Does the last psalm have any practical value today?

Sincerely,
Sing It

Dear Sing It,

Most of the Psalms don’t have practical value; they have emotional value and provide moral strength.  Psalm 150 is a call to praise the Lord, a reminder of God’s glory and how we ought to place Him first in all we do.  Ps 150 doesn’t tell us how to praise God today, but it does tell us the importance of praising God and exalting His unending glory.  If we want to know how to praise God, we must look to the New Testament.

     In my area, there are churches that have a Wednesday night service. Where is this in the Bible?  Acts 2:46 seems to suggest the early christians met everyday.  Does you congregation meet everyday?

Sincerely,
Dedicated

Dear Dedicated,

Our congregation doesn’t meet every day, but we do have classes throughout the week.  The Bible only mandates that the church meet on Sundays to take the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7) and make their contribution to the work of the church (1 Cor 16:1-2).  Don’t get us wrong; the church is also told to pray together (Acts 12:5), study together (Acts 2:42), and sing together (Col 3:16)… but we can do those things whenever we want.  The church is told to make a habit of meeting together (Heb 10:25), but every day isn’t a requirement.  Wednesday classes are one way that congregations attempt to keep that routine and habit of meeting.

     I've been a christian my entire life, but I'm having some trouble finding some answers to questions I have.  One of my biggest questions is: if God created everything and knows everything, why would He create sin, knowing that's a choice that mankind will choose?  And why can't He just make sin go away?  I know that not everyone can go to heaven because it's a perfect place, and sin cannot be there, but why wouldn't God just completely get rid of sin, so all these people He's created and loves can be with Him in heaven?

Sincerely,
Hope For All

Dear Hope For All,

God didn’t create sin; the devil did.  The Bible says that Satan is the father of lies (Jhn 8:44).  Sin only exists when we turn our back on God.  Sin is a lot like darkness.  Darkness isn’t really a thing – it is the absence of light.  God is the father of lights and every good thing (Jas 1:17).  When we stop following the Lord, we no longer walk in the light.  Sin is the absence of godly living.

God can do whatever He wants, but God has chosen to give us the freedom to choose sin or choose life (Deut 30:19).  God doesn’t desire any of the wicked to perish (Ezek 18:23).  His desire is for all mankind to choose Him, but God also honors our freewill by giving each of us an entire lifetime to choose for ourselves whether we want to spend eternity with Him or away from Him.  If God simply removed sin, He would also be removing our freewill.  God respects the freedom He gave us.

     A lady told me her preacher had a stroke.

1. Was this illness from God?
2. If the preacher was a true christian, why did God not answer the preacher’s prayers for 100% recovery?
3. Did God have apostles that were handicapped?
4. This lady was questioning the preacher’s christianity.  How can I answer her using the Bible?

Sincerely,
Far From A Physician

Dear Far From A Physician,

We can’t tell you whether or not this preacher is a faithful man, but we can tell you that his stroke doesn’t mean he isn’t a christian.  The best passage to show this lady is 2 Cor 12:7-9.  The apostle Paul had a “thorn in the flesh”, some sort of illness that vexed him deeply.  Paul, being the faithful apostle that he was, prayed to God three times that the sickness would be removed.  God said, “No.”  Paul accepted the illness as part of his life and went on to preach very successfully in spite of it.

Good people suffer, too, and God blesses the faithful even through trials (Rom 8:28).

How do the gospel writers reapply the Law of Moses for the New Testaments communities of faith?  Also, what aspects of the Law, if any, are still in operation, and what aspects are no longer binding over God’s people? Thanks.

Sincerely,
Law Learner

Dear Law Learner,

Jesus was born a Jew (Matt 1:17), lived under the Jewish law (Lk 2:41-42), and even taught His fellow Jews to obey the Old Testament law (Matt 23:1-3).  Judaism was the right religion, until Jesus died on the cross and replaced Judaism with Christianity.  The Old Testament, the law the Jews followed, was a tutor to lead people to Christ, but after Jesus came, mankind was supposed to follow Him instead (Gal 3:24-25).  The Jewish law said that someday there would come a Messiah who would save them from their sins – Jesus was that Messiah (Jhn 1:45).  The Jewish law taught mankind that they needed a Savior, and that they should prepare for His coming.  Jesus came providing the grace and truth that wasn’t possible under Jewish law (Jhn 1:17).  Jesus’ death made a permanent sacrifice for sins that none of the Old Testament animal sacrifices ever could (Heb 10:1-4).

The Old Testament was a tutor to lead us to Christ (Gal 3:24), but now that Christ is here, He has fulfilled the law, and we are no longer bound by its laws (Gal 3:25).  The Old Testament still provides many wonderful examples and lessons of morality (1 Cor 10:11), but its specific laws no longer apply.