Eastside church of Christ,    2012 Huntzinger Road,     Farmington, NM     87401     --     U.S.A.

Son Rise on Farmington, NM and the Four Corners area

Bible verses are linked to the American Standard Version HTML Bible.

 

Jesus' Plea for Unity

        To be Christians like the original Christians of the 1st century is a worthy goal.   Six centuries before Catholicism, 1500 years before Protestantism, the Church existed in its original state.   Sinners were called out of the world to liveas disciples of Jesus.   There was one Christian religious body, the Church.

        It was composed of all saved people.   The apostle Paul appealed, "Now I beseech you, brethern, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement; (1 Cor. 1:10).   The division of the religious world today must answer to this concept.

        Division is wrong, sinful, not at all acceptable to God.   Jesus' prayer was, "Neither for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe on me through their word; that they may all be one; even as you, Father, (are) in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that you sent Me."

        We can be one if we unite on the plain teachings of the Bible.   Nothing else will accomplish this intention of Jesus Himself.

-- Fred Willmon

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The Importance of Unity

        In the New Testament there is one church; that is, whether in Corinth, Jerusalem or Rome, teaching and practice was consistent. God designed it so: "I beseech you . . that you all speak the same thing and (that) there be no divisions among you" (1 Cor. 1:10).   Christianity was only as broad as that one church.   There was not one church of Paul, another of Jesus, and a third of Apollos.   The church existed in unity and harmony, and where disunity did exist, instructions were given to bring it back to the original foundation.   Christ has said (Matt. 16:18), " I will build my church".

        God's desires for His church to always be unified in that exact way.   Disunity disrupts his intention, and displeases him.   Jesus prayed: "that they may all be one" (John 17:30F).   God's actions and teachings are always in agreement.   The church should be like that, shouldn't it?   Division is wrong.   The solution is still the same.   God's instructions and the original foundation.   "Every scripture inspired by God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for corrections, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely to every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17).   It is His will that unity be achieved.

-- Fred Willmon

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Following Jesus

        The demands of walking in Jesus' footsteps are revolutionary.   In fact, everything about Him is revolutionary, from the amazing statements of His virgin birth to His resurrection because the power of death was simply in adequate to contain Him.   What do we do with words that tell the Christian to "deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow (Him)"?   Where does our cross-bearing lead, to the "necessities", the "musts", or is there more to carrying a cross than the average American Christian imagines?

        What is a "living sacrifice"?   What do we offer day by day that expresses our commitment, or transformation, our all.   Talk is still cheap.   It is our actions that express our inward desires and intentions.   We may have noble ambitions and even express noble ideals, but they count for nothing unless they are translated into daily action.   We live in an age that is anti-commitment and anti-discipleship.   Discipleship demands learning His lessons, incorporating them into daily life, giving ourselves wholly to following Him, and being willing to give everything, use everything, leave everything, to be like him.

-- Fred Willmon

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THE CHURCH

        God's people, for God's work, to exhibit God's life into the world.   We must grasp anew the significance of "church".   The church is a living organism, created by God; scripture describe it as a body with Christians comprising its parts.   Relationship is a primary importance.   Christians are born into the family of God (sons and daughters) and are added to Christ's church.   Only those who believe and are baptized into Christ for the remissions of sins have that relationship.   Christians do not exist individually, separate from the church: there is no relationship with Christ apart from His church.   This spiritual body is animated (kept alive) by the indwelling Spirit of God, who directs the church by the work of God (read 1 Corinthians 2, which ends with the magnificent concept, "we have the mind of Christ").   The church lives in fellowship (koinonia-joint participation) with the Divine, working together to accomplish the will and work of God.   Such fellowship is unavailable anywhere else.   The church is a functional, active creation: it alone has the task of God's work in this world, in communities, towns and cities.   The church must be absorbed with the relationship and function that God has given it.

