My question is, in the five items of worship that are taught in the New Testament, which is the most important? These acts of worship are commanded to be done during the worship service on Sunday, the first day of the week. We are to sing, pray, preach or teach, observe communion and give of our means or money. Singing, praying, teaching or preaching and giving can also be done at other times as well; one can read of these acts of worship occurring on days in addition to the first day of the week. However, the Lord’s Supper is authorized in the New Testament for observance on the first day of the week.

Let me explain why I say giving can be done other times, too. If a person needs help on Monday, do you tell him or her to wait until Sunday because that is the only day of the week I am allowed to give? Of course not! This is silly. When Christ taught in Matthew 25:32-46 about dividing the sheep from the goats, He used the example of the needy that those on the right hand or the sheep helped. Nothing in this parable says anything about the first day of the week. We are commanded to give on Sunday by collection in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, but that is not the only day we can give to the Lord. We are told to give cheerfully as we have been prospered in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8. [Giving that occurred in Acts 4:32-5:10 does not appear to have occurred during worship on the first day of the week. ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]

Colossians 3:16 instructs us to teach and to admonish one another by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. We are also to have thankfulness in our hearts to God. We are told to speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in Ephesians 5:19. There is nothing in any verse in the New Testament that says anything about singing beautifully, but we are told to sing and to teach others.

The Scripture does not anywhere teach or authorize playing an instrument in Christian worship. We are told to “sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19). If we were instructed to play an instrument, then all would have to play, not just one or a few playing instruments. This verse says all are to sing.

Another item of worship is prayer. We are to pray through Jesus to God the Father. Jesus is our Mediator between us and our Heavenly Father (1 Timothy 2:5). Our prayers are to be fervent or sincere to God (James 5:16). Note Philippians 4:6-7, which reads, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God: and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

God commanded preaching. On one occasion, Paul preached until midnight, ready to depart on the morrow (Acts 20:7). In 2 Timothy 4:1-4, Paul told Timothy to preach the Word. He was to preach the truth even if the people did not like what the Scriptures said. He was not to tickle the ears of those who listened. Preachers, today, are also commanded to preach the whole Truth, even if others do not agree with what the Word of God says.

 Acts 20:7 says Paul stayed with brethren about a week so they could commune together in Christian worship. What do we eat and drink during the communion? The apostle Paul cited 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 about when Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper with His apostles prior to His crucifixion. He prayed and broke unleavened bread. Then, He told those present, “This is my body which is broken for you.” Secondly, in the same manner, they were given the fruit of the vine, of which Christ told them, “This is the cup of the new covenant in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death til He comes.” We are also to examine ourselves and to take the bread and the cup worthily. Worthily (an adverb, referring to the manner) does not mean worthy (an adjective, referring to the quality of something). They are two different words.

Sing, pray, preach or teach, commune and give are all commanded in the New Testament for our worship to God. Do we read anywhere that one activity of worship to God is more important than another? Each item of worship is just as important as another. We are told in John 4:24 that God is a spirit, and we must worship in spirit and in truth.

[Editor’s Note: Doubtlessly, Catholic influence has indirectly led some members of the Lord’s church to presume that the Lord’s Supper is more important than other acts of worship, but the Scriptures do not teach such. Perhaps other Christians revere the vicarious, sacrificial death of Jesus Christ to the extent that they elevate Communion in their own minds. All acts of Christian worship, though, ought to be embraced fully, worshipping in spirit (emotional devotion) and truth (according to the Scriptures). ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]

Martha Lynn Rushmore

Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Today we dream! We will dream of how our children turn out. We will dream of our professional path. And we will dream over our future. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. instituted this day of dreams, leading us to envision a better tomorrow. The words of his “I Have a Dream” speech remain some of the most celebrated, quoted, and revered in our nation’s history.

The year was 1963 and a quarter of a million people had gathered to hear Dr. King speak. Standing close by on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial stood a young man named George Raveling. George was inspired as he listened to Dr. King’s words. When the speech ended, this young volunteer security guard, gathered his courage and approached Dr. King. George told Dr. King how much the speech meant to him and asked if he might have his notes. At that point, Dr. King reached into his pocket, pulled out his handwritten notes, and placed them in the young man’s hand.

Today, George Raveling remains the proud owner of those iconic pages, refusing to sell them. But George has revealed to the public one very interesting fact about the notes. It seems Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech does not contain the words, “I Have a Dream,” anywhere within the entire three pages.

So, if the most iconic words were never written in the notes, from where did they come? Without a doubt, they flowed from the treasure of Dr. King’s heart. Today, decades later, this heart-treasure inspires us to visualize a more perfect world.

