Shadyside Church of Christ

When Jesus ascended to the Father, the apostles were standing there gazing into heaven.  Two angels appeared to assure them that Jesus would come back and to prompt them to get on with their Master's work.  Perhaps we need a couple of angels to show up and remind us that Jesus is coming back, and that we need to get on with the task of proclaiming the gospel and tell the world of a coming jud...

We all like a good love story, even us guys if it's got some action in it.  God made us to love.  God is love, and the two great commandments are about loving God and our neighbor.  And love is about relating to others.  We all look for certain things in our relationships: to be understood, to be on equal footing, to have needs met, loyalty, et al.  In becoming a man, a human being, Jesus exe...

When life is "treating us" bad, and we think that nobody cares, what do we do?  You may be in such a situation right now!  Most of us have been at some time.  Scripture gives us the story of Leah who found herself in a very difficult and unenviable spot in her life.  She kept trying to make the best of it, but things didn't improve.  What did she do?  More importantly, what did the...

 Jesus affirmed that "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" is the second greatest commandment (Leviticus 19:18).  What does that mean?  Some people interpret this as "love your neighbor as you love yourself", but no where in scripture is this rendered that way.  In fact, some people are so totally self-centered they have a difficult time loving others, while some people lo...

In lesson one of this two part series, we talked of old things which will not change in 2020.  And we're glad they won't!  But many things will be new in 2020, and we will need to live each day in anticipation with a keen eye and open mind to fully benefit from them.  Each morning, the Lord's mercies will be new; He will be ready to bless and guide us through the day.  God will prov...

Everyone looks forward to new things in a new year - new opportunities, new achievements, new possibilities.  But some things won't change in 2020, and we should be thankful that they don't.  They are old, well-tested and proven to be reliable.  In this first lesson of two, we wish to consider some of these old things which will still anchor us in 2020…here’s Jeff. 

Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem?  Is there a reason He was born among the animals and laid in that manger?  Why were the shepherds the first to be told of the birth of the Savior by angels themselves?  God's rich salvation tapestry was all woven together on that night long ago - one on which He had been working for generations.

In war, soldiers and equipment are often redirected to plug a gap in the line of defense where the enemy is breaking through.  Through the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord sought for a man to stand in the gap of Jerusalem's broken spiritual wall so He would have reason not to bring destruction upon the entire nation.  No one was found worthy!  Today, Christians are called by their Lord to stand in t...

Everybody likes to go home.  Whether it's after a long trip or just a day at the mall, we all look forward to going home.  God knows about home - He invented it!  Home is where you are accepted, you can be yourself, and you feel secure.  Jesus is preparing a heavenly home for His people with all that's good, and where all the troubles of this life are gone.  Best of all, He will be there...

In life, we need to maintain the balance of what's important for the now-- while at the same time preparing for eternity.  Our God is concerned about both since what we do today-- and how we do it-- affects our eternal future.  He is God of the now and the forever, and as such He blesses us with what we need for both endeavors.  David was well aware of all this as he so beautifully tells us i...

"If I Were the Devil" - The devil is a very real being whom scripture depicts as our adversary and an opponent of God and all that's good.  Knowing what we know about people (ourselves included) and what the scripture teaches - if I were the devil, what would I do to destroy people's lives, families and churches, and turn them away from God?  What would be the strategy to cause...

The Bible records in Genesis the Beginning of this space-time world.  But the Scriptures speak in many places of what was here before the Beginning, namely God and all that was associated with Him.  And as we consider the characteristics and the character of God, we can plainly see them infused in His creation, especially in mankind who was made in His image.  Much was going on before the Beginnin...

Episode 127…"Death in Two Acts" - When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, did they die?  God had said they surely would, but Adam lived to be 930 years old!  What's with that?  To understand what happened with Adam (and with all of us), we need to understand that we are two-part beings made of both body and soul.  God cursed Adam and said that he would return to the dust from whi...

(Episode 126) Jesus challenged His listeners (us today as well) whether they had a healthy/good eye or a bad eye.  By that He meant whether we looked for what is good in people and the world or what is evil.  With all of the evil and distressing distractions in the world, it is often difficult to see the good.  This is a ploy of the devil to keep us distraught.  We must learn to cultivate a good e...

Our "two chairs" visual represents two worldviews.  One is the atheistic naturalist view of reality, and the other is the theistic supernaturalist view.  The first excludes God altogether, and the second has God at the center of everything.  Each one of us will sit in one of these chairs and view life from one of these perspectives.  A person's worldview is the "lens" thro...

Jesus and His apostles ministered to the whole person - people were fed and healed, and they had the good news of the kingdom of heaven preached to them.  We seem to do rather well at taking care of the needs of the body, but often we neglect the soul.  Some of Jesus' final words demonstrate where our prime focus must be - to proclaim the gospel to all creation.  To fill the bellies of thousa...

Life is filled with struggles of all kinds.  We struggle within ourselves with choices and responses to life situations.  We struggle with relating to others.  We even struggle with trying to understand God, and why He does or does not do certain things.  Jacob's life was one struggle after another.  His life is a picture of the life of every believer.  When he returned to Canaan, he wrestled...

 Our giving on the first day of the week is often misunderstood.  We tend to think our contribution is about material things and the rest of our worship (singing, prayer, Lord's Supper, etc) is about spiritual things.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  Our giving is a highly spiritual endeavor and is a reflection of our faith and trust in God who supplies our own needs.  It is grounde...

"Dishonoring God" - When one thinks about the cross, suffering comes to mind.  But humiliation and shame were also part of being crucified.  Hebrews (12:2) tells us that Jesus despised the shame of the cross so as to complete His work.  But Jesus was dishonored and shamefully treated even before His actual crucifixion.  We would do well to consider how He was dishonored so as to avoid do...

Global warming has been in the news a lot lately. Proponents warn that in 10, 12, 20 years that the earth will be uninhabitable. Could this be true? This is not an examination of the arguments on both sides of this issue, but a common sense inquiry from a biblical perspective. What of God's promise to Noah? What about the promised Day of Judgment? Would God just sit idly by in the heavens and...

 "Facing the Ugly" - The world is filled with ugly - sin, evil, wickedness, etc.  Sometimes we find it in ourselves!  How do we handle ugly?  How do you handle ugly?  Some people are so disgusted with it they just ignore it and don't want anything to do with it.  But if we want to overcome it, we have to face it no matter how awful it is.  We need to fight against it in ourselves an...

 The scriptures caution us about judging others.  A person's assessment of another must be honest, thorough, and with their own selves in view.  Examine yourself before judging others is the watchword.  What is your motive in judging?  How does your own life measure up to the Word?  The incident in which the woman taken in adultery was brought before Jesus sheds a lot of light on this topic o...

 Why do you believe what you believe?  Why do you not believe certain things?  Why do we worship a certain way or insist that a person responds to the gospel in a certain way?  We go to the Bible, God's holy scriptures, for direction in these things and so much more.  His word affirms that He has given us all we need for life and godliness.  It gives us guidelines for proper understanding of...

 From beginning to end, the Bible insists there are basically two groups of people - the righteous and the wicked.  We read of the believer and the unbeliever; the just and the unjust; those who obey and those who disobey; the disciple of Jesus and the follower of the devil.  What are the characteristics of each group?  What causes them to be one or the other?  What is the final end for each?  Do...

 There have been some "great" days in the history of the earth: the fall of Rome; discovery of how bacteria caused disease; man on the moon, et al.  From a biblical perspective: creation, the incarnation of God, Jesus' death and resurrection.  There is yet to come one day which is arguably greater than any of these other days because it will be the culmination of all that God has be...