to make a change in our lives. We should live every day looking within ourselves making sure we are living according to God’s will. Then it says to keep His commandments. Not keep a couple, or a few, or some, but to simply keep His commandments. We have to live our lives in a way that we are keeping all the commandments of God. Not just the ones we agree with, or the easy ones to keep. But we are to keep all of His commandments even when it is hard, even when it takes effort, even when no one else around us is keeping them. Why? Because it is the whole duty of mankind. Our purpose on earth is to keep God’s commandments and live in accordance to His will. We have no other reason for our lives but to work for God. A question that has been posed by philosophers for years is what is the purpose of life? That question was answered over two thousand years ago that the purpose of life is to fear God and keep His commandments.

-Geoffrey

Change is something that always happens, change is inevitable. We see change almost every day, some small things that don’t matter, and some big things that change the way we live our lives. A few years ago, we saw many changes with COVID-19 which changed the way our whole world lives. Coming up soon we will see changes in our government for better or for worse. Today we are seeing changes in our church building. But the one thing that never changes is the word of God. Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” No matter how many changes this world goes through, the word of God remains. We can change the building we spread the word in, we can change the way we present it with power points and live streams, we can change the songs we sing, we can change many things about the presentation of God’s word. We cannot, however, change the message of God’s word. We cannot change the fact that those who accept Jesus into their hearts and live according to God’s will will make it to eternal life. We cannot change the fact that those who do not accept Jesus and live according to the flesh in sinful ways, will make it to eternal death.

As we enter this new era at Harding Street, I hope you will embrace the changes as a way to grow Harding Street Church of Christ. I also hope that you will join me in saying that whatever changes happen around us, we will not attempt to change God’s word. We will not change the message of the Gospel that Jesus Christ came to teach, to preach, to be a sacrifice for us, and then to rise again. We will not change the plan of salvation to Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess, and Be Baptized. And that we will not attempt to change the great commission to go out and spread God’s word to all nations so everyone can know the saving power that His word has.

-Geoffrey Bane

Brother Cunningham then brought our attention to Matthew 6:25-34, a scripture that those of us who study God’s word probably already know pretty well. These verses show Jesus teaching for us to not be worried about things of this world. He says do not worry about what to eat, drink, or wear because our life is about more than food and clothing. As we learn from both of these passages of scripture, God will provide for those things which we need. God provides for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, so would He not much more provide for man who He created in His image, and those who chose to follow Him? We are not called to be people who worry about things, or to be anxious because it will gain us nothing. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:27, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”

We also must learn to look at blessings as God would view them. Sometimes we pray for cake, but when God gives us butter, eggs, flour, icing and an oven we are unwilling to bake the cake. God will provide for us, but we must be willing to take that which He provides and put it into work. We may not wake up to a warm cake and pitcher of water on our bedside table like Elijah did, but we will wake up with bodies that can work, kitchens to cook in, stores to buy groceries, and a God who loves us. Let us all strive to worry less and trust in God more.

-Geoffrey Bane

The daily verse from my Bible app this week that stood out to me was James 5:13, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” Isn’t it so good that we have a God that we can go to in our suffering. And notice in the verse, it doesn’t specify the suffering. It doesn’t say a level of suffering that you have to attain to be able to go to God in prayer. Oftentimes we don’t pray, or we don’t ask for prayers because we think that our problems are too small. We start to compare our sufferings with other people’s sufferings. Now it is good to understand that we don’t have it as bad as other people do, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve the help of God when we are struggling. We also teach that nothing is too big for God. We go to God when things become too much for us to handle because He is big and great enough that He can handle it. But why do we never think of the flip side of that coin, that nothing is too small for God. The verse does not say, is anyone among you suffering big or small, but just suffering. We need to be better about going to God in prayer about everything in our lives, whether big or small. Sometimes if we can ask God for help with the small things, then they won’t become the big trials in our lives because He will handle it when it is still small.

Then what about the next part of that verse. Are we singing songs or praise to God when we are cheerful? Are we praising God’s name when good things happen in our lives? I have a few friends on Facebook who will post pictures of their meals, or their cars, or their equipment that allows them to work, and in every post they say, “Thank you God.” Do we have that same attitude towards the things in our lives that God has blessed us with? Do we give God the credit that he is due for the things He has done for us, or do we try to take credit for things that are not our own doing? Let us remember to go to God in prayer in our suffering, whether great or small. Let us also remember to praise God for all the good things He does in our lives.

-Geoffrey Bane

As we start to see the seasons change in the coming days, we should be reminded of the power of God, and reminded why He should be at the top of our list. Psalm 74:17, “You have set all the borders of the earth; You have made summer and winter.” Every little detail about the earth was set in place by God’s all powerful hand. We have seasons because God decided the earth needed seasons, we have change throughout the year because God decided the earth needed change. The earth is a fine tuned machine, working within itself, and if one thing was off, the earth would not be able to survive. But our all powerful God set everything in the perfect place for us to have this world.

Everything on our planet has to be exact for us to live here. It can’t be too hot, it can’t be too cold, it has to have enough water, it can’t have too much water. Everything had to be laid out in such a perfect way that no other planet can be like this one. For as long as scientists have looked into space, they have searched for another planet like earth. They used to give a number of odds of the chances of another planet like earth. It could have started at 1 in a 1000, 1 in a million, 1 in a billion. It has now gotten to the point as they search more and more, that they aren’t giving it a number any more. Now they say the chances are relatively low, because the more they look the more they realize just how exact everything has to be. I say all this to make one point. The God that is all powerful, powerful enough to make this perfect world for us to live in, knows us. He knows us personally. Isaiah 43:1, “… Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.” Our God, the creator and ruler of the universe, knows us, calls us by name, and calls us His own. Let us remember these things as we look at what is important in our lives.

-Geoffrey Bane