"Rejoice with those who rejoice..." (Rom. 12:15a)

"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." (Eph. 4:31)

When good things happen in our brethren's lives, it can be exceedingly easy to slip into jealousy or bitterness toward their good things. When we see fellow Christians who are blessed with a beautiful family, instead of rejoicing with them in the blessings of God, we envy them for their happiness. When we see other churches that are teaching the gospel and growing, instead of rejoicing for the lost souls being brought to God, we envy them for their growth. As a preacher, I fight the temptation to look at the good work of preachers who are far more wise and more skilled than myself and to be threatened by them, rather than rejoicing that God has given someone the ability to share his word so powerfully!

The two verses you see above are simple commands, but putting them into practice will force us to wrestle with the complexities of our emotions and our attitudes toward others. Are we harboring bitterness toward others' good blessings? Even if it isn't the primary emotion we have toward them, is it there? If so, it must be removed from our hearts. If left alone, it will poison our view of others, our view of God, and our view of self. That's why we must put "all bitterness..." out of our hearts.

How do we do that? Well, at the very least, it begins with truly rejoicing with others who are rejoicing. Simply—and only—enjoying the good things they are enjoying without any thought given to self.

- Dan Lankford, minister

After Sunday night's Super Bowl win, I wasn't that surprised to hear Peyton Manning's comment that he was planning to talk to "the man upstairs" later that night. That's a definite misunderstanding of who God really is, and a lot of people have that same philosophy of Him. That because He once became and man and dwelt among us, He really is, after all, just like us: a man. Maybe He's different because He lives in Heaven and has some extra powers, but He's essentially still just a man upstairs.

The problem with that way of thinking is that in Psalm 50, God is getting ready to come on his people in judgment for their sins. His people are shocked by this, but God says they shouldn’t be surprised. He essentially tells them, ‘Your problem is that’ “you thought that I was one like yourself” (Psa. 50:21). But God is NOT just a man, and we should not think of Him as just a man.

In the midst of all of his suffering and agony, Job understood the fact that God is not just a man. He even said as much in Job 9:32. “For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.”

In Numbers 23, as Balaam is compelled to prophesy in favor of God’s people rather than against them as he intended, he says, "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Num. 23:19)

And in Isaiah 55, God simply states, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8-9)

Let us remember the simple truth that although he condescended to become a man and be like us, he also ascended back to his rightful place—high and lifted up! He is not just a man upstairs—he is the great God of the universe! Grander and more glorious than we can imagine him. And rather than passing references to him as “the man upstairs,” let us instead “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” (Psa. 29:2)

- Dan Lankford, minister

This is the bag I carry most days. It isn't much, but it’s usually by my side. Especially when I travel, it’s always by my side. So it makes for a good representation of what I carry with me as I go into my daily walk with other Christians, with my family, with the world, and with God.

In the bag, I am going to carry my Bible—the word of God. It represents God’s guidance and his presence with me every day. As I begin each new day of life, it’s one of the main things I want with me.

Secondly, I am going to carry my favorite reminder about prayer. It’s a book titled Too Busy Not To Pray, and just the title reminds me of my constant need to talk to God. As I begin each new day of life, it’s one of the main things I want with me.

Thirdly, I’ve got a picture of my wife and a picture of my son. They are exceedingly precious reminders to me that I belong to my family and they belong to me and we are all devoted to each other. As I begin a day of life, I remember that they are always with me.

Finally, I want to put a rock into the back—a reminder of Jesus’ words that “he who hears these words of mind and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock” (Matt. 7:24). The rock represents my faith—the solid foundation of any life truly anchored to Jesus Christ.

But then…

What if, on a very small piece of paper, I chose to write down… the name of a bar where I used to get drunk… a juicy bit of gossip fodder about someone that I know I shouldn’t share but I want to anyway… the date that someone in my church offended me so I can keep the bitterness in my heart toward them… the web address for a porn site I used to visit… a plan to cheat on an exam in a way that worked for me once before… an ex’s phone number… the basic outline of my plan to avenge myself and deliver evil for the evil that was done to me…?

What if I take that small piece of paper and try to tuck it away discreetly among the words of God, my love for my family, the foundation of faith in Jesus, and my prayer life? Does that make sense? Does packing that in there sound like a recipe for spiritual success?

