Category: TFR Blog

The Fellowship Room is a group blog open to submissions.

Every day is Thanksgiving

We have the loving and powerful God to thank.

First of all, a joyful Thanksgiving to you and yours. We are enjoying the day with family, here in the USA. (We arrived a few weeks ago.) Last week, all our children and their families gathered together for a special time. We’ve enjoyed food, rest, and recreation together. Continue reading “Every day is Thanksgiving”

My Idols Betrayed Me

A short poem on the place of idols.

My idols betrayed me. What shall I do?
If metal, I’ll grind them; if wood, I’ll burn them;
if stone, I’ll break and bury them deep.
If power or coin or science, I’ll spurn them.

If human, I’ll love and help them see
the heart delights in lesser things,
to wield control o’er deity.

O carnal mind ─ No idol can guide you.
What has the Almighty God denied you?

─J. Randal Matheny

Sanctification as self-denial

We declare to ourselves, “I will not let this man (self) reign over me!”

BY RON BARTENAN ─ We talk often about salvation, but little about sanctification — when one is convicted in his or her heart of sin and, in penitent faith, puts on Christ in baptism, steps out into the world, having been washed in the blood of Christ, a new creature, saved from the guilt of sin (Romans 6:1-4). At that time our Lord has set the believer apart from the world to “walk in newness of life,”, which we refer to as sanctification. At such a time we begin to see in action one’s cooperation with God in one’s separation from sin and living a holy (sanctified) life. Continue reading “Sanctification as self-denial”

Do not marry a question mark

It seems like there are always complicating and extenuating circumstances.

HUGH’S NEWS & VIEWS, by Hugh Fulford

(Pursuant to last week’s article on “The Evolution Of ‘Adjusting’ God’s Law Of Marriage,” we send forth the following article by my good friend Bill Boyd. Bill is the able preacher for the Rockliff Church of Christ in Morrison, TN where he also serves as one of the elders. I ask my readers to thoughtfully consider the wisdom with which brother Boyd writes. His article follows). Continue reading “Do not marry a question mark”

Take Time to Be

To the tune of ‘Take Time to Be Holy.’

You may hear the old tune in the back of your mind. That’s good!

Take time to be thoughtful,
Each day in the Word;
Delve deeply to study
The mind of the Lord.
The truths of the gospel,
Such riches they hold!
More precious than silver
Or finest of gold!

Take time to be earnest,
In all things sincere,
With purest of motives,
Your purpose be clear.
All your supplications
To Heaven may fly.
In word or in action
The Lord glorify.

Take time to be loving,
Toward friends and your foes.
For all these in darkness
Christ died and arose.
His will is to save them,
From sin to forgive.
Like him, bear your burden,
That others might live.

I hate to tell the story?

From the parable of the two sons.

“‘Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of heaven before you’” Matthew 21:31.

So many of us, who have never shared the gospel with another person, sing the lyrics to “I Love to Tell the Story,” without really thinking about the contrast between our words and actions. Continue reading “I hate to tell the story?”

Razor thin the narrow path

The writer is “ever conscious of what I read or watch.”

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths” 2 Timothy 4:3-4.

If ever there was an apt description of the time we live in this would be it! Continue reading “Razor thin the narrow path”