-- Fred Willmon

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LAMB OF GOD

        The Old Testament is full of sacrificial images, and a lamb was offered by each Hebrew family, a Passover that Israel might live and leave Egypt.   These sacrificial and saving images filled that 1st century Jewish mind: the lamb bears our iniquities, his soul is made an offering for sin.   This rich background is appealed in repeatedly in the New Testament.   The images would not have escaped the Jewish audience.   God has presented a sacrifice, an offering to remove sin.   He has brought the lamb, but obviously not for his sins.   This sacrifice is for "sin" in a general sense.   Jesus "his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24); He is "the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:2), and He "loosed us from our sins by this blood" (Rev, 1:5).   He, "our passover, also has been sacrificed, (even) Christ" (1 Cor. 5:7).   It is a stunning picture, Jesus as sacrifice and passover lamb is God's offering to redeem us from sin: "you were redeemed, . . . with precious blood, as of a lamb without spot, (even the blood) of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

-- Fred Willmon

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"LIFE" is the Message of Jesus

        Resurrection is no secret: " the king knows these things . . . this has not been done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).   Herod, king of the Jews, was an expert in Jewish law, customs, and activities.   Paul confidently affirmed that he knew of the resurrection.   Herod was faced with the public, powerful, transforming message of resurrection.   Both Jewish and Roman officials had known: Jewish guards stood before Jesus' tomb on resurrection morning, and it became common knowledge in Jerusalem.   Witnesses had proclaimed the resurrection, "with great power the apostles gave their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus".   Paul's message of resurrection demanded something of Herod.   He knew the facts and should be obedient to the gospel message.

        Jesus is raised.   Resurrection gives life to Jesus' message and shows that forgiveness is real.   Christian life is lived by the power of resurrection.   It is the number one issue of life, the very center of everyday living, the power to life with purpose and fulfillment.   That is its challenge.   Have you faced the issue?

-- Fred Willmon

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God's Judgment is Real

          A thief breaks in suddenly and unexpectedly, a visit for which no preparation has been made by the victims.   The Bible presents Jesus' 2nd coming in this way: "the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Pet. 3:10).   There is no announcement of time or way to determine its nearness or distance.   Jesus says, "of that day and hour knows no one not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but he Father only" (Matt 24:36).   One group set 1975 for this to happen.   A well-known writer set it as within 40 years of Israel's establishment in 1946.   They need to hear Jesus.   They do not know and cannot determine the time.   God alone holds that time in mind.   It will be unexpected, perhaps at any moment.   2nd, It is a day to be saved, or lost (1 Cor. 5:5).   3rd, it is a day to give account to God and to acknowledge Him as Sovereign (Rom. 14:7-12).   Be ready!   That is the Bible's message.   Each one will face God: "It is appointed to men once to die, and after this comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27).   I pray that you prepare.

-- Fred Willmon

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RESTORE ORIGINAL CHRISTIANITY

        A RETURN TO THE Christianity of the 1st century is an absolute necessity to bring about the unity of believers.   This requires a rejection of all that might be called "Christian" that does not date to the 1st century.   Doctrine, worship, and practice must depend on the Old and New Testaments, with the knowledge that the New Testament is the document that sets forth the New Covenant; that is Christianity with its requirements, privileges, and blessings is shown and declared in the New Testament.   There is no other source that can provide this information.   Our worship must express the marvelously captivating simplicity of the first century church, when Christians gathered on the first day of every week in love for God and one another to express their praise in song, to take the Lord's Supper, to pray together, and to study God's will.   The 20th century show-style productions with their instrumental music, self-help advice, and financial centeredness must disappear as we return to spiritual worship.   Only on biblical grounds can we unite to serve God with "reverence and godly" (Heb. 12:28) as He desires and established.

