Back in the 1970s, I was an emergency medical technician and a paramedic. I won’t regale you with “war stories,” though I know my share. But I do want to tell you about a friend of mine who stopped to help someone once.

My friend, also a paramedic, witnessed an accident and stopped one day to help an injured person. The victim was bleeding severely from cuts to the face and mouth. The lacerations bled so profusely it affected the victim’s ability to breathe. If my friend hadn’t been at the scene of this accident, the victim might have died.

My friend’s actions that day, heroic as they were, did not prevent him from being sued. Legislative acts called “Good Samaritan Laws” are supposed to protect those that help victims and prevent lawsuits and judgments from being brought. My friend narrowly missed having a judgment for thousands of dollars entered against him, but still had to pay attorney fees to defend himself.

Helping others carries a risk. It may have been risk that prevented two religious leaders from helping a victim of a robbery on the road to Jericho in Luke 10:25-37. These two had the ability and the opportunity to help the injured man, but they did not.

Only one traveler showed compassion on the injured man. This person, a Samaritan, did not pass by but helped the victim. He stopped, bandaged the man’s wounds and helped him to an inn. His aid didn’t stop there; he paid for a room at an inn and told the innkeeper that if anything further was needed to bill him for the cost.

The Samaritan was not afraid of the risk he might have encountered to help the man. He wasn’t like so many who “just don’t want to get involved.” Like my paramedic friend, the possibility of facing reprisal for his actions never occurred to him.

People need salvation. We must never be so afraid of getting involved that we shirk our responsibility to teach them the truth. We can start today to show the compassion we must have for the lost. Will we?

While my father was alive he worked at a machine shop during the day and studied the Bible at night.

He was a preacher for very small congregations of churches of Christ in Middle Tennessee for more than 30 years. His single focus was to preach the truth It was tough then and it’s getting tougher all the time.

There are brethren that believe to preach the truth one must support a certain political party. I often run afoul of these brethren because I’m not a member of a political party. My focus is the same as my father’s: I’m only interested in preaching God’s word. Worldly politics can take care of itself.

“Well, then, you won’t take a stand on issues like homosexuality,” someone might say. Yes, I take my stand on what the Bible teaches, including its teaching on homosexuality. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God,” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NKJV).

The Biblical text speaks for itself. It does not need a political party to amplify it, lend credence to it or even assist it. It doesn’t matter in the slightest if a politician agrees with it.There are many who will seek to curry favor with good people and support the Bible one minute and then condemn it the next because the political winds shift.

My focus is to preach and stand for the truth. If I do that, then I will please God. Where I will appear on Judgment Day is much more important to me than which party I vote for on Election Day.

“And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:13.

The word "token" is an interesting word. My sisters and I used to love the “Fun Tunnel” inside the only mall we had in our hometown. Dad would give us three or four dollars and we’d exchange them for tokens for use in the video game machines.

When God instituted the Passover, the lambs’ blood was smeared on the posts and lintel of each doorway so that death would pass over the house and all therein. The blood meant something very special to God, for it was a token of something.

While a token can be a sign or a symbol, it may also mean “a small part representing the whole,” e.g., “this is only a token of what we hope to accomplish.”

So, whose blood was the whole the small part represented in Exodus 12:13? It was the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son. The Hebrew writer penned, “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance,” (Hebrews 9:15 KJV). It was by the blood of Christ that the sins of those under the Old Testament were cleansed.

Under the New Testament, one may contact the blood of Christ in baptism, have his sins forgiven and stay covered in Christ’s blood by continued obedience (Romans 6:1-4; Galatians 3:27; Revelation 7:14). Such a one may confidently sing:

Christ our Redeemer died on the cross,
   Died for the sinner, paid all his due.
All who receive Him need never fear,
   Yes, He will pass, will pass over you.

When I see the blood, when I see the blood;

   When I see the blood, I will pass I will pass over you.”

Our congregation had its potluck Sunday and it was a great opportunity to grow closer together. There were also other great opportunities.

One of the people who had been visiting our congregation for the last month mentioned liking a cup of hot tea. Well, I've developed a craze lately for Twinings Earl Grey and had an extra bag. So, I got this person some hot water and made some tea. It was just a little nice thing, you know?

So, today at the potluck, I remembered and got this same person tea without being asked. It was such a smal thing, but it seemed to matter so much.

Jesus said, "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,” (Galatians 5:22f NLT).

Will you do something for me this week? Do some little kindness for someone. It may be just giving someone a cup of cold water or a Kleenex to someone with a cold. It might be opening a door for someone or giving someone a seat on the bus or train. Just do some little kindness.

You will be amazed how much a small kindness matters. Thanks.

It’s amazing how a change in hearing or sight affects us humans.

