Nancy Grace Show

Last night on the Nancy Grace show she asked if the Church of Christ was a cult that drove a preachers wife to murder.
Throughout the show she lead the audience and listeners to the fact that the church of Christ was a cult.
Rubel Shelly was on the show defending the church of Christ.
Although I don't agree with every thing Rubel Shelly says he did a good job for what he was up against.
If you would like to look at he transcripts you can find it at
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/29/ng.01.html

Singing Praises to God

I enjoy last Wed. night of the month. It is a time where our congregation gets together and sings priases to God. We learn some new songs, sing praise songs and sing the songs we grew up on. I love it.
I am planning on teaching a few new songs tonight maybe We Shall Assemble and Lamb of God.
I love those two songs.
I am also going to lead some of the old hymns that I grew up with like When All God's Singers Get Home, Hand in Hand with Jesus, I'll Fly Away, Count Your Blessings, and maybe even sing 728b one of my favorites.
It is wonderful when God's people sing to him. Singing glorifies God and builds us up and strengthens us as well.
The wonderful thing is we can sing whenever and wherever we are.
When you are down sing a song.
When your happy sing a song of praise. Singing effects our thoughts and behavior. Singing reminds us why and to whom we worship. God.
What are some of your favorite songs to God?
James 5:13 "Is anyone of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise." NIV.
I hope you have a blessed day.

Christianity Under Attack

Tonight on ABC news they plan to do a specail report on Christianity and see if Christainity is under attack in America.
What do you think?
How do we see Christianity under attack?
Here is just a few:
1.Media/ Shows making fun of Jesus, God and Clergy.
2.Marriage Issue in America
3.We see documentaries on Jesus questioning his life, the bible but how many documentaries do we see on other religions?
4.The push to remove God from the pledge.
5. The push to remove the 10 commandments from public places.
6.The push to take God and scripture off of everything that is american (money, buildings, monuments)
Just to name a few.
Can you come up with any other ways we see Christianity under attack today?
Should this shock us?
Jesus tells us we should expect persecution. Matthew 5:11-12 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejocie and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." John 15:18.
So what are we do? Expect it. And remian faithful to God during it.
We as Christians must continue to show Jesus to the world even when we are persecuted.
John 13:34-35 "A new command I give you; Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another."
Let us show our love to each other especailly during times of trial and persecution.

Matthew Winkler Murder

I am praying for the family and congregation of the church of Christ minister who was murdered.
I pray that the family and congregation will remain faithful to God, that they will feel God's presence and comfort during the months ahead.
I ask you to pray with me.
Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everthing, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God which transends all understanding, will gaurd your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." NIV.

Victory

The devil tries hard to steal our joy and the victory we have in Christ.
It has been about a little over a week since my last post. My family has been sick with the stomach flu. We are finally feeling much better.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Lord's Day.
This morning I preached on Mary and Martha and how we show our love to God in different ways but our worship should lead us to serve which should lead us to worship. It is a continueous cycle.
Worship that does not lead to service is selfish and shallow.
Worship is all about God. Every Sunday we sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary did and we worship. I enjoyed being at the feet of Jesus this morning.
Tonight I am preaching on Having Victory in Jesus.
We sing the song written by E.M. Bartlett which says,
"O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever,
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me 'ere I knew Him,
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood!
It is one thing to sing about the victory we have in Jesus and it is something different to claim that victory.
A.W. Tozer wrote, "Christians doen't tell lies they just go to church and sing them." Do we really have the victory? Are living victorious lives?
We must remember we as Christians don't fight for the victory, we fight from the victory. Jesus has already won.
The devil puts up strongholds in our lives to rob of us living victoriously. We must demolish the strongholds.
2 Corinthians says, "For though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary we have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguements and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we bring every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ."NIV.
My challenge for myself and other Christians is for us to live victoriously.
Lets take this scripture to heart: "No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Romans 8:37 NIV.

