TAXING QUESTIONS

Strictly civil for most, moral for a few and spiritual for possibly 10% of us: If President Donald Trump took full advantage of every deduction recognized as legitimate by the US tax code, what crime has he committed. If he for all his taxable years jumped through every legal tax loophole that congress has refused to close for the personal rewards of keeping them open, what has he done that makes him alone worthy of condemnation? If he has violated any tax law at all, where has the IRS been all these years??

For the 10% of the US: Matt 22:17-21: Romans 13:1-7

 

 

LIFE IS WORTH THE LIVING

About 5 years ago I had back pain, depression and suicidal thoughts. Insomnia prevailed. I would lie down to sleep but fear would overwhelm me: the fear that I may forget my wife's name, or that, if I did sleep, I may not wake up. I was diagnosed with West Nile virus by a doctor who prescribed a medication called Ambien and some other forms of rehabilitation which only made matters worse. I wanted to end it all and just go on as peacefully

WE BE THE JUDGE

August 30, 2020.  Look out your window.  Take a close look America at our nation, our Christian Church, our Christian families.  Are you pleased with what you see?

Genesis 3.  The judgment of God? No way!  If we apply a Bible principle, we will receive the promised Bible result of its application; if we abandon that Bible principle we abort its promise. It is our choice to make and our result to receive. We be the judge.

The New Testament clearly defines male and female roles in reference to

LIFE'S LESSON

My grandfather, Will Coleman, was raised in Calabash. His father, Steve Coleman, moved the family from Calabash to Lumberton between 1913 and 1915 as far as I can determine. My grandfather went to work in the cotton mill in East Lumberton. With only a third grade education, he worked his way up to becoming

PREFERENCE

Preference is not necessarily a judgment against anything less preferred. I prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla, but that is no indictment against vanilla. I enjoy vanilla as well. I prefer spring pink shrimp over white or brown, but I find no fault with white or brown. Both are delicious. I prefer a black suit to all others but that preference doesn't mean that I despise my gray suit.

Preference is a characteristic common to us all. So sad that preference is often mistaken for judgment; and, sadder still that prejudice often masquerades as preference.

ANCESTORS

July 4, 2020: a day in the American “Melting Pot” marked by sharp division according to color, culture, national origin, age, sex, religion, politics, hairstyles, and so on and on it seems without end. This should not be. 

If not for God there would be no earth, no America in the earth, nor would any of our Ancestors have ever lived here. If not for the lives of all our ancestors,

I AM

I can say, “I have been” and most will doubt that I ever was

I can say, “I will become” and most will place their bets that I never do

I can say, “I am” and most will attack my continuing to be

Thank God for those few who will forget what I was, encourage my reaching for all that I might become, and will help press me toward bettering all that I am

From Phil 3:13-14

THE GATHERING TRADITION

All of this change has led me to consider our Christian traditions. Specifically, what is tradition and what is not? We know that the word of God says, "The traditions of men make the word of God of none effect." But does that mean that all traditions are wrong? Most of us have probably thought, at some time, that even our gatherings as a body were more tradition than they should be, but when the ability to have that gathering is taken away, the absolute importance of "having church" comes quickly into focus! I know that the church is not a building, that it is not contained within any walls but I also know that when we come together as a body there is exponential strength gained and that strength, that encouragement, that stabilizing atmosphere is not easily attained individually, which leads me to this thought...what have I contributed to the table of the Lord? What have I given to the body? Have I been able to encourage as much as I have been encouraged? Have I contributed? These questions are not directed at anyone else. This is God's question to me. I will cherish the opportunity to gather with my brothers and sisters when it comes again, and it will come again! We will not be together tomorrow but I will praise Him, I will worship Him, I will bow before Him, but I would love to fulfill that Easter Sunday "tradition" of meeting together. Because I have realized that it is not a tradition at all but a necessary and vital part of living in Christ, as are all our gatherings! " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching."...Heb.10:25.

Ronnie Coleman

MACRO-MAN VS MICRO-VIRUS

Oh, how greatly to be praised we are: we are the very best at everything, the greatest generation of mankind ever. We are the wealthiest since the fall. We are far more intelligent than all who ever lived before us. We are the most technologically advanced of all humans ever. We have greater military prowess than all the past war forces combined. Why, we could come near destroying the whole planet and all life on it with the push of a button. All this said (and much believed among us), isn't is amazing in these days what this little Corona “Micro-virus” has done to us, we nations of “Macro-men?” In the space of a fortnight our international health and wealth is compromised and all our combined military might is totally useless against this enemy so insignificantly small.

But there really was, and eternally is, One Macro-Man. His name was, and yet is, Logos. He is the Word of God. His flesh and bone name is Jesus. His surname, individually and corporately, is Christ. His universal title is Lord. He is the Kurios: the Supreme; the Possessor; the Sovereign. He subdued all things unto Himself, not by force and taking, but by love and giving. And, there is nothing in all of this fallen creation that can bring any lasting harm to any of us who trust in Him, no, not the mini-microbe nor any of earth's macro-men.

SOME WORDS ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS

By Steve Hobbs

New Life has suspended public gatherings through next week at least, and more information will follow as the situation develops.

When the church in Jerusalem came under persecution beginning with the death of Stephen, most believers fled that persecution (Acts 8:1-4) and wherever they went continued to preach the word. I suppose a case could have been made by the apostles who remained in the city that a true man or woman of faith would never run in the face of danger, but no one seems to have arrived at that conclusion.

We use the phrase “leap of faith” sometimes. It’s a reference to the second temptation

                                WHERE'S THAT DONKEY?                            

We preachers have been known to embellish the Word just a bit, adding a pinch of fiction, a dash of tradition, and maybe even a little exaggeration in our bid to make Sunday's serving of the Manna a little more appealing to the ear, and, just maybe, more appetizing to the spiritual palate. I'd like to share a few examples:

1/ “Brothers and Sisters, Saul was breathing out threatening and slaughter