Winston Salem church of Christ

Growing up, I believed a lot of things I have since discovered were not as factual as I once thought.  Growing up I believed:

• Swallowing gum would stay in your stomach 7 years.
• Scratching a scab repeatedly would turn it cancerous.
• Parsley put on plates at restaurants was poisonous.
• My great grandmother was mute because Indians had cut out her tongue.

If polled, all grownups would admit believing some childish untruths.  As grownups, we can laugh at our malformed beliefs even looking back and discovering why we believed such silly stories.  Pranks, vivid imaginations, intentions whether virtuous or malevolent, misinformed our impressionable minds. Possibly we are ignorant as to why we believed. And sometimes we believed what others taught us because they were simply wrong themselves, yet we trusted them.

As grownups, we can accept our mistakes as simply silly.  As marks of immaturity.  As naivety.  As innocent.

Here’s where we make the application - Why can we accept our childish mistaken beliefs and not be insulted, but we cannot accept our mistaken religious beliefs without getting upset?

1 Corinthians 14:20 - Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. 

Maybe the next time we discover we are biblically misinformed, we can correct ourselves and laughingly say, “I can’t believe I believed that!”  Maybe the next time we can all act like grownups.

Perry D. Hall

What is the most dangerous aspect of being an American Christian?  Warning!  This might be a trick question!  But I’ll be nice and give you a hint.  The trick is discovered by asking what is unique to being an American; not what is unique to being a Christian.

  read more » »

  A badge of honor among the Jews was circumcision.  To their dishonor, they lost sight of the implication of circumcision.  They clung to the meaning – a singular special covenant relationship with God unknown among the nations.  Unfortunately they had forgotten the implication – they were desperate without God. John 7:22-23 – (22) “For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man.  (23)  “If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Their racial and religious arrogance had made them blind to the real meaning of what and who they were, what God had accomplished for them, and who God (in the flesh) was.  Being a needy nation they should have rejoiced when someone in need received divine help. When comparing circumcision and baptism, there are both biblical similarities and contrasts.  However one comparison is that both are a sign of a covenant between God and desperate people. Yet having undergone the Jewish ritual necessarily implies their need for a covenant.  How could such hopeless people have become spiritually arrogant?  Unfortunately, they forgot that they were needy.  How do Christians become “holier than thou?”  In our spiritual amnesia we forget we are needy. Being a Christian does not make us better than others.  It simply should make us aware of our need to be forgiven.  Baptism is not a badge of honor.  It is a cry for help.  It is admitting we are shamefully in need.

 Perry D. Hall

Triumphantly, Jesus enters
Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11).  Fulfilling prophecy, the Christ rides a colt both humbly and royally.  Friends spread their garments before their King as a symbol of submission (2 Kings 9:13).  Palm branches spread out symbolizing victory (Suetonius, Caligula, 32).  No wonder this is called “The Triumphant Entry.”

No wonder, too, this is where my heart wants the story to end.  Everyone loves a happy ending.  And what follows is not happy.  And yet, what follows is not the end.

My heart and head look onward.   What begins so promising, ends fulfilling promises.  God’s promises.  God’s prophecies.  What begins with triumph ends with a triumph over sin – When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him (Colossians 2:15).  Jesus triumphantly cries out, “It is finished (John 19:30).”

My heart and head look eternally upward.  Jesus triumphantly walks out of death’s tomb.  Jesus royally ascends on a cloud into the beyond.  Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.  For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Hebrews 10:12-14).

Triumphantly, Jesus enters into my heart, my head and my life.  Triumphantly I follow Him into death, resurrection and ascension.  And that my friend, is the happiest ending.

Perry D. Hall

 Don’t try to pronounce these places - Aiath, Migron, Michmash, Gallim, Laishah, Anathoth, Madmenah, and others.  Not only are the pronunciations forgotten, so are these places.  In fact, they are so forgotten that not a single name is recognized by my spellchecker!  History has forgotten…though inspiration has not - Isaiah 10.  People and places are so easily forgotten. I wonder…do we realize how easily forgotten most of us are going to be? True, close relatives might remember us for maybe three generations; but the fourth and fifth generations might never hear our names.  Can you name your great-great grandmother?  I can’t.  True again, we might be remembered for some magnificent invention – everyone knows of Thomas Edison.  But remembering and daily appreciating are two different things.I wonder…do we realize that the reason I know those names mentioned above is simply because God mentions them?  God remembers all, and whether or not that God knows us is all that matters: Revelation 3:5 - ‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

I wonder…do we realize that?

