The wonderful thing about congregational singing is that one can loudly express praise to God with his own voice. The downside is that his neighbor can do the same. 

This inaugurates a (hopefully) regular feature in which I share a brief quote or thought. Sometimes it will be from Scripture, sometimes from a brother or sister, sometimes from a non-Christian. It might even be (gasp) original (or I at least have forgotten who I heard it from). Comments, elaboration, critiques, and the like are appreciated.

Today's thought:

"Sometimes the faithful few are few only because they've run off the faithful many."

Some continue to struggle with the idea that "church of Christ" is a description, not a name. I had posted a while back on this, but let me try another explanation.

I'm married to a woman named Rebekah. I could be described as "the husband of Rebekah." If you called me that, I might even answer. However, that doesn't make it my name. "Rebekah's husband" is simply a possessive description of me - the husband belonging to Rebekah - not my name.

Likewise, when I refer to a (or the) "church of Christ," I'm not using a name. I'm not using a denominational title. I'm describing the church that belongs to Christ.

This may seem a small distinction, but it's one that shows a completely different worldview. I'm not part of a sect among sects. I'm not a member of a denomination. I'm a member of the church that belongs to Christ, the one that He established, the one that is His property. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's the gift-giving season again, and if there's a Bible enthusiast on your list, here are some suggestions.

Of course, we should start with a good study Bible. As an New American Standard Bible user and proponent of inductive study, I'm partial to something like The New Inductive Study Bible. Or you can try the NASB Study Bible. There's also the ESV Study Bible, though, if your giftee prefers that translation.

Concordances have waned in popularity due to the ubiquitousness of electronic search tools. However, I'm of the opinion that complete dependence on technology can be a bad thing (plus it's easy to get distracted into checking your email while you're on Bible Gateway). I recommend having a copy of Strong's NASB Exhaustive Concordance. Or, if your King James upbringing leaves you scrambling to "translate" the verse into the NASB, try the KJV Strong's concordance

On the subject of electronic Bible study aids, I've seen several software packages costing hundreds of dollars. For my money (i.e., it's free), E-Sword is the best I've seen. You can be cheapfrugal and burn the free download to CD or ,for a $15 donation, they'll send you the program on CD. Note that the NASB module is an additional $20; there are also many more modules (free and pay) available for download.

A Bible dictionary can also be a useful tool for research. You can try the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary or Halley's Bible Handbook. Along similar lines, Geisler & Nix's General Introduction to the Bible is an excellent scholarly introduction how we got the Bible.

A Bible atlas is an immense help in learning more about Biblical places. Two stand out: the Holman Bible Atlas and Baker's Bible Atlas. If you're looking for a cmoputer-based set of maps, I highly, highly recommend Manna Bible Maps; I used it rather extensively in the class on Mark I just finished. Be sure to look at the other products their site offers as well.

Is your Bible student interested in Bible languages? For purposes of reference, there's the venerable Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. If he wants to teach himself Greek, there's Vine's Learn New Testament Greek self-taught course. Or, if he'd prefer an instructor, there's Jeff Smelser's NTGreek.net, which offers several structured, instructor-driven courses for a fee.

Finally, while you're at it, why not get a gift that helps someone you don't even know? We're wealthy beyond measure compared to most in the world today. Why not donate to Kiva to provide loans for microfinance projects? Or, with the ongoing problems in Zimbabwe, consider sending food to needy Christians through Open Hearts Helping Hands. Take a few moments during the holidays to "do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith."

Some time back, I'd promised a bit more on the 1960 split in the church at Spring Creek, TN. Gary Kerr had given me several documents a few years back that I intended to scan; however, it seems many of them vanished into my rathole of an office. Never the less, three articles survived my disorganized ways:

• A summary of the dispute by J.C. Fincher. This was my father's uncle and one of the plaintiffs taken to court by the Freed-Hardeman-backed institutionals in the congregation.
• A newspaper article on the verdict. I assume this is from the Jackson Sun, though I can't be sure.
• An article from an unnamed non-institutional publication. Again, no idea which publication or when. It comments on an issue raised in the letter above.

I hope a thorough cleaning (one of these days) will turn up the balance of the articles. If not, I may have to go beg Gary for a copy of them again.

Needless to say, the institutional debate wasn't the greatest moment in the history of the Lord's churches. Unfortunately, the few histories that record it tend to soften the tactics used to promote church funding of schools. I present these for the sake of historical perspective.

By entertaining of strange persons, men sometimes entertain angels unawares: but by entertaining of strange doctrines, many have entertained devils unaware. (John Flavel, 1627-1691)