1 Corinthians: That There Be No Division Among You (XIX)

Unity And Spiritual Gifts (Part 2)(12:13-31) Neal Pollard Sometimes, when you are reading a paragraph or section of Scripture, the theme of it is so clear it virtually screams out to you. 18 times, Paul mentions the spiritual “body” and 12 times he uses the word “one.” Paul’s decided emphasis, in this discussion of spiritual gifts, is Christ’s “one body.” In a book for unity and against…

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Who Is Our Neighbor

Caden Hammer This past weekend, a group of us college students traveled to Sneedville, Tennessee, to do service work. Lauren Ritter and her home congregation have a long-standing relationship with the community of Sneedville and have done a lot of outreach over the years. At the young adult’s retreat, Lauren suggested a group of us could go do a project there. Sneedville is a poor community in…

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1 Corinthians: That There Be No Divisions Among You (XVIII)

Unity And Spiritual Gifts (Part One)(12:1-12) Neal Pollard When we get to 1 Corinthians 12, we see one of Paul’s transitional cues. He uses his phrase, “Now concerning,” indicating a change of subject. He will address “spiritual gifts” from here until he changes subjects again, saying, “Now I make known…” (15:1) to begin his discussion of the resurrection.  We are going to see that God used…

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What Are You Showing?

Brent Pollard The geopolitical landscape under Hezekiah, King of Judah, saw an increase in the threat from Babylon while Assyria’s influence declined. Hezekiah’s political interests and personal ambitions were intertwined to solidify his kingdom amidst evolving circumstances. When he recovered from a severe illness, envoys from Babylon, a rising power seeking to weaken Assyria, visited him.…

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1 Corinthians: That There Be No Divisions Among You (XVII)

Unity And “The Lord’s Supper” (11:17-34) Neal Pollard In this paragraph, we have the verses probably most frequently read before we take communion each Sunday. While it does provide a good reminder, how often do we read it in context? As we know from reading through the letter to this point, Paul is writing to help a church struggling with unity on so many fronts. Those who struggle to be of…

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The Giver Of Life

Carl Pollard  There are some in the world who follow Christ for the wrong reasons. Perhaps they were told that everything in life would be perfect if they chose to follow Jesus. It is possible that they did it for their family and not out of their own conviction. Maybe they became a Christian to try and get some physical blessing out of it.  To put our faith in action we are all motivated by…

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1 Corinthians: That There Be No Divisions Among You (XVI)

Unity And Gender Roles (11:1-16) Neal Pollard A church prone to division will suffer symptoms in just about every way such can be measured. Corinth seemed to take pride in all the wrong things–who baptized them, how much knowledge they had, what spiritual gifts they possessed, how much money they had, and, apparently, who, by gender, was in charge or had responsibility for church leadership.…

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Dozen Thousand

Gary Pollard It’s so encouraging that many public figures (by extension, many of their audiences) have rejected outright atheism and godless evolution! Even those who would never consider themselves believers have rejected some of the main pillars of evolution. Among them are people like Joe Rogan, Randall Carlson, Graham Hancock, Jordan Peterson (who does describe himself as a believer in some…

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1 Corinthians: That There Be No Divisions Among You (XV)

Unity And Israel’s “How Not To” Example (10:1-14) Neal Pollard The past is a valuable teacher. Often, we look back and are humbled at how much our forefathers achieved with relatively fewer resources and opportunities. Society often reflects back and sees ancestors who appear to have been more moral and righteous, and we decry our comparative spiritual decline. We say, “These things would not…

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Kathy's 17th Reason!

52 Reasons to Love the Church

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1 Corinthians: That There Be No Divisions Among You (XIV)

Unity And Liberty (Part 2)(9:1-27) Neal Pollard Paul continues his lengthy discussion of liberty, and the inspired apostle now uses himself, as he often does, to illustrate a point (see 2 Cor. 11; Phil. 1, 3, etc.). In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul mentions various rights that he could have legitimately exercised but chose to forego due to seeming critics either in Corinth or those who made an…

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What Every Joint Supplies

Neal Pollard We closed out the second annual Equipped workshop last night, walking through the gospel of John. It was encouraging and uplifting, even beyond the well-prepared, well-presented lessons. We had guests attend from New York to California, Florida to Indiana, and each was a delight! I could list many reasons for why it was so enjoyable, but I just want to mention my favorite one: Our…

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1 Corinthians: That There Be No Divisions Among You (XIII)

UNITY AND LIBERTY (8:1-13) Neal Pollard We notice again Paul’s transitional statement: “Now concerning….” This signifies Paul’s change of subject. The specific issue he addresses is “things sacrificed to idols” (1). But, in his usual fashion, the apostle will pan out to the broader issue. The principle is tempering biblical knowledge and love. Paul will repeat this principle several more times…

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1 Corinthians: That There Be No Divisions Among You (XII)

Unity And The Unmarried (7:25-40) Neal Pollard This is one of Paul’s earlier letters, probably written from Ephesus during his third missionary journey. It would have been about a decade before Nero takes his life. When he writes in this paragraph about the “present distress” (26), life was about to get hard for the Christian in various parts of the Roman Empire.  Some suggest that this is an…

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Judicial Hardening

God’s Righteous Judgment on the Unrepentant Brent Pollard The Bible can offer insights into how our spiritual lives work, giving us glimpses into the hidden world where God interacts with good and evil forces. However, due to the limitations of our senses, caution is essential in exploring this area. We can’t learn about the unseen realm without God’s revelation, even though we walk by faith,…

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April 18-21: EQUIPPED In Bowling Green, KY (Come Join Us!)

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1 Corinthians: That There Be No Divisions Among You (XI)

Unity And Complicated Marital Issues (7:10-24) Neal Pollard With so much moral confusion and corruption among the Corinthians,  Paul had his hands full in addressing the various complications that arose in this congregation. Having already dealt with incest, homosexuality, fornication, and even spouses depriving one another, he moves on to another complicated matter. What do you do when your…

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