Love God

“And He said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).
What would happen if everyone in your family today said, “We are not going to go to church anymore?  I will never pray again, or read the Bible again, I am through with God.”  How would we respond?  Would we quietly go with them or would we say, “Oh, no..not me.  I love Jesus so much.  I love Him with everything I am, with everything I own, I am going to keep following Him.  I hate to see you go, but, I love Him more than I love you.”
    We have to make absolutely sure that we have our own relationship with God and that we love Him and each other more than we love our families or ourselves.  Because there is coming a day we will stand before God alone and He is going to examine every facet of our life and what He finds is going to determine where we will remain eternally.  And we will hear one of two things.  “Well done faithful slave,” or “Depart from me, I never knew you…” (Matthew 25:23; 7:23).  The Lord may say:  “I know your wife, she really loves me, I know your children and they love me so much.  But, I don’t know you….you never loved me.”
    Listen, there is nothing more important in our life than knowing that we love Jesus and He is the most important thing in our life.  And because we love Him with all my heart, we love each other in the same way.  You know how you are willing to go out of your way to show your love for your husband, wife, kids or a friend?  Isn’t that so cool?  And sometimes, it’s the simplest things that mean so much. Right?  Last week, my sixteen year old daughter text me and she told me she loved me.   Cool, right?  But you know the first thing that popped into my mind?  What did she do or what does she want? But, that wasn’t it.  She just wanted to tell me she loved me.  And we do stuff like that when we love each other.  We don’t mind making sacrifices and going out of our way to show love.  Well, if I love Jesus with all of my being, my life is going to change as I go out of me way to show Him how much I love Him.      “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).  Are we crazy in love with God?  Is He the most important Person in our life? 
The second part of what Jesus commanded was that I love my neighbor as I love myself.  Who do we think about the most during an average day?  Am I a lover of people or a lover of self?  There are two things I want us to remember about loving each other the way God said we should and when I say each other, I mean loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  #1. Understanding.  Without doubt, absolutely, imperative, essential to my loving God is to understand why I must love my neighbor as myself.  And what Jesus said, the way He said it, it is crystal clear that if I don’t love my neighbor in the right way, I can’t love God like I should.  “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).
    #2.  Practice.      Perfect practice makes perfect.  I cannot possibly love my neighbor without perfect practice.  “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.   No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:11-12).  John is not simply making a statement that God loves us.  John is giving us the standard by which we gauge our love for each other.      If God SO loved us….the word “so” is an adverb of manner and it mandates the love that God has for us is the same kind of love we have for each other.  And the end result of that kind of love is that God will love people through us.  We love God, we love people.  Judge ourselves.




Submitted by: Lennie Reagan

God’s Faithfulness

    One of the things I have learned from studying the Bible is that is so faithful to His Word, His purpose and His people.  Even when men messed it up, God was still faithful.  I don’t know what is going through your mind right now.  I don’t know what the past week has held for many of you.  I don’t know the details of what struggles you may be facing or the past that may haunt you or the fear of the future you might possess.      I don’t know.  God does and He cares.
    I want us talk about how big God is because I believe with all of my heart that if I have the right view of God I can make it through any situation that might come and sit in my lap. Really, the problems that we face in our lives or in the Lord’s church are given birth because someone has the wrong of view of God.  Having a small view of God is one of our biggest problems.      But, when we see God as He is…oh, man it is absolutely off the charts.
    Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet saw God.  Uzziah had been king of Judah for 52 years.  He was a good king and he built up the military of Judah, God blessed him and there was prosperity while Uzziah was on the throne and it was a good time to be a Jew.  About 700 years before Christ was born the sad announcement was made, “THE KING IS DEAD”.   King Uzziah, the eleventh King of Judah, had died.   Despite his failings, he was the greatest king since David.  For 52 years things have been great and now the king is dead.  Can you imagine what the nation of Israel was thinking?  “What’s going to happen to us now?”  The Holy Spirit records these words in Isaiah 6:1…. “In the year of king Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne…”         Don’t miss this.  In the year that Uzziah was no longer sitting on his throne, God showed Isaiah the throne room of heaven and Isaiah saw that God was still on His throne.
    You see, it didn’t matter who the king was on this little planet over the small nation of Judah.  It’s like God was saying to Isaiah, “Come on up to heaven and let me show you the throne that really matters.”  And there are some preaching verses in Isaiah 6, but the thing that stands out to me is the timing of this vision.  When Uzziah died, Isaiah and the nation of Judah were worried about the next king.  Would he be a bad king, or a good king?  They were fretting over the problems they were facing and maybe even felt their lives were falling apart.  But God didn’t come down and counsel Isaiah and the people about their problems.  He brought Isaiah up to heaven and said, “Let me show you something bigger….let me show you Who is still on the throne.”
    I, in no way, am trying to belittle the things you are facing.  It breaks my heart that I can’t fix it for you, but what I am saying is that maybe the solution to what you are facing is not taking a closer look at your problem.  Rather, let’s look beyond what we are facing and looking to God’s throne.  He is still there.