A slight change in hearing or sight may not be perceived, but a significant difference from one day to the next may send us into waves of alarm and concern.

Have you ever thought that the effectiveness of our senses and the perception of this world is not that important? Of more importance is how much we try to learn about what we can’t see and hear. The Apostle Paul wrote, “So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal,” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NASB).

Of course, this verse is just one of several in the context of a passage important for study. For now, though, let’s just think about this one. People don’t normally consider thinking about what cannot be seen because they are all too often concerned with what’s going on around them.

The problem is that the things we can see are not really worthy of the lion’s share of our concern. Instead, we should think of those eternal things that cannot be seen. We need to concern ourselves with obeying God and Christ, in preparing for heaven and for building our faith, which comes from the word of God and is the evidence of things not seen (Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:1).

Think of yourself standing on the brink of eternity and looking back at this life. Now, which was more important? Ah, you’re seeing the reason why we should “focus not on what is seen, but on what is not seen.”

So, as you view the unseen, what do you see? Where is your home going to be in eternity? On what should your mind be focused? These questions are the most important, aren’t they?

Appointing a king was a bad idea for Israel and God tried to explain that to them through Samuel.

Evidently, the elders of Israel had failed to take into account what appointing a king would mean. They believed they would have more influence with a human king to change some things they didn’t like.

Of course, what they really didn’t like was God’s rule over them. This was the controversy (1 Samuel 8:7). It was God’s way they resented. It was God’s rule they wanted to throw away.

Think of the calamity the monarchy produced in Israel. King David, the best of the lot, was guilty of adultery and murder. The remainder of the monarchy caused Israel to divide, ultimately taken captive and transported to Assyria and Babylon.

When people decide God shouldn’t control their lives, that’s when the problems start. It’s the same today as it was in the day Israel asked God for a human king. As the United States rules prayer in schools unconstitutional and as its people care more for alcohol than they do the worship of God has there been any good effect?

In the late 1970s, Ronald Reagan was elected president after asking a single question in a debate with then President Jimmy Carter. He said, “Are you any better off now?” Well, are you any better off now than you were when you threw the rule of God away? Is our nation?

Confidence is a necessary characteristic for one to live as a faithful child of God.

The writer of the Hebrew letter discussed this. As a matter of fact, much of the letter was about confidence, boldness and enthusiasm for living a faithful Christian life. In much of Hebrews 10, the inspired writer made the case for our boldness and confidence secured by the blood of Christ by a new and living way initiated by Jesus’ broken body on the cross and that we have a new High Priest, Jesus Christ, who serves in the very presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-22).

The writer continued in Hebrews 10:35-39 saying we must not throw away the confidence we’ve been given, but that we must maintain what we have believed. The way is given within the same passage.

We need patience (Hebrews 10:36). The word for patience in this passage is one of two words used in the New Testament. It is “hupomone” or “endurance.” It means “to bear up underneath.” Endurance helps us bear the burdens of this life and learn to rely on God for help. With endurance, the burdens we bear don’t tear us down because we use our strength and faith in God to help us push back on them. Patience comes from putting God’s word into practical effect during suffering. James wrote that the trying of faith works patience (James 1:3). In the Roman letter, Paul wrote, “We glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,” (Romans 5:3). Patience, or endurance, keeps us sharpened tools for the Master’s use.

We need to live by faith (Hebrews 10:38). In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul wrote that we “live by faith, not by sight,” (2 Corinthians 5:7). What does that mean? “Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen,” according to Hebrews 11:1. It is faith that builds and maintains confidence, boldness and enthusiasm. In every example given in Hebrews chapter 11, there was the conviction and confidence each person had in God who could not be seen. Noah was warned of things not seen as yet and was moved with “godly fear” to save his family from a flood (Hebrews 11:7). Abraham looked for a city whose “builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). By faith, Moses decided to suffer affliction with the people of God (Hebrews 11:25-26). Our lives must be lived trusting God and obeying his will instead of trusting ourselves and what may be seen. We must remember that which is seen is temporary while that which is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

We need steadfastness (Hebrews 10:39). We are people whose confidence and trust in God leads us to remain steadfast and faithful in the work of God. We do not draw or “shrink back.” The original language of the New Testament in verse 39 says, “we are not those of a shrinking back to destruction.” For those who lack the confidence, boldness and enthusiasm to remain true to the Lord Jesus, there is only destruction. Yes, it’s a negative idea and people tend to avoid negative things, but it is a warning we must heed. In the 21^st Century, one of the main reasons why people fall away is that they are “of a shrinking back.” They lack confidence in their Savior. They lack endurance and faith. They need not. Faith is built by the study of God’s word (Romans 10:17). Endurance comes from putting into practice God’s word in the things we suffer in life.