But long before Dr. King stood on those steps in D.C. to utter his dream, God’s heart-treasure overflowed with dreams. Our Heavenly Father dreamed we would be drawn to Him by His love and kindness (Jeremiah 31:3). He dreamed for us to accept his gift of grace and salvation (Ephesians 2: 8-9). He visualized us living a life free from the power of sin (Romans 8:1-2). And He was the first to dream we could live together in peace, free of trouble and fear (John 14:27).

So, friend, as we celebrate this day, stop to dream the dreams of our Heavenly Father and Dr. King. May we envision the beauty of living out a better tomorrow.

Father God, may our life reflect Your dreams for a blessed future.

Blessings of sweet dreams,

Rita Cochrane

The day before Christmas, I was busy getting food ready for the weekend. Eight people were on their way to our house for the holiday, and I wanted to get as much done as I could before they arrived.

We, like the rest of the nation, were in the middle of extremely cold temperatures. Our power had been off during the night, and on Christmas eve morning we were undergoing rolling blackouts. So much for cooking. Fortunately, this only lasted until about noon.

One day this week, I heard someone say, “Make plans, and watch God laugh”. I realized that we experience that again and again. We make plans, and there are power outages, cancelled flights, illness, and even death. It often happens so suddenly, and there we are trying to figure out what we are going to do.

One week before Christmas, the son of a couple in our congregation was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. On Friday, two days before Christmas, he died. His illness and death changed everything they had planned for their family.

There is nothing wrong with making plans, but we need to remember that God is in control. James warns about this in James 4. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

I seriously doubt that God laughs at us, but I feel certain He wants us to give more thought to the way we live, planning every detail and then being frustrated when our plans don’t materialize. He has warned us that He is in control.

In the sermon of the mount, Jesus talked about our being anxious about worldly things. We are not to be anxious about what we will eat, drink, wear, or how long we will live. We are to, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:33-34).

How different our lives would be if we lived as though God is in control, making plans with the idea that, if it is God’s will, it will happen.

Sandra Oliver

Straight rows of plants are never going to be the norm in my “cottage garden” style yard. For one thing, it’s hard to make all the plants uniform and march in formation as if they were soldiers on parade. I certainly don’t have that much control of the plant life under my command. For another thing, I don’t usually like the look of plants in rows.

The real reason I stopped planting in rows is the lack of efficiency and conservation it entails. Does a row of radishes really need two wide paths on either side of it to access a single line of the spicy root vegetable? No! Not even large tomato plants need a walkway on both sides. Last time I measured it, my harvesting “tool” was exactly one cubit long. The extension of that tool (my upper arm) is another cubit, for the really hard-to-reach tomatoes.

Tomatoes and peppers now get planted in a zig-zag pattern, to conserves space. More often than not, I’ll put a tomato or pepper plant in among the perennial flowers.

Last spring I even put tomatoes along my front walk, because my health was zigging and zagging while my “Yard Boy” took out the privet hedge there, and there was no time or energy to revamp it into something nice.

It’s simple arithmetic. Blank soil plus tomato plants, minus energy to make a new bed equals Green Zebra tomatoes growing by the front porch.

Life was never meant to be a straight path. “Strait is the way….” does not refer to direction. the Old English word “strait” just means narrow, or constrained. Sort of like the type of thing you might have to zigzag through!

If we are not flexible enough to allow ourselves to change course, we may not meet the goal intended. My gardening goal was to raise vegetables (and a lot of flowers) in as little space as necessary and as efficiently as I can. My life goal is to get to heaven and to bring as many souls with me as I can. BOTH goals may require course adjustments as “life happens.”

The pandemic has caused more adjustments than we ever imagined. It is wonderful how technology has allowed us to commune with our brethren if only “in spirit” while worshiping online. I think I have prepared unleavened bread in my kitchen almost as many times during the past year as I have during my lifetime. We were blessed to be able to worship “in-person” last Sunday, and hopefully we all still know that this is the norm.

Another zigzag we have taken is in encouraging the saints. Our church has shown up numerous times at our home, but not IN our home. We have received many calls to check up, and have also made such calls or messages. Zigzag.

Our personal lives take zigs and zags as we navigate the “new normal.” But this is nothing new, just the same thing we have been doing for decades, only intensified. The old saying, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” doesn’t mention that what you really wanted was that tomato that was further than your “cubit” could reach.

Change is inevitable. The only constant you can rely on is that things WILL change. Hold onto the hand of the One who never changes, and you can weather any zigzags in your life. You might even start to like lemonade!

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, NASB).

Christine (Tina) Berglund

Ephesians 4: 31-32 “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

I needed a paper clip, so I opened the drawer and began my search. You know what drawer I’m talking about: THE JUNK DRAWER! I would imagine ninety-nine percent of you reading this right now have a junk drawer. (You other one percent come from alien DNA that I cannot, nor ever will, understand.)

The impossibility of finding anything useful in that drawer made me realize it was time for a purge. Assuming paper clips would certainly have fallen to the bottom of this great abyss, I began excavating items. It did not take me long to determine most of what I had was rubbish.