Submitted by: Lennie Reagan

Thinking Correctly

How hard is it for us to say, No?  If someone is asking us to get involved in doing something or another activity comes along, how hard is it for us to say, No?  Here’s what happens.  We get so busy doing so many other things that the priorities in our life get crowded out and usually the first is God.
    If God was physically here on Earth and screaming, “Give your time, give Me your money, give Me your talents,” it would be different. I know that doesn’t sound real spiritual; but, we need to learn to say no.
    It’s kind of like going to Sams.  We’re going to run in for one or two items and we end with a cart full.  When my wife and I go out to eat at Mayflower we usually will order just one meal.  The plate is huge, plus I am cheap. But when the plate comes we will divide the food and she has her plate and I have mine.  Here’s what I don’t do.  When the plate comes I don’t eat from the plate until I have eaten all I want and give her what’s left.  She may not have a lot left to eat.  She knows and I know that I could eat most, if not all that one plate.  Well, that’s kind of what a lot of folks do with God.      We say, well, let me do this and this and this and then, if there is any time left, I’ll give that to God.  And, let me buy this and this, and oh I really need this and if there is any money left, I’ll give it to God.
    We are a consumer oriented people and with that way of thinking there’s nothing to give God.  And we end up without anything or very little time left to give God.  I am not talking about how we can squeeze God into our lives.  What we want to say is that we want God to have priority over me, my life and my stuff. Everyone has time to serve God.  Every one of us has enough money to give God.  Now, do we have enough time and enough money to live the kind of life we want to life and serve God and give to God the way we should?  Probably not.  So we have a decision to make and usually, not always, but usually God ends up sacrificing so we can please ourselves.
    I’m talking about the possibility, and I know it’s a crazy thought to some of us, about the possibility that we come to a point in our lives that we are more concerned about what God wants than what we want.  And that is the very core of what it means to be a slave of Christ.  That’s what Jesus meant when He said we should take up our cross and follow Him….submitting to His will for our lives instead of crowding Him out of our lives and giving Him a token of our lives.
The lawyer who asked Christ, “…which is the great commandment in the Law”? (Matthew 22:36), was attempting to entrap Christ.  The Pharisees, in their tradition, had reduced the Law of Moses to three hundred sixty-five negative commandments and two hundred forty-eight positive commands.  Our Master was asked this question:  “There is no way we can keep all these laws, which one commandment do we need to keep?”   “And He said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and foremost commandment.   The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).
The one thing this lawyer was attempting to accomplish exposed the fallacy of our concept of priorities.
It appears most American christians look through the glasses of American christianity when it comes to priorities.  We make the plea, “New Testament christianity,” which is the proper plea, but it appears what most folks mean is American New Testament christianity.  If we are going to be the church we read about in the Bible, let’s be that church.  Life is all about priorities and the early church was balanced in their priorities (Acts 2:40-47).
One question that I am asked by a lot of people about my favorite verse, and that’s really hard, but one verse that means a lot to me is James 5:17…. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…”  Elijah was a human being just like us.  He was not physically superior to us that made him stand out.  And the same thing is true of Noah, Moses, David, Paul or Peter.  They were people just like you and me.  And when we promote them to a superior status we demote ourselves thinking we can never have the kind of faith they had.  We need to see that it was faith in God that made them stand out.
    Can we have faith in the same God as they did?  Absolutely, positively, without a doubt, beyond any question, “YES!”  “So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Submitted By: Lennie Reagan

Heaven's View of Christmas

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders;   And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.   There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).      I have a huge request to make of us all.  I want us to try to picture ourselves in the literal presence of the Lord.  Let’s try to forget everything going on around us and focus on being in the presence of God.  Now, whatever thought you have, I promise you it is better than that. 

    I want us to think about how heaven views Christmas and I am here to tell you it is not the way we view Christmas.      The world sees Christmas as this little, cute baby who grew up to become a great teacher and He did, but, there is a lot more to Christ than His birth.  Some of us, we see Him as the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and He is the Savior of the world.  And we can have an intimate relationship with Him, and all of that is true.  But, there is so much more.  It doesn’t matter how high, how holy the picture we have of Jesus right, He is so much more and the reason I know that is because the Scripture reveals people who had a high view of God, but when they saw Him they were shocked to be in His presence.

    I love what Job says.      The Bible portrays Job as the most righteous man on the earth and even when all of the tragic events took place in his life, he stilled loved and worshiped God.  But listen to what Job said:  “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;  But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
    The view of heaven goes so much further than a time of warm feelings when heaven views the birth of Christ.  Even Christ had a higher view:  “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, Sacrifice and offering You have not desired,   But a body You have prepared for Me;  In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.  Then I said, Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) To do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:5-7).  The sacrifices of animals did not satisfy the penalty of our sin, but the body and blood of Christ did.  That little baby came into human existence with a body to die for.

    What is our response?  What would heaven have us to do in view of what was announced to the shepherds keeping their flocks that night?  “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1-3).  Anything short of that and we have missed heaven’s point of the coming of Christ.