The qualities needed for faithful and steadfast Christian living are not impossible to inculcate into our lives. We can have the kind of confidence in God that we need to foster boldness and enthusiasm. We can build faithful character and teach the lost the gospel of Christ. Whether we will do the things the writer of Hebrews encourages to maintain the profession of our faith is simply up to us.

Why do people return to the Old Testament for the reasons for some of the things they do? Have they not read what the Apostle Paul said about this? The apostle wrote, “Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all! And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law,” (Galatians 5:2-3 NET).

In the same context he also wrote that those who wish to be declared as right doing and justify themselves by the law of Moses "you have fallen away from grace," (Galatians 5:4). 

What these verses show is how people went to the Old Testament to force Gentiles to be circumcised, one of the practices of the Law of Moses. What other practices of the Law of Moses do people use the Old Testament for as their authority today? 

For many, the use of instrumental music in worship is justified by the Old Testament. The problem for this is that God never authorized instrumental music in worship under the Law of Moses. In fact, the Old Testament itself said, “You refused to believe a day of disaster will come, but you establish a reign of violence. They lie around on beds decorated with ivory, and sprawl out on their couches. They eat lambs from the flock and calves from the middle of the pen. They sing to the tune of stringed instruments like David they invent musical instruments,” (Amos 6:3-5).

They “invented” instruments; they did not follow the word of God concerning them. Invent, according to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon means, “to invent ingenious and artistic things,” like the false gods Judah worshipped, which is where instrumental music in worship originated.

There is another problem with using the Old Covenant as authority. Paul said anyone who would allow himself to be circumcised must obey the whole law. Yet, religious bodies who use instruments don’t obey the laws of blood sacrifices. They don’t have themselves circumcised. They don’t keep the Passover. They refuse to obey to whole law, which means they are lost by the law they are trying to keep.

The truth is that if you follow even a part of the old law for your justification, then you must obey the WHOLE LAW, which means all of its component parts.

The reason is that the only way a person may be justified completely unto God is through the New Testament in the blood of Jesus Christ. Yet, there are people who are keeping a part of the Law of Moses and hoping they can be saved by the blood of Christ. The apostle Paul said that won’t happen. Paul said, “Christ will be of no benefit to you at all!”

Wouldn’t it be better to keep the Law of Christ, based in a better sacrifice and in a better covenant (Hebrews 10:7-14)? Obey the gospel today and observe the only true covenant that is in force through the blood of Christ.

Weddings are always such a happy time. When my wife and I were married, there was never such a happy, fun time.

Probably one of the best things about a wedding is dressing up. Not only was I dressed in the finest formal wear I could find, but also my best man and groomsmen were dressed well, too.

My wife was a vision in her wedding dress. All of her attendants were wearing formal dresses. Probably the only person not so finely attired was the preacher.

In two Old Testament scriptures, both Isaiah and Habakkuk proclaim their desire to rejoice in the Lord God because of their salvation (Isaiah 61:10; Habakkuk 3:18).

Isaiah describes the joy of his salvation as a bride or groom getting “decked out.”

In both scriptures, the word for salvation is “yesha,” defined by “Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Lexicon of Old Testament Words” as “deliverance, salvation, rescue, safety, welfare, prosperity.”

Are not all those things ours with our obedience to the gospel of Christ? They certainly are and we should know it. Through our salvation in Christ, we have been delivered from sin, saved from condemnation, rescued from death, safe in the arms of Jesus and have a spiritual prosperity beyond compare.

So, we should do as the apostle instructs: “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice (Philippians 4:4).

Former National Football League player Matt Bowen wants to know what all the fuss is about. The NFL came down hard against the New Orleans Saints Wednesday, March 21, 2012 for allowing a system of bounties to be paid for players to knock out, disable or concuss opponents.

"Bounties, cheap shots, whatever you want to call them, they are a part of this game," Bowen wrote in a Chicago Tribune column.

So, what's all the fuss about? 

Well, let's begin with collusion to injure your opponent and sweeten the deal with a $50,000 prize just isn't within the lines of "sportsmanship."

If that isn't bad enough for you, the NFL accused Saint's Head Coach Sean Payton of "falsely denying the program existed and attempted to encourage the false denials by instructing assistants to 'make sure our ducks are in a row.'" 

Now, if I'm reading this correctly, we're talking about dishonesty here, of which all the players and coaches were guilty because they knew the NFL's policy about bounties and decided to violate it anyway and cover any discovery.

This is what our "ends justifies the means" society is doing. This practice of pragmatism is everywhere and has infiltrated everything in our world so that honesty and good sportsmanship is just for "lot of suckers."

Remember what Jesus said about the Jews? He said “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies,” (John 8:44 NASB).

That’s what all the fuss is about, folks. This is what the world is becoming. It is becoming more like its father all the time.