Family

It was a wonderful weekend as we celebated a birthday, enjoyed time with friends and family. I am thankful to God for the family he has blessed me with. On the way up we listened to some pickin n grinnin from Granny's front porch. Oh, what wonderful memories we had on that porch. On the cd I listened to it has Granddad playing the fiddle and Tony on the guitar. You can year Granddad singing and laughing and tell that everyone was having a hoot.

I am also blessed to have a wonderful church family and that is what it truely is family. It doesn't feel like you are going to church it feels like you are going to meet with your Christian bothers and sisters. You are going to a building to meet with your Christian family. It is so wonderful to feel close to each other and have an enviornment where people encourage one another, love each other and go above and beyond what is expected as far as showing love, kindnesss and mercy. Yesterday was beautiful day of worship as the weather was perfect, we looked at the grace of God. After worship we enjoyed a great time of Christain fellowship. I love those potluck lunches.

Is your church a family?
What can be done to make churches feel like families?
My pryaer is that churches of Christ everywhere will become more than just chruch but a family.
I believe that with the breakdown in family people in our society are looking to fill that need. And we see in communities people replacing that need for family in other ways (gangs, peers). I pray that the church will beocme that place where people can feel at home and become a part not just of the church but the family of God.

Galatians 3:26-29 "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are of Abrahams seed, and heirs according to the promise."

I hope you have a wonderful week and a great day!

Plan of Salvation

1) We must hear. Hear what? "In beginning God created the heavens and the earth" Gen 1:1. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:16-17
2) We must believe. In God. His Son Jesus. His Word. That we are sinners in need of Salvation. John 3:18 Says, "Whoever believes in him is not comdemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of GOd's one and only Son." Hebrews 11:1,6 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
3) We must repent. We must expereince sorrow for and seek to change our sinful behavior. "In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent." Acts 17:30 "Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." Acts 2:38 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, no wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9
4)We must confess. We must confess our believe in Jesus Christ that he is the Son of God. "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you are saved." Romans 10:9-10
5)We must be baptized (greek baptismo which means immerse with water) See Acts 2:38 mentioned above. Mark 16:16 "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." Matthew 28:19-20 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everthing I have commaned you." Romans 6:3-4 says "Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ Jesus was raised from the dad through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
6)We must be faithful unto death. We must be obedient to Jesus. Jesus tells us in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command." Also see James 2:14-26. Revelation 2:10b "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."
(All scripture used above is from the New International Version)

Yes we are saved by the grace of God. It is a gift. Ephesians 2:8 tells us "For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith - and this not from yourselvs, it is the gift of God."
These are the things that we must do in order to take hold (recieve) of the gift and open it.
What good is a gift left un opened?
What good is a gift we don't recieve?
We must take the entire word of God into account.
Remember salvation is not multiples choice.
If you haven't taken hold of (recieve) the gift and opened it, my prayer is that you will.
Let us not cheapen the grace of God but always be thankful for the salvation that we have through Jesus Christ.

I am looking over my sermon for Sunay morning on Are You Your Worst Enemy? We are going to look at mistakes that we make that cause us to be our worst enemy.
What are some mistakes that a person can make to make themselves their worst enemy?
It is wonderful thought that we have the word of God to look at and learn from. You and I can read the Bible and look at the lives of Saul, David, and others and learn from their mistakes.
When we do make mistakes its is wonderful that God loves us so much that he gives us a second chance through His son Jesus.
I am encouraged by Pauls words in Ephesians 2:4-5; 8 "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressons - it is by grace you have been saved. For it is by gave you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God."
Thank you God for that gift of grace.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday tomorrow.

I can't believe that on my first day of having a blog I have already had 52 hits by 3:00 p.m. I've been asked why blog? Blogging is a great way to get your message out there on religious beliefs, social issues, and more.
It is a wonderful way to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and His love to all.
I hope that this blog encourages, strengthens, challenges your faith in God and His son Jesus.
I think I am going to enjoy blogging.

A Scripture to think on today comes from Romans 3:21-24 "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This rightousnes from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace though the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (NIV)

What hope this scripture gives us.

I hope you have a great Friday.

Welcome to Kinney Mabry's blog.
I hope you will enjoy my blog as I share with you my thoughts, feelings, and life.