The Holy Spirit said, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Rom. 13:14, emphasis added)

God knows that when we provide an opportunity for the flesh—no matter how small and no matter how much else we have done to make opportunities for the soul, we are setting ourselves up for spiritual failure.

In this New Year, I would plead with you to make no provision for the flesh! Do not give yourself an opportunity to sin. Pull closer to God than you ever have before, and plan to give your ENTIRE heart to Him.

- Dan Lankford, minister

- Thanks to brother Don Truex for illustrating this principle to me in such a powerful way.

Every new year presents us with an opportunity to reflect on our past selves and make plans for our future selves. Below, you’ll find a collection of thoughts from God’s word that I hope will help you do that well today, tomorrow, and in all the coming days of 2016.

"For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do…” (1 Pet. 4:3)
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Eph. 4:25-29)
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph. 4:30-31)
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Col. 3:1-2)
“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace…” (1 Pet. 4:8-10)
“…in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Heb. 6:9-12)

Meditate on these principles. Determine new ways you can implement them in your life. Remember the power that God promises to those who seek to live in his grace! Trust in that power. No commandment is more important than this one: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

Happy New Year! I love you, and I’m praying for all of us to grow in Christ in 2016! 

When Jesus spoke about anxiety in Matthew 6:25, he spoke of two common objects of worry. Number 1: our lives—the food we will eat & drink. Number 2: our bodies—the clothing we will wear. For those who do not have these things in life, the tendency is to worry about getting them. But for those who do have these things in life (as the vast majority of Americans do), the tendency is to worry about losing them. And this kind of concern is manifested toward far more than just our food and clothing. But there is a biblical balance that can offer relief from our anxiety.

When we are blessed with great wealth in this lifetime, it can be a real temptation to spend the most of our time worrying about losing that wealth or misusing it. However, the Bible gives us this advice: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not... to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” (1 Tim. 6:17)  Therefore, we must keep a balanced perspective and enjoy God’s good gifts!

When we are blessed to be married in this lifetime, it can be a real temptation to spend the most of our time worrying about losing that marriage or messing it up. However, the Bible gives this advice: “Enjoy life with the wife [or husband] whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.” (Eccl. 9:9) Therefore, we must keep a balanced perspective and enjoy God’s good gifts!

And, most importantly, when we are blessed to have a relationship with God in this lifetime, it can be a real temptation to spend most of our time worrying about losing God’s grace or ruining his good favor toward us. It can become a temptation to spend our lives looking over our shoulders for God—wondering what trap he might catch us in at any moment of lapsed diligence. However, the Bible gives us this encouragement: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Rom. 15:13)  If you are the kind of person whose life is spent with an anxious view of God, please be reminded that he sincerely loves you. The fact that he came to earth as a man and died as a criminal tells us that more than anyone else ever could, God has loved every one of us. Therefore, we must keep a balanced perspective and enjoy God’s awesome presence in our lives!

- Dan Lankford, evangelist

When we talk about baptism, it is easy to approach it from an unbalanced perspective. If we are not attentive, we can easily slip into an inordinate pressure for someone to be baptized quickly without adequately informing them of Jesus' requirements of lifelong commitment (like he talks about in Luke 9:57-62). On the other side of the coin, if we are not attentive, we can easily slip into an inordinate pressure for someone to understand every level of commitment required for discipleship before they are ever baptized into Christ (like the Holy Spirit tells us in Acts 2, 8, 10, and 16).

There must be balance to these two ideas, just as there is balance in the scripture. Jesus undoubtedly meant what he said when he talked about the tenacious level of commitment which baptism requires and symbolizes (Rom. 6:1-4 says the man of sin is put to death, symbolizing a permanent change in our lives). And yet, in another place, the Holy Spirit says, "Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2).

This balanced perspective—a perspective which includes both understandings—is important. We must be diligent to emphasize the need for salvation through baptism—encouraging people in a gentle and caring and urgent way. And we must be just as diligent to understand that some are simply not ready for the commitment that involves, and so we encourage them to take the commitment seriously and make their decision with GREAT care and LOTS of prayer about it.

I'll have more thoughts on balancing our understanding of baptism in next week's Tuesday blog post.

As a side note: this would be a good message to share with your teenagers and pre-teens, moms & dads. I'm remembering my own unbalanced perspective on this during those years of my life, and this may prove to help your kids with it, whether you simply encourage them to read it or use this as a jump-off to talk about it with them.