-- Fred Willmon

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BASIC COVENANTS

        The Bible contains two basic covenants, "first" and "second", the "old" and "new": "For if that first (covenant) has been faultless, than would no place have been sought for a second", and, "In that he says, A new (covenant) he has made the first old.   But that which is becoming old . . . is near to vanishing away" (Heb. 8:7, 13).   The significant thing here is to understand: "(God) made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.   "But if the ministration of death, written, (and) engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which (glory) was passing away: how shall not rather the ministration of the spirit be with glorious" (2 Cor. 3).   There is a new covenant between God and men, the old is no longer in force.   Many do not understand the plainly stated principle, the statutes, the 10 Commandments, written and engraved on stones are no longer in force.   Seek to understand the principle.   Of what does the new covenant consist?   Since it is "new" and applies to Christians, we need to know it to live by it and under it.

-- Fred Willmon

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Jesus is the "I AM"

        Jesus is the "I am".   The claim is astounding.   GOD IS!   He proclaims Himself to be the existent one: "God said to Moses, I am that I am: and he said, This shall you say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you." (Exodus 3:13-15).   HE IS. Hebrews 1:6 expresses the reality: "He who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." The claim of Jesus, "Before Abraham was born, I am.", to these Pharisees does not go over their heads; they took up stones to cast at Him. "Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9); " I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). Jesus is God: what does this mean to us?
  1. We must face the fact that HE IS. He lives and reigns, and is active in our lives.
  2. We must yield to Him, acknowledging His love and authority and dedicating ourselves to Him, to do his will.
  3. We must obey Him.
  4. We must worship and praise Him.
  5. We must proclaim Him.

-- Fred Willmon

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The Cross and Its Meaning

        Jesus has come and preached peace and reconciliation in one body through the cross.   The cross of Jesus is the central point around which everything revolves.   Death on the cross is God's sacrifice and the expression of His love.   Resurrection is the expression of His power, while resurrection and the ascension of Jesus into heaven are the basis of hope.   Death, resurrection and ascension have ushered on the Christian age.   Peace and reconciliation are the message, the proclamation.   The word of truth is the gospel of salvation.   Peace and reconciliation are the result.   Every blessing, every provision, is in Him, and through Him we have access to God, entrance into His very presence.   We belong, that is, we have a place, where we possess identical citizenship with all the saints (all God's people).   There are no second class citizens, no divided groups, we are one people, a nation.   The Christian enjoys personal relationship with God and all Christians, the joy of God's presence, the confidence of commitment to each other, the contentment of really belonging, loving, caring, serving, providing, jointly participating in God's family.

-- Fred Willmon

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"I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace"

        "I commend you to God an to the work of this grace" (Acts 20:32).   Paul spent three significant years in the city of Ephesus.   The Ephesians had seen Paul as he taught and practiced Christ-likeness.   They knew first-hand what Christian living is all about; they had an example, they had heard the whole counsel of God, they had been admonished, they had seen hard work with no covetousness, they had seen help for the weak, and they had seen Paul demonstrate Jesus' concept "It is more blessed to given than to receive".   Paul expected to see the same things in them and we must expect them of one another now:
  1. The exhibition of Christian life,
  2. The proclamation of the work publicly and from house to house,
  3. Sincere admonitions to faithfulness,
  4. The opposite of self-seeking,
  5. Care for the weak and
  6. Demonstration of the principle "it is more blessed to given than to receive".
        The Christian can stand firm and faithful.   The strength to live life fully actively, zealously, is found in the fact that God never fails, never falters, and His work is endlessly true and right.

-- Fred Willmon

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Resurrection Is Central

        Peter and the eleven are "witnesses" (Acts 2), and he quoted the prophet Joel and King David in showing the truth of his proposition in Acts 2: "This Jesus did God raise up".   Paul said the same before Herod Agrippa and the Roman procurator Festus, " I stand this day testifying. . .only what the prophets and Moses said should come; how that the Christ must suffer, (and) how that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles" (Acts 26:22-23).   The strength of Christianity resides in Jesus' resurrection.   The enormous resurrection power is the power of strength and perfect soundness proclaimed and exhibited in the apostles.   Examine Acts 3: There was no question about the man's situation, only about the reason he was suddenly leaping, running, and praising God: Peter's answer, "(You killed) the Prince of life; whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. . .And by faith in his name has his name made this man strong".   Marvel at the life God gives, at its strength and inner power and its exhibition to the world, and even at its power for good in the world.   The Christian lives by the power of Jesus' resurrection.

