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IN 1799, CONRAD Reed discovered a seventeen-pound rock while fishing in Little Meadow Creek.

Not knowing what it was made of, his family used it as a doorstop for three years.

In 1802, his father, John Reed, took it to a jeweler who identified it as a lump of gold worth about $3,600.

That lump of gold, which was used as a doorstop for three years in North Carolina, is one of the biggest gold nuggets ever found east of the Rockies.

THOUGHT:  Until its composition was determined, its value was unknown. Even so, until the composition of our faith is determined, its strength is unknown. God allows trials in our lives, not to hurt us, but too strengthen and prove us.

Source:  Ministry 127

“That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  1 Pet. 1:7

“OUR ETERNITY IS more important than anything that can happen in the few short decades we spend in this life.  No matter how much suffering takes place now, it is far more critical to settle where we will be once that suffering ends”

Jim Davis, “Why Doesn’t God Do Something?” Why Me?  A Godly View of Suffering, Leafwood Publishers, p. 101

^{17 “}For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).  

AUTHOR SIDNEY GREENBERG once wrote some very interesting words about loss.

He notes that when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris in 1911 and was missing for two years, more people went to stare at the blank space in the museum than had gone to look at the masterpiece in the twelve previous years it had hung there unmolested.

Greenberg says this intriguing bit of information tells us something important about ourselves.

“It points to our all-too human tendency to fail to take adequate note of precious things while we have them.  But let one of them be taken from us and we become painfully aware of the ‘blank space’ in our lives, and our attention is sharply focused on the ‘blank space.’

“The walls of our lives are crowded with Mona Lisas,” he writes, “but we are unmindful of them.  Countless blessings attend us daily and we are so insensitive to them.  The more often and more regularly we receive any blessing, the less likely we are to be aware of it.  What is constantly granted is easily taken for granted.”

Guest editorialist:  Ken Wilson, “Creating Biblical Leaders,” p. 57

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; AND BE THANKFUL“ (Col. 3:15–emphasis mine, mb).

QUESTION:  “Why do members of the church of Christ eat the Lord’s Supper every Sunday?”

Answer:

1. The apostles were guided into ALL truth. “However, when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth…” (John 16:13a).
2. They ate the Lord’s Supper EVERY Lord’s Day (cf. Rev. 1:10)—EACH first day of the week. Consider:

• The disciples were commanded to observe the Lord’s Supper (Mat. 26:26-28; Luke 22:17-19).
• Christians were commanded to assemble every Sunday (1 Cor. 16:2 Heb. 10:25).
• One of the purposes of these assemblies was so that the church could partake of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:20, 33) and therefore remember His death (1 Cor. 11:24, 26).
• The first-century church observed the Lord’s Supper according to the apostle’s doctrine/teaching (Acts 2:42). NOTE: The Greek article (the) proceeding “bread” is not present in the English, but it is present in the Greek text.  The article indicates that a special (unleavened) bread is under consideration (cf. 1 Cor. 10:16).
• The apostolic practice was the first day of the week. “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to bread bread…” (Acts 20:7), the same day as Christ’s resurrection from the dead (Luke 24:1-3, 21, 46).

3. Members of the church of Christ are only trying to follow the New Testament pattern. Since there is not a week that passes that does not have a first day, Christians partake of the Lord’s Supper on this weekly occasion, according to apostolic example, and in so doing, remember the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf.