Posts from November 2025
SOUND WORDS, NOV. 30, 2025
GIVING THANKS FOR OTHERS EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE MANY FLAWS In this time of the year, many people are counting their many blessings and giving thanks to God. We may give thanks for the many physical blessings that God has blessed us with (e.g. food, shelter, financial income, etc.). We may give thanks for the many spiritual blessings that God has blessed us with (e.g. salvation, the scriptures, hope, peace, grace, etc.). We may give thanks on behalf of others…
SOUND WORDS, NOV. 23, 2025
ATHEISM’S BLIND FAITH (THIS WEEKS ARTICLE IS A RESPONSE TO AN ATHEIST’S COMMENTS ON FAITH AND RELIGION) Dear friend, I hope this letter finds you well and I hope you are enjoying the signs and sights of spring all around you. As the trees and grass “wakes up” I hope you will pause and truly consider what has to happen for trees and plants to go dormant and then reawaken each year at the proper time. Think about what they…
SOUND WORDS, NOV. 16, 2025
FAITHFUL TO-WHAT? I believe Christians may “depart from the faith,” “fall away from grace,” even “deny the Lord that bought them” (1 Tim. 4:1;Gal. 5:4;2 Pet. 2:1) for the scriptures clearly teach this. Our Baptist friends err when they apply 1 Jn. 2:19a to “all” (note 19b) who fully backslide. But “we” err in thinking that all who are baptized, and are “faithful” in their home-town, are truly converted to Christ. It is a common cry in California, Arizona—and I suspect in the northeastern industrial areas—that…
SOUND WORDS, NOV. 9, 2025
STUBBORN AS A MULE All of us have heard the phrase, “stubborn as a mule.” This term was probably coined by frustrated farmers after they observed how difficult it was to get their donkeys to pull their assigned loads in the field…although a case could be made that the phrase was thought up as an observation made by frustrated spouses about their significant others. (I say that because I know what my wife’s answer to the above question would be!) …
SOUND WORDS, NOV. 2, 2025
IF WE BELIEVED WHAT THEY BELIEVED One of the reference works I usually keep close at hand when studying any part of the New Testament is the paraphrase translation of J.B. Phillips, The New Testament In Modern English. I don’t agree with all of Phillips’ suggested wording, but I often find his efforts helpful in clarifying some particular passage or point. The translation was originally produced in sections, with the first, Letters To Young Churches (Romans through Colossians), being published…