By: Gary L. Hutchens

​     This Thursday is, of course, Thanksgiving Day.  What a great day, and what a great purpose behind it!  A day when families typically get together and enjoy one another’s company around a special meal.  A day when people are more easy with one another, nicer.  A day when people think about their blessings and the Giver of those blessings.  A day when people take time to pray and give thanks for what they have.

By: Gary L. Hutchens

   National election day is past.  Candidates were elected to public offices all across the nation.  We were told this election would be the most important election in many years for the future of our nation.  But that assessment has been made in regard to many such elections over the past several decades.  Politics!

By: Gary L. Hutchens

​   As I write this article the 2020 national elections are still one week away.  Read that statement again.  Election day has not yet arrived!  I emphasize this fact to make it clear I am not pointing a finger at voters of any particular political party.  You will never see me promote any political party or candidate through bulletin articles I write, and certainly not from the pulpit or class lectern.  I am here addressing a situation I’ve been observing generally through much of this year and leading up to this election.

​By: Gary L. Hutchens

     Without question, the greatest blessing offered to mankind is eternal salvation.  While there is no way man can earn that blessing, it certainly cost God a great deal to offer it to man.  Sin separated man from God (Isa. 59:2).  The requirement of sin is death (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 6:23).  But since God created man in His own image and gave him dominion over all else He had created on this earth (Gen. 1:26-28), there was no living thing on this earth that the death of which could suffice to cover for the guilt of man’s sin (Heb. 10:1).  And man, guilty in his own sin, certainly could never do anything to bring himself forgiveness.  God had to give up the life of His own Son on the cross to redeem man from the guilt of sin (Heb. 9:27-28).  Jesus died on the cross to pay the debt for man’s sin, a debt that man could never pay himself and a debt that Jesus certainly did not owe.  That is why He is our Savior!

By: Gary L. Hutchens

​   An old saying goes something like, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.”  There may be some truth to that, but it’s certainly not true in every case.  Many people have eaten contaminated food, not knowing it was contaminated, and got sick as a result.  In some cases people have died.  Not knowing it was tainted did not keep them from being hurt.

By: Gary L. Hutchens

   In a previous article, “The Lost Summer,” having considered the massively life altering effects of the corona virus pandemic on our culture, a follow up question is in order, especially for us as Christians: Are we getting carelessly comfortable with those effects?

By: Gary L. Hutchens

​   How will you remember the year 2020?  I’ve come to refer to it as The Lost Summer.  Actually, it’s been a lost Spring and Summer, and it appears that some of that reality could extend through the Fall and into Winter.  The corona virus pandemic began to hit our nation in full force in early March, and within a couple of weeks most everything changed. 

​By: Gary L. Hutchens

​   The Apostle Paul learned a fundamental lesson through his Christian life experiences: “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phlp. 4:11-13).

By: Gary L. Hutchens

​   For how long will God be merciful?  How far does God’s mercy go?  How can finite man answer such a question about an infinite God?  The depth of God’s love is expressed in the statement “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8, 16).  God is the most succinct, the most comprehensive definition of “love.”  It is beyond us, as finite beings, to fully understand God’s capacity to love?  He is infinite.

By: Gary L. Hutchens

​   After the first man and woman sinned and brought upon humanity the curse of sin, God prophesied that He would send His Son into the world to pay the price for the guilt of our sins (Gen. 3:15).  The rest of the Old Testament points to the coming Savior.  The four gospel accounts tell about the ministry of Jesus Christ while He was on this earth.  The rest of the New Testament refers to His having brought the gospel message of salvation, His dying on the cross as the perfect sacrifice, and then points forward to the day He will come again to judge all mankind.