I pulled the trash can close and began tossing out items deemed useless and broken: corroded batteries, handfuls of dry-rotted rubber bands, keys unlocking homes from our distant past, and remote controls to televisions buried in the city dump. (just to name a few!) Once the purge was complete, useless contents were hauled away. Plenty of room was now available for useful items, like my paper clips.

As I discarded the contents of the drawer, my thoughts turned to the scripture above. (I mean, you gotta think of something worthwhile when tackling unpleasant tasks, right?) Is it possible, Sisters, our hearts are like that junk drawer? Do we allow old, damaged, and hurtful emotions to pile up within us, granting them a protective space? Within the recesses of our hearts, do ancient grudges, broken relationships, and unprocessed anger sit side by side with a big heap of stubbornness and unforgiveness?
If so, pull the trash can close and as the scripture says, get rid of ALL of it. Discover the joy of refilling your soul with items useful for God’s Kingdom. Opting for kindness leads us to reach out to those in need. Reserving a section for tenderness allows compassion to dictate the way we respond to others. Making sure forgiveness claims its space gives us a chance to mend broken relationships.

Once you have tackled the infamous junk drawer, you will discover the peace and joy that comes from being organized. (along with a plethora of paper clips!) But Sisters, oh what greater blessings are to be discovered when we dig deep within our hearts and cast out ALL that hinders us from having the heart God desires.

Father God, help us rid our lives of all forms of malice and fill our hearts with You.

Blessings,

Rita Cochrane

Hold on to your dear loved one

as much as you can everyday

Show them how much you care in all that you do and say.

Show your love and care to others, too

not only with money but also in word and deed;

bringing happiness to everyone you meet;

especially to those who are truly in need.

Try to live as much as you can.

Shining Jesus’ light for all the world to see,

So that others will want to be Christians

and want to go to Heaven like you and me.

Live each day as if it is your last.

Hold on tightly to your Heavenly Father’s hand

Keep strong in the faith always

until you reach the Promised Land.

John 9:4 – “We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”

– Debora Robbins

Recently, a little girl in the kindergarten/first grade class was a little early getting there on Sunday morning. She visited up and down the hall with the other classes and then went back to her classroom. Someone came to check to see that all the teachers were there, and this little girl was “supervising” the other students that had arrived. Her remark was, “don’t worry, I’ve got this”. And she did.

I think back to when I was a little girl, coming home from worship on Sundays, lining my dolls up on the stairs, and “teaching them what I had learned in Bible class that day. I wonder how many children do that today. I think about all the children, not only in our congregation, but in congregations we have worshiped with in the past, that miss Bible class because their parents won’t stay or get up an hour earlier to get them there. There were two children in my Vacation Bible School class last summer that told me they want to come, but their parents won’t come.

I know that many people use as an excuse not to attend Sunday school that it is not commanded. I agree. It is not commanded. But consider the origin of the Sunday school.

According to Britannica.com, it has been around since the 1700’s. A man named Robert Raikes, a newspaper man in Gloucester, England became concerned about the children. Many were working in factories six days a week, and he believed that they could be saved from a life of crime if they had some basic religious education on Sundays. In 1780, the first Sunday school began with ordinary people teaching children in their homes.

The idea of Sunday school “has been the foremost vehicle for teaching the principles of the Christian religion and the Bible.

In the 1600’s the Puritans, according to learnthebible.org., had Sunday morning and evening worship as well as a Thursday morning lecture. Mid-week meetings began as prayer meetings with Charles Finney and D. L. Moody. Moody had noon prayer meetings to coincide with his preaching campaigns. In the mid-1900’s , prayer emphasis meetings mid-week became common. By the end of the century, these prayer meetings became opportunities for teaching or preaching.

None of these additional services or gospel meetings, vacation Bible schools, campaigns, etc. are commanded. They are, however, blessed by the Scripture. Following Pentecost and the establishment of the church, the believers were “day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes” (Acts 2:46). “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus” (Acts 5:42). “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

The church of our Lord has, over the years, looked for ways to better meet the needs of the members and overcome the challenges faced through the centuries since the Lord’s church began. Nothing is more evident than the adjustments that had to be made when we were hit with the pandemic and forced to isolate away from family, friends, and fellow Christians. Our elders and preachers acted with our needs in mind, as well as adhering to the commands of Scripture. Sunday school and other teaching opportunities have met needs through the years in edifying the saints.

Why do we look for ways to not put the Lord first? Why do we complain when Christmas or some other holiday falls on Sunday? Sunday is the Lord’s day. Every day belongs to the Lord, and we should consider it an opportunity to worship Him whenever we can. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

Making excuses not to participate in opportunities to worship God really have nothing to do with the fact that there is no command. Truly, it is a heart problem. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Sandra Oliver