This Sunday we will dig into 1 Timothy 3:14-16 and talk about “The Pillar And Foundation Of The Truth.”  This is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This passage is one of the most important and beautiful ones in this letter.  It gives us a majestic portrait of the church, its identity and its message.  Read over it, pray over it, and take it in.  Then come prepared to dig into it on Sunday. 

As I write this, my heart is broken for the people of Israel, where I have been blessed to visit many times.  Israel feels like a second home to me, as it does for many Christians.  After all, our Lord and Savior was a Jew.  

We live in a world filled with hatred of the Jews.  This was the case before the Holocaust, during it, and after it.  Anti-Semitism is a cancer, a blight in our fallen world.  October 7, 2023 was the darkest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 40’s, as over a thousand terrorists invaded Israel, inflicted unspeakable atrocities, and then retreated to Gaza with over a hundred hostages, most of them women and little children.  

Hamas is like Haman in the Book of Esther.  Haman was the antisemite who attempted genocide against the Jewish people. Hamas seeks the very same.  But read Esther:  The tables were turned on Haman, and now it will be the same for Hamas.  

Israel has both the right and the responsibility to defend its people, and we must stand with them in this hour of need, especially in our prayers. 

Ultimately, only the return of the Prince of Peace will bring peace to this fallen world.  “Our Lord, come!” (1 Cor. 16:22). Until then, let us be faithful to proclaim the gospel to all people in this broken world.  Christ is the answer.  

By His Grace, For His Glory, To The Nations, 

Dr. Thurman Hayes, Jr.