- Dan Lankford, minister

The apostle Paul said, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Rom. 1:16). He knew the power of the word of God! He understood that the real power for salvation was not in himself and his ideas. He understood that the real power for salvation was not in a particular sect of Judaism or Christianity. He understood that the real power for salvation was not in the good deeds he might do.

Paul understood that the real power to save comes from God alone. And that power comes through the Bible—the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ. This is why it is so imperative that we follow only the Bible’s teachings on what we do and how we think.

This past week, I had a tremendously enjoyable Bible study with two young men from the University of Louisville. They had recently visited our services, and so they asked about why we don’t use instrumental music. They knew some other people who attend a church whose sign reads, "Church of Christ," and their congregation sings a cappella. So when we examined what the Bible says (and doesn’t say) about music in public worship, one of them said, "I didn’t realize it was a Bible thing. I thought it was a Church-of-Christ thing."

I was actually quite encouraged by this response. And there are two perspectives I would encourage us all to think about from this.

Number 1: If you are a guest with us here at Eastland, we welcome you. And we want you to know that we are an independent congregation. We are not part of any denomination. We simply do our best to follow the word of God—not to do anything just because "it’s a church-of-Christ thing." But because we, like the apostle Paul, believe that the power of God is found in the Gospel; not in ourselves. If you wonder about something we believe or practice, it's our goal to be able to show you that belief or practice clearly in what the Bible teaches.

Number 2: If you are a member of our congregation, please do not tell people that any of the things we do are done because "it’s a Church-of-Christ thing." If you do not know how a certain practice or belief is Bible-based, make it a priority to find that out! It simply won’t do for us to teach the world "Church of Christ doctrine" as though that’s what we follow anyway. The world needs to know the power of Gospel—the word of God. Because only that is the power of God for salvation.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Watch today's thoughts.

In 2 Chronicles 26, God tells us the true story of King Uzziah. He was a good king about whom the Bible says, "he set himself to seek God" (2 Chron. 26:5). And yet we learn in the same chapter that he was faithful to God until he became strong, and then his pride got the best of him (2 Chron. 26:15-16). In his arrogance, he presumed to go into the temple and burn incense before God—a job which the Law reserved exclusively for the priests. And when the priests withstood him, he was angry at them for daring to impugn his actions.

The odd part of this story is that God strikes Uzziah with leprosy. Just for going into the temple where he wasn't supposed to be. And I admit that when I first read this story, I thought leprosy seemed a bit cruel and unusual... a bit extreme for such a benign violation of God's law. But the violation of God's law wasn't just about Uzziah's burning incense in the temple. It was about his prideful heart. And when you look the problem of pride directly, it's easy to see why leprosy is not cruel and unusual at all.

Leprosy destrys its host from the inside out. Pride does too.

Leprosy—because it destroys nerve cells—makes its host unable to feel. Pride does too.

Leprosy drives others away from its host. Pride does too.

Leprosy makes its host withdraw from others into a place (like a leper colony) that is consumed with itself. Pride does too.

Leprosy puts a block on a person's ability to stand before God and truly worship him. Pride does too.

As Christians, we would do well for the sin of pride to sound as repulsive as the disease of leprosy. God obviously makes his choices deliberately, knowing much more than we do. Make sure you're paying attention to your heart. Keep your ego in check. Keep your pride in check. Stay humbly obedient to God in everything you do in your life.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)

- Dan Lankford, minister

Here at Eastland, we take the Bible very seriously. We study both the Old and the New Testaments in our kids’ and adult classes. All our sermons are based on Bible teaching. Our elders model their leadership on the model found in the Bible even though it is often different than the leadership models in the business world.

We do this because the Bible is the only standard measurement we have for spiritual truths. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). No other truth can be as powerful as the truth that comes from him the words of the Bible.

Because of this, when we study the Bible, we ask an important set of questions in a very important order. First, “What does the Bible mean?” Second, “What does the Bible mean to me?”

Both of these are crucial. We must know what God meant when he spoke his word or we may end up drawing the wrong conclusions about our lives. And then, we must determine how his spoken word is supposed to work in our lives or we have gained nothing more than facts. “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). If we are going to live like God wants us to, we find out what the truth really means.

- Dan Lankford, minister