The editor shares seven points of gospel and faith today, all tied together by the commitment to the will of God.
1- Don’t think that, just because you do the right thing, you’ll feel warm fuzzies afterwards. The heart doesn’t always follow the head, but down the road you’ll look back and see how right it was. It’s a given that saints should act and decide with the mind and not the feelings. Though even that is challenged today.
2- Indecision in one area may be a manifestation of uncertainty or lack of definition in another, even more important, area which you’re not dealing with. The same goes for confusion. Discover its cause and clear it up as quickly as possible.
3- So many delude themselves into thinking that participation in a system which God does not approve of can be overlooked because one disagrees with certain points or approaches in one’s heart. The only resistence is internal, with little or no concrete action. Whether it be a lack of courage or of understanding makes no difference. Both are available to us.
4- A perceptive comment in a footnote on Acts 13.44-52, from a Brazilian version: “And the two-edged sword that divides the groups [Jews and Gentiles] is no longer the Law, but the Word of God, that is, the proclamation of salvation; this must be received so that it may introduce people into the life inaugurated by the risen Jesus.” That two-edged sword divides the obedient from those who make the gospel into something different.
5- So many, but so many, words used today are not used in their biblical sense: sinner, church, baptism, tradition, etc. Only when we understand what God means by them in Scripture can we comprehend his plan and cooperate in his will. One of the sayings of gospel preachers in days gone by was to use Bible words with the Bible’s meanings. A whole cluster of needed truths shone through. “We must speak where the Bible speaks, be silent where the Bible is silent, call Bible things by Bible names, and do Bible things in Bible ways.” We need this more than ever, because we absolutely do not do this anymore.
6- There is no true source of revelation except from what God had given in Scripture. So the Sacred Text says to people (of God!) who were seeking other sources of authority for their actions: “You should follow the teachings and the covenant with Yahweh” Isaiah 8.20 IEB. Or, as God’s Word version has it, “They should go to the teachings and to the written instructions.” The question must always be, “What does the Text actually say?” Then we can begin to understand it and apply it to our needs.
7- The true church is practically invisible today only because the evil one has multiplied religious organizations which call themselves churches and which commit every type of sin and immorality and which show every sign of human creation, perpetuation, and ambition. The true followers of Christ must distance themselves from such groups in every way, by every means.
To be “the true church” is a great privilege. Some have lost it. If the Ephesian church did not heed the Lord’s warning, they might have continued to call themselves a church, but they would no longer have been the Lord’s, Revelation 2.4-5. His warning still stands.
- Covenants: 42 words - 2026-08-18
- Warm fuzzies will not necessarily follow - 2026-07-28
- Don Ruhl has departed this life - 2026-07-01