Perry D. Hall 

In The Parable of the Two Debtors (Matthew 18:23-35), when the first debtor realized the price of his debt – he, his wife and children, and all that he owned had to be sold to repay his debt (v.25) – his debt became personal.  His debt became real…at least real enough for him to be consumed by the consequences…his consequences.  Personal debt is more than dollars and cents. It is even more than just personal, individual debt.  It is personal on our families as well.  Where was his sensibility, this awareness, when going into debt?

I wonder…how real are our spiritual debts to us?  Do we realize the consequences of our actions on our families?  Not being a spiritual leader can lead our families to hell.

I wonder…how real are our emotional debts to us?  Do we realize the impact of our reactions on our families?  Exploding verbally, physically or emotionally on our families can damage their ability to relate to others in a balanced way.

I wonder…how real are our financial debts to us?  Do we realize the penalties on our families?  Working 2 or 3 jobs might be necessary to pay the bills and that is admirable unless the bills are frivolous – bigger car, more vacations, personal luxuries, etc.  Staying away from the family puts unintended distance between the family members.

In the end, the first debtor who refused to forgive another debtor was handed…over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him (v.34).  His family was not sold into slavery although they lost a husband and a father.

Spiritual, emotional, and financial debts are all personal debts.  Do we realize what our debts cost our families?

Historically, religious movements often include an emphasis or reemphasis on music.   After crossing the
Red Sea, the Israelites burst into song (Exodus 15).  When entering a new phase of the Israelite religious history, the “instruments of David” played a major role in the formation of the temple (2 Chronicles 7:6). And again in the religious revival under Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29:26), and in the return under Nehemiah (Nehemiah 12:26) music played on center stage.

And if you allow me to progress metaphorically, even nature began as and continues to be a religious movement: read more » »

The only problem with family is that they are…uh, family.  Edna Buchanan said,      “Friends are God’s way of apologizing to us for our families.”  Many people have sighed and accepted their fate by saying, “You don’t choose the family you are born into.” 

Family. We have to love them, but that doesn’t mean we have to like them.  We try to…we want to…but some family members… can… be… so… aggravating!!!

Family…even Jesus had trouble with His earthly family. 

John 7:3-5 – (3) Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into
Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing.  (4)  “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”  (5)  For not even His brothers were believing in Him. 

Were Jesus’ brothers being sarcastic?  Or were they secretly goading Him on, wishing something more sinister (John 5:18; 7:25)?  I don’t know, although Jesus being Divine did (John 2:24-25).  So what wonderful, insightful, lesson am I going to make out of this text?  Sorry, but I’m not.   I am sure I disappointed you.  But that is life, much like our families.  Deal with it.  We don’t always get what we want from life or our families, whether Dad, Mom, brother, sister, or the in-laws we marry into.  Sometimes families are great – I keep telling my children how wonderful their father is.  And in fact, I adore my wife’s mother-in-law.  But some people aren’t lucky or blessed.  So my point is that if even Jesus had family problems, who am I to think I won’t, or shouldn’t?  As I said, the only problem with family is that they are family, and that’s a problem I share with Jesus.

I am lonely and all alone when it is only me.  Loneliness is a heartbreaking and depressing state of mind.  But you can be lonely without being alone.  People can be lonely in a crowed room.  There are many spouses who are lonely – not alone, but lonely.  The distance between two cold hearts is vast.  The wife stays all day at home with the children with no adult company and she is lonely for some romance from the man she loves.  The man, working hard all day, is lonely too – not enough time making not enough money.  In his mind he experiences the emptiness of dreams unfulfilled.  There are too many children waiting for Daddy to come home from work to play who are still waiting and still lonely.  They have a “Father,” but do they have a “Dad?”  Loneliness is mainly emotional.  Loneliness is soul-consuming; slowly, achingly, and daily.   Being alone is the physical read more » »

What are we teaching our children?  More specifically, what are we teaching our children about God?  There are many ways we should be enriching the spiritual awareness of our children.  read more » »