-- Fred Willmon

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Daily Living for Jesus

        The Christian is the person of faith who has allowed Christ to "transform" him so that he integrates spiritual life into every day activities-family, business, and recreation.   Jesus came to give abundant life; we are too busy, too much oriented to things, money, and all kinds of "busy work" to accept the life He offers.   His message is that the attitudes of kindness, love, forgiveness, and obedience are for every day, for the life that is being transformed into His image, and for all the world.   Christ redeems men from sin and gives new life. Why don't we learn to take the all-surpassing gift He offers and live in daily fellowship with Him?   Will we be in the assembly of His people on Sunday (every Sunday) to glorify Him, to daily obey His will, to exalt Him before the world?   Will we live each day in fellowship with Him, learning holiness and practicing righteousness?   He wants us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to Him, to not be conformed to the world, but to be transformed with a new mind, to live as He exhibited life when He walked the streets of Judea in the 1st century.   The life in Christ in our lives is every day commitment, praise, and service.

-- Fred Willmon

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It Is His Will, Isn't It?

        "We cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard." (Acts 4:20)   "But Peter and the apostles answered and said, We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29)   These blunt statements were God's words given to the apostles to speak.   There are times when tact is called for, when bluntness does only harm, and we have difficulty knowing the difference.   Let's redo these words in "politically correct" clothing: "We meant to hurt no one's feelings.   We know everyone is entitled to his own opinion, and that both sight and hearing can be defective; and you know, 'politics or religion'.   Don't be alarmed, these are only our personal beliefs and you are certainly entitled to yours as well as we are."   "God's word is important to us, and if it appeals to you, you might at least consider it as an alternative."   WHAT DOES GOD SAY?   His will takes precedence.   The word must be faithfully taught and lived.   We cannot compromise it, water it down, or change it to suit us.   It is His will, not ours.   If we would be faithful to Him, it must be His message, as He delivered it, with all its power to teach, to rebuke, to save. Indeed we can only speak His will and obey it.

-- Fred Willmon

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New Creation

        The creative activity of God has made a new man (the Christian)- "that he might create in himself . .one new man" (Eph. 2:15), "for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation" (Gal 6:15). God has created from all peoples on earth a new spiritual man, reconciled to God through the cross of Christ. The spiritual man belongs to a community composed of the new people. God has created the new man and in doing so has made PEACE and brought RECONCILIATION to God in one body., Jesus has come and preached peace (NEW CREATION and RECONCILIATION). Since we are a new creation, formed into one body, we have access to God in the Spirit. These things being true, we are now (1) fellow-citizens with saints, (2) of the God's house (3) built on the foundation of apostles & prophets, with Jesus the chief corner stone, and (4) a temple. We are given a place in the body, made citizens, part of the family, on the divine foundation, growing into the holy temple of the Lord. This is a new life and a new relationship, with all the freshness and potential of new creation.

-- Fred Willmon

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Prayer and the Open Door

        Paul expressed his desire to the Colossians, "that God would open to us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds."   He urged them to prayer.   He believed in the strength of their prayers and in the power of God.   His faith was in God; therefore his confidence in the possibility of the Colossians' help was sure.   He had a message to deliver to men.   His desire was that he would fulfill his God-given task.   All first-century Christians shared that task.   It required the power of God, the action of Paul, the Colossians' prayers, the boldness inspired within the Roman Christians, the physical support the Philippians could supply, the service Epaphras the Colossian could render.   Every available means had to be concentrated on that task.   Paul showed the importance of the "average" Christian.   Paul needed them and gave them a vital task.   Their alert spirituality was necessary to the ongoing of his work.   What insistence and joyfulness this knowledge must have added to their lives!   If only the 20th century church could grasp the significance and importance of the individual Christian.

-- Fred Willmon

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Bible verses are linked to the American Standard Version HTML Bible.

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