Submitted By: Lennie Reagan

The Value of Good Godly Material in Christian Homes

I was fortunate while growing up to have Bible publications and study resources around the house. Material written by Guy N. Woods, Gus Nichols, Bobby Duncan, and other faithful preachers and teachers was always near. Articles about doctrine, Christian living, worship, and the Church were right at our finger tips. Good Godly material was beneficial in our home while growing up, and the benefits continue today. This article has a twofold purpose: (1) to emphasize the need for good study material and (2) to recommend a new series of class books being released.

Good material has always stimulated students in their studies. If I knew nothing about Brother Camp, these quotes would peak my interest in studying the Book of Matthew:

“We begin the study of the greatest sermon that has ever been preached. This sermon becomes the basis of the preaching that’s found in the book of Acts. The basis of the preaching that the apostles did when they went out into the great commission and we need to take some time to study this sermon carefully”.

“I’d like for us to think about that the things, the attitudes and the principles that are set forth in the Sermon on the Mount is giving us a picture of the inside of a man or the person that has believed and repented and been baptized in the book of Acts. If you want to find out what one is to be like, the principles are given in this Sermon on the Mount. We have taught, rightly so, that one must be a citizen in the kingdom that started Pentecost in order to be saved. But not only must one be a citizen in the kingdom, he must be a particular kind of person that is a citizen.”

“That’s the reason that I told you when we started this book. This book will upset you. If you are in earnest about going to heaven it’ll upset you. It won’t let you just go along from day to day and be the same. It’ll dig around the root of where we live. It’ll make us look on the inside and examine what we are like on the inside. It’ll make us think about what we are. That’s what we’ve got to do. That’s what we need to do. That’s what we must do.”

The benefits of good material are limitless. Reading and studying good material will help us mature in God’s word. Paul told Timothy “to study or give diligence” in 2 Timothy 2:15. Peter said, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). Our familiarity with scripture is enhanced through Bible study. Peter uses an expression, “But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off…” (2 Peter 1:9). Today, blindness of scripture, typically speaks to one’s spiritual immaturity. Good material also challenges us to grow. I remember my first day of preaching school at Memphis School of Preaching. I thought, as many young preacher students do, I knew it all. It didn’t take long to realize just how little I really knew! I was overwhelmed with good material while in school and it helped build my foundation and stimulated spiritual growth. Good, scriptural material can do that.

Good material helps Christians to ascertain and to maintain the truth as well. Good writers help point us to the truth and help us see the validity of searching the scriptures for answers. Studying with good writers will guide us into areas of study that we might not have gone. Good material helps broaden our minds.

I have pointed out the necessity and benefits of good material, and now I would like to recommend a new series of material. Brother Franklin Camp’s material, Redemption through the Bible, is being bound into book form and formatted into a Bible class series. While the material is geared towards adults, it could be used for High School aged teens as well. It will be at least a five year series to study the complete Bible. Over a five year span Brother, Inc. will be producing this material, with one Old Testament book and one New Testament book released each quarter. We are very excited about the opportunity to produce this material and any profit that is gained from its sale will be used to put preacher students through faithful schools. Each book will be Brother Camp’s material condensed for spacing. That is why, especially for teachers, we suggest that you also get a set of Brother Camp’s CDs, so that you will have every word he spoke. It is our hope and prayer that this material will be a great benefit to Brothers and Sisters in Christ everywhere.

We are thankful to have Christian Family Bookstore to handle all of the material for us. If you would like more information, you can contact us or Christian Family Bookstore. To order, call Christian Family Bookstore at 1-800-782-8175.

Submitted by: Ronnie Hayes

Why Is There So Much Religious Confusion?

There is way too much religious confusion in our world today. Religions have sprung up for various reasons through the years and almost every religious whim results in another “branch” of “Christianity” being started. It is sad to hear that all of the differing churches base their existence and diverse doctrines on the Bible.

Does the Bible present and endorse this kind of confusion? Is it possible to know what the Bible teaches about all the differing churches? Absolutely, yes! We can know and we can distinguish the fake from the real. Paul, in writing to the church at Rome, declares the fundamental basis for unity: “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient to that form of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17). If we all were to submit to and obey from the heart “that form of teaching,” we all would be one.

It is extremely important for us to understand that the Lord has only one church. Jesus promised to build His church, one church (Matthew 16:18). Luke records that the saved were added to the church (one church), (Acts 2:47). Paul reminds us that there is one body (Ephesians 4:4). Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body (Ephesians 5:23). There is only one church. The differing and divisive religions of the world do not make up the one church.

My dear friend, please consider the truths of the Word of God. Let’s return to the simplicity of the Bible and let’s be committed to do what God has asked us to do for the reason God said to do it and in the way God said to get it done. We can understand the Word of God and we can obey His Word. Please contact us if we might help answer your Bible questions. Thank you for your time.

Submitted by: Lennie Reagan

Gospel Meeting / Revival