Hi all! It’s a new year. And I am back with a new series of articles that I hope will be a blessing to you as you begin this new decade in the Lord.
However, before I talk more about what is upcoming with this faith column, I wish to address what has already been written, namely the article I authored “A Call to the Churches of Colleton,” published online June 9, 2019.
In this article, I used serious language, all of which I quoted directly from the serious language of the Scriptures for such matters. Nevertheless, I was not faithful to the Lord’s commands, because I did not extend grace with truth. For this, I wish I could take the article back. I was wrong, and I am truly sorry.
Furthermore, and most of all, I am sorry for what has been the aftermath of my June 9 article, which has been anger, gossip, slander and ungodly division. This was never my intention, but I provided the platform for such things. Additionally, I did not intend for the article to be an attack on anyone or any group, as it has been made out to be. That is why I did not share the details of what finally motivated me to write the piece, because the details do not matter. Rather, I wrote the piece to convict us all, that we may all diligently pursue spiritual sobriety (1 Peter 1:13; 4:7; 5:8), conduct serious self-examination (2 Corinthians 13:5; 1 Timothy 4:16), and live holy lives unto the Lord (1 Peter 1:13-16), which is His will for us (1 Thessalonians 4:3). I desire us all to live more holy lives unto the Lord. My article was intended to call for prayer on these matters.
God’s word, though, takes these matters of holiness for Christians seriously. To show this, I have built a scriptural reference sheet of the June 9 article, to cite parenthetically where in the Bible and what translations I quoted. If you’d like a copy of this scriptural reference that I have created or if you have any questions regarding what I have written above, I’d be more than happy to hear from you — just email me through the email provided in my bio below.
But this is a new year! I am sure the Lord has new blessings for you all in Jesus. And I hope that I may — by His grace — be used to administer one of them. I am restarting my faith column and changing its format to be more engaged with my readers. Every week, I will be answering one pressing, yet simple, question concerning Christianity. Perhaps you’d like to know more about a specific doctrine of the church or a confusing passage of Scripture, maybe something related to faith and government or the Christian home. Anything Christianity.
So, if you have a question that you have been wanting answered about the faith, please email me through the email provided, and I’ll do my best to provide you an honest answer and thoughtful resources. I’d love to hear from you. And if you’d like, I could also anonymously feature the question in the weekly column, so that everyone who reads this column may be blessed by your curiosity and godly desire to know the things of God more fully.
Well, that is all. I hope you join in starting next week.
Until then, God bless!
(Jeremy Breland is a farmer in Ruffin and a M.Div. student at Southern Seminary. He can be reached at jbreland572@gmail.com.)
